That Girl is a Monster

Isn't it funny that in my last post my last words related to Juliet's two teeth and yet this evening I found another tooth has broken through.  So now she has three!  It's one of the top middle ones so I'm guessing the other top middle one isn't too far behind.  Juliet really hasn't been sleeping very well lately and today her cheeks were quite rosy so I'm hoping the new tooth is to blame.  If both top teeth come through and she still isn't sleeping well, then we'll have to look for other causes/solutions.

One thing that might make her sleep better is the introduction of more solid foods, but she (or, really, we as parents) isn't getting too far in that department.  I'm starting to get concerned since I return to work in 4 and a half months and Juliet is lucky if she gets a teaspoon or two of something other than breastmilk each day.  Part of it is laziness on my part - it's just more work to prepare solid foods - and part of it is that she doesn't seem all that interested.  Either way, though, Leo and I need to be a little more aggressive with it or else I'm going to have to sneak away from work 5 times a day and go to Juliet's daycare to go breastfeed her.  Which isn't actually possible.

What have we been up to lately?  Well, we returned from Oma's a couple of days ago and did some visiting with friends and family on the way back.  We visited with cousins Cindy, Scott, and their kids.  And then we visited Anjana and Bryce and their now 2-week old son, Nayan.  Juliet was well behaved for both visits and let people hold her without "making strange".

Smiling with Cindy.



"Look at me, I'm sitting all by myself in a chair!"



Juliet now looks like a monster next to bitesize Nayan.  Watch out, Nayan - she might try to eat you!

Since we've gotten home, we haven't done anything too exciting since the weather's been sort of iffy (freezing rain tonight).  We ventured out yesterday to buy a BBQ on sale at Zellers so that is quite exciting for me since I love BBQ food!  Now I just have to convince Leo to set it up in the middle of winter :)

First Christmas

The past few days have been a bit of a whirlwind, but Juliet has had a great first Christmas.  We're still at Oma's - heading home tomorrow - but I thought I'd provide a quick update of what we've been up to.  We have quite a few pictures to share so why don't we start there.

Grandma came over on December 23rd and her and I had a bit of a bake-a-thon.  Here's Juliet playing with one of the measuring spoons.

On Christmas Eve we dressed Juliet up in a cute little polo dress (Leo wore a matching polo golf shirt) and we all went to Grandpa and Aunt Shona's for dinner.

Hangin' with dad at Grandpa and Aunt Shona's.  That's Grandma's stylish shoe in the foreground.

Juliet met Aunt Shona's mum and brother, John (in this picture) and friends Chris and Biddy.  Juliet must have been excited to meet all these new friends since she had trouble going to sleep at bedtime and wanted to stay up and hang out with the adults.  I failed at getting her to sleep so Leo went upstairs and tried and was eventually successful.

On Christmas morning, Juliet opened this present from grandma.  It was a hand-knitted blanked and a quilt to match Juliet's room.

And also this bib.  So cute!

Later on Christmas Day, we went to Leo's nana's for dinner and then to Oma's.  The next morning, the extended family came to Oma's for brunch.  Here's Juliet's great-nana teaching Juliet to walk.

Oma and Aunt Laura play with Juliet's new doll with Juliet.  The doll has a maniacal laugh and even burps.

Juliet with dad and her new doll.

Leo straps Juliet into Oma's high chair that Leo used when he was a baby (Aunts Paula and Laura used the same one, too). 

Juliet met her Great Uncle Steve for the first time.

Juliet with her "baby's first Christmas" ornaments.  The two bottom middle teeth are still the only ones that have come through.

Outtakes

Last night our friend Dave came over to take a picture of me, Leo and Juliet for our holiday card.  It is so rare to get a picture with the 3 of us, so we had nothing to work with before Dave got here.  Dave did a great job and I'm happy with the final one we chose, but for now I'll share some of the outtakes.  Those of you with babies know how hard it is to get one with the baby smiling, so I think you'll appreciate these pictures where things were not working so well!

Juliet says, "Arrghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!"

 

"Get away from me, mommy!"



You can tell on Leo's face that he's like, "This is NOT going well."



Leo looks drunk and Juliet is making noises with her lips/tongue.

 

Leo is trying to make Juliet smile but it isn't working by this point.



"Get away from me, daddy!"

  

Ok, we're done here.  This is the last picture in our photo session.

All the pictures were taken on our new kingsize bed.  By the way, I'm to blame for the "top down view" pictures - I saw some photos on the internet with this "top down" approach that looked cool and we tried to re-create them, but alas, it did not work so well for us.

I'll share the final one we choose in a couple of days but hopefully these ones served as a good tease for now :)

New Friend Alert!

Last Thursday (December 15), our friends Anjana and Bryce had their baby - a baby boy named Nayan - and so Leo, Juliet and I went to go meet him on Friday.  We've been very excited for this to happen since Juliet will now have another friend her age.  (of course, we're also thrilled for Anjana and Bryce!) When we got to the hospital we learned that their policy was to not allow anyone under 12 into the area with the new moms & babies, so Juliet didn't end up meeting Nayan after all.  :(  Leo and I took turns alternately visiting with A/B/N while the other amused Juliet in the waiting room area.

Bryce and Nayan



Nayan yawning.










We ended up lending our baby bath to Anjana and Bryce (Juliet had pretty much grown out of it anyway) so this past weekend we gave Juliet a bath in the big, adult sized tub.  She really liked it - it gave her more room to splash around and we put in a couple of rubber duckies which she tried to grab.  On a side note, we weighed her this weekend and she weighed 16.8 pounds so she's getting big.


