What a Memorable, Fun (and busy) Memorial Day Weekend!

This weekend was full of fun and exciting events and outings. Grandma and Grandpa Stephany arrived on Thursday evening and stayed the whole weekend until Monday morning. Julia loved all the attention and company, especially Grandpa's wiliness to play toys, blocks and other games whenever Julia wanted to.

That's a nice tower Grandpa, but I am of course going to knock it down.

Having fun playing with blocks and other toys.

On Friday, Mike and I went golfing while Julia stayed home with Grandma and Grandpa. It was a great day for golfing and the weather was perfect. I was a little nervous to golf since the last time I golfed was about 10 months ago and I was pregnant. I did very well as did Mike. We walked the course, which turned out to be a good workout with many rolling hills and large spaces in between holes. We had a great time and it was nice to get away for a while (even though I missed Julia terribly the whole time).

On Saturday, Julia, grandma and myself did a little shopping while grandpa and Mike made a garden in our backyard. I was debating whether to put a garden in, but the warm weather made me eager for one. I couldn't see us not having one since we had a nice large garden at our old house. Also, Julia will be able to eat some veggies by harvest time, so she will get fresh, organic, tasty treats from the garden. We planted sweet peas, carrots, zucchini, cucumbers, summer squash, winter squash, tomatoes (grape and beefsteak, basil and cilantro. Hopeful most of it will grow...we will see!

Julia and Grandma supervising the garden making

Julia eating a cracker and watching the boys in the garden

On Sunday, we took a trip to the zoo. Since we are members, we have unlimited passes and we also have 1 guest privilege, so we only had to pay for one adult. We spent about 4 hours there. We were able to see most of the animals and after our tour we ate lunch there. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and a perfect day to walk around the zoo. The zoo just started an African exhibit with various animals from the African plains. We saw zebras, giraffes, antelope and much more. Julia fell asleep about halfway through our journey around the zoo, but woke up just in time for lunch!

Grandpa and Julia looking at the monkeys (if you look closely you can see one in the tree just above and to the right of Julia's head)

A beautiful bald eagle
Lunch time for the turtles


Stunning pink flamingo

Larry, Mo and Curly- "those humans are back again"

Zebras in the African area

Giraffe

Peek-A-Boo! A prairie dog-these were so fun to watch.

A prairie dog guarding his rock

Julia watching the dolphins (one of her favorite zoo exhibits)

Julia's confused by the tiger shark (we of course didn't let her touch it yet)

Julia and Mommy watching the huge shark up above

I don't remember the name of this bird, but he had a huge, colorful beak.

We all had a great time this week. Unfortunately, Grandma came down with a cold the second day she was here and Julia of course caught it (she catches every germ out there). She is doing just fine though and it doesn't seem to bother her one bit. She has been napping a little more today, but that is to be expected. OK, she is supposed to be napping, but sometimes she likes to fool us....

I am napping; really I am!

Julia is growing and learning new things everyday that it is hard to keep the blog updated with everything. She now eats crackers, baby finger foods (teething cookies, snacks etc...) and tastes a lot of our table food. We opted not to give her any more jarred baby food meats because they are disgusting. Instead we blend or grind up whatever meat we are eating and she seems to tolerate this better. The jarred meats were just smelly and tasted absolutely horrendous! We started Julia on a sippy cup about 2 months ago, but she wants nothing to do with it. She only wants to drink out of a regular cup without the spout like mommy and daddy do. So, we had to buy her some kiddy cups (sesame street designs) and we give her water at every meal. She loves it and gets so excited when she gets to drink from the big girl cup. She smiles and giggles and is so proud of herself. Of course we praise her and clap when she does well. She still doesn't hold onto the cup well or tip it up to get a drink, but she is learning. We always prompt her to use two hands. She dribbles a little outside of her mouth, but for the most part she gets a good drink.

Get Well Soon Grandpa Mock!

From Julia:

About a month ago, Grandpa Mock was in the hospital with a tummy ache and had surgery to remove his gallbladder (whatever that is) and to clear up an infection in his blood. He went home after the surgery to get better.

Today Grandpa wasn't feeling well again and had to be admitted to the hospital again. I love my Grandpa very much and want everyone to pray with me, mommy and daddy that he gets better soon.

Get Well Soon!

A Fun, Busy Weekend!

On Friday, 5/15 we took a trip to my former office at the University of Minnesota to visit some of the people I used to work with. Julia happily came along and was so well behaved. We went out to lunch with one of the doctors I used to work closely with, Andy, and another friend and former co-worker Amy. We had a great time! We ate at a local restaurant/bar on campus and Julia loved sitting in the highchair, eating her solids and taking in all the scenery and people watching. After lunch, we went back to the office where there was a going-away party happening. Julia got her first taste of cake frosting. Amy happily gave her a finger tip taste of some white frosting. Julia loved it!

Mmmm...frosting! Mind if I chew on your finger too?

