What do you do in the summertime?

 I've been taking all the pictures with my fancy new cell phone lately (thank you Greg for my Mother's Day gift) and I couldn't figure out how to transfer them to my blog. Turns out, all my photos are ready to upload from GooglePlus and it is the easiest thing in the world. There will now be many more posts to come, but here is the longest blog post EVER playing catch-up. As a courtesy I've made the post mostly pictures with just a few words. You're welcome. :)

Julia is now 16 months old. Her stats are:

Height 29.5 inches (14.77%)

Weight 19 lbs 5.5 oz (3.54%)

Head Circumference 46 cm (47.50%)

She is still itty bitty, but she seems so big to me!

Here's some of the things we've done this summer.

Julia has discovered HATS!

 

Perhaps she's smarter than the rest of us and this really is what a hat is designed for! Makes sense, doesn't it?

 And she has fallen in love with SHOES! Our shoes, her shoes, it doesn't seem to matter whose...

 

Greg's Crocs

She insisted on this pair

ZOO TIME

We bought a membership to the zoo and have visited every week with different friends.

The Bongos actually came out of hiding! Who even knew what a Bongo was!

Two wild kangaroos

We hope she doesn't leave the nest anytime soon (ha, ha, ha)

Good friends Dave, Ariel and Darah on our first visit

You can't tell unless you squint, but Julia is wearing an adorable giraffe outfit while looking at the giraffe. Totally not planned of course.

She had no fear of the panda bear and tried to poke its head. Obviously the panda had no fear of her either.

This was a visit when she wasn't feeling well. Could she look anymore chilled out?

Another outfit, another zoo visit...

Julia and Tante Ariel

She is signing "pig"

 VISITORS!

My BFF Laura Medisky came to visit. She had never met Julia before, and I am happy to report they both took to each other instantly!

Laura and a very cool tree at Sir Anthony Buzzard's gardens

Mr. Pemberton offering Greg and Julia a Coke at the World of Coca-Cola Museum

Julia drinking her first Coke...it was supposed to be a video but it seems to be a moving picture now which is kind of cool. Wait for her reaction at the end when she grabs her tongue.

She obviously gets her love of Coke from her Nana and Papa

OTHER SUMMER ACTIVITIES

Riding in a handcart on Pioneer Day

We took her to Six Flags and what did she want to do? Clean all the benches. Good luck, girl!

Six Flags - you can see why we got so much attention with this little doll trailing behind us

I'm a little concerned Julia is exhibiting OCD traits. She took all of these off my nightstand and placed them on the bathtub just so. Is this normal?

We spend a lot of our time driving cars...

And reading books...

And rock climbing...

And picking our noses...

And swimming....

And pushing strollers...

And learning how to say #1 (with her hands only) and count to three! (I say one and two, and she says three!)

We've all been extremely healthy this summer except for the one week Julia got sick. We spent a lot of time on the golfcart and it was so sweet when she would just put her head in my lap and fall asleep.

 FOURTH OF JULY

I've been bragging about Peachtree City's amazing 4th celebration for years now, and finally friends decided to come visit for the holiday. Sergio, Yvonne and McKenzy, we are so sorry that it rained the entire day and that the Fourth of July was cancelled. No parade, no fireworks, no celebration in the park.

But my amazing friend Jaimee did organize a small children's parade at the church building. Someone give that girl a medal!

Yvonne, Julia and McKenzy. Yes, McKenzy is just 4 hours younger than Julia despite the significant size difference.

We made Julia the drummer for our own parade inside. Does anybody find it unsettling how good her stick technique is? A percussionist is not one of the instrument options available to her according to her mother.

TEETH

Julia's first tooth was on Valentine's Day. Her second tooth came in on Father's Day, four months later. The third tooth came in a quick two weeks later, at the beginning of Ramadan if we insist on sticking with the holidays. 

Father's Day - what a great gift for dad!

Happy Ramadan - 1st top tooth on the left finally appears!

 I thought for sure the 4th tooth would be out by now, but instead the gum is clearly extended in the perfect shape of her top tooth but the tooth has not broken through yet. She is obviously an underachiever in the teething department!

But here are some things she can do without teeth....

Hold a balloon in her mouth with no hands

Play "chubby bunny" nearly every morning with her cereal

Eat corn on the cob with not only no teeth, but also with no hands

And just in case you think I've become fully domesticated, here's proof otherwise (although I have LOVED being home this summer).

Here's the summer all-girls' band camp I taught at in June

 And I traveled alone to Redlands, California for the International Double Reed Society Conference. (See previous post regarding never traveling alone with Julia again.)

My oboe teachers from my 9 1/2 years of school at Arizona State and Brigham Young!

Laura and I played a horn, oboe, piano recital at the conference, without the kids. But aren't her children adorable?! I think I would have rather just watched them than our recital.

And I got to see so many old friends! Here's the ASU gang (notice Laura in the blue who was previously featured in this post!)

While in CA, I proudly displayed a picture to the Lauras of my baby's beautiful curls. They held an intervention and explained to me this is a mullet.

But isn't it a beautiful mullet?

So when I got back I took her to this kids' hair salon. Cars for seats...no problem!

Julia was extremely happy driving her car and could care less that someone was cutting her hair.

And that is just a little taste of what we've been doing this summer!

Did you make it to the end? If so, YOU deserve a medal!