Hi Everyone! It’s Julia here again, back after my first real round of summer holidays with my mom and dad.  (Last year doesn’t really count because I just slept the whole time).  These past two weeks I havebeen busy with lots of fun activities. We went camping in the Elbow Falls area. I really liked playing in the tent and going on hikes with Mom and Dad. We saw some little frogs that were fun to look at, but I sure didn’t want to touch them! After camping we came home and the next day went to Heritage Park. That was a great day! I got to see so many animals; ducks, geese, cows, chickens, sheep, and horses! I even got to help feed them (really looong pieces of grass). I had so much fun with the animals I didn’t want to leave them. But I did, and in the end it was a good idea because we walked all around the park to a different area and then got to have a picnic. I even got to play with sticks and big leaves; we don’t have many of those at my house.

Speaking of my house, I got to do some fun stuff there too. Dad filled up the pool a couple of times and I got to go swimming in the backyard! Yipeeeee! While I was swimming Dad built some new steps for the deck, and then when Grandpa and Grandma were here we finally got grass in the backyard. I can hardly wait until next week when I can play in my very own backyard.

That looks like a lot of fun for one little kid hey?! But that’s not all I have been doing. Yesterday we went to Drumheller and I saw dinosaurs! There sure were lots of them and I pointed at every single one. We went for a picnic for lunch at someplace where the prarie dogs weren’t afraid of Daddy, then we went to the big museum, the suspension bridge, the hoodoos, a drive into the middle of nowhere, a very little church, Boston Pizza for supper, and then Horseshoe Canyon before we drove home.  It sure was a busy day… I slept all the way home and then stayed up with Mom and Dad until they went to bed.

Today I went to the doctor, not really a fun part of my holidays, but Mom said that I was not getting out of the appointment! I don’t really like going to the doctor anymore, so I try to make it as difficult as possible! But in the end he said I was a healthy little girl. I weigh 8.5 kg (almost 19 lbs) and am 72 cm tall. Mom says I will have to stay looking out the back window in the car for a little while longer. I have to gain 3 more pounds before I can look out the front window.

But that’s it for now, I should probably supervise Mom and Dad as they clean up my future playroom!

The first cold, it was bound to happen sometime; and sometime happens to be this week. Julia woke up early Tuesday morning with a fever, and later developed a plugged up nose, a cough, and some good sneezing capabilities as well. After a trip to the doctor to make sure it was not anything serious, and a few doses of Tylenol, Julia seems to be on the mend; hopefully by the weekend she will be back to her old self again and we can enjoy the forcasted warm weather! 

We took Julia for her second round of vaccinations today; I must say, it was much easier with two parents present! Julia did much better this time round; she was done crying after about two minutes, instead of thirty! The nurse gave us a bunch of information on how to continue to introduce her to solids — no coffee until age one! Seriously, coffee was in the list of foods not to give your baby before one year.

This week has also been full of visitors! Baby Jack and his mom Melanie came for a visit on Tuesday. Julia quite enjoyed being around another baby who wasn’t just a reflection in the mirror. She also came with me yesterday to Brentwood for a visit with my old co-workers, and LOVED all of the attention she got! She just smiled and giggled at anyone who would pay attention. Then last night our friend Manju came for a visit. Julia continued to be all smiles and giggles — except when Manju wanted to have Julia on her lap!

As for tonight… perhaps a taste of oats!

Also, I updated her photo gallery. You may notice one small change in her “My Life Part II” album, the pictures are now ordered from newest to oldest for your easier viewing pleasure.

Well, it’s been a busy week for Julia so far…

We went to the doctor yesterday and she’s up to 6.475kg (14lbs 5 oz).  We’ve started her on rice cereal and she seems to be quite happy with that.  Gobbles it up with no spitting or other interesting incidents.

She visited Santa today at the mall…waited patiently in line while all the kids in front of us took their turns sitting on the old guy’s knee and crying until they got back to their parents.  Julia didn’t cry, but looked rather confused when I handed her off to a suspiciously underweight Santa.  The picture below shows the closest thing to a smile we could get out of her.

Just a quick doctor’s appointment update. Our Julia is now 13.5 pounds, and has “a very nice shaped head” according to the doc. Next month: we talk about how and when to introduce solids.

As for life at home, look out, Derek has started the crawling lessons!