We have been trying cereal for a little over a week and just yesterday we had the most success at eating. Julia ate just over two tablespoons of sticky, thick baby food cereal at one sitting. She spit a little of it out, but at the end of the meal the bowl was scrapped clean and she had eaten it all.

A fun visit with our Florida grandparents just came to a close. Visits are too far apart and always too short. Especially at the speed the girls are growing. During their visit we went to visit the Mayfield Dairy and saw how they make jugs, fill them, and move ice cream around the plant. We also ate some yummy ice cream. During their visit we ate good food, splashed at pool time, did some shopping, and stopped by a park for some quick play before a storm blew in. In and between all the other activities there was also a lot of play, hugs, and stories.

I lucked onto the idea of the grandparent photo by the swing. It worked really well to keep the two year old contained and looking somewhat toward the camera. You can’t get enough photos of grandparents and their grandkids.

What do you do with a pretty day, two pretty girls, and a pool? You have a lot of fun!! We splished and splashed until we were cold and in need of a snack. Emily shared toys really well with Julia and when we convinced her to not pour water on Julia everything was perfect. Julia enjoyed the pool from the floating bumbo. The bumbo wasn’t going to flip over, but it allowed her to move around the pool a little and chase toys. She has never had the ablility to get herself to the toy she was interested in. Like I said, it was perfect!

There are moments that happen that need to be bottled so you can enjoy them over and over again. They are not the big milestone moments, although they would be fun to have, it is the small insignificant moments that show a glimpse into who we are and how we tick.

I had one of those moments today. We were at our Mommy/Kid exercise class today and Emily was enjoying rummaging through the toy box when we arrived. I was getting Julia settled for some floor-time so I could give Emily some Mommy time. Emily shows up with a toy for Julia to play with. Amazingly it was an age appropriate toy too.

I was so pleased that one of Emily first thoughts was to think of her sister. This moment is worth living over again – where is that bottle??

I thought it would be fun to let Julia ‘play’ with the big toys when we took her to the park. She fits well in the play bucket. I tried to get a photo with Emily, but she wasn’t interested in doing anything that involved standing still. Julia can hug the ball pretty well, although she preferred to chew and drool on it.

Julia is up to lots of stuff these days. Just a quick update for 6-1/2 months.

• She will roll over almost every time I put her on her tummy and still doesn’t like being on her tummy. She has rolled from her back to tummy a few times, but she has to be lucky or on an easy surface.
• You have to be careful of what you put in front of her. She will reach and take things that are in front of her nowadays, and then put them in her mouth. I’m starting to get better about remembering.
• She enjoys her exersaucer for brief periods of time, but it is not a long term place to play.
• She is making a lot of noise especially with squeals. You will look at her while she is making all of her noise and when you make eye contact her face lights up and she smiles. I think she knows how to get attention.
• Julia is still sleeping in her cradle at night in our room. She is sleeping through the night now with one feeding just before Robby gets up for work. If the cradle was wider I might worry that she could roll over, but it is pretty narrow. She would be fine to move in with Emily if I was ready. We will have a pack-n-play replace the cradle in our room for naps and ‘safe play’.
• Our nap schedule is getting pretty regular now, or at least the first one of the day is. Julia is ready for a nap around 10:30-11:00 each morning. She will nap for a couple of hours and then will take another one later in the afternoon, but that one is not as regularly timed.
• Julia likes to ride in the car and has stopped her screaming while we are in a drive-thru. She will go to sleep in the car pretty regularly. When you take her out she almost always wakes up with the movement.
• Julia has been sampling baby cereal for about a week now. She hasn’t figured out what to do with it yet. I made it with formula at first and have changed to mommy’s milk. When I made that change she made less funny faces and seemed to like it in her mouth more. She still spits it out, but seems to enjoy the flavor more.

We took a drive to the mountains with the girls to see some sunshine and feel the fresh breezes. We picnicked at Cades Cove, then we took advantage of a nearby stream for a little playtime. After our cold-toe fun, we took a hike up the trail along the stream. Julia rode in the front pack and fell asleep half way out. I take that as a sign that she enjoyed it. Emily rode in the backpack with Daddy. She loved it and near the end of the hike she put her head down on Robby and may have gone to sleep if we hadn’t been overtaken by horses on the trail. That was way too interesting to look at.

Julia is big enough to hold her own in her umbrella stroller. The only problem is that the stroller is small enough that Emily thinks that she should be able to push it. We let her push the ball around in the stroller and decided that she might have to wait a little while until she gets to push Julia on her own.

For as cold as the stream was, you would not have known it by the reaction of the kids. Julia never fussed about her toes in the water and Emily stayed in it until we told her to get out. We were able to trick Daddy into wading into the water. Julia has her usual serious face about having her feet in the water, but I think she was studying it more than showing her displeasure.