Julianne is a little over eight and a half months old and continues to get into just about everything. She likes to be in the same room as me so often times when I am in the kitchen I'll open up the "plastic-ware" cabinet so she can rummage through it. She loves getting everything out, banging the lids together, and carrying around the Tupperware containers. What fun!

She also recently began experimenting with more finger foods and chunkier baby foods. She started eating crackers a couple of weeks ago, but has moved on to rice cakes, Gerber puffs, Zwieback toast, bits of bread, pieces of banana, peaches, and sweet potato, shredded chicken, and little cubes of cheese. She has become quite skilled at using her little thumb and pointer finger (aka the pincer grasp) to pick up these foods. She would much rather feed herself than have mom or dad feed her from a spoon, but she still lets us feed her too. It's fun to see her gain some independence by feeding herself.

One more cute story: Because Julianne has been getting into everything and puts anything she can find into her mouth, we have begun to set limits about what she may and may not play with. For example, we have decided that it is not safe or healthy to chew on the front door (yes, she actually chews on the side of the door when it is open - who would have though that it is possible to chew on a relatively flat door?!?!). When she gets into or does things she should not be doing we use the N word (No). In all of my early childhood classes I always learned not to use negative statements (such as "do not...") with a child, but instead to use positive statements("do..."). Well this is very hard to do with a child that insists on playing with the blinds and electrical cords. So, to make a very long story short, we use the word "No" with her quite a bit and she has really come to understand and sometimes obey it. Well on Saturday we were playing in her room and she was playing with magnetic letters in a basket. Lo and behold she picked out a "n" with one hand and an "o" with the other. Hopefully this is not a sign about what her first word will be! Here are some pictures.


Playing with the plastic containers - Do I look guilty or what?


Chewing on my crab in the bathtub


Picking out a toy in my toy box


Sitting with daddy


Abby playing fetch with a branch


Our attempt at a candid family photo