Juliet is 8 Months

General 
Whoa 8 months?  how the heck did that happen??  Jules has been doing really well with sitting up.  She occasionally topples over - mostly when she is reaching for something and forgets about the whole balance thing.  

Feeding/Sleeping
We switched her to a sleep sack because she started flipping over onto her tummy in the Merlin suit.  I feed her around 6:45 pm and put her down in her crib awake.  She usually puts up a big fuss as I walk over to the crib because she knows what is coming but then she settles down to sleep pretty quickly.  She usually sleeps on her side or rolls onto her tummy to sleep.  She has been more into the pacifier lately and I try to only give it to her when she sleeps so she doesn't get too attached all through the day.  
She usually gets up once per night between 3-4 am.  I tried going in and giving her back her pacifier and soothing her but I have found it is just easier to feed her so that she goes back to sleep for longer (if i don't feed her she would be back up at 5:30-5:45 am but if i feed her she will wake up closer to 6:30 am which gives me time to shower and get ready. 

 That is a struggle right now - not knowing what times the girls will get up.  They could both wake up around 6 am or there are times I have woken up at 5:45 am and showered then they both slept in past 7 am!  Since Brian usually leaves early for work I have to get ready early either way because once they are up I can't jump into the shower.  
She is mostly down to 2 naps per day.  1 long and 1 short. She has 2-3 solid meals per day - usually pureed foods. I have given her a few of those baby wafer things that sort of melts in her mouth - she likes them and it works out well because she is constantly grabbing at our food - so now she has something solid that she can feed herself.  I tried giving her egg yolk and some banana pieces but she gags a bit and isn't quite sure how to process the chunkier stuff just yet.  

The Girls
Now that Juliet is getting grabbier with toys i hear the word "mine" coming out of Ellie's mouth a lot.  Luckily Juliet doesn't seem to mind yet when Ellie grabs a toy out of her hands.  It seems like everytime Juliet is playing with a toy Ellie suddenly wants it too.  I have a feeling we will be dealing with a lot of sharing issues over the next few years!

Family Vacation

We took our first full family vacation during April!  We traveled to Florida and rented a house for a week.  The weather was perfect!  80s everyday and no rain.  The airport part wasn't much fun - the girls did pretty well on the plane but lugging all that stuff (3 big pieces of luggage, 2 car seats and a gigantic stroller) was tough. Most days we started by eating breakfast at the house then heading down to the beach around 9 am.  Jules would take her morning nap in the stroller at the beach while Ellie played in the sand.  Ellie would go into the water a bit while we held her, but mostly liked to stay on the land.  The water temp was awesome - being from new england we never get comfortable water temps up here even in July/August!  We saw a dolphin swimming around in the ocean one day and he even came back to the same spot the next day!  

The community where the house was located also had a pool that we went to a few times.  After the beach we would eat lunch and put the girls down for naps and Brian and I would have some down time. Then we might go for a walk for ice cream or out for dinner.  Most of the time we ate at the house but we went out for dinner a few times too.  The restaurants were great because they usually had outdoor seating with somebody playing the guitar and singing!  This helped entertain the girls.  

Body/Recovery
I have started running a bit more and have did 5k road race the other week.  It went well so I signed up for another in early June.  I don't get out as much as I would like to, but it is a start! 

House Update
The house is painted and pretty much done on the inside (we still need to put up 1 light fixture and do our closet which is currently just empty space with our clothes/shoes laying around).  The landscaping is taking longer than expected (story of our lives) since the stone we picked for the retaining wall is taking forever to come in.  We were really hoping the landscaping would be done by Juliet's baptism (June 12th) but it isn't looking good. 

Juliet is 7 Months!

A bit late since we were on vacation last week but here it is!

General 
Juliet has really improved her sitting this month on her own.  She rarely topples over unless she turns around to look at something or reach for something.  We are getting into what I call the "sweet spot" where she can sit by herself but isn't mobile yet.  

Feeding/Sleeping
Pretty much on the same schedule for sleeping as last month - Juliet is still waking up about 2 times per night, but I started putting her down awake and letting her get to sleep on her own.  This has made a big difference in night time routines but hasn't really helped her soothe herself back to sleep when she wakes up in the middle of the night.  I am still putting her to sleep around 7 pm and I nurse her before sleep but now instead of rocking her to sleep and trying to put her in her crib asleep I try to make sure she is awake.  She usually puts up a fuss for the first few minutes or so but then gets to sleep.  Some nights she will cry for a bit and I have to go back in and soothe her.  Surprisingly when Ellie comes back into her room to soothe her Juliet usually goes right to sleep after that - who would have thought!  She is still sleeping in a Merlin suit. 

Nap schedule is the same - she usually takes 3 shorter naps (30 min - 1 hour) a day or 2 naps (1 long and one shorter) but no real schedule.  Her longest naps happen when she falls asleep in her car seat.  Naps in her crib don't last quite as long.  

I have tried a few more foods with Jules this month
 So far she has tried:
Oatmeal cereal
Sweet Potatoes
Peas
Pears
Prunes
Mangoes
Apples
Carrots

Next month I will try some other things like egg yolks and bananas - she likes to grab for food but doesn't really know what to do with whole pieces of it yet. 

Work
Not much going on at work - I had to work my 2 full weeks of quarter end that make me thankful for my normally part time schedule.  I am getting excited about the weather getting nice (and by nicer I mean mid 50s-60 degrees).  

The Girls
The interaction continues to grow between the girls and Ellie loves to help feed Juliet.  I love having girls because of all the fun outfits I get to put them in:

St Patrick's Day

Easter

Juliet watches everything Ellie does and I now have to take Juliet into another room to feed her sometimes because she constantly pops off my breast to look around if she hears Ellie is nearby.  We are taking our first full family vacation to Florida in mid April!  I am both excited and nervous at the same time!  I will have to do a full write up on how it goes.  We are renting a house in Captiva, FL for a week.  We aren't really planning much other than ocean and pool trips.  And ice cream...I plan on eating lots of ice cream!

Body/Recovery

Exercising is going well. I have stuck with working out about 3-4 times per week.  I can feel my body becoming more toned which is nice since I will be in a bathing suit shortly on vacation.  

House Update
They started painting the outside of the house this week!  I will put up a picture when it is complete.  We also started landscaping so our backyard won't be a mud pit in a few more weeks!