On Sunday, Julia and I got out of the house while Mike accomplished some house projects. Julia and I went to a local farm that was having a spring festival. This farm is very near our house, so I packed up Julia and all her necessities in her stroller and gladly walked the 1 1/2 hours (to and from the farm) in the lovely spring sunshine to show Julia her first glimpse of a farm. The farm is in the middle of suburbia and it is kind of odd that modern houses and life just built around it. I guess it is an important part of the town's history and it offers a lot to the community in terms of agriculture, learning and events. Julia had a great time. We watched other kids ride ponies (Julia is of course too little to do this) and saw some farm animals. We watched about 30 kids try to devour a piece of apple pie in a pie eating contest. We saw how rope was made, butter churned and how to milk a cow on what they called a virtual cow! The best part was a children's craft station where Julia and I took a pre-made foam barn back-drop and put our animals of choice on the barn. Julia really enjoyed this and was proud of her craft. We also took a photo opp in front of the bean-bag toss board, though Julia was more interested in picking the grass and putting it in her mouth! Mommy had to stop her a few times from ingesting the grass and dirt (it won't be the last time I will have to do that I am sure).

Julia with her barn craft

Julia's lovely barn (they ran out of purple "A's", so we had to settle for yellow)
Posing in front of Mr. Cow...playing with the grass and dirt


Julia is doing very well sitting up. She is still a little wobbly, but we think it has a lot to do with the fact that she still has fluid behind both of her ear drums and it affects her balance. Julia will see an ear, nose and throat doctor in about 3 weeks to assess her ears and see what can be done about the fluid. Here are some fun pictures of her sitting up and playing.

Such a ham for the camera!

I think I need to pull more toys out of the box and onto the floor.

I like my big blocks

This is my favorite book!

This book is good too, but I like the Bucky one better.

Mommy is sharing her water with Julia

Our first Mother's Day

Julia is now 7 months old! She is advancing very well on her solids. She now eats apples, peaches, pears, bananas, peas, sweet potatoes, squash, green beans, carrots, rice ceral and oatmeal and we are moving on to the meats soon. She also eats little puffed rice cereal snacks that are crunchy and peach flavored. She loves these snacks and can chew them very well. They melt in your mouth, so that is always helpful when learning how to chew. We also give Julia a taste of our food every once in a while to see if she likes it. She drinks from a sippy cup very well and we give her either water or diluted formula in the sippy cup when she is in her highchair eating. She can getting the sippy cup spout in her mouth, but hasn't quite figured out that you need to tip the cup upward in order to get the beverage to flow out. Julia sits up to play all the time and is pretty balanced when sitting. She does occasionally tip over and just continues to play however she lands.

Last weekend Julia did some gardening and yard work with us. We had her in her stroller and she contently watched mommy plant flowers in pots and in the landscaping in front of the house. She watched daddy stain some wood timbers for our veggie garden we are hoping to dig up within the next few weekends.

Julia sitting up, playing with daddy

Sitting up, posing for the camera

This weekend we had more guests at our house. Uncle Jim and Aunt Beth came on Friday and stayed with us the for the weekend. It was a very relaxing, fun weekend. We didn't do too much strenuous stuff or traveling around- we played video games (Wii games), went out for lunch, sat on our deck and enjoyed some good food and drinks. Julia enjoyed the new company and having them here. She loves it when we have people visiting. She really enjoyed Aunt Beth and was mesmerized by her glasses. Beth and Jim were both very entertaining for Julia and she loved playing with them (she gets bored with mommy and daddy many times on the weekend, so she gets excited when there are new people to play with).

A lovely picture with Uncle Jim and Aunt Beth


Should I pull on his beard or not?

Today is of course my first Mother's Day. It is very weird to actually be celebrating this day for myself and I wasn't sure what to expect. After becoming a mom myself, I have a whole new respect for my mother and GREATLY appreciate all she has done for me and for raising me so well (at least I think I turned out pretty well!). Many people say to take the day off and let the hubby take care of the baby and relax yourself, but I would rather hang out with Julia and do something fun. This morning we went out for breakfast with Jim and Beth. It was a very nice morning and the restaurant was filling up fast, but luckily we got there just before it got really busy. We enjoyed a breakfast of eggs, sausage, pancakes, waffles, omelets and other tasty breakfast stuff. Julia really enjoyed herself too. She got to taste some of mommy's pancakes and she seemed to enjoy them. :)

Julia enjoying herself at Perkins for breakfast

Julia and Mike surprised me with a very nice Mother's Day gift. I had been admiring a cross necklace at a nearby jewelry store. The necklace was yellow gold and a birthstone could be placed in the center of the cross. I thought that if I ever got the necklace I would want Julia's birthstone (an opal) in the center because she has truly been a blessing for us and I thank God everyday for protecting her through her lung problems, surgery and illnesses. Well, I didn't think I would get the necklace anytime soon because they only had the necklace in yellow gold with the opal and changing it to white gold was a little pricey (I wanted white gold because all my other jewelry [wedding rings] are platinum/silver). Well, Julia and Mike surprised me this morning with a jewelry bag and inside the box was the cross necklace in white gold with an opal in the center! It is beautiful! It is a fabulous first Mother's Day gift and I am so happy to receive such a great memento of the occasion. The rest of the day will be spent relaxing and Julia and I will probably go to the park and play on the swings while daddy mows the lawn. :)

Julia and me opening my Mother's Day gift-reading the card first of course. Julia signed the card (with daddy's help) and also drew a beautiful scribbly picture on the front of the envelope

Julia and me admiring the necklace. Julia was happy and smiley and seemed proud of her gift to mommy.

A close up of the necklace and cross

A kiss for Julia

Look at those cute cheeks...you just want to pinch them, don't you?! (Julia's cheeks of course, not mine!) :) :)