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.

This morning when we woke up, we looked out the window and saw snow falling. This is a rare treat for us. I was all for getting our kids up and making them look out the window immediately and then following that with going out and playing in it. Reason won out and I didn’t make Julia spend much time looking out the window and we fed Emily breakfast before going out. Unfortunately, by the time we did get out the door, the snow was beginning to melt. There was enough snow for Robby to teach Emily how to make a snowball, or at least a snow clump. Throwing the snow clump consisted of smushing it against someone else. The other favorite game was to get snow on your shoes and then stomping it off on the driveway.

It appears that Julia spent the outside play time with her eyes covered by her hat. Oh well, I guess Mommy should look in a mirror after putting the hat on her. She didn’t seem to mind the hat/eye covering.

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.

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.

This is our first family photo and today it is one week old. This week has gone by so quickly! Well at least the daytime portion of the last week. We are still up for a while each evening with feedings and day/night confusion.

Even though we have had Julia for one week it seems that I can’t spend enough time with her. Emily also can’t get enough of Julia. She gets so excited each time she sees her. She asks if she can hold her and wants to fit in your lap if you are holding her. Today we figured out how to feed Julia and read Emily a book at the same time. The only trick is that Emily has to turn the pages of the book and that can be an interesting speed and order. It is best to make up the story as you go along and then the page order doesn’t matter so much.

Emily Meets Julia, originally uploaded by Robby Edwards.

Our baby girl arrived this morning. Her name is Julia Regan and she was 6 lbs. 13 oz. and 19.5 inches long at birth. Both mother and daughter are doing fine.

Here she is meeting her big sister Emily for the first time.