Christmas is coming

Nathan had a visit with Santa early in December.  We waited in line for about an hour and a half for the big moment.  It was hard for Julia to wait!

Julia is growing up quickly.  I picked her up from school to find her hair in pigtails - what a big girl!

Julia is crawling faster and faster, still army style.  She is very interested in the Christmas tree and ornaments.

You can see a little of the action in the video below :)

A Sampling of Attempts at the Holiday Photo

Neither child smiling, one bored:

Nathan silly, something in Julia's mouth (1 of 20 like this):

Oh, she's heavy:

See, this is not going to work!

Nathan is loving on Julia, but she's not having it:

Julia smiley and clapping, but Nathan blinked:

Somewhat dazed:

Neither child smiling, one bored (again):

Nothing in J's mouth (check), Nathan not too silly (check), pleasant looks (check), eyes open (fail!)

Watch your mailbox!  We didn't give away the best ones :)

Julia crawls!

Army crawl at a little over 7.5 months!  As Julia's aunt says, watch out Nathan!  (Poor quality action photo, but it captures the moment.)

Second Child

Julia is our much-loved, easy-going, super awesome baby daughter.  Also, she is the second child and by far, she is less photo-documented than Nathan.  This blog is mostly a scrapbook to mark the passing of time and the stages of our children, so here are a few pictures to record Julia at the seven month mark.  Clapping is now in her repertoire, as is playing with toys and just about scootching around.  She can inch forward to grab a toy.  Just tonight I caught her pulling up on the bathtub!  Yikes!

Nathan's Family Portrait

drawn on 8/31/2011.  We are delighted to see his progress and love for family!

On the eve of 6 months

Life is busy, busy, busy but quite wonderful on the home front.  We feel lucky to have our two kids.  Nathan continues to grow, learn, play, and enjoy being a big brother.  He has learned how to play Angry Birds...  Not sure what this says about our parenting, but it's something that we all have fun with.  Julia continues to be a happy baby, growing quickly as well, and learning new tricks.  Tonight is the eve of her six-month birthday, believe it or not!  We all celebrated by feeding her some oatmeal for the first time.  Daddy has been watching football a little bit with Nathan, and Julia likes to hang out while they watch.

Sibling Similarity?

Something about these pictures of Julia... 

...reminded me of some days in June and July, 2007

That prompted me to look for other similar photos of the kids around 5 months old.

Nathan top, Julia below

                                       

Nathan top, Julia below

Julia top, Nathan below.

Julia top, Nathan below

After all this fun, I think they look similar at times though mostly in passing expressions.  They are really their own wonderful selves :)