Julia Blah Blah Blah

She is just too cute for words...

Climbing on everything

But it's hard to stay mad at this happy face.

She has the skills to walk, but instead she chooses to bear crawl instead since her dress makes crawling on her knees impossibly hard.

Helping Mom sweep

We made a brief trip to Tennessee. She loves jumping with her cousins.

And wearing sunglasses like her Tyia.

Yes, she's spoiled. I already bought her a car.

And a bike.

Look at her little fingers...she's signing "bird." The bird beak is open....

And now it's closed...and she's looking for that bird in the trees.

Once she started walking, Julia upgraded to the toddler room at preschool. This is the first and last time she ate at school. Apparently when she's uncomfortable she refuses to eat. Good thing GSU is out and I am home all summer to keep this midget fed. She does finally weigh 18 lbs with her clothes and shoes on...oh yeah, and while holding a full bowl of gold fish crackers.

Photo Book of Julia's 1st year

Click here to view this photo book larger

Create your own personalized photo books at Shutterfly.com.

Wow...this link actually works. I'm amazing!

My Child is Sicker Than Your Child

Do they make the above subject into a bumper sticker, because that's the one we need. For the record, Julia was healthy for the first 5 1/2 months of her life. I thought I was such a good Mom.

This is Julia with her first cold on our trip to Louisiana over Labor Day. Notice she is still smiling.

And this picture was taken the day we found out she had her first ear infection in October. Why are you smiling, Julia?

And this is the day in December she was diagnosed with her second ear infection, right before we got on a plane to WA.Yep, still smiling.

And the third ear infection was on New Year's Day in Tennessee. It was when she was feeling at her worst that she decided to start crawling on her hands and knees because, well, you know, feeling terrible always makes you want to reach milestones. You can't see her face, but I'm pretty sure she's smiling at her cousin Tyler.

And her entire 1-year-old photo shoot was with undiagnosed strep throat which she'd probably had for half a month. We would have diagnosed it sooner if she'd made a bigger fuss, but how can you look at this smile and think, "Hmmm...maybe she has strep."

And this is the day she started coming down with the flu, and a bladder infection, at the same time. This was just two weeks after getting rid of strep and one week after her 1-year shots. (But as a side note, don't you just love this onesie? Thanks Lea and family!)

I relied on Baby Einstein a lot during the flu week. It makes her happy without fail.

Look at that flu smile!

Yeah, she may have the flu, but she can still walk, talk, and do fish faces all at the same time. Can your kid?

 Of course I believe my child is the best at everything, and she is clearly just as competitive as I am. Good job, Julia! You are definitely the sickest, smiliest baby I know!

1-year stats

Julia's 1 year appointment stats are: 

Weight: 17 lbs 9.5 oz

2.99 percentile

(Jeez Julia...can't you at least get it to the 3rd percentile?)

BMI: 15.0

12.71 percentile

 Height: 28.75 in, 

29.38 percentile 

(I measured her as an inch shorter, but isn't it nice they're making her taller!) 

 Head Circumference: 45.5 cm, 

57.7% 

(I'm pretty sure the extra circumference comes from those cheeks!) 

In other news, Julia started walking on her own over Easter weekend. It started with the Ward Easter Egg Hunt, surrounded by what seemed like hundreds of screaming, running children, and she walked back and forth between me and Greg. On Monday, she truly took off on her own and made it all the way across the room at Lori's house. This is a video of the 7th time or so that she got a grape from me and then walked off! 

Julia is also an amazing signer. Her favorite sign is "baby," which she is signing below in the video. She could sign "baby" all day long and never tire of it! Other words include: milk, drink, food, more, all done, finished, ball, daddy, mommy (very rarely), bath, dog, bird, and I taught her the wrong sign for cat over the weekend because I'm awesome like that

Happy Easter!

This Easter, my brother Ben and Jenny and Tyler and Tucker all came to visit. Jenny's brother lives here as well, so we partied all weekend with just the 12 of us!

SATURDAY

It was perfect weather Easter weekend.

She seriously does this ballet move all the time.

And this one. I'm beginning to see a future of expensive tutus and tights coming our way.

Showing off my camera to my brother

Dying Easter Eggs

Tyler is always very studious about every activity

Keaton accepted a dare to drink the vinegar

And Kayla accepted a dare to eat a raw onion. Okay, so it wasn't really a dare. She just likes to eat raw onions...for real.

Rolling eggs with just Julia wouldn't have been much fun...

So thank goodness we had all these helpers to help crack the eggs for our traditional Easter "Egg Stuff" meal.

Lori holding the cousins.

Tyler picked out this gigantic CareBear for Julia's birthday. It's as big as her, and as you can see, she is fascinated by its nose. It's usually in her mouth.

SUNDAY

What did the Easter Bunny bring Julia?

Eggs filled with Cheerios and goldfish, and a ring pop!

I don't think the Easter Bunny realized the ring pop was just like a giant sugar pacifier!

My mom got the babies these bunny hats for Christmas.

And Julia was TERRIFIED of Tucker in his bunny hat. I think she might have had the same reaction if she had looked in the mirror, but she didn't seem to realize she also had the same hat on.

All the kids went on an Easter Egg Hunt at Lori's

The kids found 25+ each, and Julia found this one.

But she did really enjoy jumping on the trampoline with her dad!

Everybody counting up their prizes while Julia stole from their baskets when they weren't looking.

MONDAY

We went to the Wild Animal Safari and rented this pimped out mobile to drive us through the Wild Animal Safari Park.

The front part of the van is ready to go!

So is the back part!

But we weren't expecting to be attacked by 15 of these the second we entered the park. The kids started screaming and throwing food at the hungry mouths, and....

Tucker was scared for his life!

As was Julia who spent most of her time like this.

By the end, she would actually get off my shoulder and make worried expressions like this.

But if you were being attacked by slobbery animals, wouldn't you be worried too?

The fattest pig I ever saw!

I didn't even know tongues came this long.

Kayla does a great bison impression.

Tyler feeding the zebra

That round pellet is food being dropped into his mouth. Can someone please explain to me why this animal eats with his tongue sideways? Julia did stick out her giraffe tongue to a few of the animals in solidarity.

Julia the lion

They had a separate area where you could walk around and see the super wild animals...like this goat, for example. Julia liked the goat until it licked her hand, and then she started crying hysterically.

Sunshine, eggs, family, and wild animals...a perfect Easter in my book!