I love you, now never leave me.....

Yes, we have been dealing with a little bit of separation anxiety here in the Klein household. Not on my part, but on Julia's. There are some moments where she absolutely needs to be on my hip or in my arms. Just seeing me or being next to me while Dan holds her is not enough. I thought that when we visited family back in Baltimore her anxiety was bad, but this is much worse. She usually takes a bath with Dan every night, but now, if she even hears my voice or catches a glimpse of me from the bathroom, the bath must end immediately. It is nice to feel so needed, and as my mom said, "It will not last forever and there will be a day when she doesn't want to be held by you anymore". So I am cherishing it now, even though it is slightly annoying at times. The worst part is how bad I feel for Dan, especially when she tries to lunge out of his arms to get to me.
Add this to the fact that he has had to give up watching MNF because of its move to ESPN and because Julia's bedtime coincides with the game and I think that he is feeling pretty bad lately.

But in other news, Julia turned seven months old today!!! We took her to the doctor last week for her lower gi issues (which have resolved after giving her a probiotic thank you very much), and she weighed 16lbs, 1oz. So she hasn't doubled her birth weight, but she is still gaining. She has been scooting backwards on her belly like a pro for weeks now and recently seems to be getting tired of going backwards all the time. So tonight for the first time, she pushed up even further and tentatively tried out being on her knees. It was so funny to watch! We will have to get the childproofing finished or else she is going to be into everything!

Her other big achievement is the babbling. As we were leaving school the other day, she just started to say "bla, bla, bla, ba, ma". Like she has been doing it all along. And like I completely understood her. Sometimes she moves her mouth, but no sound comes out. But the best times are on the car ride home. Dan and I will be talking science in the front seat and from the back we hear, "Blah, blah, blah, blah..." Then when we look back, Julia has fallen dead asleep. I don't guess that she will be a scientist.

We don't have too many pictures as life has kept us busy and the camera batteries always seem to be dead lately. But here are a few gems....

This hat is just a wee bit too small, but I'll smile anyway!

Finally, they are feeding me again!

Mmmm....carrots.

A Little Fall Spirit

We took Julia to a farm this weekend, the South 47. And while we didn't do the corn maze, we still found enough there to keep us entertained for a few hours. We wandered through the pumpkin patch and marveled at all the other kids there. It is hard to imagine that sooner rather than later, our little Julia will be one of the toddlers running around, looking for a silly-looking pumpkin. We took her to see the ducks and some pygmy goats. She was absolutely fascinated by the ducks and rendered speechless. I think she was amazed that there exists another animal in the world besides Sierra the cat. We stood her up next to the wooden yardstick to see how tall she was. The answer: not very. We also showed her all of the exotic pumpkins and found a small pumpkin for her very own jack-o-lantern.

The rest of the weekend we spent trying to get Julia to sleep and comforting her when she wouldn't sleep. She had a fever Saturday night that then led to some lower g.i. issues. It is hard to see her sick and not feeling good, but it is also so nice to have her snuggle in my arms too. On Sunday night, before she woke up four times, I held her in my arms after nursing her in the darkness of the living room. And as she lay there I thought back to one of the first mornings I had with her when my mom was in town. That particular night had been really rough and it ended with Julia only wanting to sleep in my arms on the couch. As I held the 6 month old Julia in my arms I marveled at how quickly she has grown up from that little newborn. And I have to admit, that on some level, I miss feeding her in the middle of the night. It is so nice to have her all snuggled in my arms and sleeping quietly.

Tonight I finished seaming her purple sweater that I had started after she was born. I need to find some buttons for it though. When I was a kid I loved to look through my mother's buttons in her sewing basket. I think that a local bank had given away small containers of buttons as a promotion once and my mom had four of them. I would open each box and pour through the buttons; finding ones that matched, grouping them by their designs. When I left for graduate school I took one of the button boxes with me and I started my own button stash. I put in the leftover buttons from projects, like the silver star buttons from a curtain I made in New Haven. There are also the extra buttons that come with your pants or shirts. And then there are the buttons that I buy when they are on sale. I found the cutest little bunny buttons that are crying out to be put onto an Easter sweater. And I have some little pink plumeria flower buttons that either need a sweater or some delicate shoes to grace. But I couldn't find any buttons for the purple sweater. Maybe at the knitting store near work, where they have three boxes of buttons to pour through, all arranged by color.

Anyway, here are some picture, which is what I know everyone is coming for anyway.

Oh! What a glorious Pumpkin!

I'm tall enough for the ride!

Are you sure those are pumpkins?

Hanging out with Mom and Dad on the couch....

Some Six Month Stats

Julia had her six month checkup awhile ago now, but here is what the doc said: She is 15lbs 10oz and 26.5inches long. I think she weighs more now and the doc had to measure her three times to get the 26.5 number. It seems like she might turn out to be long and slender like her dad though. She took her shots like a champ and weathered them much better this time than last. The doc said not to worry about her rolling over, but then the day after her official six month birthday she rolled over twice. We have only seen her do it once more since then, but last night I caught her in the crib trying to roll over from her back to her stomach. Or at least practicing it. Made for an interesting 45 minutes.

Life has generally been pretty good. Julia has warmed up to solid foods, using her fingers to help her suck down more food. We think she might be allergic to either bananas or green beans. Her poor little bottom is so sore and red and her poops have been very odd for the last 24 hours. I hope it isn't the green beans, because she seemed to like eating those more than the banana. The banana she kept spitting out and pushing away. She has been such a joy the last few weeks though.

We're trying to decide if we need to move to a bigger place. The abode, while easy to keep clean, has been feeling cramped at times. Plus the wet season is coming back and it seems as if the mold is promising to be worse this year than others. We haven't found anything yet that would allow a small cat, but we will keep looking. Anyway, enjoy the pictures!!!

Sittin' in the high chair! Where's the food?

She toppled from sitting to this position...and didn't seem to mind!

Sitting up like a big girl!

Our PEPS group at the BBQ two weeks ago