juliet at half a pork chop

Well, I think my days of coherent blog posts are over. I simply don't have the time or desire to think through what I'd like to say and type it up in a neat little post for you all to read. My list attempt to catch up didn't work and my brain is filled with little tidbits that I'd like to share before they float away ...

Perfect world. My doc's words at my 12 week appointment with baby #2. This thought has come back to my mind time and time again since he said it. I am truly thankful each and every day for His perfect timing and perfect plan for our family. From babies to home buying and selling (and so much more), we are certainly at a great place to watch Him work! We are so blessed with 2 happy healthy babies it makes me smile just to type it! Anyways, everything looks great and I actually go back tomorrow for my 16 week. Dominic is going to try to come tomorrow so that should be fun!

Going to the Chapel. My little sister is getting married this Saturday! I'm beyond excited for her! It's going to be a busy week finishing things up and preparing for the big day, but all worth it come Saturday :) You won't be surprised to know that I'm helping organize everything since planning and organization are second nature to me ... I really should be working on the itinerary, making phone calls, and nagging the bride about getting things done, but I'm blogging. I can't put off this blog post another week. I need to write a toast for the reception. This is consuming my thoughts, but I haven't come up with anything brilliant as of yet. Nothing worse than a rambling boring toast by the matron of honor so I'm trying to prevent that :) I think I'm going to write it down. I speak best when I have the words in front of me.

All that from a skirt? There are so many little tidbits I should have posted about the wedding, but I'd like to share one now. We'd been looking for some chocolate and cream zebra print fabric to make some little bloomers and bows for the 3 flower girls, but hadn't had any luck. Black and white zebra is easy to find, but not chocolate and cream. I had found some for sale on etsy for $28 each, but that seemed a little steep and didn't solve the bow problem. Anyways, my brilliant and thrifty mother found a couple womens skirts at a local department store and brought them home. "Couldn't we use these?"Ummmm, yes ... and that's exactly what we did! We've managed to get 3 pairs of bloomers and 3 matching bows out of the skirts and I'm working on using what's left to make another bow for a basket that's going to hold the programs. Pictures to come - eventually.

Goals. At the beginning of the year I set out to read through the New Testament, Psalm, and Proverb sections of my One Year Bible in 2009. I'm behind. Every year I've tried to do this I fall behind and can't catch up. I desperately want to accomplish my reading before the baby is born. I don't know why I feel like telling you all this, but I do. Maybe there's other people out there than need to be reminded of a goal they set back in January that's fallen to the wayside? ...

The pork chop. I made a pork chop and bean crock pot recipe on Saturday and Juliet deovured it. It was actually this fact that prompted my post ... not that fact that she's walking, talking like crazy, weaned, or sleeping through the night. Nope. The pork chop is what finally got me to sit down and type up and update! But since I'm typing, I'll go ahead and update you on all these other lesser things :)

These boots are made for walking. Juliet's been walking for about a month now. She started the day we got back from our vacation to Nebraska and South Dakota, July 6th. It was an amazing progression to watch. She still gets better every day and even tries to run sometimes ... mostly away from daddy when they are playing chase. It's hard to run and giggle though :) Her new mode of transportation has opened up a whole new world to her. Literally. Cabinets and drawers that she never knew existed can now be opened and emptied! We are having a blast with our often wobbly walker and can't believe how grown up she looks standing up on her own 2 feet!

Words and kisses. She saying so many new words that I can't keep track and won't even try list them all here. She hasn't put 2 words together yet (to form a short sentence), but her vocabulary is quite impressive. To me anyways (not that I'm biased or anything)! Some of my favorite words (mostly because of the cute little personality that accompainies them):

• Juice. This is the first word out of Juliet's mouth in the morning. The girl wants her orange juice immediately! And not just a quick drink of juice. She sits on my lap and downs 12+ oz of orange juice before doing anything else! It's nice snuggle time for me. Not to mention the fact that I have a few minutes to wake up before the day officially starts.
• Cookie. Prounouced "Ca" and often said repeatedly ... yep. Sounds like "CaCa" :) Juliet loves her Teddy Graham cookies throughout the day, in the car, riding around in the shopping basket, stroller, etc.
  
• Dance. She loves to dance. This started on our vacation and has continued ever since. We were watching SYTYCD and were trying to keep her occupied so were dancing with her. Well it stuck. She will now point to you and tell you to dance. She wants you to hold her, hold her little hand, and twirl about! If you don't do it right, she'll point to someone else :) Her newest variation is to have Charlie dance too. Dominic has Charlie get up on his hind legs and jump. She loves this and would have him do it all day if she could! Side note: She's picked up on some of the hand motions that we use with Charlie. Last week, Aunt Debra was telling Charlie to come and using the hand motion and Juliet imitated her! So cute. She also tried to put her hand out like Dominic does when he tells him to dance :)

Baby kisses are the sweetest thing ever. Juliet makes the cutest smacking sound and loves to give kisses. Until yesterday, kisses were mostly reserved for mom, dad, Charlie, and pictures in her books, but at the pool yesterday she gave Aunt Deb and Di good kisses too! Sweetness.

