I decorated for Christmas in stages because of sickness in our house. One evening I brought out the fireplace decorations. Emily was very curious about the decorations and inspected each one. She was very taken with the snowman and brought her blankets over to him. She proceeded to lay down next to him to hang out. It was so funny! She talked/babbled a lot when I explained the birdhouse decoration. I wondered if she wanted to know where the bird was that was going to live in the house. The perch was her favorite part of that decoration.

I knew it was going to happen, Julia is growing just as quickly as Emily did. The time has flown, and while I thought I was watching all of the time, she has grown and I didn’t notice. Here she is 8 weeks old and so much bigger.

Her face and other features are filling out. Julia has strong legs and kicks them really well. She also has a lot of control over her arms. She can hit her toy hanging from the car seat handle and I think she is doing it on purpose. She also likes to knock her pacifier out of her mouth. Then she will lick her hand or stick some part of it in her mouth and suck on it. It makes a pretty loud sucking sound. Unfortunately, it is not as satisfying as the pacifier and she fusses after a little while.

She holds her head up well and is looking around. She doesn’t like her tummy time and doesn’t usually do her neck ‘exercises’. She must take after me, I don’t like exercises either. She will turn her head when she hears a familiar voice and when she knows that she is going to eat she gets excited. I still wonder what she is looking at half of the time as she focus on odd things, but she is alert and looking around. She doesn’t like her swing as much as Emily did, but she loves the bouncy seat. This is great because it allows me to get my shower and to keep her happy.

We took the girls to see a local outdoor train display after church on Sunday. The collection included a number of trains depicting different eras of East Tennessee train history and some actual train equipment including the crossing sign and pump car. There was a train hauling lumber to a mill, one hauling coal from a mine, a Southern engine pulling passenger cars, a CSX engine pulling container cars, a Chessie train, a UT Volunteer train, a marine life transport train, and I’m sure some others that I can’t remember.

The day was cool and we were all bundled up. The train exhibit was inside of a tent so it was a lot more comfortable inside. Emily enjoyed her freedom while exploring around the equipment and train set. She wasn’t very interested in posing for photos, so Mommy had to settle with ‘action’ photos. Emily was very tempted to touch the trains as they ran by us, but she resisted.

Julia enjoyed the activity from the front pack that Daddy wore. Daddy tucked her tiny feet into his coat to help keep her warm. At this point she likes to lay her face up against the person carrying her and go to sleep. I can’t imagine anything sweeter. This is how she spent the whole event.

After exploring the trains and equipment we took a cold stroll in the gardens. Emily followed Daddy for a while, but then decided that we needed to take a different trail. After that she picked the paths.

We were happy to warm up in the car on our way home as Emily took her afternoon nap in the car with Julia. We are hoping that this display will become a yearly tradition so that we can pass on Mommy and Grandpa’s love of trains on to our girls.

I thought that it would be fun to make a list of all the words that Emily has been using. I made the list at the beginning of her 22nd month, while she has added more words since then I am going to keep the list as it was at that point. Emily has a lot to say, but a lot of it comes out as babble. Her words consist of the beginning of the word and if lucky two consonants. The back half of words, additional syllables, and ending consonants are usually dropped completely. Of the babble that Mommy can translate these are the words she is saying:

mama, da (daddy), sister, julia, hi, hey, bye-bye, night-night, eat (will also sign), thank you, please (will also sign), yes, yeah, no, on, off, up, down (will also sign), nana (banana), lid, knock-knock, pee-pee (will also sign by patting diaper), milk (will also sign), juice (will also sign), phone, teeth, hot, cold, purple, pink, kitty, doggie, k / ok, shoe, help, backpack, map

One of Daddy’s favorite snacks is potato chips and french onion dip. Over the weekend, Mommy made a fresh batch of dip, so while she was out I decided to share one of life’s great pleasures with Emily. Emily loves to dip her food in all kinds of sauces, so I expected her to enjoy our little treat. And she did!

I gave Emily her own bowl with some french onion dip in it. She would put a chip into the bowl, take it out, and then lick the dip off the chip, and then repeat this many times for each potato chip. Eventually, snack time came to an end, so I asked Emily if she was done with the bowl, which still had some dip in it. She said “No.” Then without chips, she scooped the dip out of the bowl with her hands, and proceeded to shove it into her mouth, licking her fingers clean in the process. When she was done, the bowl was spotless.

She is definitely my daughter.

I took Julia for her 6 week checkup. We had postponed the one month appointment because of insurance issues. It all worked out because at the time of the appointment Julia was just getting over a stomach virus and we could combine a well visit and a sick visit. Julia had just run her course with the illness and had no additional complications. Her weight at the visit was 8 lbs. 3 oz., height of 20 1/2 inches, and head size of 14 1/8 inches. I was pleased with her weight especially considering that she had a day of illness where she hadn’t eaten much. Over the 6 weeks she has increase her weight by 1 lb. 6 oz. and grown an inch longer. The doctor was pleased with where she was at. She balances out between the 15th and 25th percentile. Julia didn’t appreciate the shot that she got or having to lie on the cold table. Her next checkup will be at 2 months.