Juliet & Her Romeo + 1: Pain, pain go away.....!

Julia and I are both dealing with our separate pain issues this week. She is sprouting teeth like crazy! She now has 3 teeth on the top and 4 on the bottom with more coming in! It is crazy how fast they are pushing through. I on the other hand am still dealing with my back pain, though it has improved throughout the weekend. I have been resting a lot, icing, and using my muscle zapper. This combined with not picking up Julia at all (OK, I did maybe 3-4 times when I got overzealous on the pain medication) has definitely helped things heal. I am about 60% better and the pain is worse in the morning. I only take one pain pill a day which seems to take the edge off. I don't like to take too much pain medication and can tolerate a low to moderate level of pain. Having a little pain also reminds me to not overdo it, which I did yesterday when the pain medication kicked in, I picked up Julia and started doing some cleaning because I felt so good. I didn't pay for it thankfully, but Mike gives me gentle reminders to take it easy. On Tuesday, I will start physical therapy again and hopefully that will help me in the recovery process. We seem to be handling things pretty well right now, though I think Mike is a little more exhausted than usual because he has to do all the heavy work himself in terms of the parenting. :) With me laying around so much, I have had the opportunity to get a lot of floor play time in with Julia.

On Friday, Julia had her 9 month well-baby check-up. She did great. The doctor was extremely pleased by how healthy and well developed she is. She said she is developing just fine and not at all worried that she isn't crawling or lifting herself up onto furniture yet. She stands very well with our support or if we put her on a piece of furniture. She is scooting around in circles on her butt and belly, but no forward or backward motions. The doctor said crawling is not a developmental milestone because some babies skip crawling all together. The doc was also pleased with how well Julia is eating and advancing on her solid foods. Julia basically eats everything and anything now. She gets limited baby food because she loves table food and eating what we eat. It hasn't been a struggle at all to get her to try new things. The doc said there is no reason to keep her on baby food if she is tolerating table food. This is great because we can start buying less and less baby food and feed her what we eat during meals. Julia's lungs were completely clear and healthy and her ears were also clear and the doctor could see her ear drums and they looked great. No shots at this appointment, so it was a quick check-up. Her are her stats:
Weight: 23 lbs; 1 oz (96th percentile!) Doctor was not at all concerned about her weight-"she is a healthy eater" she said. She will lose a lot of this weight when she starts moving.
Height: 28.5 inches (76th percentile) She may be a little taller though because it was tough getting her to lay straight
Head circumference: 18.11 inches (92nd percentile)

Like I said, Julia eats everything. Yesterday we went to a local farmer's market and bought a bunch of fresh, locally grown produce. At the market we purchased some cucumbers (pickling cucumbers because those are the only ones in season right now, but they are tasty). When I was eating one, Julia wanted to try it, so I let her take a "bite". Oddly, she loved it! So, I cut a few small pieces for her without the skin and she happily at it. She loved taking a "bite" (which is where I would cut off a small piece and place it on the top of the cucumber and she would eat it off like she was biting it) after mommy took a bite. She will eat anything and definitely has her mommy's taste for fruits and veggies.

Speaking of fresh veggies, our garden is growing extremely well. All the plants now have blooms and there should be some veggies on them any day now. The tomatoes are doing well and there are many small green tomatoes on them waiting to ripen in the warm summer sun. With Julia loving veggies so much, I am very glad Mike and my dad made a garden for us so we could grow some of our own produce.

Julia loves sitting on the stairs (with daddy's help of course)