A smile at the camera is such an unusual thing these days. What a joy to have this one!!

I love it when I figure out what Emily recognizes on her own. It is not hard to understand what they are because she is more than happy to shout out when she sees anything that she recognizes. She recognizes our house as demonstrated one day when we drove past it on the way to drop Granddaddy off and she started repeating ‘home, home, home’. She knows the road our house is down too. She points out all of the parks we drive by along with every Papa Johns she sees. One of her favorite foods now days is pizza! When we go to Mother Goose and pull into the parking lot she announces ‘Ma Goose’. And my favorite of late is her pointing out the hair shop where she got her haircut.

Speaking of her haircut, it must have been quite memorable for her. She recently told Robby that he needs a haircut in an effort to go and get a haircut of her own. For her first haircut, we had Robby demonstrate what would happen and how you sit quietly in the barber chair. She must think for her to get her haircut that Robby must get one too. Maybe that is not a bad thing.

Playtime with bunny is a serious time!

We had Julia’s 6 week checkup today. It was good and uneventful. Julia was a pretty good sport for most of the appointment. She wasn’t interested in looking at the doctor’s light when he checked her eyes. She also wasn’t interested in bending her legs when he did her hip exam. I don’t blame her for trying to foil the exam. Visiting the doctor can’t be fun when you are cold, exposed, poked, and overall uncomfortable.

Julia weighed in at 13 lbs -8 oz an increase of about a 1-1/2 lbs. Her length is 26 inches and increase of 1-3/4 inch increase. She is maintaining her 10th percentile weight and 50th percentile height. We discussed Julia’s feeding schedule and he said that based on her growth and weight gain that the feeding schedule and quantities are fine. She has cut herself back to 6, maybe, 7 feedings a day and they are not long feedings, this just didn’t seem like enough to me. But I guess she knows what she is doing. We will be starting cereal with Julia soon.

We finished off our appointment with a few shots and a lot of tears. Our next appointment is at 9 months. On our way home Emily announced to me that we should call Daddy. I asked her what we should tell Daddy. This was her review of the appointment: 1. Sister went to doctor, 2. Sister got shot, 3. Sister sad. This was pretty accurate. I guess the only thing she forgot was that the Doctor had given Emily a sticker.

I know this photo looks like just any other tummy photo, but this one is special – Julia did it herself! What a big girl to roll herself over. The most special part was that she did it when both Mommy and Daddy could watch.

Emily is ready to eat dinner in her new booster seat at the table and be like her parents. Her old high chair is behind her, and she didn’t even give it a second look. We put the step stool next to her seat, so she could get in it herself, and we found her in it several times that evening. I guess reading books on the table is more fun.

Julia has reached her 6th month milestone! I know that everyone says it, but time sure goes fast when watching kids. Julia has grown so much faster than Emily seemed to. One sad event that is associated with growing so fast is that Julia is growing out of her clothes. It is so sad to sort the small clothes out of her drawers and say good-bye to them.

Julia is expressing herself more these days and seeming more like a little girl than a baby. She lights up with smiles when she sees Robby. She recognizes him and it makes her so happy. She also smiles when her toys move toward her and tonight when I sat down with a book to read her, her eyes just lit up. Now I wish that I could be impressed with her love of reading or hearing my voice, but she promptly reached for the book and tried to put it in her mouth. The book was about the Gingerbread Man, so instead of running away from all the characters he seemed to be running away from Julia’s gums.

She is moving with purpose now to get toys, grab fingers to chew, to kick her blanket off her feet. She loves to pick her feet up and lift them as high as she can reach and them pound them back down on the mattress over and over again in the morning. It is like her exercise routine. Another trick she seems to have mastered is passing things from hand to hand. I watched her take her pacifier from her left hand and pass it to her right hand and then use her free left hand to reach for something else.

This next month is going to bring even bigger changes for Julia. She will be starting solid food soon and we will be moving her into her room with Emily soon. I have been a little up-in-the-air about the details, but we will be learning what does and doesn’t work soon. The move is going to be necessary because she is just outgrowing her cradle. Then next thing I know we will be celebrating her birthday. Thank goodness for journaling and photo taking so that I can remember all of these wonderful things.