Weaning. We were down to nursing once and day (the morning). My plan was to tackle this when we got back from our trip up North, but the Monday we left, she didn't ask - or should I say demand - to eat. Before our morning oj regimn, she'd point to the chair in her room and pretty much demand to eat. If Dominic went in to get her she was not very happy with him. She likes her routine people! So, I was not anticipating that the whole weaning process would be very fun, so her not asking for it that morning was quite a surprise. So we went with it. I figured being out of our routine might just help the process and she did remarkably well. Cranky and needing oj in the morning, but other than that when really smoothly!

Did I forget to tell you? My baby sleeps through the night. Yeah, I know your baby did when she was 8 weeks old, but mine does too. Most of the time. Sigh. We tackled the through the night hurdle around 11 months. Sorry I didn't write about it until now. It's funny, I thought I'd have all this awesome advice to share. I don't. I was talking to a sweet mom just a month ago about similar problems she's having with her baby and I said what I hated hearing "I don't know what to tell you to do to help. I don't really know what even worked for us. But, it will work itself out." How could I say that?

I should know all a sleep deprived mom wants is a straight answer ... but I know now that there just isn't one to give. You can't make a baby sleep through the night. Period. I won't deny and certainly don't disagree with some of the strategies out there to help your baby get there, they just don't always work. So, my problem isn't with the strategies, but more with the way they are presented - as quick, guaranteed fixes. I was told by 2 different doctors at our pediatricians office at Juliet's 6 and 9 month checkups to "just send your husband in for a couple nights" and that would fix J's night waking. Um, no. I actually never tried this because I was 100% sure that it wouldn't work. She'd been crying it out for over 3 weeks and was still waking up ... that's just not progress and no one has a magic formula. The "just send your husband in" people are no consolation. Oh the tears we both shed those late nights and early mornings. She wasn't ready until she did it even though I was months before! The only advice I will give is to get to a place where you are comfortable with what you are doing (regardless of your success being measured by the number of hours your baby sleeps in a row). Find a plan that makes sense for you and your baby and stick to it. Chances are that if it's at all logical, it will work eventually :)

So, where are we now? I would describe Juliet's sleep schedule as more stable than it was, but still fairly variable. She typically sleeps 9-10.5 hours at night, though sometimes wakes up in the middle of the night. My approach for the wake ups is to go lay down with her in our spare bed until she falls back asleep. When she's awake in the night, it's as if she simply can't go to sleep. She's content to be held, but her little eyes are open and simply won't shut for a period of time (from 15 min to 1 hr). Yes, I could let her cry in bed, but we've tried that and it didn't solve the problem. She'd just cry for however long she was awake and then go to sleep (i.e. the cry time didn't decrease in the way it's supposed to). The problem isn't that she can't put herself to sleep (she does this 95% of the time), it seems to be (all mom theory here) that she's just awake. So, we deal. We snuggle. And most importantly, I don't worry and beat myself up about it!

She flip flops between 1 and 2 naps during the day. Usually depending on how long she slept during the night and what time she woke up. She goes down for naps like a champ and loves her blanket, and stuffed dog and duck in bed with her. She's an angel and I love her to pieces :)

I'm downsizing. In every area of my life except my wardrobe :) Can I just say that when you're pregnant, it's much more complicated than having summer clothes and winter clothes? I have non-maternity summer clothes, maternity summer clothes, non-maternity winter clothes, and maternity winter clothes. And then there's the clothes that aren't technically maternity, but they work for certain stages of pregnancy ... where do I put those? As I slowly take all my non-maternity stuff out of my drawers and closet, I ask myself "Is this even going to be in style if and when I can wear it again?" Thankfully I'm not too trendy of a dresser so the bigger question is "Will I ever be able to wear this again?" Anyways, back to the downsizing ... lately I'm convicted about all the excess in my life. From clutter in my house, clothes I don't even wear hanging in my closet (and not because they don't fit), house features I think we need as we search for a new place. Anyways, I guess I'm spending some time rethinking what we actually do need and how to live simply in a gimme more kind of world. I feel liberated already and I'll I've done so far is take a car full of crap to Goodwill :)

Well, I think that's quite enough for today. Next update will likely be post wedding recap! Have a good week!