The girls were hanging out on Daddy’s lap and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to snap some photos. As usual, we couldn’t get Emily to look at the camera although she is willing to say cheese.

Emily still loves her sister and doesn’t seem to be very jealous of my giving Julia attention. This day she was giving Julia much more attention than her Daddy, but I caught the moment that she allowed Robby to love on her a little.

Julia is growing quickly, I have noticed that she is outgrowing 0-3 month clothes when they are one piece outfits. She is long enough to be stretching them a lot. We think that Julia is caring more weight than Emily did at her age. She just seems more pudgy, although you can’t call either of our kids pudgy. She is moving well – she has her rigid pose, where she can stand on her own because of holding her body and legs tightly. She has continued her crunches and leg lifts. She is also listing to the side in a movement that will become a roll over soon. She loves to watch people and smiles when we look and talk to her. She calms down when Emily comes into view.

Julia is still getting me up in the middle of the night once most nights and twice every once an a while. On rare occasions she holds off and gives me six hours, but I can count that on one hand. It is also not predictable. I try to brace myself for what she is going to do, but she doesn’t do the same schedule more than two nights in a row. The earliest she has gone to bed is 10:30 pm and the latest is 2:30 am, she can wake up from 6:30 am to 10 am. This morning she woke up just after Robby went to work and wasn’t interested in going back to sleep. We laid in bed and played and watched some TV.

Julia treated her Mommy with a new trick that she discovered. She discovered that while laying in Mommy’s arms that she could lift her head and shoulders up. She did it over and over again for about 10 minutes. I was excited for her that she was able to move in a new way, but I wished that her self-discovery didn’t happen at two in the morning. She was excited about it and it took another hour for her to settle down and go to sleep. They change so quickly!

Julia is not the easiest baby to swaddle. She loves to stretch her feet as far as they go and she loves for her hands to move. Some days I watch her struggle and be unhappy until she frees her hands from her fabric cocoon. Although when it is time for her to go to sleep, swaddling her is like magic to help her settle into sleep.

Julia has found that her fingers have uses. They are just lovely to suck on and make loud smacking noises. Fingers are great for closing around Mommy’s hair making it difficult to be parted from her. And lastly, they are good for reaching out and touching toys. Emily loves Julia’s hands to touch and hold. Often in the car, we will look at the girls and Emily will have reached over and taken Julia’s hand in hers.

Pacifiers are real hit and miss with Julia. At times they are great comfort to her. Other times she wants nothing to do with them. I notice it most when she is crying and will not take it. This happens mostly in the car while we are in a drive-thru and limited attention can be given to her. Pacifiers are very difficult for Emily to leave alone. If she finds Julia’s pacifier not in Julia’s mouth she will pick it up and try to put it in Julia’s mouth, bring it to Mommy, carry it around, or put it in her own mouth. If she wants to play with Julia she has been known to remove it from Julia’s mouth.

Emily, Julia, and I were playing on the floor yesterday morning. Emily was laying on the floor next to Julia and asked for ‘cheese’. This is her way of asking to have her photo taken, so that she can say ‘cheese’. I thought it was so sweet that she wanted to have her photo taken with Julia. By the time I got the camera, the moment was gone. Emily wanted to sit in my lap and help me take photos of her sister. I talked her into playing night-night with Julia and getting a photo of that. Julia doesn’t look like she was much in the mood to play.

Julia had her 2 month checkup today at 10 weeks. She weighed 9 lbs – 6.5 oz. and measured 21 3/4 inches long. This is an increase of 1 lb – 3 oz. and 1 1/4 inches in 4 weeks. The doctor was pleased with her size and felt that she was growing well. She received two shots which she disliked and received one vaccination orally. The doctor heard a heart murmur at this visit that he hasn’t heard before. He said that it could be a small hole that has formed between the chambers that will heal on it’s own, but he wants a heart doctor to listen to the heart and give an opinion. I wondered if something was wrong because he spent a lot of time listening to her heart. He told me what to watch for in the meantime. She should return for her next checkup at 4 months.

Emily joined us at this appointment and I was curious how she would be at the visit, given that it wasn’t for her. She was very curious about what the nurse and doctor did to Julia and wanted to watch. She enjoyed reading a book to Julia while we waited. And let me successfully ‘bribe’ her with her uneaten lunch to sit in the chair like a big girl. The doctor gave her some stickers at the end of his exam and while we waited for Julia’s shots Emily decorated herself, her doll, and Julia with stickers.

Christmas has come, but it hasn’t gone yet. The remains are still scattered over our living room floor. This is the first year we have celebrated Christmas with a child who is capable of interacting with it so much. Our celebration began on Christmas Eve at church being reminded of the story of Christmas. It continued on to Christmas Day where we opened gifts, ate good food, visited with Grammy and Granddaddy, and played with lots of toys.

I was so pleased to see the joy that Emily found in the day. She loved opening gifts and playing with what was inside. The word ‘play’ was added to her vocabulary on Christmas. I’m sure that she got the concept but today when she got up from her nap I told her that we would have lunch and then play. She then requested to skip lunch and go and ‘pay’ which I translated to play. She proceeded to use the word for the rest of the day.

I love to watch her explore things. How she is willing to do the same thing over and over again, how she is willing to try the same thing from different angles to see what happens, how she adds sound effects to actions, and how she imitates Mommy’s antics in her play. There was a lot of exploring because of Christmas! We so appreciate our family and friends their generosity with us and our daughters. Thanks so much – we love you all!