New England Baby

This weekend we had a big snow storm and Julia got to experience snow for the first time (We never attempted to bring her out in the snow storms when she was only a few months old). John was more excited than ever to bring Julia out sledding, but was defininetly disappointed when I pointed out that we could pull her in a sled, but she, in fact, was to young to actually go true sledding. We weren't sure how it would work out, considering some kids don't even like being put in their snow suits.

At first we had some problems, because like Ralphy in "A Christmas Story" Julia had a difficult time moving in her snow suit, so she couldn't actually sit-up on her own in the sled. But after John held her up in the sled and then adding some comfy pillows, she loved her 'sledding' adventure.

Trouble

I guess John and I know what our next home 'project' has to be....

Julia, Pearl, and Santa

A few days ago Julia and Pearl got to sit with Santa and go over their Christmas Wishes...

Toys?

Sometimes I wonder why I bother buying Julia any toys, she seems to get all the entertainment she needs from newspaper and empty boxes.

Julia's cousin, Ella, also knows how to make interesting use of toys. Lisa and Rob live on a steep hill (far too steep for a toddler to be able to bike up the hill). Grampa came up with an inventive way of letting Ella think she is peddling up the hill herself. He really wanted to let Pearl pull Ella up the hill, but all it would take is a squirrel to catch Pearl's eye and Pearl and Ella would be off in the woods!!

Happy Thanksgiving

Julia wanted to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving. I think Julia will love Thanksgiving specifically because it is entire holiday centered around food and Julia LOVES food.

She eats the same amount for breakfast that I think most adults do (yesterday she had an entire banana, a piece of toast and a scrambled egg). If she sees me eating anything she makes it clear that she has to have a bite. At daycare I walked in one day to find her teacher feeding a little girl in a high chair (that is low to the ground) Julia had pulled to stand on the back and everytime the teacher brought the spoon in for the little girl to eat, Julia would open her mouth and lean in trying to get some for herself. And if that's not enough evidence of her love of food, yesterday I was at a friends house with a bunch of kids, Julia was happily playing until she looked up and saw a little boy sitting in his high chair and eating. She crawled out of the playarea, across the dining room and pulled herself up on the high chair and was desperately trying to reach up to grab his food off of the tray. She is definitely my little gobbler!!

On the Go

Julia can't walk on her own yet, but this doesn't stop her from being on the go all the time. Check out these videos to get a glimpse into our everyday lives. Fortunately she still doesn't crawl very fast or try to 'escape', so she hasn't discovered that the kitchen cabinets open or where the dogs water bowl is, but I guess that's only a matter of time.

She's still not very stable but she loves to 'walk' behind her pusher. Her only way of stopping is to run into the couch or a wall.

Julia loves to read books, here is one of her favorite games (standing to get a book, sitting down to read it and then moving onto a new one). Unfortunately she likes turning the pages so quickly it's difficult to actually read the story in it's entirety.

This is Julia's first time climbing stairs at a friend's house. She seems a little bit slow, but don't worry it's been over a week and she just discovered that we actually have stairs at our house to and spends a lot of her day climbing up the stairs so she has quickly become an 'expert'.

Chores

In addition to helping out with yard work, Julia has started helping out with other chores around the house.

Driving . . .


Grocery Shopping . . .

Julia relaxes at the end of a hard day's work by snacking on a cookie.

Yard Work

At 10 months old, Julia has officially started helping with yard work. She started by helping her daddy water some new plants. By the end of the day she was soaking wet, because she was fascinated by the water and kept reaching out and splashing in it.

Happy Halloween

Trick or Treat... watch out in addition to witches and ghosts I hear the bees are out, don't get stung! This bee costume has basically become a Rybolt family heirloom, Julia is the 4th cousin to wear the bee costume (following in the foot steps of Baikal, Madeleine, and Ella)

This was taken on the steps at Lisa's house at her Halloween party, can you find Ella trying to get in the picture?

Julia and a Blanket

Julia now officially has 2 teeth, pulls to stand all the time, cruises on furniture (though she forgets that she can't stand on her own will let go and tumble over), waved bye-bye, loves finger foods (wheat toast is her favorite) and a few days ago started a real crawl. She still is very slow at regular crawling, she basically does a few steps forward very slowly then remembers she is much faster at her army crawl and drops to her belly and pulls herself with her arms.



Recently Julia had her 9 month doctors appointment and realized she has spent the last 3 months on a big growth spurt. She officially weighs 20 pounds (75th percentile) and is 28 1/2 inches tall (75 percentile). She jumped from the 25th percentile to the 75th percentile in 3 months, now we finally understand why she has been eating like a monster.

Fall is Here

Fall is officially here in New England, with fall comes pumpkins, fairs, and trying to keep track of hats, mittens and jackets. This weekend we went to the Center Sandwich Fair in New Hampshire with Julia's great-grandmother. She had a great time at the fair and meeting lots of relatives.

Everyone enjoying good food at the fair. When Lisa held Julia up on the table, Ella kept getting mad saying "No baby Julia, no standing on the table"

Julia sporting her Red Sox shirt with her great-grandmother (a diehard Red Sox fan!)

After we recovered from all the delicious food and good company at the fair, Julia and I went on a hayride with some other moms. We all loaded onto the hayride at the farm, the first stop was to pick turnips, we then loaded back up on the hayride to travel to the cows where the kids got to feed the turnips to the cows and goats, then we were off to the pumpkin patch to pick pumpkins, and our final stop was at the sugarhouse for cookies and apple cider. Julia didn't really understand what was going on, but she loved watching the other kids and was very excited by the cows.

Getting So Big

Most of the time I can't believe how big Julia is getting, but some days she still just seems so small . . .

First Tooth

Yesterday Julia got her very first tooth. She was cranky with a fever and a slight cough (being a paranoid mom I immediately decided that she had H1N1 virus), then I noticed she was drooling more than usual and looked inside her mouth ... and there was a little tiny tooth poking through on the bottom right side.


When she's not busy spourting teeth, Julia wants to spend all her time standing. She can pull to stand up (in the right situation) and loves to stand holding onto the couch... but eventually she tips over.

Pearl and Julia

Now that Julia is 8 months old it's amazing how many news things she has learned, she continues to try and perfect her army crawl, she mastered her pinscher grasp (which means see can actually feed herself little bits of toast and puffs), and 2 days ago she pulled herself up to standing. While Julia is learning lots of new tricks, Pearl has also figured out that bits of food spontaneously fall off her highchair so she has learned to sit right by Julia during meals.

Here's Julia playing scrabble and her dad making sure she doesn't eat any of the scrabble pieces.

Last weekend we were up in Maine for the weekend, the water was too cold for Julia, but just right for Pearl. We asked Ella, Julia's cousin, if it was OK to take Pearl swimming and she said that Pearl was too big to go swimming...

On the Move

Julia is officially mobile at 7 months, 3 weeks!! Well, she isn't yet going to be chasing after the cats and running around opening cabinets but she has started creeping. Unfortunately I missed the first creeping because I was taking a nap, but John was lucky enough to catch it on video. I guess now we will spend today starting to baby proof the house.

Interestingly, I looked in my baby book and I creeped at 7 months 2 weeks, and crawled at 7 months 3 weeks... but hopefully Julia doesn't follow my exact development because I walked at 9 months 1 week and I definitely am not ready for an earlier walker!!