December 29 - Stitched with Love

Happy Holidays! We traveled to Tampa for the holiday and Julia had a fabulous first Christmas. She was showered with presents from both grandmas, grandpa, her aunts, uncles, cousin, friends and neighbors. In addition to books, ornaments, stuffed animals, clothes and toys, Julia received some special homemade gifts from Nonni, Aunt Katherine and Grandma. She is so lucky to have such talented, crafty family members! Who knows, maybe she has the sewing gene as well (it skipped me!).

'My First Reading Quilt' from Nonni

Embroidered plaque from Aunt Katherine

1930's Replica Quilt from Grandma

To make the holiday even more special and memorable, Julia also pushed herself up for the first time using her arms (she hates tummy time and usually just lays there screaming) AND she rolled over from her stomach to her back!! She also 'found' her feet (she found her 'legs' last week and has been moving them around like crazy). She is so cute, she was holding onto her little piggies most of the carride home this weekend. We are so proud of our little bean!

Julia also 'found' her tongue last week and sticks it out at every opportunity (she even tries to stick it out while she is sneezing and coughing..which it is a tad difficult). She tries to put everything in her mouth and loves to pick up toys and thrown them to the ground. So cute!

December 22 - First Meal

Our little bean enjoyed her first bites of rice cereal this past weekend. She had a few bites on Saturday and a few more Sunday. She seems like to like it but hasn't gotten down the whole tongue and swallowing motion yet. She does open her mouth real wide though for the spoon!

In other Julia news, we officially switched to a regular stroller for neighborhood walks. We've been using a frame that our carseat snaps into (which is a fabulous product, I highly recommend it for anyone with a new baby) but now that she can hold her head up on her own and sit up (with a little assistance), she wants to see where she is going. She LOVES the regular stroller!!

December 19 - Rice Cereal, Baby!

Can you believe Christmas is less than a week away? I mailed our holiday cards yesterday but the only gift I've gotten so far is for my fabulous niece Victoria. So...Nonni and Grandma, you may get yours after the holidays. I'm sorry!! The month slipped away from me.

So the Yamo family has had a pretty terrific week. Our friends Chris and Kerry visited from south Florida last Saturday along with our friend Ben, while Grandma and Aunt Katherine came to visit on Sunday. I wish we had more time with everyone, but it was still great to hang out and catch up (I also wish we took some photos of Julia with Aunt Katherine, I realized we didn't get any after she left!! So Aunt Kat, that means you need to come back super soon and visit your favorite niece!).


Yesterday marked our 4 yr wedding anniversary (J.D. suprised me with 2 dozen roses, they are absolutely breathtaking!!) and Julia's 4mon birthday. She had her 4mon check-up this morning and she is doing great. She has a clean bill of health (no more ear infection, woo hoo!) and we can start introducing food (rice cereal, then veggies, then fruit is what our pediatrician recommended). Our ped was also impressed by how strong Julia's neck and legs are and how much control she has.

December 14 - Say Cheese

December....this month invokes visions of cold winter nights, warm sweaters, snowmen, skiing and hot chocolate by the fireplace. Since we live in Florida and I can't partake in (what I would consider) traditional winter festivities around holiday time, I settle for the next best things-decorating a fabulous tree and creating a nice holiday card. Okay-I admit that filling out holiday cards never used to be a super exciting activity, but with our recent addition, I could not wait to get started!

I'm a tad embarrassed to admit that I started brainstorming picture poses before Julia was even born. I had some great ideas: put Julia in a stocking so just her arms and head were sticking out [she is way to big for that]. Another idea was to pose her with Amelia and Guinness: Jules with a Santa hat, the pooches with reindeer antlers [however, thinking this one through..I'd never successfully posed the dogs together, so thinking I could do it with props AND an infant was probably a little lofty). I was still trying to figure out something cute when Julia received two holiday outfits: a beautiful dress from Nonni Cook ('nonni' means grandparent in Italian, my mother prefers this over the traditional 'grandma' or 'nonna') and an adorable Santa suit from Great Grandpa. She also received a really cute knit cap from Grandma Yamo that is kind of holiday-ish. So-I thought to myself-no problem, I'll just dress Julia up and snap some photos; it will be easy! Well-as you can imagine, it was anything but easy. Julia was not a happy camper in the dress and by the time I got around to taking her photo in the Santa outfit and the hat, she had (and still has) an ear infection and cold. So between her sneezing, watery eyes and just plain not feeling well..it wasn't the photo session I had envisioned.

