Daddy Daughter Night

Jarret gave me the gift of a night off to myself, which I didn't even realize how much I needed until it was over and I was completely elated (partially because I went to Ann Taylor Loft and I finally fit into the same size clothes I wore before pregnancy!!!!!!).

When I came home, Jarret quickly showed me how he and his sweet daughter spent their evening. Some of the pics, especially the first two, you have to click on and enlarge to get the full effect.

Outdoors with the natural light making those blue eyes light up...

Having a blast crawling to daddy indoors...

Nieces & Nephews

A couple of weeks ago, we celebrated Erin's birthday (Jarret's sister) at the original Trail Dust, where they have a live band and a big dance floor. While Julia was home sleeping, Jarret and I had a great time with the fam and enjoyed dancing with nieces and nephews Kendall, Caden, and Jacob. We love you guys!!

This past weekend, Julia and I visited the Biebighausers and "Niece Lily" while Jarret was on a weekend retreat for Wakeboard Church. The last time I went to Wichita Falls for a visit, Lily and Julia (just two months apart) were unintentionally dressed in the identical outfit. This time around, it just about happened again. Both girls were still dressed in their PJs despite the fact it was middle of the afternoon, and both sets of PJs looked very similar! They really enjoyed checking each other out, patting each other, and trying to crawl toward one another.

Julia needed a bath, but completely freaked out when we placed her in the tub. She's never been in a big bath by herself before. Katie kindly offered to put Lily in the tub with Julia, which worked like magic. Gotta love pics of cute naked chubby babies!

9 Months

Julia technically doesn't have a birthday this month, since there is no 30th of February. So we randomly picked today as her birthday. And speaking of random, here are some random shots of her from the month.





How she greets us now if she hears us open her door:



She doesn't like sitting still or keeping her legs down while in her high chair, as you can tell here:

I normally clean her face and hands as we eat, but this day I decided to just let her go. She covered not just her chin, but drug it across her cheek and nose with her hand:

Playing with mommy's laptop and loving it:

Her Valentine's Day ensemble, courtesy of Andrea letting us benefit from Paige's cute clothes!

What Julia is up to:

• She loves walking now (still with us holding her hands, of course). The moment she stands up, she takes off. No more standing still for her!


• A couple weeks ago, I blogged that she hadn't shown any signs of crawling. She has finally started trying to scoot around on her tummy! It's not a conventional crawl yet, but she's working on it. Tonight though she was crawling several feet at a time to reach her toys.


• She has yet to find a food she doesn't like, and she's started to do a little self feeding with crackers. She loves them; but mommy doesn't love the cleanup. I never knew that cracker crumbs could get everywhere.


• She has five teeth...we noticed the 5th poking through just today.


• She is somehow clearly aware of what is a toy and what is not a toy. Naturally, she wants the things that aren't toys. And so the "no" begins!


• Her size 1 shoes are finally tight on her, but her size 2 shoes are still a little too big. According to the Stride Rite box, Size 2's are for babies ages 3-6 months. To say that Julia has small feet is an understatement!


• She is going through a clingy phase, which 90% of the time I absolutely love. I can be sitting on the floor playing with her, but she'll fuss and reach for me. As soon as she's sitting in my lap, she's fine!


• She refuses to hold your hands, unless you're helping her walk. Otherwise, if you grab her hands, she yanks them away.


• As we read to her, she loves turning the pages in her book. She grabs a page, turns it, and then puts her hands back down and waits patiently until you're done reading the next page.
  

Swim Lessons!

Before showing her swim lessons, let's first start with the old adage, "You have to crawl before you can walk." It seems Julia didn't get this memo, just like she didn't get the memo about turning head-down in mommy's womb before delivery. The girl still isn't close to crawling - won't get on all fours, doesn't rock back and forth, etc. But here is her walking!

She loves her swim lessons, and the videos at the bottom show some of the activities we do in class. She is now going "under" for 1 second at a time, and she doesn't seem phased by it whatsoever!

Look-alike

For 9 months, we've questioned if Julia looks more like her mom or dad since people have told us both. We asked Beverly (Jarret's mom) to pull out pictures of Jarret when he was a baby, and his baby pictures don't look a thing like Julia. Then Beverly pulled out pictures of Larry, Jarret's dad. Um, I think we have a winner! Notice in how the 3 month photos, their fingers are even positioned the same way. Wild!