The photo is from a super-sweet evening where Julia was all about her Daddy. She pulled him up from his chair to dance with her. They danced for a long time together!

Julia deserves a praise-filled update because of her reaction to changes that occurred a week ago. First, we retired the pacifiers. We bundled all of them together and talked about the need to say good-bye to them. We thanked them for being helpful to us and then they went away. She has asked for them and has been reminded that we said good-bye to them. She doesn’t ask again at that time for them. We went several days without any additional requests until we were in the car on Sunday and she was beyond exhaustion and asked for it. As sad as it is to tell her no, she has been so great about giving them up. She has taken every nap and gone on to sleep at night without them.

Second, we retired daily milk bottles. Mama completely mis-read Julia’s love for milk. I did not think Julia would take milk from a sippy cup, but I also thought she would quit asking for milk too. She gives us really sad faces when she asks for milk and gets it in a sippy cup. She keeps asking for the milk and then only drinks two sips before abandoning the cup. We have increased the amount of yogurt and cheese in her diet to keep dairy and some healthy fat in her life. I do not know how long she is going to hold out on this, but the Mama is determined to not go back to a bottle despite her desire for Julia to drink milk.

Lastly, on Thursday, Julia’s crib side came off her bed. We were dreading the things that come with this piece of freedom, but so far so good. Every night, Julia has gone to bed and stayed in bed, with the exception of trying to follow Emily out of the room when Emily disobediently got out of bed. Amazingly, the girls have left each other alone at night. They are still taking their mid-afternoon naps in different rooms, though. I know Julia is a bit naive about what she could do, but I could not have hoped for a better acceptance of the rules that are associated with her new found freedom!

Our baby is growing up quickly these days! We are so proud of you Julia!

There are no photos for this one, but it is a good story.

Emily has been pacifier-less since her birthday almost a month ago. She has really struggled with going to sleep and we have tried a lot of things, but haven’t found the right combination of things to help her. Tonight was no different. She was up a few times, but mostly I could hear her moving around in her room. We let her work it out on her own and finally it was quiet. Just before I went to bed I heard a few noises at the door. I thought Emily must have woken up and was looking for us just to put her back down. I like these because I can cuddle and rock her for a few minutes, only when I tried to open the door carefully it was stuck. It was stuck on a sleeping Emily! She had gone to sleep laying just behind the door. I admit I walked away and chuckled about this for a few minutes. I returned and worked for a few more minutes moving her legs just far enough that I could squeeze into the room. Sure enough she had moved her pillow, blanket, and stuffed animal to the floor just inside the door and finally found sleep. I took pitty on my sleeping beauty and moved her back to bed to sleep. Sweet dreams, little girl!

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 has discovered her first toy. In pity one night for both her sake and the sake of her parents we introduced the ‘pacifier’ to Emily. The pacifier worked brilliantly to bring instant relief to a very agitated baby. Since then we have used the pacifier to satisfy fussiness and to ease her into the sleeping world.

One day we discovered that she had spit the pacifier out of her mouth and it landed on her chest just in front of her mouth. With the top lip and tongue she sucked the pacifier back into her mouth. Sometimes she is satisfied with just licking it, but if in the attempt to get it in her mouth she knocks it away she demands assistance to get her toy back. We can spend hours sitting next to her with her playing this game. Mommy is hoping that one day Emily will play this game when we have a video camera around!