Maxwell's Jackpot

The machine pays! (Well, you can hit the jackpot, but since everyone plays on our money, no one actually wins. They just play for free, especially the kids.)

Dave had hit the jackpot on December 6th and now Maxwell hit it on February 16th. And for the curious few, both were playing two credits (the max, which is two quarters). The machine does not pay out more than 1,000 credits, so we have to reset the machine. (This means the total "winnings" do not show up in the credit window for those trying to figure it out from the pictures.) The winnings for the jackpot are 1,600 credits (for a two credit play).

Forgotten Stuff

So, here's what I forgot to add to the post about Julia.

The very last picture, of the bedtime story, has Julia pulling my hair. She seems to pull on my hair when she is tired. This is usually with her right hand since her left hand is usually occupied with the thumb in her mouth. Generally it is a very cute habit, but can be frustrating when she is over tired and we are not able to put her to bed (like when we're out).

And she does say a few other things regularly, but this is still her repeating sounds she has heard before rather than relating the actual words to objects or events. She says: hi, hey, yeah, yay, and, I believe, something that kind of sounds like doggie.

My Kitchen

Some of you may remember this picture from my emails, as we were constructing the house.

And this is from the other side of the room.

Well, for those who have not made it by our house, here is what the kitchen looks like (at night)right now.

The stools we borrowed from Maw Maw and Aunt Judy for a couple parties.

And I love my kitchen! When I clean off the back counter I'll take a picture of that side too.

Julia at Eight Months

Thursday, February 19th, Julia was eight months old. Here are some pictures from that evening (since I work during the day). The sun was setting just after I got home and you can see in these two pictures, which I think is kind of cool.

She has not completely gotten the concept of the sippy cup down, but we do get juice out of it and into her. It just generally takes more of us holding the cup at the right angle sometimes, but it works.

And for those of you who want to see Julia and her "doggie" here is a cute picture. She gets a kick out of seeing Max, but Max really isn't too into Julia. And she cannot really interact with the dog yet (other than smacking her hand up and down as babies do).

And she rocks back and forth when she is on her hands and knees now, but she still is not crawling yet. She always seems to scream "Aaahhh, aaahhh, aaahhh" when she is rocking.

Some of the things she says these days include, in no particular order: Daaahhhdd (kind of an elongated Dad), Ma-ma-ma-ma, Bay-bay-bay-bay, Bah-bah-bah-bah, Butter (though we've only heard this one a couple of times, she can't say butterfly fully). She really isn't talking, but repeating the sounds we make, but Butter was her first word. And I've heard toy every now and then.

Dave got this cool shot by accident, so I'm posting it.

So, usually around 8 pm Julia and I set off upstairs to do our bedtime routine. We play a little in her room and we put pajamas on Julia. We read a book or two and then we brush her teeth (and gums).

And here are a couple pictures of the finger brush.

And rinsing out her mouth.

Then we go back to her room and read another story and sing a couple songs. I feed Julia one last time and then she gets put in bed and holds on tight to her blanket, sucks her thumb and falls asleep. Here's us reading a bedtime story.

The End... Oh, and her weight as of Saturday morning is 16.3 pounds (according to our scale, but it was acting up).

Our PA Visit

Ok, so these pictures are a little older. Julia and I took a trip (with the company of Ashley) to PA for (my little cousin) Tiffany's baby shower just after Thanksgiving. She had the little bundle of joy in December (2008, of course). He is a beautiful little boy named Tristan, but I haven't seen a picture yet.

This is Tiffany, Uncle Jerry (proud grandpa-to-be), Julia, and me.

The young parents-to-be, Travis and Tiffany.

Me, Julia, and Aunt Judy (proud grandma-to-be).

And the pregnant sisters Ashley and Tiffany. (For some odd reason, I have no picture of their brother Jake from the trip, but then I don't have many picture at all.)

And I will say there should have been a picture like this taken at my baby shower of me and Tiffany together since she would have been skinny and I would have been very pregnant. Ashley found out she is expecting shortly before this picture was taken. (We're on a six month rotation I guess.)

Cousins

Here is Julia and her younger cousin Drew. They are two months apart, but just about the same size right now. Pictures were taken at a party on January 31st.

Aren't they cute when they hold hands?

Stacey (Drew's mommy) just loved that Julia was playing with the fuzzy hair on Drew's head. (Now I just have to add these to Facebook for Stacey too.)

More Cool Pictures

Since I've been away from the blog for a few weeks, I'm behind on getting the pictures up here. These are a bit more recent. They were taken this past weekend. So here is another picture of the baby girl's two teeth.

And I really like this pose in this picture for some reason. Although, I must say she really wasn't trying to cooperate when I was trying to take her picture. She was rolling on the floor and playing with her feet instead.

And a few cool shots of Julia in the sunlight.

Playing with the little phone.

"Big Blue Eyes," as her daddy refers to her.

Doesn't she just have the most beautiful eyes? (Click on the picture to view it enlarged.)

What She Does Now

So here we have a bunch of random pictures and my ramblings. I will try to make it a cohesive post. This first picture is from my brothers' birthday shin-dig at the beginning of January. Dave would never let her drink a beer, but he thought the picture would be cool.

So, Julia is not yet crawling, but she loves to roll around. She can get up on all fours (meaning knees and hands,) but she would rather have her hands free to get those wonderful toys to her mouth. This is the reason she will roll instead of crawl. She does however get up on all fours and then push her butt backwards and then the feet come kicking backwards also, in a kind of reverse crawl maneuver, but this usually is not repeatedly done in an effort to move herself around.

(These two pictures are of her "honeycombs on steroids," and these pictures are especially for Vicki.)

The rolling is now front to back to front to back, etc. usually in crescent moon type patterns with her feet (generally) seeming to get more distance than her head from the starting point. She has been rolling from her back to her stomach for about a month or so now. She has been doing the stomach to back for quite a bit longer (maybe three months now). And I think she has always been able to roll from side to back to side since she was born. But the rolling gets her around quite well.

(These two are some of the everyday happenings. Above is Julia eating snow from the first time it snowed around here. I worked that day, so I have no pictures of us out in the snow, but we picked some up from out front when I got home so we could eat it. She thought it was cool. Below is the beautiful baby sleeping. She just loves her blanket from Grandma and sleeps with it every night.)

Oh, and a second tooth has come in about a week and a half ago. (I think it was Thursday or Friday the last week of January that I noticed it.) So now the two bottom front teeth are in! Yay! And she loves brushing her teeth (and gums) at night too. When I pull out the little finger brush she just opens her mouth wide and waits for me to put on the little dot of "tooth paste" and stick my finger in her mouth (with the finger brush on it). I'll have to take a picture of that one day.

And lastly, here's a cool shot of her in our "bar" sink. She likes to do Peek-a-boo from the sink. (I just crouch down in front of the cabinet and pop back up. She cracks up.) We just can't keep her there too long or she'll reach for the faucet and I'm just certain that she will give herself a shower this way one day.

That's it for now. I'll try to post some more pictures this week.