Julia’s 11 Month Photo

I can’t believe today is the last day of August! I almost forgot to post Julia’s 11 month photo and we will be celebrating her first birthday this weekend. Isn’t it unbelievable that our little missy is turning one? It seems like just yesterday that I was still pregnant and now a whole year has flown by! As far as updates go, she is learning and changing every day – she now has names for pretty much everyone in the family, she has her own way of saying peek-a-boo “dee-da-doo”, and she says “dan-doo” for thank you – SOOOOO CUTE! But her most common thing to say is uh-oh – I hear it all day long :).  She is much more interested in table foods now, but she still doesn’t eat much and she’s just a little bitty girl – in the 3rd percentile for weight last time we checked and is still wearing 6-9 month clothes mostly. She is more confident around people outside the family now, so we have been able to get more involved at church lately, which is wonderful! She is a super fast crawler and pulls up on everything. Each day she is getting into more stuff and we are having to baby proof more and more. In the past few days she has even been standing on her own for a few seconds at a time. It’s so adorable, she pulls herself up on something, carefully lets go with a look of concentration on her face, balances herself then looks around to see if we’re watching her with a big proud smile on her face. Of course we clap and cheer every time :)!

Julia Pics and Inspiring Words

Last night I enjoyed a lovely dinner with the ladies from my Thursday night Bible study. I am so thankful to be a part of such a wonderful group! I really look forward to seeing them on a weekly basis to learn from God’s word and to support one another through prayer and friendship. Usually we take the summer off from study, but I am so glad we decided to keep meeting this summer.

We just completed a Beth Moore study on the book of Esther. One of the Bible verses we looked at toward the end of that study came from Psalm chapter 16, which is so inspiring – it reminds me of how good God has been to me! I thought I’d share a few snippets of that Bible passage today along with some summer photos of my sweet girl. Hope you have a great weekend! ~xo Jess

From Psalm Chapter 16:

I said to the LORD, “You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.” … you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure… surely I have a delightful inheritance. …

I will praise the LORD, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me…… I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

… Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure… You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand…

Julia’s 10 Month Photo

I took this photo of Julia and Betsy Bear a little over a week ago – isn’t it adorable? Yes, I had to put her 4th of July outfit back on her, couldn’t resist :). Our little cutie is just as sweet and lovable as ever these days – she is a huge blessing in our lives! She really seems to be understanding a lot more of what we say to her, which is so neat. She will follow very simple requests, like “put the toy in the basket” or “go see big brother!” and understands “no” and actually obeys – unless she feels like showing her mischievous side :).  At her recent check-up she had a vision test – it looks like she may need glasses like Gabe! She will see Dr. Metz along with her big brother at his next visit in September. She doesn’t have nystagmus like he does, and I know her vision is much better than his was as a baby, but her eyes are seeing differently which may need to be corrected. We also learned that she is now about 16 lbs and is in the 4th percentile for weight – quite petite like her mommy was as a baby. She still won’t eat any table foods, but she did feed herself a few bites of baby food today  – all by herself using her spoon! And last but not least, Gabe’s favorite milestone from this month is that she “learned to say his name” – since she has been saying mama and dada for so long, he has waited and waited for her to say “Gabe”. She does make a sound like “bruh bah” (for brother), because we call him “Big Brother” a lot – but he really wanted her to say GABE! So… the other day when she was with Gabe and daddy she said something that sounded like “Gabe” to him and he is so happy now, he talks about it all the time :). I love the sweet relationship between these two, it makes me one proud mama!

Julia Rose ~ Nine Months Old

Here’s our nine month Betsy Bear photo :). Julia has learned so many things since her last update! She is now crawling and sitting up really well and is also starting to pull up on things once in a while with her tiny arms. When people see her, they keep saying “she is getting so big” but, in reality she is still only 15 lbs – she hasn’t gained any weight in the past month! Maybe she’s gotten longer, I haven’t measured her… Her reflux problems seem to be getting better little by little, which is great! She’s a very happy girl who loves to smile and laugh – although she has shed a few tears when teething – she has two bottom teeth showing now. She has graduated from sponge baths to baby bathtub, from naps in the swing to naps in her crib, and from being carried in the baby carrier to being held in our arms and sitting in a high chair in restaurants. She is really starting to take an interest in books now and I think she might be catching on to some “baby signs” we’re teaching her. (We used these simple signs with Gabe when he was a baby too. It was great because he was able to communicate with us earlier since babies can learn to make simple signs before they are able to speak with words.) She loves be tickled and loves to “dance” to music. She usually does eat baby food, but will not eat table food or drink from a bottle (she likes her sippy cup, but mostly just to play with, not really to drink from it). She is really getting used to being with people other than Mommy and Daddy now and is finally having fun in nursery – yay!!! She knows how to wave too and I think I even heard her say “bye-bye” once!

Her favorite games right now are:

Peek-a-boo: She covers her face with her blankie, then whips the blankie away with a huge smile on her face.

How Big is Baby? You ask “how big is baby?” Then she raises her little arms high in the air and you say “SO BIG!”.

Big Eye! This is a silly little game I play with her and she loves it! We put our faces together nose to nose so that when we look at each other in the eye, we can only see one big eye instead of two. Then I say “Big eye!” and she laughs :).

As you can tell, Julia is at a really fun age and we’re enjoying her so much! It is sooooo fun to see her crawl around after her big brother and Gabe loves that she can play with him a bit now too :).

Julia’s Flower Hat

A snapshot of our little cutie :). I finally downloaded a ton of recent photos from the camera, so now I have to post her 9 month update soon, but not tonight – I’m wiped out and need to get to bed!