Emily is introducing Julia to one of her toys. Julia is really impressed and watched it spin for a short while. Then she decided that it needed the taste test. Emily didn’t quite understand why Julia was taking away her toy. It was sweet of her to share her toy. Emily is pretty sensitive to Julia’s need for a toy in her hands at all times. This is really taxing for her Mommy when Emily is sick and Julia and her toys are off limits to Emily.

Emily is wearing a shirt with Sebastian the Ibis on it, a gift from Papa. Sebastian is the official mascot of the University of Miami. We have taught Emily to call this shirt Ibis. Some days she will call it Sebastian, but most of the time Ibis. I’m afraid that we taught her to say Sebastian before we taught her to say Smokey. That makes me a bad fan! We will fix this first thing tomorrow when she wakes up.

Before anyone thinks that we have neglected our school, we will point out that baby Emily met Smokey personally. I’m sure she remembers the introduction.

Eight months seems like such a long time. Julia has been doing really fun things lately and changing so quickly. It is hard to believe that this baby will start to sit, crawl, pull up, and walk all in the next four months.

This month she finally started to enjoy being on her tummy for any length of time, she mastered rolling over and uses the technique to get around the room to get things, she started eating solid food with a variety of success, she moved out of the cradle to the big girl bed, she is now sharing a room with her big sister, we got a bumbo so that she could enjoy sitting on her own more, we all went went camping, she made her first trip to the pool, and she is interacting with the world in a physical and verbal way.

She has enjoyed freedom of movement. She has rolled herself to Daddy’s electronics, into tight spots, to toys, and even into a toy bag (no worries, no danger of suffocation with this bag). The movement gives her the ability to follow Emily around the living room and get her stuff. Emily hasn’t grasped the consequences of giving things to Julia to play with – you don’t always get them back when you want them. Julia is willing to take anything that you have in your hands if she can get to them. This means that she can’t be held while eating and cooking without playing tug-o-war. It also gets your hair and earrings pulled with consistency.

One of my favorite times of the day with Julia is when we go to get Emily out of bed. Julia wakes up earlier than Emily and gets her first breakfast meal. When Emily wakes up, Julia and I go to the door and knock. Julia waves her arms up and down like a bird taking to flight and tries to ‘knock’ on the door herself. Then we go in and Julia’s face lights up into a smile if she hadn’t started it at the door. This smile is mirrored by Emily and her excitement to see Julia. Every morning Emily invites Julia to play in her bed with her. I didn’t know how much I would enjoy just watching the girls take such enjoyment in each other.

Julia talks a lot with little noises. She knows that if she makes noises she can get the attention of others. One day we were playing with some other kids and heard a child shriek. Within 30 seconds out popped Julia’s matching shriek. Luckily we don’t hear that every day. Julia’s will have a conversation of ‘ba, ba, ba’ with herself or the thing she has in her hands. When we are in the car I will hear Julia and Emily sharing the ‘ba, ba, ba’ conversation. It usually is followed with Emily announcing to me that “Sister said, ba”.

(8 months) Julia is hanging out after a bath. Both of my girls love their baths and the towel cuddles that follow. She was really enjoying laying on the changing table in her blanket and looking out the window.

Julia is getting long and is starting to fill up the changing table. There isn’t anything too special about the activities of this day, but it is fun to capture glimpses into the routine of our life.

We spent one warm summer morning at the Splat Pad with a friend and her kids. I ended up with a lot of action photos of Emily because she was very busy and not interested in looking at the camera. And not to many of Julia because she was attachedto me for much of the play time.

This park has a playground right next to the water area so that the kids can move freely between the two areas safely. Emily chose to play in the playground and not get wet for quite a while. And even after she got wet, she really enjoyed the playground area best this day. She was little ‘Miss Outgoing’ and hung out with some big girls who were great to include Emily in their play. Emily warmed up to the slide slowly as usual, but while holding Mommy’s hand she decided that it was OK. Her wet suit made her very fast down the slide.

Julia hung out with me most of the time. We tried the bumbo next to some squirting water so that she could explore it on her own. Almost immediately, a little boy came to play and inadvertently splashed Julia with water, which she didn’t like. I got her settled and Emily came to check on her. She was very sweet to talk to her and even pet her on the head. The funny thing was that Emily decided that she wanted to put her foot in the water and used Julia’s head to steady herself. The pulling of Julia’s hair was the last straw of Julia’s patience with sitting by the water and she wanted nothing less than to be held. I don’t really blame her, I wouldn’t like my hair being pulled and water splashed in my face either.

This was by far my favorite park and splat pad we have visited for a playdate. The location was good for meeting for a playdate, the size of the park was great for small kids, and the water made it easy to cool off and a lot of fun!

For months, I have been taking some time to get away with Julia and get some scrapbooking done. This has been good because I haven’t done any scrapbooking at home since Julia came. Last month, someone asked me if I had taken a photo of Julia at scrapbooking, and I realized that I hadn’t.  So, this month I took the camera. Julia was a really good sport about the amount of time we spent working and was pretty content to alternate between sitting in her bouncy seat and having floor time. She will be getting pretty active soon and my ability to bring her with me will end. But while it lasts I’m enjoying spending time with her and the other ladies are enjoying her company too.