Seven Months.

We've made it past the half-way mark. What a bittersweet moment it was when I realized we are counting down towards the big one year birthday. I find it shockingly hard to believe that we are closer to the one year mark than that September Sunday night that I went into labor. It's been seven fast months of nothing but pure joy, happiness, and so many smiles. And love. So much love.

Mornings are some of my favorite moments with Julia. She wakes up happy, full of smiles and excitement, and EARLY! She'll plant big, wet and slobbery kisses on my face and she'll dance with happiness when the Mickey Mouse Club House song comes on each morning. I usually take this time to sip my coffee and watch her enjoying the music. I know infants aren't supposed to watch much programming, but it is really stimulating for her. I work really hard to stimulate Julia throughout the day. While some may disagree with a seven month old watching television, it's hard to deny her of it when she really does enjoy it. So we let her watch. We like to think that we are passing on our love of Disney to her...It apparently runs in the family.

So much has changed this month. She's become this totally predictable baby. We have an entirely new morning routine that involves sitting together and eating our breakfast at the same time. Mashed banana for her, and greek yogurt and coffee for me. Theo is always nearby, hoping for Julia to splatter some banana on the floor or for me to notice him and give him the obligatory "big brother" doggy treat. Theo caught on very quickly to the fact that I feel like Julia and I can't eat in front of him without sharing, so he gets the petty "beggin strip" piece of bacon in the mornings, too ; )

While she isn't yet crawling forward, it doesn't mean she isn't moving. Julia has discovered how to "rock" herself from a sitting position to being on all fours. She does get on all fours but she hasn't quite figured out how to move forward. She can do a complete 360, she can crawl backwards, she can roll (when she wants too), but she has yet to put one arm out and move on leg forward. I'm hoping by the next monthly update she will have mastered this!

As far as our schedule goes, Julia has become a little alarm clock. She's usually up and ready to play around 6:30 each morning. We'll wake up, eat our breakfasts, play, watch Mickey Mouse and then be ready for a nap around 8:30 or 9. Most days she will sleep for a couple of hours in the morning and will wake around 11:00 just in time for us to squeeze in a run/walk, some lunch, a couple of errands, and then come back home for our afternoon nap around 2:30. Her afternoon nap is much shorter, usually 45 minutes to an hour TOPS, but it's enough for me to get laundry/dishes/photography done and be ready for her to wake up and hang out for the rest of the evening. If it's nice, we'll take advantage of a warm spring evening and do a second walk with Theo, then eat some dinner, a bath, sing/read, nurse and then bed. She'll then usually sleep until 2:30/3:00 and wake up to eat, go back down and then start it all over again at 6:30. All of our days are good, filled with so much happiness, and they really go by way too fast.

I feel like I have talked to so many mothers who look forward to nap times. Maybe it's mothers of multiples or mothers that have "colicky" or "difficult" babies, and while nap time is needed to get stuff done, I more often than not find myself always ready for my sweet girl to wake up and hang out with me. I've said it before in monthly updates, but Julia is like my best little friend. She smiles at me, sings at me, gives me kisses, and makes me feel like I'm the absolute best thing in the world. It's corny and I say it way too much, but Julia is the best. These past seven months have filled my life with so much joy and love that I feel like my heart could explode.

If I could describe the way that my heart has felt for the last seven months, it would be "swollen"...and I realize that may sound absurd. Swollen ankles don't feel good, nor do swollen fingers. Come to think of it, nothing feels good swollen. It's the fact that my heart has felt different for these last seven months. It's felt way bigger than it has ever felt and I keep waiting for that feeling to go down. For it to go back to a normal size. And that's when I realize that this "swollen" feeling is the new normal. This is my heart's new permanent size. It was meant to grow like this, to love like this, to feel like this. Most days it feels like it could jump out of my chest and do a happy dance. Actually, every day it feels like it could do that. Do other mothers feel this way?! I hope so. Everybody should be able to feel this way at some point in their lives.

I just always count my blessings, thank my higher powers, kiss my sweet Julia, and let Alex know that by me marrying him and us becoming parents together, he has made the happiest, lovey, and content mom/wife/daughter/sister/friend on the face of this earth.

...And that's the end to this sappy post. Happy seven months, Jules. You make our lives so bright.

Xo,
KBG.