Holiday excitement

Juliana was so excited for Christmas. The season flew by, but I did my best to make sure we partook of new traditions (and old). We decided the apartment was too tiny to set up our Christmas tree, but we got to set up a tree at Lolli and Pop's house after Thanksgiving, which was exciting.

Juliana was really into weddings (still is) and pretending she was a princess. One morning I was greeted by this sight: Her net laundry hamper over her head, which was her wedding veil :-) 

Henley had a normal cranky period in the evenings, so Dad decided to take both girls on a walk one night so I could finish up dinner and have some quiet time. Henley on front in the baby bjorn, Juliana on back in the Osprey hiking child carrier.

One morning Juliana got out her Duplos and was very proud of the castle she had built. I was pretty impressed she got them out by herself and built something with them. She is much more of a pretend play kind of kid (talking to people on her phones, making food in her kitchen , being a dance teacher or a normal teacher to her kids, playing with her baby dolls, reading books, etc), so it was fun to see her building something too.

Juliana "reads" to Henley. Half the time she was complaining that Henley was pulling her hair, which we pointed out if she would wear her hair pulled back then Henley wouldn't pull it... But, we also had to remind Juliana to be patient because Henley didn't know any better.

We went to the Chapel Hill/Carrboro Holiday parade downtown. Juliana loved that they passed out candy :-)

"It's Santa!!"

Juliana had her first trip to the dentist. She did fantastic. I was amazed at her ability to sit still for the cleaning. We have trouble sitting still at dinner while we're eating. She loved it though, talked about it for weeks afterwards.

I usually set Juliana up to eat breakfast and then check on Henley- feed her, change a diaper, change clothes, etc. Then Juliana insists that I bring Henley to her at the table so she can tell her good morning. Then Juliana wants to give her a kiss and a hug. She's getting better about being gentle, but she just loves her sister so much she doesn't know where her body is sometimes... Luckily, Henley seems to be pretty okay with Juliana being in her space. And Juliana doesn't seem to be too upset with the frequent reminders to "be careful!" "be gentle!" etc :-)

"Smile Henley!"

Daily baths are a thing of the past... We have prioritized early bedtime at the sacrifice of nightly baths, however, Juliana is thrilled when we can do 2 at a time and both girls bathe together. Henley has now graduated out of the sling, and absolutely loves kicking and splashing in the tub. She also seems to now enjoy bath time, versus in the early days... Early on- I'd get the water too hot, or too cold, and finally just turned it over to Brian to handle. I remember Juliana loved bath time from the early days. Now- it seems like there is an inevitable melt down, normally about soap getting in her eyes, which is a myth, she's imagining it, and we're pushing to finish up so she can get into bed and we can have some quiet time before heading to early bedtime ourselves! Oh well. Isn't there a saying that you look forward to the time when they can be independent but you never know when it actually is the last time that they need you for something until it's already gone?

They're talking about occupations at school and Juliana says she wants to be a princess (with gold jewelry, gold tiaras, gold crowns, gold dresses, etc, etc) and a cook (like Tiana). I would like to think that this is partly because of the effort we've put into letting her be involved with helping us cook. It's harder in the apartment because the kitchen is small, so navigating with 2 adults and a preschooler on a stool gets a little crowded, but Juliana really enjoyed helping with baking at Christmas time. During Henley's evening fussy time, I set her up in the Moby wrap, and she loved being able to see what was going on, but then catching a nap as well. She would suck on the side of the fabric, and then she fell asleep in this picture. So funny.

Making gingersnaps

We made s'mores for dessert on NYE and Christmas Eve. Juliana was thrilled. Although she really only wanted to eat the graham crackers (separate) and the Hershey bar :-)

I'll have to get the pictures later, but for months all Juliana had asked for was an Ariel wedding dress. So I made one, and then Lolli and Pop had kept dress up clothes from when Caitlin and I were little which included a white tulle skirt. We put that under Juliana's wedding dress to make it poof out and then I got a lot of white tulle and took apart an old headband to make a fabric crown with wedding veil attached. Juliana was thrilled. So here she is, sitting on her Dad's lap reading books in her Ariel wedding dress.

Henley continues to grow, and is so content and pleasant! She hasn't learned to smile on cue when I whip out my phone for a picture like Juliana did. Honestly- I'm taking less pictures than I did with Juliana. Whole weeks go by before I realize I haven't taken a picture (sorry Henley!), whereas I think with Juliana it was at least every other day. Oh well.

One Saturday morning when Brian was working, I braved Costco with both girls to get one rotisserie chicken and stamps. I don't remember why my list was so short and why I felt like I needed to go so far (it's a good 20 minutes away), but I did. When we got there, there were 4 registers open with lines that extended back half the store. While we waited, Juliana tried out the sofas and chairs. Apparently this particular Saturday, Costco was doing inventory which was why the line was so long. I was on a ticking clock because Henley was asleep in her car seat in the stroller and I knew she would need to eat soon. Meanwhile Juliana was complaining about how hungry she was. I wondered why I felt so compelled to go there, but oh well. There was a mom in front of me who let me go first when she saw I only had the one item.

It's rare to get both girls napping at exactly the same time on the weekends. They do overlap, but they aren't timed to be the same. I was amazed one afternoon when Juliana was napping and Henley fell asleep playing on her tummy, and Brian was snoring away right next to her. For the most part, Henley does want to be in her bed, wrapped up in her blanket, in the dark to sleep. But on occasion, she will fall asleep where she's at. She also LOVES tummy time. She started rolling from front to back over Christmas. A few weeks after that she was rolling from back to front, and now she's close to wanting to crawl. You can tell she's got places to go and things to see! Just like her sister!

We've also set up the exersaucer. In the early days she'd stay in it for a little bit and get bored or tired. Now she's really enjoying it a lot. Most of the time it's safer to put her in the exersaucer than on the floor because Juliana's running around the same small space and I worry about her stepping on Henley. Plus, when Henley starts moving around- I don't know what I"m going to do about childproofing!!