Summer Fun

This weekend Julia got to go swimming with her friend Margaux. In addition to practicing her swimming she can now roll from her belly onto her back.

Russ and Sonia's Wedding

This weekend John's brother Russ got married outside Boston. It was a fantastic weekend and an excellent wedding, but yet again I barely took any photos and didn't get a single picture of the happy couple!

The Caruso Fathers and Daughters

Before the wedding we just relaxed and had fun in the sun. This was also the first time Julia was together with all the Caruso cousins.

Julia, Sophia, Taylor, and Chase finally all together

6 months

I can't believe it, but Julia's half birthday is tomorrow. It seems like just yesterday I was taking her home from the hospital, I don't know how she grew so quickly!! She had her 6 month doctor's visit today, she weighs 14 pounds, 7 ounces (25th percentile) and she is 26 inches long (50th percentile). She continues to be very good at rolling over from her back to her belly (in one direction only), she can now stay sitting up all by herself (though she will eventually fall over so we have to watch her very carefully), she loves her rice cereal, but hasn't decided yet what she thinks of peas (which we introduced last night). Thank you Marisa for the great picture of Julia!


Now that she is 6 months old, John has decided it's time for Julia to a contributing member of society, so he is putting her to work as an actuary.

Grampa and Carole's Wedding

This weekend Julia attended her very first wedding. She had an excellent time despite the fact that she started the long weekend with a slight fever so she was more cranky than usual.

After the ceremony, looking cute as can be in her dress from Grammy Carole

Spending time with her Great-Grandmother

After a night of partying, Julia is exhausted and having snuggle time with her Aunt Ellen

I somehow got through the night without any pictures of the happy couple (in fact the above pictures are the only ones that I got at the wedding), but the weather was perfect, the location was beautiful and the dessert's were amazing!!

At lunch the day after the wedding, Ella finally paid attention to Julia, maybe we need to dress them alike more often:

Dirty and Clean

Yesterday we introduced Julia to solid food for the first time. Here she is eagerly awaiting her first delicious taste of rice cereal. As you will see in the video she really didn't know what to think of the rice cereal at the beginning, but clearly wanted more by the end (though she still managed to wear more rice cereal than she actually swallowed.)

Fortunately bath night corresponded with the introduction to rice cereal. As I was getting Julia ready for her bath, Pearl made the discovery that Julia's hands could be licked clean for a tasty treat.

Big Girl

Julia is definitely becoming a 'big girl'. She can play in her exersaucer, she can roll over from her back to her belly, and loves putting anything she can find in her mouth.
A few weeks ago we celebrated John's birthday, as a birthday surprise I got a babysitter and we went out to see Star Trek. If you look closely at his 'whoopie pie' birthday cake, you will notice the candles spell out Sophia (they were left over from her birthday earlier in May).

While visiting Julia's Nana, we discovered that Julia loves to look at balloons!!

New Skills

Julia is hard at work on developing new skills. Her best new skill is accurately and consciously reaching for toys. I had an earlier video attempting to demonstrate this, but we finally got a better video. I think she has also discovered her hair, as you will see in the video she uses one hand to grab for toys and the other to play with her hair.

The other skill she is working on is trying to rollover (from back to belly). She was desperately trying to roll over, but her left arm just kept getting in the way and it would make her very mad. About 1 month ago she did rollover (back to belly) at nighttime, but she was swaddled, so no arms sticking out to get in the way. In the video I say that she has rolled before that was about 2 weeks ago and was actually her rolling from her belly to her back (and yes I did miss it because I was petting Pearl).

For cute photos of Ella and Julia together, check out my sister's blog.

http://cederbaby.blogspot.com/2009/05/ikea.html

After seeing the photos if anyone is inclined to think that Ella is a good babysitter, keep in mind that Ella was only willing to hold Julia long enough for us to get a few good photos, then she looked at us and sternly said "someone get this baby".