They grow up so fast

Juliet is growing and changing so fast.  Tomorrow (Jan. 30th), she will be nine months old.  At this time last year, I was right around 30 weeks along.  I had just passed my blood glucose test, and was generally feeling pretty well, with the exception of some back pain.  It's hard to believe that she'll be a year old soon.  Today, the hubby and I were at Target to buy some new baby bath toys, and we walked past the baby clothes.  I saw a newborn sized sleep and play.  I held it up to my hubby and said, "Awwwww....so cute!" or something like that.  I can't believe Juliet used to fit in things that small.  Actually, she was so tiny when we brought her home, she didn't fit in any 0-3 month things, and since we had very few newborn things, we had to make a Target run.  She barely fit in the newborn sized things either...she was tiny!

This morning, she was playing on the living room floor with her toys.  My husband and I were sitting at the kitchen table.  After crawling over to the table.  I picked her up.  She'd been in my lap for no more than 30 seconds, before she grabbed my coffee cup and knocked it to the floor, spilling coffee all over her and me.  Fortunately, there was only 1/3 of the cup left, and it was only warm.  After a good laugh, my husband declared, "That's blog worthy!"  I've decided to share with you all some of the cute things my darling daughter is doing these days!

Juliet loves music.  Her favorite song is definitely, "Beautiful, beautiful," by Francesca Battistelli.  It's very weird, but whenever we are in the car, if this song comes on the radio, or if I play it in my CD player she begins to rock in her car seat and coos.  She loves this song!  On my recent car trip to Paris, TX, she began screaming about 30 miles out of Paris.  I played that song over and over again until we arrived to keep her calm.  She's also beginning to try to "dance" when she hears a song.  It looks less like dancing and more like bouncing.  She's such a white girl...no rhythm, but it's so cute.  Likewise, we've recently started letting her watch this Baby Einstein video we have.  She loves it!  She especially loves the puppets.  Whenever they are on the screen, she rocks and coos at them.  There is also a part of the video where these three little owls walk across the screen, and she loves that part too!

She's been cruising around all over the furniture and walls for almost six weeks now.  Her balance is improving every day.  But until this past week, she's shown absolutely no interest in crawling.  All of a sudden, two days ago, she did it!  She crawled.  It was so cool!  She's also getting very good at changing between standing and sitting.  All this standing has also translated to her learning to stand in her crib.  The first morning she did it, I thought it was so cute.  Now, she's doing it when we put her down for a nap and refusing to nap.  It's becoming quite a pain!  She doesn't ever fight sleep at night, but daytime is a different story.  We had to revert back to the Woombie for nap time today so that she wouldn't stand up as soon as we laid her down.

Mealtime is lots of fun too.  Juliet is a very good eater.  She nurses 4-5 times per day.  In addition to that, she eats three good, solid meals.  Generally, she eats 5-6 Tbsp. of cereal w/fruit for breakfast.  For lunch, she usually eats 4 oz. of solid food, plus some crackers.  Dinner is generally 4-8 oz. of fruit and/or veggie plus some yogurt or crackers.  She LOVES her yogurt and her crackers.  When she sees a container of yogurt, or the box of crackers, she rocks in her seat, grins from ear to ear and coos.  She recognized the cracker box!  When she's eating her crackers, she'll often hold one (or both) in her hands and hold them up in the air to show us what she's eating.  She's so proud of her ability to feed herself.  We're finally to the point where we can all sit down to eat dinner as a family.  It's one of my favorite times of the day.

There are so many more things I could share about my baby.  She's changing every day.  Everyone told me that if I blinked, I'd miss it.  That old adage is so true.  I'm not sure where the time has gone these last nine months, but I'm determined not to miss a thing!  There are few things in life that a Mom cherishes more than watching her baby grow.