Tickle Monster

Julius can tickle now and he can even say the word "tickle" right before doing so. He also holds up his little hands and wiggles his little fingers and puts on this mischievous smile.
It's incredibly adorable.

ABCs

Julius loves to have us read to him. Lately he's shown a clear preference for alphabet books, and he reads the same 3 or 4 over and over. Sometimes we'll just sing the alphabet instead of reading the book to him. And now he's started singing back! He sings, "dee-dee-dee-dee-deeeeee," to the tune of the "QRS - TUV" part, and then repeats that phrase, sometimes a step higher the second time. And he sings it surprisingly in-tune. :)

new development

Now sweet baby Jules wants me to put him to sleep at night!
Sylvia never stuck with the same sleep pattern for very long. For a few months I had to rock her and bring her to bed, for a few months she read herself to sleep, for a few months she needed milk in bed. But Julius has always been consistent: he needs mom to put him to sleep in bed. For a while, though, the milk has been having the opposite effect. He'll tank up and then be full of energy, going crazy all over the bed and waking Sylvia up.
But recently I found that I'm able to get him to sleep by laying next to him, holding him tightly, and rocking back and forth. He's gotten so used to it that his eyes start fluttering as soon as I lay next to him. :) The only problem is, after all that rocking next to a sweet baby, I'm ready to go to sleep, too!


Jules is also working on some new words. Let's see... there's cow, cup, up, bye, cat, mama, dada, sylvia (ee-uh), thank you, read, ball. Probably some others too. He says thank you ("duck-dooo") any time any transaction takes place. He hands me a book, "reee, duck-doo". It makes a game of catch very entertaining. "Duck-doo!" "You're welcome." "Duck-doo!" "You're welcome."

Falls

Julius was romping around on the floor in Sylvia's room last night when he incurred yet another injury. He was flopping around on top of a blanket when his face made contact with the bottom rail of the bed. At first it didn't look that serious. It bled profusely but mouth cuts tend to do that. However, upon further examination we found that his frenulum(the piece of skin that connects his upper lip to his gums) was torn and that the area around his front teeth was bleeding as well.
My first worry was for his teeth because, although they are still baby teeth, damaging one can have a serious effect on the way his permanent teeth come in.

Alan had just gotten home so scrambled to get back into the car. Our pediatrician's office was closed of course, being 7:00 pm and on a Sunday no less so we opted for Doctor's Care(which was still open, thank God.)
His teeth appeared to be fine, not loose at all and the frenulum was not torn enough to require stitches. He does have to take a round of antibiotics to prevent infection and we'll have to keep an eye on his mouth to make sure things are healing properly.

Of course he was fine immediately after but when that much blood is involved and when the injury is to the mouth I'd rather be seen by a doctor just to be on the safe side.

Septembers

I uploaded some pictures tonight from this month(September 2009) and while I was creating the new photo album I found myself thumbing(or is that scrolling?) through pictures from last September. I thought it would be nice to contrast and compare.


September 2008 -- Mr. Chubby Cheeks


September 2009 -- He's still Mr. Chubby Cheeks but now he can walk and run!


September 2008 -- He wasn't even sitting up on his own yet but boy did he drool.


September 2009 -- He loves to accesorize!

say cheese!

This boy loves the camera.

hugs

There is no child-borne annoyance or offense that cannot be redressed by one of Julius' famous "ugg-AH"s. For a tiny little person with chubby little baby arms he sure can hug your neck tightly!