First Steps!

Julia is getting has started taking more steps lately! She still crawls if she really needs to get somewhere, and "walks" on her knees which is cute too. Here is a video from about a week ago.

Girls' Trip

A couple of weeks ago, I had the chance to spend a weekend away with my friends from college. We went back to Horseshoe Bay because we had such a nice time there last year. This has become a yearly tradition that I hope we can continue, since it is usually the only time each year that all 6 of us can be together. It was a great weekend to relax and catch up.

The first night we enjoyed a lovely, but very long, dinner at the Yacht Club restaurant.

Left to right: Courtney, Deborah, Melanie, Jill, Katherine, Marisa

At the "beach"

There are several wineries near Horseshoe Bay, so we went to one for a tasting.

We love to have breakfast at the Blue Bonnet Cafe on our way out of town.

Playtime

This video shows a glimpse of what Julia's playtime is like. She is all over the place, moving from one toy to another. This video captures her "talking" on the play telephone (something I had never seen her do before. I'm not sure how she realized it is a phone since it looks nothing like our modern phones, unless she saw her cousins play with it last weekend), singing to the "ABC" song on the music table, putting the ball into the large toy, and giving a teddy bear hugs and kisses.

Lake House Weekend

We had a great time at Lake Conroe last weekend with the White side of the family. It was the only time we could all be together this summer. We all stayed in a lake house on the water. Julia really enjoyed seeing her aunts and uncles, Gigi and Pop, great-Grandma and Grandpa, and especially her cousins, Shane and Madison.

Julia loved all of Shane's hot wheels - we're going to have to get her some - and he was very sweet to let her play with them. Here, he is showing her what to do with them and handing her one occasionally after he tells her what it is called.

Boy, this is fun!

The cousins all gathered around to watch some Sesame Street online.

"Butterfy Tookies"...delicious!

Just hangin' out with Gigi

All three kids in one frame. Forget trying to get them to smile or even look up at the same time.

Julia loved the pool slide!

One night we rode the boat across the cove to go to dinner. While we were waiting for our table, the hostess asked if Julia might want some sunglasses (she had a pair that had been left there many months ago). Julia thought she was such a big girl - and she knew she was cute!

Family pic

Julia: 11 Months

It has been fun to watch Julia's "vocabulary" expand in the past month, as well as her list of "tricks".

• She has changed the way she waves to people. We noticed her practicing opening and closing just her left hand while taking a bottle. So now when she waves, her left hand opens and closes and her right hand moves from side to side.
• She has started singing, which is so sweet. A couple of months ago we noticed her sort of hum when we sang to her before bed, but now she will look up and begin singing "yayaya..." along with us. We noticed she will also will press certain buttons on her musical toys and begin swaying and softly singing along to the songs.
• She sometimes says "night night" very clearly.
• She gives the sweetest open-mouth kisses.
• She now says, "go", when we ask her if she wants to go with us somewhere or if she hears us say it.
• She learned, "uh-oh," and says it in the appropriate situations - so cute!
• She will pat her head and her tummy when we ask her to.
• She is learning to blow kisses, but acts a little unsure of it - as if she's wondering why we would have her do such a thing.
• She can finally hold her own bottle, but chooses not to. If we assist her at all in getting the bottle in a good position, she lets go altogether.
• She can now put her plastic shape blocks into the shape sorter - not every time, but she is working on it.
• She has figured out cabinets (unfortunately). Her favorite is the cabinet beneath Daddy's bathroom sink - she stands up with half her body inside so she can get to everything and pull it all out while Mommy takes a shower.
• When we say, "bye, bye" she sometimes says "dye, dye".