Sleep....finally!

It finally happened. . . Julia slept through the night for more than three nights in a row. Now I'm very hopeful that we have a new sleep schedule that will continue in the future. It was a goof-up that started it all. Last Sunday night Julia woke up around 12:30. I turned off the baby monitor and set the alarm for 2:00 (just like I had been doing). If I had to get up to feed her, it wouldn't be until after 2:00. Apparently when my alarm went off, I forgot to turn the monitor back on because the next thing I knew it was 7:30. After going one night without feeding Julia, I decided this was a good time to try "sleeping through the night training" again. It was so easy this time! When she wakes up I turn off the baby monitor and hit start on the kitchen timer on my nightstand. After 10 minutes I check the monitor to make sure she's not screaming her head off and disturbing Chloe too much. I've only had to give the timer a second round of 10 minutes twice. All the other times she's been asleep by the time I've turned the monitor on to check on her! The past three nights Julia hasn't cried until at least 5:30. I'm still working on teaching her that the day doesn't start between 5:30 and 6:00. But again, she's generally back to sleep within about 15 minutes. I haven't gotten out of bed in the middle of the night for a week now! I wish that I felt more rested than I do, but surely that'll come with time.

Pigtails

See what happens when Mommy gets bored?

Overheard

Here are a few cute things that have been heard around our house:

While sitting at the dinner table and eating Chloe all of a sudden says, “I a tiger….ROAR! I a cow…. MOO.” Her imagination is really starting to kick in.

One night I was saying goodnight to Chloe and I told her to have sweet dreams. She replied with her very common “yeah” and I asked what she was going to dream about that night. “Jesus on the cross.” Sweet dreams indeed! For a while after our apple-picking trip, she’d been saying “Sweet dreams of apples” when she goes to bed. We’ve had a lot of fun asking Chloe about her dreams once she wakes up.

Chloe has been addressing both Kevin and me without first thinking about who she’s talking to. She starts to say Mommy when she’s talking to Kevin, but she realizes her mistake midway through the word and starts to correct herself. However, it comes out in a very slurred Mo-key, which ends up sounding a lot like monkey. So poor Kevin is often called Monkey. She sometimes does the same thing when she’s talking to me, but I only end up being Dommy (much better than Monkey).

Chloe has also started using "really really" in her conversations. Examples: I really really awake. I really really eating. Daddy's really really working. Apparently the more words she can use, the more important the sentence is in her mind.

Apple Picking

A couple weeks ago the girls and I took a trip with our MOPS group to an apple orchard and picked some apples. It was a very fun day. First we took a hay ride over to the orchard.

Chloe started picking right away….

while Julia sat on the ground and chewed on hay instead of her toys!

Chloe had a bit of trouble picking the apples by herself. I ended up having to twist the apples so they would pluck off easier. Once she got an apple, she was quite pleased with herself.

After picking a small bag of apples we rode back to where we had parked. They had a lot of activities for the children there. There were slides, trikes, mazes, animals, and a sandbox. Chloe was mostly interested in the slide, but she did try out the wagon. After playing for a bit we ate a picnic lunch with friends and had some apple cider.

Before we left I couldn’t help but have the girls pose by the pumpkins. Julia was just fascinated by the grass and the hay all day!

The only picture taken all day where Julia isn’t in my arms or chewing on something from the ground.

6 months old

Once again it’s been forever since I have written. The task of getting caught up is a bit daunting, but we would really like to have these entries recorded so we can print them off and look back at them in the future. So here goes…

Julia is 6 months old! The time has flown by so very quickly. She had her check-up with the doctor last week, and she looks very healthy. Her percentile for weight had been in the 90’s, and height had been in the 70’s. At this check-up we discovered she has flip-flopped. Her weight is only around 75% and height is around 90%. I can definitely tell she’s getting much taller. We have to move up to the next size clothing because of her length, but pants are big around the waist now. She checks in at 17 pounds 4 ounces and 27 inches long.

A while back Julia was finally introduced to a solid food other than cereal. I made a huge bag of peas, pureed them, and froze them in small quantities. She was unsure of the peas for the first couple bites, but the mouth quickly opened for more after that. Now she cries if she gets cereal for a meal instead of peas!

Julia had been scooting around in her own version of crawling for a bit, but just last week she started crawling in true form. She still moves tentatively because she seems a bit unsure of herself, but she can really fly if she sees paper on the floor! What is it about babies loving paper? She’s very proud of her new-found skill.

This is Julia’s new favorite position -- upside down. She would love to stay like this even longer than we let her.