Julia's Cruising

Here's a short video I took of Julia doing some cruising on Monday after our trip to the outlet mall. She even ate her lunch outside and enjoyed seeing the trees since it was such a nice day. She's becoming much more confident and is starting to move quicker and goes around the corners all by herself. Today at therapy there was a little girl working on rolling over and putting weight on her arms...it doesn't seem like long ago that we were working on those things with Julia and now she's cruising. She's really making great progress.

Little Cutie

Here's a recent picture of Julia that I just love. Lately she's doing lots of cruising and it's been tons of fun watching her move around. She cruises from the couch to the ottoman and around the coffee table and of course the pink tubs. She becoming much more confident and goes around the corners without reaching out to hold our hand anymore. She's even working on sitting down after standing by slowing lowering herself and landing on her bum. We're trying to work on balancing without holding onto anything but as we get her steady by holding our hands she then starts walking instead. We're having heaps of fun with our little love bug.

Moving Around...

I thought I'd post some photos of some of the new things Julia has been doing lately. This was the second time Julia crawled up onto this table all by herself. The first time she did it was on Thomas' birthday...a special present for her daddy. Now she does it all the time. Other people may discourage climbing on furniture but not me, I'm just glad she's able to pull herself up...she's getting stronger and stronger.



Here's Julia doing some cruising. Gotta love the pink tub filled with clothes that don't fit her anymore but it's been the perfect height for her. I'm sure it will be a part of our family room decor for a little while longer.



Julia loves to climb up onto this table and she can even get down by herself too! She use to crawl between the couch and the table (there's only a little bit of room but she manages to squeeze through) but now she always climbs on top.



Action shot of Julia crawling on her hands and knees. I'm always cheering her on and it's so cute she'll get down on her belly and clap for herself too...she's so proud and so are we!



Julia has learned how to climb onto the fireplace too! She loves to put toys up there and she'll kneel there for a while and even pull herself up. It's so fun watching her discover all the things she can do now that she's getting stronger. She really is moving around and we're loving it!

Real Crawling

Here's some video I took yesterday of Julia doing some real crawling...yes on her hands and knees. She's not that steady yet but she'll get there with more practice. She's been working really hard and making good progress. Nowadays she gets around quickly by commando crawling so she wants to resort back to that since it's easy for her. Before long she'll be confident with crawling on her hands and knees and we'll be chasing after her. We've also been practicing climbing up the stairs and she's getting much better at that too. We're so proud of her! :)

Sledding in Georgia

Julia and I were going to do a few errands on Friday afternoon but it started snowing so we decided to stay home and keep off the roads...Georgians aren't use to driving in the snow. I wanted to take her out in the snow but wanted Thomas to be there with us too. Instead we stayed in and Julia kept looking out the window to admire all the white stuff falling from the sky. On Saturday morning we bundled up Julia and took her for some sledding in our backyard. We don't own a sled so we had to be resourceful and use our imagination. Well we ended up using Thomas' boogie board and it worked quite well.
After daddy took Julia for a few trips down the hill, mommy wanted to try too. I must say mommy and Julia went faster than daddy and Julia. We only stayed out for a little bit but we had heaps of fun! If it snows again next year I'm sure Julia will have even more fun making a snowman and of course doing some more sledding.
Here's the amazing view from our deck...we really do have one of the best views in our neighborhood.

New Shoes

Today was such a fun day at home with Julia. It was a rainy day so we stayed in and had a blast. Last weekend we got Julia her first pair of shoes and put her splints in them. She really does stand better and walk better with her shoes on since they give her a little support. She likes them and knows they are her shoes. Does she look cute or what?

Julia's Party

On Saturday, January 30, 2010 we had Julia's first birthday party and invited a few friends to help us celebrate. Daddy picked up a balloon for Julia that says 'It's the big ONE.' She has enjoyed playing with the balloon ever since and now she looks at it when you say balloon.



I decided to order a cookie cake instead of a traditional cake for the adults since they taste so much better.



Here's Julia's very own cake. A grocery store here called Publix gives you a free smash cake for a child's first birthday when you order a cake from them. She loved her cake!



Julia really enjoyed the tissue paper part of this present. Actually now she likes the gift that was inside too which was a digital storybook.



Julia now has two piggy banks to keep her money safe.



Little love bug is getting ready for her cake. She's not quite sure about the elastic band that keeps her hat on her head.



Cake anyone? Julia likes to share.



Julia really got into eating her cake and wasn't at all shy about it. I couldn't stop laughing and smiling during cake eating time.



As you can see she really got into her cake. She's never had anything sweet so this was a real treat.



All gone! Good thing the frosting was white. Those bakers at Publix sure are smart.



Mommy, daddy, and Julia after eating cake. Julia has a frosting mustache and looks super cute!



We got Julia this wagon for her birthday and she loved it! Here she is with her friend Scout riding around the house. Once it gets warmer I'm sure we'll be going on many walks and using the wagon.



Less than 10 minutes after everyone left Julia took a nap. She had such an exciting day and lots of fun at her party but she was exhausted.