Anyhoo-these are a few pictures that I didn't use for the holiday card (you will have to wait to see what those are..I plan to mail them out this week) but I still think Julia looks really cute in all of them. I'm also including a recent shot from bath time, I can't resist, she is such a cutie!!

And our little bean is on antibiotics. She hates them, but she is doing much better.

And we got our tree today and are in the process of putting on the lights. Well..JD is putting the lights on. It is a Yamo family tradition to wrap each branch with lights so it takes 15+ strands of lights and a lot of time!! After JD gets all the lights on, I add the ornaments. I'll definitely post some photos once it is totally done!

December 12 - Riddle Me This

What do the following things have in common?

• 1 large bag of hoagie rolls


• 1 cantalope [uncut]


• 5 uncooked ears of corn


• 1 box of instant grits


• 1 slice of banana bread


• 1 box of tampons


• 1 loaf of bread


• 1 bag of sugar

Scratching your head? Have you figured it out yet?? Come on..wager a guess!

Okay, okay. I'm sure the suspence is killing you. I'll give you a few hints...long black hair...obsessed with fetching...slightly arthritic....yep, I am talking about G-Man!!

We always knew Guinness had an obsession for fetching. Whenever anyone comes to our house one of the first things we say is "Do not throw the ball, he will not stop." (we are not exaggerating) We also knew he loves bread, so we try to keep food out of his reach. What we didn't know-he is pretty thrifty and sneaky about other food and misc items as well. He is very smart..we've never seen him so much as jump on on the counter or sniff the garbage while we are home.

His latest conquest was the bag of sugar. To get that, he had to pull out a bin full of dry goods and dig to the bottom of it (there were other things piled on top of the sugar). Then, he put the bin back were it originally was!! I probably wouldn't have known he ate it except he left a few scraps of sugar bag laying around (and had a few specs of sugar stuck in his beard). Well-after this latest incident (which required a lot of cleaning..we don't want ants and bugs!) we decided he can't be loose in the house when we aren't there. He is just too sneaky! Well-yesterday we put in the crate (it was raining, otherwise we would have put him outside) and the little devil somehow escaped out of the crate TWICE!! Sneaky AND one smart pooch!

So, if you have seen previews for the movie 'Marley and Me'..Guinness is giving Marley a run for his money!!

December 2 - Happy Belated Turkey Day

Hello everyone! I hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving, ours was a ton of fun! Greg, Jill and Victoria stayed over last week on their way to Miami and it was great having both girls at the house. But I think Amelia had the best time of all-she fell in love with Victoria and could not stop giving her 'puppy kisses.' She also wanted to follow Victoria around (V's a fast crawler these days) and a few times looked like she was protecting her (Victoria would be standing next to the couch and Amelia would be sitting right next to her. We tried to get a photo but they moved too quickly).

We piled everyone into the Honda and drove to Miami Wednesday evening. We avoided the highway and took a back road until we hit the turnpike, which added a little
time to the overall drive, but avoided traffic. Julia slept most of the way and we were concerned she wouldn't sleep that night (we got in around 1am) but after a quick bath, she fell asleep.

As always, we all had a fab time in Miami.

Julia was psyched to see the family, including Pat, Cindy and Myron (Craig's mom, sister and her new boyfriend). She also finally met her uncle Bryan, who flew in from Salt Lake City, and cousin Morgan, who drove up from Naples. Last but not least, she met her animal cousins Brownie (chocolate lab) and Pearl (horse).

In addition to the amazing Thanksgiving feast, we had a picnic lunch in the Everglades National Park, went for a nature walk, visited

the horse farm as well as Brian and Craig's farm. Amelia and Guinness were super excited to play with Leyna all weekend and got in plenty of exercise (they are still recovering).

