Walking Home

Sleeping Angel

Story Time

One of the best times of day is the evening story time.  Pete plops Jules in his crib to climb around, while he reads 2-3 long books to him.  I often see Jules with his hands wrapped around two bars pulling his face up against them to look out and see what his Papa is reading, and now that he can sit unassisted he can also be seen usually tossing about his bunny and frog while listening to stories.  

Tush-a-licious

Where Did My Tiny Baby Go?

Our cloth diapers arrived today, and I promptly washed and prepared them for use.  Once Papa came home, and Jules got up from his nap, we tried them on for size.  Overall I love them!  They are easy to use, and quite cute I must add - even if they give him a larger rump.  Our plan is to master daytime, then outings, then overnights.  I don't want to overwhelm us all at once!  Overnight will be more difficult, since we'll need to figure out how many layers it takes to last us until morning, but we'll get there.

Looking at these pictures of Jules I am newly amazed at how much he has changed in the last six months.  My tiny baby looks more and more like a big boy every day.  He is exploring, nearly crawling, and keeping my busier all the time.  His personality is huge, gregarious, boisterous, and I love it.  When he likes something you know, and when he doesn't you really know!  His world has gotten huge now that he can maneuver across the living room.  He is discovering what chairs taste like, how to pull on the cable cord, licking carpet, pulling on the ottoman - it's wild.  Looking back a month he couldn't even sit up alone for long, and now we can live him unattended to play on the floor with his toys.  

But the best new thing:  Toes. Lately he has been pulling on his feet, holding them up and checking out his shoes, but today he discovered that toes are indeed delicious.

The Original "JT"

Tonight we took Julian to his first concert, James Taylor.  We got lawn seats so we could spread out with our blankets and snacks, and settled in for a good time.  At first he was a bit fussy because it was nearing bedtime, but as soon as the music started and the lights went up - he was riveted, bouncing up and down, and swaying the way he does when he hears music.  Halfway through he fell asleep in my arms, and then crashed on the blanket, only to wake near the end to watch some more.  

JT played a lot of our old favorites, and then many covers off of his new album.  Listening to JT has been a staple of so many of our vacations, road trips, summer days at the beach, and homes that it only seemed right that this be his first concert, and our first concert as a family.

Chasing Nico

Jumping Jumperoo

Friends - Canaan, Julian, and James Edition

Forward Momentum

Quality Time

Pink Eye Scare

(Recovering from the doctor visit)

When Papa arrived home from San Diego he was concerned that he may have gotten pink eye.  Since he is pretty germ-phobic, he was careful to constantly wash his hands and keep Jules away from his eyes.  Well, last night I noticed that Julian's left eye was looking pretty red, and he was rubbing that eye more often than just because he was tired.  I called our new pediatrician this morning and they got us in for a 10AM appointment.  

First, I must comment that I LOVE this new practice.  The Navy clinic did not have a nurses line or an after hours number you could call if your child became sick, your only option was to go to the Naval Hospital ER.  They never spent any quality time with us for our appointments, and he never saw the same person, so no one ever remembered him or where he was developmentally.  At the new practice they spent so much time with us, answered many questions, and gave us a ton of information about all of the issues we covered.  They also commented on his cuteness which is always a plus!

It turns out that he does not have pink eye, thank goodness, but he does have a small cornea scratch.  It is probably from his sharp finger nails (that grow so fast I can hardly keep up!).  He also has some eczema, probably brought on by the introduction of dairy to his diet.  The doctor said his eye will be fine, just to look out for more redness/swelling/crustiness, otherwise it will heal on its own.  She also gave us some special lotion to help get rid of the rash, and said to hold off on dairy for now and try again in a few months.  

But the highlight of the day was his weigh-in and measuring!  We can't get in until mid June for his 6 month well visit, so I was sure we wouldn't be able to find out until then, but we got to see his stats today.  He now weighs 22lbs 4oz and is 27inches long at 6 1/2 months old!  

He was a perfect angel for the entire doctors visit, and everyone remarked on how smiley and sweet his personality is.  He sure is the charmer!

Out and About

This weekend was the Stockley Gardens Art Festival in our neighborhood that happens every fall and spring.  This year we hit it up with Kirstine, Chuck and their son Canaan, who are part of our moms group.  We walked around and looked at all the beautiful paintings, pottery, jewelry, etc, grabbed some street food, and then headed back to our place to cool off and rest.  The boys had a ton of fun sitting on the floor babbling at each other and playing with Julians new Skwish.

A First

Tonight in his crib, as Jules was winding down to sleep, he pushed up on all fours and started rocking back and forth!  

Visiting Philly

Since Pete was sent to an ATC symposium in San Diego this past week, Jules and I decided to hit the road and fill our time visiting  family.  It was great to get to show everyone all the new things he is doing, and how much fun he is these days.  

We got to visit Noni Toni, Pappy Craig, Auntie Lily, Uncle Jack, Aunt Melanie, Great Aunt Joan, Cousin Ali and of course Nico's favorite friend Henry who loved to give Julian kisses.  It was a nice long quality visit from Sat night until Wednesday morning, 

There was peek-a-boo to play, baths to be had, sleep to avoid, dogs to meet, and tons of attention for him to soak up!  He especially likes his Auntie Lily's room - she has so much cool stuff!  Shiny beads, soft squishy animals - it's a pretty exciting place.  And Uncle Jack was able to get some fun ball tossing in with him during floor time.  

Officially Sitting

For the first time ever Jules was able to sit up for the duration of his bath!

Cloth Diapering Here We Come

I just placed our order for cloth diapers!  I'm so excited.  It's a change I've been wanting to make since Jules was born, but it took me awhile to get Pete on board.  Most people are worried that it will take too much time/effort, but in reality it's just an extra load of laundry - and I'm already doing that!   This change will help with the red-booty problem we've been having with Julian, as well as cut down on the amount of trash we've been dumping since we've been using disposables. And our start up batch is less than what we would spend on disposables for three months!  The savings is going to be well worth it alone.  I've promised Pete we can still use the disposables when we're out and about, but the rest of the time we'll be going all cloth!

You can check out what we're getting here:  Thirstie's

We picked out Aqua, Melon, Celery, and Periwinkle covers.  They are nice gender neutral colors we can use for hypothetical #2 down the road. 

Play Time