Yaya

I've been meaning to write a post about Julia turning half a year ... for a month now.  Yes, my dear daughter turns 7 months tomorrow.  Where does the time go?

Can I just say (again) how awesome this little lady is?  I never would have thought that motherhood could get any sweeter, and then she arrived.  She just magnifies all the love and happiness in our family.  What a gift!


Even though she's 7 months I'm still trying to keep her my baby as long as possible!  The fact that she's not sitting up on her own yet certainly helps.  She's does okay propped up with pillows, for a little while, until she starts drooping to the side.  So I can't really leave her unattended.  (Then again, with two older brothers in the house I can never leave her unattended!)  To all the mamas whose babies start crawling at 7 months, I cannot imagine!!  Here's hoping she ends up like her brother and not very mobile for a while longer!

Marmie thought she needed a footrest.

Can you see Julia? Can you see Julia's plummage?

She loves laying on her play mat, reaching for things, pulling objects towards her and, of course, putting them in her mouth.  Everything goes in her mouth.  Her socks are usually soaking wet by the end of the morning from her chewing on her toes.  And she's all over any piece of my clothing that she can grab a chunk of.  Between that and the spit-up (and Jude's affinity for using me as a tissue), my husband has finally stopped asking me why I wear old t-shirts all the time. 

Touch. touch, touch.

Slobber, slobber, slobber.

Lia is still predominantly breastfed.  I did try to give her a bottle ... once.  But it's just too much work and I'm pretty sure we missed our window.  I have tried a sippy cup with water a few times, just in case we have an emergency.  I'm considering skipping purees altogether this time, but I haven't decided for sure yet.  There are a few different reasons to do this but I'm gonna be honest here, my main motivation is convenience.  Nursing is way too easy compared to baby food.  And dinner time is enough of a challenge with two toddler boys, I'm just not ready to add spoonfeeding a baby to my list of things to do.  And for now, it seems to be working out.  She's still nursing about every three hours, but she happily sleeps all night.  So as long as she seems happy and healthy, we're just going to keep this up.

First food!

I do give her the occasional snack though.  Her first food was avocado chunks.  Big enough that she could pick them up herself, but still soft enough to mash between her (still toothless!) gums.  I think she enjoyed something new, although she did make quite a few interesting face.

These were a winner!

I've also tried steamed sweet potatoes chunks, which she really likes and those Baby Mum Mum things that say they're organic but have you read the list of ingredients on the back?!  Basically she just uses them to slobber all over anyway, and it gives her something to do with her hands.  Occasionally I'll let her taste whatever it is we're having for dinner.  This week we had polenta and Girlfriend was crazy for it!  Oddly enough, she was the only one of the kids who enjoyed the dish.  Of course, one time I caught Jack sticking 1/3 of a banana down her throat and we had to have a serious discussion about what the baby can and cannot eat.  So now Jack likes to point out which food is soft and which is crunchy.  Which is a surprisingly confusing deliberation from the mind of a 3 year old. 

This one makes me laugh!

And then there's her nicknames - Lia, Girlfriend, Little Sweetie, Lil' Miss, Pretty Girl and the most popular ... Yaya.  I had no intention of using this as a nickname but since it was created and perpetuated by the most talkative and repetitive person in the house, it's kinda stuck.  I started out using it just when responding to Jude but now I catch myself saying it all the time.  Sorry Yaya, I'm sure you'll grow out of it someday.

Finally getting chubby enough to wear the bracelent Marmie and Poppa got her for Christmas.

And now I'll leave you with a video of our favorite squealing jumper.