Overall, we had an amazing time. The ride home was a little rough (we got stuck in horrible traffic around Orlando..the typical 5h drive took 8.5h) but Jules did great in the car.

Special thanks to Brian and Craig for hosting a fantastic feast!!

T-23 days to Christmas...time to gear up and start shopping!

November 13 - Roll Over, Roll Over

It was early Thursday morning when I heard our little Julia-Bean crying delicately. I waited a few minutes to see if she would put herself to sleep, but the poor thing got louder and louder. As I made my way into her room, what did I see? Julia at the far end of the crib, face down, with her little legs dangling out of the crib. Our little tyke not only moved from the center of the crib to the end, but she rolled over! I played with her today and she rolled over again. It is seriously the cutest thing I have ever seen. She bends her arms and brings them close to her chest and then swings her right leg around to propel her body over her left shoulder. She can't roll from stomach to back yet but I'm sure that is only a matter of time (she hates being on her stomach, so she has incentive). She is also fascinated by her little hands. I thought she 'found' her hands months ago but she is really mesmerized by them now. We went for a long walk yesterday and she spent the whole time staring at her fingers, linking and unlinking them.


I think she'll be sitting up on her own soon too. She does 'baby crunches' every day now trying to get up, and she can completely support her neck on her own. I will keep you all posted!

November 11 - Giggle, Giggle

Okay, before I write about our fantastic trip to Raleigh, I must admit that I had the hardest time deciding on which photos to post for this entry-we took so many awesome pictures! That being said..

Julia experienced a lot of firsts this trip:
*first airplane ride (she did great!)
*first trip out of state
*first time seeing beautiful fall leaves in vibrant colors
*first time as a birthday party guest (she was hoping for a cupcake..maybe next year!)
*first time meeting a lot of special people in her life: Great Grandpa, Grandma Cook, Uncle Greg, Aunt Jill, cousin Victoria, Uncle Jason, Rachel, the Thompsons (she also got to visit with Uncles Brian, Craig and Chris again)

As for me, I had a big first too-my first time breastfeeding in public (airport, plane, middle of shopping center). Luckily, it went well and I didn't flash anyone (not that I know of, anyway). It was also the first time J.D. and I traveled with a baby and I think we did great (we've had a lot of practice with the pooches).

Our vacation was a lot of fun (special thanks to Greg and Jill for being excellent hosts). Victoria had a great baptism and a super fun 1st b-day party. She had a great turn out for the party and received lots of fun presents, including a giant pink pony from Uncle Brian! She also started her (baby bling) jewelry collection with a beautiful cross from Grandma Cook, a charm from Grandma Thompson and a diamond necklace from Uncle Chris. Most impressive of all though, Victoria ate every bite of her chocolate birthday cupcake. Yummy!

Oh-and for the title of this post, my adorable niece likes to say 'giggle giggle' while she crawls around her house (and into the fridge!) at amazing speeds (for such a tiny little girl).

November 4 - Tiny Gator

Fab news everyone. After 11 months on the waiting list, we got word that Julia secured a spot at Baby Gator Daycare (we got on the list the day we found out we were pregnant). She is the newest member of the Tiny Gator class, we are so excited! J.D. and I went to our first 'parent-teacher conference' the other day and everything went great. She can start full-time as early as the 17th, but we are trying to push it back as long as possible and will be 'easing' her (and us) into it (i.e. Grandma Yamo is coming the week of the 17th to watch our little Julia-Bean and J.D. will watch her the short Thanksgiving week, plus Aunt Katherine and Grandma Yamo will be here in December to help out).

Some fun facts about the Tiny Gator class:
*top rated daycare in the area
*6 infants with a 3:1 ratio
*I know one of the teachers from book club, she has years of experience teaching in a Montessori school and is SUPER nice
*they teach sign language *focus on educational development
*no assigned drop off/pick up times, which means she can go for a full time, 1/2 day or an hour if we want
*J.D. and I can stop in anytime for snuggle time!

Julia Elise - as of today, she is (officially speaking) the youngest member of the Gator Nation-go Gators!

November 3 - Julia Loves Grandpa!

