Miss Julia - 8 Months

Little Miss Julia you are 8 months old today!  You are our little sunshine and your smile lights up the room.  You have mastered spinning around in circles and roll everywhere (you do laps around the living room).  You love to play with toys...anything that plays music and anything that you can put in your mouth.  We are still waiting on the arrival of your first tooth.  You are a good sleeper and in the last month you have only woken three times to eat.  You go to bed at 8:00 and wake around 7:00 (6:50 to be precise!).  You are a little alarm clock...you even saved Daddy from being late to work the other day (he feel asleep after he turned off his alarm!).  You nap in the morning and afternoon.  You still nurse "distractedly" four times a day.  You LOVE to eat!  You have not yet met a food you didn't like.  Your favorites are bananas, oatmeal and Mum Mums.  Last week you started saying mama...and you yell it loudly when you want something.  You are quite expressive and you love to laugh and scream (in delight!).  You are wearing your 6-12 month clothes, but you still fit into almost all of your 3-6 month pants.  We love our little sunshine! xoxo

East Lansing Art Festival

                 We had a fantastic day at the East Lansing Art Festival...food, music & art!

Daddy dressed Jack while Mommy was at yoga class this morning. I got the biggest chuckle out of Daddy and his "mini-me"...polo shirts and khaki shorts! 

On the way to the ELAF

Daddy and Jack

Jack was eating the little pieces of ham off the plate (I am not sure that he has ever eaten ham) and he asked me what they were...I told him it was ham and he wanted to know if it was like "Green Eggs and Ham".

Julia enjoyed lunch too...

Jack dressing up as a firefighter in the children's area of the festival...

It's amazing that the photographer got a shot of Jack looking at the camera

Jack loved watching Crazy Richard the hippy juggler.  It was fun to watch Jack as he clapped along and laughed.

This was the sight of Jack's entertainment - he was really funny!

Julia enjoying herself at the festival...she was such a little people watcher!  Julia got a super cute new dress at the festival and I can't wait until she wears it!

Tea for Two + Big Brown George

Jack, Big Brown George and Julia had another tea party this morning.  I asked Jack if Julia should bring her red monkey to the party and he looked at me like I was crazy and says, "No, she needs to bring her purse". 

Jack hits the Jackpot!

I am sure that Jack though he hit the jackpot last night!  In addition to the collection of monkeys and bears I found 7 cars in his bed.  Before bed I am sure he was thinking to himself...I hope Dad doesn't notice how close those cars are to my bed.  He had every car within arms reach in his bed.  I can only imagine what we are going to find in his bed once he moves to his toddler bed.  I should have known something was up when he was being so quiet!

Mother's Day Love

It's great to called mom (at this time it's more like mommy!)!  What a fantastic day!

This morning Jack was kind enough to wish me a Happy Mother's Day...All Done!

That Crazy Little Boy!

We spent the entire day at Grandma & Grandpa's on Friday and as soon as we walked in the door Jack headed for the vacuum...no time or need to take off the raincoat!

Grandma is rocking pantless Jack and George in the rocking chairs...

...then Jack (nice nap hair) tried to fit his tush in the little chair!

Manerds

I am not above bribery when it comes to the potty, so as I rummaged through the pantry for a little incentive... a few boxes of Nerds from Valentines Day is all I could come up with.  Jack has been carrying around the little boxes and trying his best to use the potty.  I love that he keeps calling them Manerds, not to be confused with one of his favorite stores...Menards.  The little boxes should last a while as I am really stingy and only give him about 10 little pieces!

He has also been brushing his teeth like crazy today (even while on the potty) and he doesn't normally like to brush his teeth.  What have you done with our little boy?!  Yesterday he actually stayed out of the kitchen (like I asked) while I mopped the floor...yes, I often get excited over the littlest things!

Another one of Jack's funny words that I don't want to forget...sunscream.  He tells me he needs his sunscream on before we play outside!

This has nothing to do with the Manerds, but I thought it was cute! 

Julia trying on her new bow that Mommy made for her...not too bad for a first attempt!

3 Stars!

We have had a breakthrough!  After Jack finished lunch today he announced that he needed to use the potty (this is a first!).  He has sat on the potty many, many times, but with no success.  To my surprise after about 15 minutes of sitting on the potty (in the middle of the kitchen) we had success...he went on the potty, but very little made it in the potty (aim is everything when you are a boy!).  The first STAR of the day!  The best part was Jack telling me that we needed to call Dad and tell him...so that's exactly what we did!  The second STAR was after his nap!  He was then so excited that he wanted to wear his big boy underwear.  So I let him and it wasn't 30 minutes before he peed in the big boy pants...unfortunately he thought this was hilarious (the humor of a 2-year old!).  The third STAR was before bath.  I will be honest...I was a little distracted trying to get Julia ready for bed, so I let him sit on the potty by himself and I hear him yell...flush the poop...let's just say he almost made it in the potty (the poop ended up in front of the potty).  Not sure what will happen tomorrow, but maybe I can hold out hope that the case of diapers I just opened this morning will be our last for Jack!  YEAH Jack!

Jack's first star of the day and his potty prize (a new puzzle)!

Happiness is...

...seeing the little ones playing together!

It's gotten out of control!

How did we go from this....

...to this?  Jack would say all of these animals "need" to sleep with him.  We are starting to downsize...starting tonight!

Baby you can drive my car!

Julia's favorite toy of the moment...

Julia chatting and driving! Julia really started chatting up a storm last week...she is so funny and is really starting to show her big personality more and more every day!

Champs-Élysées vs Bridge Street

Jack's first parade - Bastille Day parade on the Champs-Élysées (14 July 2008)...the crowds were so crazy that we couldn't even find a place to stand...

Julia's first parade - the Victorian Day parade on Bridge Street in downtown Grand Ledge...we had a hard time finding the perfect spot to watch the parade (there were so many to choose from)...

It was a small parade, but both Jack and Julia seemed to enjoy it!

After the parade we headed down to the Opera House commons to take a few (I think it was about 250) pictures...

Here are a few favorites...