Charis and Duffy: Julah - 9 Months

Dates: December 3, 2011 - January 3, 2012
Weight: 20 lbs 10 oz
Length:
Sleeping: 8pm-8am, rarely waking in the night
Eating: 8 oz formula. Still gagging on food she puts in her mouth, but she's much better. Eating everything that we eat now. She loves chicken enchilada soup.
Diapers: Still in a size 3
Clothing: Packed away the 9 months. 12 Months+
Words: She's a chatterbox of baby sounds.
Hair: Reddish Brown and curls into ringlets. Her hair is below the bottom of her neck now.
Favorite Toy:
New Stuff: She's pulling up on furniture and scooting along. She's making laps around the coffee table.
Teeth: On December 3, no teeth were poking through. By January 3, she had 3 teeth poking through. They're coming in fast! 1st- bottom left, 2nd- bottom right, 3rd- top left.

Gift of Christmas: December 7th-11th. Duffy and I both danced in the show (shown on the left in our Angels costumes) and Julah was the star of the show as "Baby Jesus". After screaming bloody murder through the dress rehersal, she did an incredible job in the live performances including: waving at the audience in time with the music, smiling and laughing everytime she saw Duffy, trying to pull Joseph's hat off multiple times (shown with Mary and Joseph on the right), and her grand finale was at the end when Jospeh would lift her into the air...Julah would dramatically turn her head on the last note of the song and smile on cue at the audience. Thankfully - no teeth were poking through just yet....although she did learn to crawl midway through the performances. We referred to her as "toddler" Baby Jesus.

Our previous foster kids were able to come to a performance and brought their two brothers...so we showed up with 5 kids...no problem! Nana, Jimpa, and Uncle Jon came and helped lend a hand to corral all the kiddos. Mike and Sherri Buster gave them great seats up front where they got to see us dance, Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph, Santa Claus, and Julah as Baby Jesus. They loved it! Later that night Julah was Baby Jesus in the show that Former President George W. Bush came to see.

Santa Pictures: December 14th. These went much better than I had hoped for. A neighbor threw a party and invited everyone over to take pics. Julah was so intrigued. She just kept staring at him trying to figure out the weird facial hair and choice of cranial accessories. We finally got a smile out of her.

Our 4th Anniversary: December 15th. On the day itself, Duffy had a final and I had a wedding coming up to decorate for, so we did our usual...dinner at Manny's and gift certificates for massages. Later in December while in NC, we took a little roadtrip. With absolutely no plans at all, we took off driving and ended up in a really neat bed and breakfast outside of Asheville, NC in a little town called "Lake Lure". Although Duffy hates B&B's...he had to admit this one was a winner. "The Esmeralda Inn" was updated to the quality of a 4 star hotel and had a fabulous restaurant.

When it was refurbished in 2009, they put down the hardwood floors that were in the gym in the movie "Dirty Dancing". Duffy and I danced on the same floors as Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Gray!