Kind of Crawling

FINALLY, Juliette has started crawling... well, kind of. She's doing an army crawl. It's amazing how fast babies learn. She kind of did it on Sunday, then Monday she had it down pat and now today, she's almost on all fours! My little genius. 

She also pulled up for the first time today! I had her on my lap on the couch and she reached to grab the armrest only to pull herself to standing (whilst leaning on the arm rest, making a 90 degrees angle, but hey that counts right??)! Conveniently this made the entire end table in reach, which turned into a disaster. All these quick advancements make us realise just how poorly baby-proofed we are... 

 

Moving on Up

For about 5 seconds, I thought I lost a baby.

Juliette has been such a star with all her milestones until we have started focusing on this moving business. She rolls like lightening. Seriously, I will blink and she will end up somewhere crazy like under the dining room table, under the chaise lounge, between the couches under the end table or trying to get to her buggy. The days of leaving her playing on her mat whilst I put some dishes away or put in a load of laundry are definitely LONG gone. But she definitely hasn't tried to crawl yet.  

Monday she sat up for the first time, using the baby Einstein jumper to anchor her feet and then she pulled up on her bouncy chair and there it was! But she hasn't done it again until today. 

Currently, her favorite toy is a water bottle.

I saw the light on the monitor move around 3 PM, which is when she usually wakes from her afternoon nap, so I turned on the screen and saw her kicking around. And then, she did the funniest thing - got up on all fours and started rocking! I've never seen her do that before, so I quickly went into her room so I could see her do it in person, but I found her sitting up in her crib with a delirious and stunned look on her face. Of course I immediately started crying... she's getting so big so fast!! I'm not sure that I like it.

Mother's Day

Today is my first Mother's Day! Well, in the UK anyways. Apparently the date is tied in with the Lenten season over here. 

To celebrate, my little family went out to brunch in Fulham and then Andrew and I watched a lot of Downton Abbey - my latest obsession. I had a night out last night for my friend Helen's birthday so I wasn't on top form today. I got the most beautiful flowers too!

Juliette has really been blossoming these last few weeks! She now LOVES eating her solid foods. She prefers actual pieces of food (Avocado, cheese, bread, peaches, kiwi, eggs, etc) rather than the purees. Spoons are the enemy. And yesterday, she finally "got" how her sippy cup works! She was super proud of herself after that...although today, when she sucks in the water, she now likes to fountain shoot it out of her mouth... Not mommy's favorite new trick! 

Dinner time has become something I look forward to every day. Andrew and I now sit at the table (instead of in front of the TV) and Juliette is in her high chair with some sort of fruit to feed herself (her dinner time is earlier than ours). She couldn't be more quite than if she were asleep during this time.. my girl LOVES feeding herself! It reminds me of my family dinners growing up. It's just nice being all together and catching up on the day. 

I think crawling is just around the corner now for little JJ. She can army crawl backwards at the moment, spin 360 degrees in the same spot and zombie crawl forward about an inch when she is SUPER motivated, usually when she's flung a toy just a little too far. Yesterday she pushed up to a sitting position for the first time too! I never cease to be amazed by what this kid can do. It's absolutely mind blowing how fast they develop! 

I think every mom is proud of their kid, but I think I have a little intellectual super star in the making. She is absolutely obessed with books. She rolls over to her book basket at least 3 times a day and pulls out books to look at. The baby is 8.5 months! She's been able to do the Pat the Bunny book since about 6.5 months, but today was the first day I caught some of it on camera. It's a half efforted attempt, but you get the idea.

  
She's such a great kid!!!