Juliet takes a big girl bath for the first time.  When we bathe her, Leo actually gets into the bathtub to hold her and amuse her while I do the actual cleaning.

Also this weekend, we decided to try one of the restaurants in our new neighbourhood, so we chose a Mexican restaurant called Mexico Lindo.  We brought Juliet and for the first time we used a restaurant high chair.  In the past, we just had Juliet on our lap when we go out to dinner.  Anyhow, it ended up working out pretty well - Juliet can sit quite well by herself now, so she was fine in the high chair.  Now the only thing to worry about is how many germs are on that high chair!   

Sorry, this picture is kind of dark.  But this is Juliet in the high chair at the Mexican restaurant.  She's playing with a toy cell phone, despite my better judgement.

Juliet came down with a cold on Sunday (I don't think it was because of the high chair).  She spent the day sneezing and had a slight fever and was quite flushed.  She seemed better today but, wow, did she ever want to nurse.  I got nothing done today since I had a baby attached to my chest.  Oh well!

Settling In

We continue to settle into our new home and have been quite busy cleaning, painting, and unpacking.  This past weekend we spent all day on Saturday just running errands like going to Home Depot and Costco.  There's still a lot to do but the house is starting to take shape.  Juliet's blinds got delivered and installed yesterday and Leo & grandma set up her crib last night, so right now Juliet is napping in her room for the first time.

Yesterday, Juliet and I went to a mommy group in our new neighbourhood.  Part of the class was "baby yoga" but Juliet had a mind of her own and didn't really want to participate.  She wasn't fussy or anything - she just didn't want to move her limbs the way the teacher was trying to get us to do.  I don't blame Juliet, though - it was pretty silly.  Last week's class was better - the lady that runs a local music/singing program was there and Juliet liked that much better.  She liked it so much that we decided to sign her up for classes on Saturday mornings.  This is something she'll do with Leo so it will give them some quality daddy-daughter time.  It starts in about 3 weeks.

Grandma came over on the weekend to help with painting and again last night and she gave Juliet a bath.  Juliet really likes baths, now.  In the early days sometimes she would cry but last night she liked just splashing around.  I think she's getting big for the separate baby bath tub - we'll move her to just the regular tub pretty soon.

Juliet sticking her tongue out with grandma.  Grandma brought over a Christmas tree but we don't have it set up properly - only 1/3 of the lights are working.  Ah, another thing on our to-do list.

The tongue theme continues.  Juliet is sort of sitting by herself - she's still wobbly but she's getting there.

I thought I'd put this closeup so that you can see her pretty blue eyes.  Note that you can tell this picture was taken post-bath since her hair is combed to the side. 

Career Day

Today was Career Day at my mom's (Juliet's grandma's) school.  My mom asked if I would like to participate and give a speech to some grade 8 students, and so I agreed to go.  I brought Juliet along with me and she hung out with grandma while I did my talk.  Juliet was in a great mood and smiled at almost everyone she met at the school.  Both the students and the teachers fell in love with her and her smile - it was funny, as we walked the hallways with her, all I heard were ooohhs and ahhhs and "oh, look at the cute baby!". 

On a side note, Juliet is 7 months old today.  Just today she has started to pull herself forward.  She's not crawling per se, but she's using her forearms to pull herself forward.  Crawling doesn't seem too far away.

Grandma proudly carries Juliet through the hallways at school.

Juliet hung with me before my speech.  She gave me a bit of a pep talk, so that helped.

Tongue gymnastics

Juliet gave big smiles when hanging out with grandma during my Career Day talk.

Thank YOU!!!

The past 2 and a half weeks have been crazy but I wanted to post an update and send out a huge THANK YOU to all of our family members that have helped us tremendously with our new house.

Juliet's grandparents and aunts came to Toronto throughout the past 2 weeks to help out with getting the house in shape.  No job was too small - they cleaned walls, painted, cleaned toilets (yuck!), filled holes, folded packing paper, raked leaves, installed ceiling fans and light fixtures, removed window coverings, scrubbed washing machines, and so much more.  And they also babysat and amused Juliet while Leo and I attempted to get stuff done. 

The house isn't ready for primetime yet, but it's in a lot better shape than when we first moved in.  We've only painted a couple of rooms (Juliet's and the master bedroom) but with new carpets installed, some much needed cleaning, and some new light fixtures and switches, the house is looking a lot more modern.

Juliet has been really good throughout this transition.  She's been really happy and smiley almost all the time (she only gets cranky when tired or hungry).  Her sleep patterns are totally off, but that's understandable given our lack of routine lately.  We haven't put her crib back together yet so most of the night she ends up sleeping with us in our new kingsize bed (!), but we'll need to do sleep training again once she's back in her crib in her own room.

And now, here's what you came to this blog for - the pictures:

Oma cleans the kitchen cupboards while watching over Juliet.  I think Oma went through 4 boxes of magic erasers!

Old carpet - yuck!

New carpet - yay!

Last night in the condo before we moved - Grandma came to help watch Juliet while we packed and supervised the movers the next day.

Juliet gives Oma a big wet kiss in her new room.

Juliet flies with her Aunt Paula.  Weeeeeeeeeeee!

Grandpa takes down some ugly curtains in the guest bedroom.

Grandpa and Juliet bask in Chris's handiwork (he installed the chandelier).

What?  What's going on here.  I didn't take this picture.  Apparently when I wasn't looking, Oma and Leo gave Juliet some wine.

Juliet and her dad on the staircase.  I think she likes her new home!