Grandpa Cook came to visit his newest grandbaby Halloween weekend (all the way from Montana!) and we were all thrilled to see him. He arrived with his adorable german shepherd Beebee, who got along great with Amelia and Guinness (she was initially a little shy, but after a million 'welcome kisses' from Amelia, she was one of the family). Speaking of Amelia, she absolutely fell in love with Grandpa-she barely left his side the entire time he was here. She would have snuggled with him at night if we let her go into his room!

So, growing up I often heard how my dad loves babies and kids. I was so excited to see him with Julia, he was amazing with her. They snuggled, took walks and played airplane (Julia's first time, she loved it). But best of all, Grandpa read Jules a bunch of books and she sat snuggled in his arms listening, it was so adorable. It was a fabulous weekend, we all wished Grandpa could have stayed longer.

October 31 - Trick or Treat

Happy Halloween everyone! Julia had a great 1st Halloween. We went trick or treating at work where all the different departments dress up, decorate and give out candy. She was awake the entire time and didn't get fussy at all. She was so interested in looking at all the bright costumes, she didn't want to sleep and miss out on anything! She was dressed up in a super cute penguin outfit, but I had to take her out of it after an hour or so because she was a tad hot. I took a few photos of her in the outfit when I bought it which I'll post here (they aren't that great) but I plan to take a few more shots this week, so stay tuned. Luckily, Grandma Yamo got her a cute pumpkin onsesie and Halloween pj's, so she was still sporting holiday gear that day and evening.

In addition to this being Julia's first Halloween, it was my first Halloween home in the last 3 years (Halloween is month end so I work late that night). I was SO EXCITED to see all the little kids dressed up for trick or treating, but we only had 3 kids come to the house. One girl dressed as Hannah Montana and two boys dressed as pirate monsters. They were very cute. I'm not sure why we didn't get more kids, I know there are a ton in the neighborhood. Oh well-that just means more leftover candy for JD!!

How adorable are her dimples? And that hair..I just LOVE it! It is so wild and fun!

October 27 - A Poodle, Parrot & New Friend

Wow-can you believe that we are entering the last week of October? Time is flying by so fast..seems like yesterday when we were counting down the days until my due date. Now Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years are just around the corner!

We headed to Tampa this past weekend and it was quite an adventure. To start off with..we squeezed the whole family into the Honda (sorry, we didn't get a photo otherwise I would post it!). It was a snug fit. J.D. and Amelia took the front seats, while G-Man, Jules and I snuggled close in the back. Luckily, it is only a 2H drive so it wasn't too bad. Julia had an amazing time while we were there; she experienced lots of 'firsts.' At the Pok's, in addition to Jerry and Michel, she met Daisey (the poodle) and Gringo (the parrot). Then yesterday, we went to the Barnett's to watch the Bucs game. She hung out in her first tiki hut and met a new friend, baby Ella. Of course, being 2 and 4 months old, they can't play yet, but I'm sure they will be hosting tea parties and playing with dolls soon enough.

In addition to meeting a bunch of new people and pets, Julia got to snuggle with Grandma Yamo, Uncles Chad, Greg and Aunt Nicole. We also lucked out with beautiful weather all weekend so we took a few long walks around the neighborhood and checked out a lot of fun Halloween decorations (some of the homes were really decked out!). We headed back to Gainesville yesterday evening and got stuck in horrible traffic (3 lanes merged to 1 for approx. 1/2 mile of road work which resulted in an extra hour of driving) but both Julia and the dogs did great.

Enjoy your Monday everyone!

October 23 - Butterflies

Hola everyone. Julia had her 2 month check up this week: she is 10lb 9oz and 22 inches long (50th percentile for both). The doctor was impressed with how well she is sleeping at night and said she is doing great.

In other news, we set up the activity gym a few weeks ago and Jules LOVES it. Although there is a hanging monkey, parrot and misc other animals, her favorite part of the gym is the butterfly mobile at the top (there is a one purple and one yellow butterfly). She is mesmorized looking at them, it is so cute. We also set up a little piano toy that plays popular children songs (traditional music or a dog barking the tune) which she is pretty interested in. Now that she is more alert and active, our days are really fun. After eating, we generally play in the activity gym for 10-15min, play with the piano for a few minutes, then I read to her for an hour or so. We attempt a nap (if I'm lucky, she'll sleep 20-30min in between feedings during the day) and then we eat again and repeat. We also take at least 2 long walks a day with the dogs (we're currently up to 5-6 miles a day, Julia loves the fresh air. She is usually awake for most of the walk too). Ah, I almost forgot to mention tummy time. We do tummy time every day too and she HATES it. Hopefully she'll learn to love it...and build strong muscles in the process!

