The girls were just playing together on the couch having fun and watching some TV together. Emily was doing a little cooking on the side and eating pretend food from a stacking cup. Sweet times!

Our daily life changes as often as Julia does, but we enjoy it. Our morning routine when we are spending it at home is pretty relaxed and full of play, cartoons, jammies, and breakfast. Emily will ask for breakfast when she is ready and Julia wants to eat just about an hour after her morning milk.

Emily’s breakfast options are generally waffles, eggs, cereal, toast, bagels (if we have them), or oatmeal. She goes through periods of favoring each of these options. She has only recently started to eat cereal with milk. It is a trick to learn to use a spoon for cereal and milk. She hasn’t mastered it, but she enjoys the food even though it is messy and requires help sometimes. We got Chinese soup spoons to help her hold the milk and food a little bit safer for the trip from her bowl to her mouth. She likes her special spoons and likes having a little more success.

Julia’s breakfast options are yogurt, oatmeal, baby food with baby cereal, or bits of Mommy’s breakfast. Julia has started to eat a lot of finger foods, but breakfast doesn’t have much self feeding. She likes to pull chunky bites back out of her mouth to redeposit it back in. It is like she wonders what she is feeling in her mouth so she wants to touch it with her fingers. When we eat the yogurt she makes the funniest faces. I wonder if the taste of the yogurt encourages it or if she is just having fun playing. She also figured out how to sip/slurp yogurt from the spoon. It’s funny, but she hasn’t repeated it with anyone around other than Emily and I. She also snacks on Cheerios, baby food puffs, and rice cereal when I’m finishing my breakfast.

Wow! What a difference one week makes. Last week Julia realized that she could pull up onto small objects. From that small movement she learned an easier way to sit up on her own. Then a couple of days later she figured out how to pull up to her feet. Yesterday, she walked along the edge of the couch and used Mommy’s leg to climb up into a chair. And today she discovered that she could sit by Emily’s storage drawers and open the bottom drawer and get stuff out all by herself.

So much, so quickly! I knew it was time for her to pull up and become more mobile, but I really was shocked at her desire to climb. Emily was never a climber and it appears that Julia might have a little of it in her. I wonder what she will learn to do this evening.

We were so close to Bandelier we couldn’t resist a quick visit. Bandelier National Monument preserves the ruins of a cliff dwelling community. They were kind and built some replica buildings and set up ladders so that we could have some hands on experiences with the ruins. Julia was just hanging out for our hike and loving it. She was busy looking and waving her arms and legs.

Another of our trip highlights was hiking in Carlsbad Caverns. The cave is quite impressive from the huge open rooms, number of bat residents, and unusual rock formations. We were able to hike two trails in the cave. We hiked into the cave through the natural entrance which is a hike descending 800 feet and then the second hike was a loop around the ‘Big Room’. In total we went three miles carrying both girls.

We weren’t sure how the girls would respond to being in the cave. They were bundled up because the cool temp would feel really cold to a kid with very little body fat and who is not exerting any energy hiking. The adults were a little over dressed and kept peeling off layers as we walked. Despite the constant cool temperature, hiking and carrying the girls built up quite bit of body heat. Emily commented on how dark it was and the funny smell. She thought the sun had gone down. Like usual for the trip, Julia greeted the park rangers who crossed our path with waving arms and kicking feet.

While we were on the second hike each of the girls dozed off and took a great nap. Not hard to imagine them doing it – it was dark, they were warm and bundled next to their parents, and it was naptime. Overall they were happy to be out and about and didn’t mind the dark cool cave. Thankfully, the hike ended at an elevator. We admired the visitors that visited the cave before the elevator was installed and were glad that we had the modern convenience.

Julia has grown up so much! On this trip Julia has graduated to loving restaurant high chairs. She has discovered the fun of interacting with other diners, waiters, and her family. She tries to grab for anything that is close by, waves her arms when given water out of a straw, enjoys trying table food, and enjoys dropping things on the floor even more. I really feel bad for the staff that has to clean up after Julia and what she drops on the floor. More than once we had other diners stop by and visit with us on their way out and compliment Julia and her easy going personality. We are grateful for this personality because it makes it possible for us to travel to such cool places.