Standing Tall

As you may have guessed from the title of this post, we've recently experienced some big changes at our house. Miss Julia can stand up! She is standing up with the help of Mommy and Daddy, along with some pieces of furniture. In fact, last Saturday, Joe walked into her room to find her standing up in her crib. Paired with her new-found exploring skills (a.k.a. crawling like crazy), this has led to some exciting changes in our house, including the need to wash the kitchen rugs more often because they are (apparently) very yummy! The picture to the left is our first attempt at enticing JR to stay in one place by providing new "toys" to explore.

Second to all of this exciting news is Julia's 9 month birthday! To celebrate, Aunt Ashley came into town from Cleveland. Well, she really come into town to visit for Joe's 29th birthday, but we'll say that she helped us to celebrate both :) We went to a local wildlife center and then ate yummy Middle Eastern food. Then, Joe and I went to see a movie... ALONE! That's right! Ashley babysat for Julia Renee while we went on our first date in 9 months. Equally exciting was the movie we saw - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince! We're a bit behind on the times, I know ;)

Other than that, miss Julia is feeling a bit under the weather, which means that Joe and I are also feeling a bit under the weather. Sleep exhaustion and the willingness of our daughter to share her germs will do that to a person! After taking turns being up with her until 3 am, Joe and I are exhausted today and crossing our fingers for a better night of sleep tonight! And... just because I couldn't resist, the photo to the left is of Julia and me at the Willowbrook Wildlife Center yesterday. Note the totally ridiculous and completely adorable winter hat my mom bought for her!