Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful week away for Thanksgiving. Julia and I headed to Houston to spend time with Mamaw and Papaw while Kyle hunted for 4 days. He joined us later in Houston for a couple days, and then we all went to Beaumont for the weekend. It was wonderful to see all of our immediate family on both sides. Here are some photos and video clips...

Reading a book with Papaw

One of Julia's favorite things at Mamaw and Papaw's house: the tree swing. She would stay in it for a really long time and almost fell asleep once.

Julia's other favorite thing: the rocking horse. The video shows her getting on and off the horse on her own and having a great time. The rocking horse was Mamaw's when she was about 3 and has been used by all the kids on her side of the family. Many thanks to my Uncle Mike for rebuilding/refinishing it for Julia to use. It is as good as new and she loves it!

Mamaw treated Julia to her first ride on a mechanical horse while we were out shopping.

Pillow fights with Papaw became an evening ritual during our stay there. So much fun!

I went in to get something out of Julia's room while she wase napping and was surprised to see that she had her hood on her head. Don't know if she put it up herself or not, but I had to snap a picture.

On Thanksgiving Day, Gigi & Pop, Kimberly and Mark, and Madison came to spend the day and enjoy a wonderful meal together.

Relaxing in the swing.

Julia tried her best to play croquet.

The group, minus Madison, who was napping during our meal.

We had another "Thanksgiving" in Beaumont.

Julia played on the indoor slide at Gigi and Pop's house for much of the time. She enjoyed having her cousins to play with. They were both very nice to her and waited patiently for her to climb up and always let her have a turn, even if it wasn't her turn.

One night we all went to Chuck E. Cheese. Julia went about a year ago but was too young to enjoy it. This time she had lots of fun and rode her first "rides".

Her favorite was the carousel, which we expected since she is obsessed with horses.

She even played ski ball, and threw the balls over and over again about 2-3 feet.

Julia: 14 Months

Here are some cute things Julia is doing these days:

• She loves putting on shoes. If she sees them when she is getting dressed, she wants to put them on. And she always brings us our shoes from our closet or if she finds them around the house, she brings them and puts them at our feet.
  
• She gets really excited about bath time. We cannot mention the word "bath" if we aren't planning to take her. As soon as she hears it, she says "baa! baa!" over and over, walks toward the stairs, and continues repeating it until she gets in.
• She always says "uh-oh" when she hears a phone ring or a text message (or even one on tv) because so many times my phone rings when I'm changing her diaper, when she is on the potty, or when my hands are full and I must say "uh-oh" before going to answer it.
• She also gets very concerned when something falls or when she does something she thinks is a mistake. She will say "uh-oh" over and over again, louder and louder, until I fix whatever happened. For example, she was in the laundry room and pulled the sheer window treatment down by mistake. She said "uh-oh" several times, then came to the kitchen to get me because she wanted me to see what had happened.
• She is into animal sounds and often barks when she sees a dog instead of saying "dog". She never says "cow" or even attempts it since she just says, "moo". She sort of knows how to "meow" and says "aah" instead of "baa" when we ask her what a sheep does.
  

It seems that all of a sudden, around 13-1/2 months, Julia's vocabulary just exploded. She started using her "b" sounds consistently instead of starting every word with "d" and since then she has been repeating everything we say and always attempts to pronounce a word if we ask her to.

Here is a list of all the words she can say to date:

1. Mamma
2. Dadda
3. Go!
   
4. No
5. Ball
6. Warra / wawa (water)
7. Bubble(s)
8. Do' (dog)
9. Du' (duck)
   
10. Ba' (bath)
11. More
12. C'cock (clock)
13. Car
14. Nana (banana)
15. Bappa (apple)
16. Baby
17. Bye-Bye
18. Nye-Nye (night-night)
19. Rabba (rabbit)
20. Rower (flower)
21. Bee
22. Pea(s)
23. P'ease-pee (please)
24. Mmmmmu (milk)
25. Whoa!
26. Tee-tee
27. Ta-ta (potty)
28. Shhoes (shoe)
29. Chhzzz (cheese)
30. Ka-kie (cookie)
31. Bullabulla (butterfly & umbrella)
32. Yes!
33. Hayo (hello)
34. Ha (hat)
35. Burr (bear)
36. Dish / ish (fish)
37. Eye
38. Ear
39. Toes
40. Pop
41. Bye (bite)
42. Bi' (bib)
43. Turtle
44. Bupple (puzzle)
45. Boo (baloon)
46. Melmo (Elmo)
47. Tee (teeth)
48. Dey (dance)
49. Boo' (book)
50. Cacker (cracker)
51. Nunny (hungry)
    
52. Ninish (finished)

Halloween

Julia was a cute little lady bug this Halloween. Unfortunately, Kyle worked the entire day and into the night so we missed having him with us. We didn't trick-or-treat, but we went to our neighbor's house next door to say hi before going to the neighborhood festival.

She had a hood with antennas but wouldn't leave it on her head even for a moment, which is just what we expected. She did, however, keep her barrette in her hair the entire night because she never realized it was there.

Wait! She had to stop to pick up an acorn or two along the way. :)

Her favorite part of the festival: getting a balloon.

After the festival, we went to our friends' house to help pass out candy and spend the evening with them. Julia ate her dinner on the front porch and got a good look at all the costumes. Our next door neighbor counted all the kids who came to her house for candy: 399! Two years ago we had somewhere around 325. Needless to say, our neighborhood is crazy on Halloween and is definitely the place to be.