Milestones

Today, Juliet rolled over all by herself.  She's been trying to roll over since she was about 2 weeks old, but today was the day she finally made it happen.  After her 7:00 am feeding, I put her on her tummy on our bed while I got dressed.  I turned around from the closet just in time to watch her roll over.  The look on her face was priceless.  At first, she looked surprised.  Then, she smiled and was clearly quite pleased with herself.

Juliet post-rollover

To be perfectly honest, I was quite pleased with her, too.  I grabbed my phone to take that post-roll picture and texted it to Ray.  I was (am) ridiculously proud of her for accomplishing this feat.  In reality, I understand that her ability to roll over isn't worthy of a legitimate trophy, but in a world of participation trophies... She deserves one! I'm sure Susie Morris would concede this point.

In addition to rolling over this morning, Juliet has had a few other milestones recently.  

She's begun really smiling in response to others smiling at her and talking to her.  It is so, so amazing to smile at her and have her smile back at you.  (To check that it's really smiling and not gas, I have smiled, gotten a response smile, stopped smiling, waited on her to stop, smiled again, and confirmed that she smiled again.  I'm not crazy, people.)  I think the only thing that comes close to feeling as good as that is watching her smile back at her dad.

Her eyesight is clearly developing, too, as she's starting to follow Ray and I as we move across the room.  She's actively watching us, which is so neat.  Before, she'd only look at us on accident, but now she'll watch us and turn her head to follow where we're going.  Last weekend, she was in her monkey bouncer, and we both left the room.  She started hollering, and when I walked back in the room, she stopped.  I realize this could be a dangerous habit to start.  I want her to be okay being in a room without us.  But, at the same time, it was pretty awesome to see that she's conscious of when we are with her and when we are not. 

And, of course, she celebrated her first two holidays.  Halloween wasn't too exciting for her since she's way too little to trick-or-treat.  And Ray talked me out of making her a costume, so we just put her in a Halloween onesie and a coordinating tutu I made for her.  We went to the annual Handley Halloween party at Jack and Ann's house and took pictures and just enjoyed some family time.  Thanksgiving was her second holiday, and that was kind of nice because she's starting to be awake more often, so she was able to interact with family more.  She got to meet her cousin Rachel for the first time on Friday out at my parents' house, and that was a pretty exciting moment for me.  I hope so much that Rachel will enjoy her as much as I have enjoyed Rachel over the past 19 years.  Before Juliet was born, Ray and I were discussing good role models for her.  Ray suggested then (and has reiterated this on more than one occasion since Juliet's birth) that the best we could hope for was for Juliet to be like Rachel.  Rachel is smart, funny, motivated, kind, responsible, well-behaved (without being a goody-two-shoes), and confident.  I feel very fortunate that Rachel intends to spend a lot of time with Juliet. 

As all of the stores have been rolling out their Christmas items, I've spent a ton of time thinking about how to make this Christmas special for an infant.  To be honest, I've pretty much drawn a blank.  The only things I've been able to come up with is to make her stocking and to continue a family tradition started by my maternal grandmother.  Each year, Mama Carol gave her daughters a Christmas ornament.  And each year since we've been born, my mom has given me and Patrick Christmas ornaments.   My favorites are the ornaments that somehow signify whatever was important in my life that year.  One of the neatest things about this tradition, in my opinion, is that when we were old enough to have our own Christmas trees, we've all had ornaments to remind us of home and our roots and enough ornaments so that we're not having to run out and buy a bunch.  Ray and I are going to pick a special ornament for Juliet in the next week or two.  I went in search a special stocking, but I couldn't find anything I liked.  So I decided that I would sew all three of us stockings because I need to practice sewing, right?  I went to Joann's today and found three coordinating Christmas fabrics that were not hideous, and I plan to try to get the stockings finished tomorrow.  Then, I'll take them to a local embroidery shop and have our names put on them.  But, until I can get the stockings finished and the tree up with her ornament on it, I've got to find a way to get Juliet in the Christmas spirit.  So, I've decided that it's close enough to Christmas for me to start dressing Juliet in Christmas-y attire.

She's still proud of herself for rolling over.  And I'm pretty sure she's also really excited to be wearing a Christmas onesie. ;)

We don't have another doctor's appointment for another three weeks, but I know Juliet's making serious strides in her weight gain.  The evidence is in how many clothes she's outgrown (and it's also in her chubby cheeks and thighs!).  I also think it's probably time to remove the extra cushion in her car seat since it's starting to squish her. 

I can't wait to get her stocking finished and hung, the tree up, and presents wrapped so that I can take many gratuitous pictures of her in front of it all!