Julian's First Dip in the Ocean!

We went to Naples Beach back in April, but the water was too cold to let Julian test it out. Today our friends Mary Ann, Jonathan, & Riley took us to Siesta Key Beach and the water was so warm! Here is a video documenting the very first time his toesies have touched the ocean! PS: Sorry about the horrible lack of filming skills! :( I was trying to film his reactions and movements while not getting the camera wet, & it was so bright I could barely see what I was filming! :)

All of this Happened in Just One Week!

Julian is happy to think of all that he has accomplished this week!

Let's sit down and recap...

He cut his first tooth, and then his second one a couple days later!

He had his first solid food!

He got lots more hair! (This morning was his first time ever having "bed head"!)

He got his first manipulative toys!

He started sitting up all by himself!

He got to meet an apostle of the Lord, Elder Russell M. Nelson (sorry...no pics of this:( it was in the chapel)

I'm so proud of you, Little Boo Boo.

So, so in love with you.

I'll proudly carry you on my hip anytime :)

PS: A lot of people say he looks like Stace...and I agree...but come on,

He does at least look a little bit like me!

PSS: it seems like most, but not all, people who know us say he looks like Stace. But it seems like the people who don't know us (who we just see when we're out & about) tend to say he looks like me....weird, huh?

Raspberry Babay!

For a few weeks, Julian LOVED to make the following noise...incessantly! He did it so much he even did it his sleep!! It was SO cute! I think he got over it a few days ago and has moved onto making different noises of high pitched squeals. Equally as cute, but perhaps not quite as "where did that come from?!" Love this kid!

*Someone gets the prize if you guess who the mystery voice is talking about in the above video! Can I please learn how to be like this awesome couponing queen she is talking about!?

In both videos, he stops during his "performance"...perhaps from stage fright? Is my baby the only one who almost always stops doing the adorable thing he is doing almost right when you turn the camera on?!

Julian Gets Excited!

Julian gets really excited often and I love it when he does! A few things he does when he gets excited:

He step, step, steps! Can't quit moving his little arms and legs!

(This was his first feel of grass under his feet:)

He ALWAYS gets excited when he gets to see another baby! I think t////////his was the first time Julian saw a baby smaller than him (Parker White) and he was very excited-- he reached over for him and did the moving his arms and legs thing!

He gets this look on his face and makes silly little noises! This is the usual face for him when he sees a Spot book. He loves books in general, but Spot is definitely his favorite, with Little Quack coming in at a close second.

He will also just talk, talk, talk when he is excited. You saw that in the video of him telling the Octopus whats up:) And of course, he'll laugh like he did in this video. Yesterday he laughed nonstop every time I even got close to touching his belly button. It was so cute!

It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times

A long, long time ago...I can still remember, how that music use to make me cry...this song in particular.

Back in December, my hairdresser told me that Carrie Underwood was coming to Tallahassee. I got so excited, and then my heart sank. She is my FAVORITE...but I just knew I probably would not be able to go. Not with a baby, and not with it being two hours from where I live...I really thought my chances were slim to none.

So when my little sister told me she was going to drive to Tallahassee to get her hair done, I said "I wanna go too!" because it took me years to find someone I like as much as my current hair lady...looking for another one didn't excite me. I told Jessica when she dropped me off at my last minute appointment that I knew that the first thing Jenny would say was about how she was going to the concert that night, and she'd rub it in my face in jest:) Sure enough, first thing she said when I walked in "CARRIE UNDERWOOD CONCERT TONIGHT!"

"yaay..." sigh...aw...dang.

I was bummed. Then Jenny says "you know it's not sold out, right?"

WHAT?! Stop the train! It's not sold out?! And I'm in Tally! And I now know that there are few things that will allow me to tear my child out of the grasps of his grandparents' hands...so I knew the J-Man would be well taken care of. I called my little sister, who was at my dad's office, and I said "JESS! Can we please go to the Carrie Underwood concert tonight?! If I don't go, I will die!" and I meant it. She didn't even really know any CU music, but she complied...what a good sister. :)

So WE WENT! And had floor seats! And Candace (my sister-in-law) came with us too! It was so fun! Carrie Underwood was amazing! We were so close it was almost like we could have reached out and touched her, or to put it in Candace's words "we were sitting in her lap." ha! Man...I LOVED my life that night!

Anyway! :) So, that was the best of times. Now onto the worst of times...

Two days later we traveled back to Tallahassee and that night I got SO sick with a horrible stomach bug. OMGoodness. It was awful. After not sleeping all night due to illness, and then trying to breastfeed Julian so he would get all the antibodies he'd need to withstand that beast of an sickness, I was severely dehydrated, and so incredibly weak. It was awful. I was admitted into the hospital and they got me back into shape. Slowly, one by one, like an Agatha Christie novel, the rest of my family got sick too...including little Boo Boo Head. Luckily he only threw up twice and had a little bit of diarrhea...but he was sick at the same time as Stace, so I had two sick boys on my hands on my first Mother's Day as a mom, and then my little sister got sick. :(

So, needless to say, we never got those pictures taken that I was so excited about (and that I got my hur did for). Speaking of my hair, the shorties won! The poll closed with a total of nine votes for short and three votes for keeping it long. I was ready for a change so I was glad I had the majority backing me:) But to those of you who think I shoulda kept it long, no worries...it will most likely be back down to my bum again by...oh, I'd say...next week....give or take a few days. My hair grows like a weed.

Here is a pic of the new 'do taken last week when myAMAZING friend Stephanie came to visit last week! I love her and her new baby Parker and husband Danny so much, and we can't wait to see her again this summer when we go visit her in Utah!

In other news, Boo Boo had his first solid food yesterday and he LOVED it! I was trying to hold out until 6 months, but he let me know not-so-subtly that he was more than ready to be a big kid. And it was so funny! He kept grabbing for more! I never woulda thunk that rice cereal would have been so delicious. Who knew?

Here's hoping there will be more "Best of Times" posts to follow!

Here's a little bit of Carrie:)

Short or Long?

This weekend Stace, Julian and I are going to have our pictures taken by Laurel Housden! A couple months ago I won an online silent auction for what she calls a "Wildflower Session" that she was giving away to benefit the March of Dimes, all organized by Gainesville's mommy magazine "Giggle." ("Wildflower" because it will be in a wildflower field!)

So....because my hair is atrocious right now, I am going to get my hur did! I am thinking of trying something different. My hair is super long now (as usual), and I'm thinking of going back to this:

this was me after I had gotten my first (and last) "short" haircut back during my freshman year of college. Vote on the poll and let me know what you think I should do!