Pictures of Juliette for December

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The Misadventures of Juliette

Juliette has been up to a lot this week. A lot of crazy things.

Last week State Farm had Santa come and visit, so we took Juliette there to sit on Santa's lap and get a present. She did surprisingly well with Santa. I put her on his lap, and she just looked up at him, wondering who this strange looking guy was. To top it off, in continuing her never-ending thrill of pulling hair, she decided to pull Santa's beard and hang onto it when I picked her back up. Of course, Santa's beard didn't come off, but it sure was funny.

Thursday night lead to more excitement. Sarah bought Juliette another gift which, at this point, might end up being a gift for her 2nd birthday, because she has so much stuff. Anyways, she put it on a step going upstairs - roughly 4 or 5 steps up. I went up the steps to look at it, while Juliette was playing with a toy at the base of the stairs. You can probably guess what happened next. She made a strange sound, and I looked down to check on her, only to see...her feet. I had to look closer to me to actually see her, because she started crawling up the stairs. She had made it up to the 2nd/3rd step before I grabbed her. Friday was a little bit more of the same, with her trying to figure out the steps. Then, on Saturday (today, and 3rd day being the charm), Juliette managed to crawl up the steps very quickly when Sarah ran upstairs, and had to be pulled back down. So, now we have to deal with that. Good times.

Tonight, Juliette decided she wanted to help Sarah (un)fold laundry. While looking in the laundry basket, she accidentally fell into it. Then, she got stuck inside the laundry basket. We got some pictures of it, because what else where we going to do - help her first? Juliette eventually started crying, so we took her out, but that was really funny. Now we're curious if she'll do it again.

It's been way too long since I last posted. Juliette has kept me busy. She has become proficient with crawling. She can really move when she sees something she wants. She enjoys pulling herself up to stand at whatever she can find. I finally broke down and gave her a new toy even though Christmas is just around the corner. I thought she need something new since she hasn't gotten any new toys in months. I got her a piano activity table that she can stand at and do various noise making things. She really enjoys it. Juliette's favorite activities include playing with Smudge's squeaker toys. He'll take the squeaker away and then she take it from him and so on. She also likes to take out toys after I've put them away or staked them neatly. It is truly amazing how much of a mess a little girl can make.

Over the last month I have been busy baking gingerbread houses for a Gingerbread House Party I hosted this Saturday. I baked and assembled 9 houses. This whole process really meant a lot to me. My mom would bake gingerbread houses every year for friends to decorate before she passed away. I really enjoyed seeing how each house was decorated. I had lots of fun preparing for this event, especially buying the candy. Everyone seemed to have a good time. I'm looking forward to doing it again next year.

Today, Bryan put up the Christmas. So far, Juliette has ignored it, even when the lights were on and it was rotating. We'll see how she does once I start to put ornaments on.

Today we got Juliette to clap. It was so cute.

So, I love the look of stainless steel appliances but not with hand prints all over them. Juliette likes to stand at the dishwasher and kiss it.

She's crawling!

Juliette has begun to crawl. She's definately enjoying the freedom.

Baking + Juliette = Mistakes

So I'm going to have to be a bit more carefull baking while dealing with Juliette. I failed to read my recipe completely through and missed the part about refridgerating the dough for a couple of hours. Oops. Also, while doubling the recipe I didn't double the flour. Thankfully, I caught my mistakes before all was lost. The first half of a gingerbread house came out fine. Thankfully I make these houses knowing that I won't be eating them. I over cook the gingerbread to make it sturdier for the house.

Last night our smoke detector decided to go off at 2:30am, then went off again 10 minutes later and then one more time. With the way the house is wired, when one alarm goes off, they all go off. Amazingly, Juliette managed to sleep through the whole thing, including the vacuuming of the culprit alarm right outside her bedroom door.

I give it a week...

I give it a week before Juliette is crawling. Yesterday, she was getting into position but would just flop back down onto her stomach. Today, she is actually starting to move forword a little before she flops down. I guess I should start baby proofing the house. Well, at least Bryan needs to get his PS3 off the floor since she has a thing for expensive electronics. She's also starting to sit up from the crawling position. Soon will be gone the days where I could set her down on the floor and step out of the room for a moment without any worries.

Happy Halloween!