Well-my little hippo is awake and hungry..so time for food and then a walk. I hope everyone is having a great evening!

October 19 - Seafood Fest

Julia's First Vacation consisted of:
*fishing [she cheered on her daddy and uncles]
*long walks around the island
*snuggling with the family [Uncles Greg, Chad and Aunt Nicole all fell in love with her!]
*great weather and beautiful sunsets
*Jules first trip to the ocean

Everyone had a great time. The weather was beautiful and Cedar Key was hopping with tourists for Seafood Fest. We watched the local parade (complete with Cedar Key Shark cheerleaders and the elementary school safety patrol tossing candy to the crowd) and walked around all the vendor booths downtown. Julia slept through most of it but the adults enjoyed the festivities! There were lots of homemade crafts (paintings, quilts, wood carvings) and delicious treats (crab cakes, grouper sandwiches, baked goods). Julia was also a great sleeper while we were there, so everyone was well rested throughout the weekend!

October 17 - Bathing Cutie!

I'm sure all of you are dying to know if Julia really started sleeping through the night or if earlier this week was just a fluke. The 2 nights following the 'great eight' she woke up once (4 hours stretches though, so not too bad) and she slept 7-8 the next few nights. So, I think she is rounding the corner.

This weekend we are traveling to Cedar Key, FL for a mini-vacation with Greg, Nicole and Chad. Cedar Key is a small fishing town on the coast and there is a seafoodfest this weekend, it should be a lot of fun. Right now, I'm taking a break from packing...it is amazing how such a small person requires so many things!

We were planning on introducing Julia to the pool in Cedar Key but I couldn't find small enough swim diapers so it probably won't happen. However..while packing her stuff I came upon her little bathing suit and had to take a few pictures, she looks so adorable!

Have a great weekend everyone!

October 13 - Great Eight

Drum roll please....I am thrilled to announce that Julia slept over 8 hours last night. Yes, you read that correctly, EIGHT hours!! Eight hours straight with no interruptions. From 10:30pm-6:45am. I feel 100% rested for the first time in weeks. J.D. and I are so proud of our little hippo. Keep your fingers crossed that she repeats tonight!

October 6 - Little Buddies

Hello everyone! Today is Julia's 7 week old b-day, I can't believe it! She is getting more interactive every day, it is amazing. She has found her hands (and has quite a grip) and is cooing and smiling now. She is also trying really hard to hold her head up on her own. She is amazing strong for such a little person. She is doing great at night, usually sleeping one 6-hour stretch and then two 3-hour stretches. In not so good news, she has been more fussy than usual in the last week during the days. It is funny, everyone told me after week 6 things would get easier. Well, Jules was pretty easy until week 6 and now she is a little more challenging (especially when she is screaming..I need to catch a photo for you guys, we call her 'Angry Tomato Face' when she is going full steam) but overall she is still a great baby. I think she is going through a growth spurt right now. She is hungry ALL the time!! Oh-and her eyebrows 'came in' within the last week. They are so cute!

As for J.D. and I, we are doing great. I was cleared for exercise just over a week ago and I try to make it to the gym 3-4 times a week for some cardio (I tried a BOSU class and that wasn't for me, once I'm in better shape I'll tackle boot camp, the best class ever!). I meet with some girlfriends from work once a week (we all had babies around the same time) and I'm going to start hanging out with a new friend from our neighborhood (the one with a daughter named Julia). In fact, we have lunch plans tomorrow, I'm psyched. So, between new friends and the gym, I try to get out of the house at least once a day so I don't go stir crazy in our little house. I'm also walking a few miles a day with Julia and the pooches. It isn't easy pushing a stroller and walking 2 80lb dogs, but it is great exercise! (and Julia loves walks!)