- TEN & ELEVEN MONTHS -

If these aren't the hugest two months of milestones in the history of "months of milestones".....then...I don't even know! 

From 10 months...

 

...to 11 months...

...and now alllllmost 12 months?! What what?! Juli Bear, you have grown and changed and become so interactive in such a short little time!  You wave bye-bye to everyone [even cashiers at the grocery store!] and your favorite thing to do at Mass is stand in the pew and wave, wave, wave to all the church-goers behind us.  You're trying tons of new food and eating mostly the same table foods we serve for dinner now, but of course you still love salmon and smoothie popsicles the most [and still hate tuna]. You went from log-rolling to backwards crawling to crawling very slowly to zomg zoooooooming around the house! You are gone *inaflash* these days and your favorite things to get into are the cabinets under the sink [because Dawn dishsoap! dishwasher pods! Clorox wipes! and everything else toxic!] and also the toilets........ 

Pulling up is your name, and standing up is your game...but leaning over into the toilet bowls for a few good swishes before we can swoop in and pluck you out is currently one of your favorite hobbies. You LOVE bath time with your sissies -- the more splashes, the better! 

 

Your attention span for popping Pop-Its is amazing! Turing off every light switch in the house as we leave each room is a new fave, and being in possession of the TV remote is a must.  You love giving big, slobbery kisses and giving tight around-the-neck bear hugs!

Did I mention you can really make a mess in a hurry?! ;) :)

 

 

You started refusing to nurse around the 4th of July; I thought it was just a phase while you were teething, but nope.  Done, done, donezooo. I resorted to pumping and bottle-feeding you, and now we're burning through the ~1,000 oz of frozen breast milk stash.  #FREEDOMfrompumping...finally...and it feels so so good! Everyone else has enjoyed stepping in to help feed you bottles, too; but sometimes, you just prefer to recline in your highchair and feed yourself!

 

 

Mommy is still your absolute favorite person in the entire world, and I am loving every second of that! 

Next Wednesday is your birthday, and as much as I love clinging on to all the fun times with you and baby memories of you, I'd be lying if I didn't say I'm so excited to watch you keep growing and doing bigger and better things!  We love you to the moon and back five hundred times, Juli Bear!!!

- Family + Florida -

I just gushed on and on and on and ON about our [one] day at Disney, but the truth is, the rest of the week of our family vacation to Florida was pretty great, too!!!  After planning the trip initially and mentally counting up all of the "large things" we'd need to take [J's Pack 'n Play! Dad's bicycle! J's clip on highchair! Brian and Dad's golf clubs! H & S's scooters! Suitcases for 7 people! Not sure what else but I feel like I packed for a 3-month vacation abroad for a small army for this one-week-long vacation, so yeah!], we quickly realized we'd have to drive a vehicle.  BUT THEN...Brian's sister mentioned this smaller airline that they flew with for spring break and scored $35 tickets; and after looking into it more, we decided it would be best for the men to drive the van and for the girls to fly! 

GIRL PARTY ON THE AIRPLANE!!! Juliette and Scarlett loved their first flight!

After about 20 minutes of Scarlett being SUPER STOKED inside the terminal and a few times of asking if we were "moving" yet, we realized that she thought we were on the airplane while we were still sitting inside the terminal and definitely got a good chuckle out of that! Eventually, we boarded the plane...

...and then got delayed AN HOUR after already being seated on the plane due to some kind of fuel chamber malfunction [Hail Mary, full of grace, we're gonna die, on repeat forever and ever amen........ Not to mention, as a total side note, I was totally convinced that the man two rows up and one seat over was definitely a mass murderer and I thought I saw a weird little box that he stuffed a shiny object into, so surely that was a knife or a gun and he'd execute his plan to kill us all within the first hour of the flight]...

...but finally, eventually, we took off...and the plane did not implode/explode...no mass murderer opened fire...and 2/3 of the kids fell asleep on the flight that now left the ground at 9:55pm instead of the scheduled 8:35pm [and yes, you guessed it -- only Scarlett stayed awake for the duration and she talked loudly THE WHOLE TIME]. Success on SO MANNNNNY levels. Hallelujah.

At some God-awful hour which I can't even recall at this point, we landed in Orlando. Like little cherubs, Brian and Dad were waiting there to pick us up! And at an even later God-awful hour [I think maybe 2am????] we made it to the condo and transferred everyone into their beds.

BUT!  No time to fret over a late night/early morning/jacked up sleep for the entire family! The next morning, sunshine and pools and [virgin] strawberry daquiris awaited us!  No matter the circumstances, you really can't go wrong in sunny Florida!!!

My mom had little gifts each morning for the girls to open, which they of course loved! One day, they got a bigger gift - these water babies that they are OBSESSED WITH! And the biggest perk?! They don't slowly leak like the water baby that's at Grammy and Papa's house now -- AKA my water baby from the 1990's! ;)

POOL BABES.

^^ The longest pool day we had was followed by carryout pizzas on the back porch of the condo and more nighttime pool time!!!

Halfway through the trip [and two days after our Magic Kingdom adventure], we split ways. Mom and Dad shopped somewhere while our family hit up Chef Mickey's!  We also enjoyed exploring the Contemporary and Polynesian resorts and riding the Monorail to all destinations!

 

Juliette scarfed and scarfed the food but immediately reached for us and cried every time a new character entered the room!  I guess she just wasn't sure what to think of the Mouse and his friends!

^^ As an added perk, all Disney characters signed Harper's autograph book with the correct pen color [see: "minor meltdown outside Cinderella's castle" in previous post] and #PTL, because vacation highs are SO HIGH and vacation lows are SO LOW and I digress.

After Chef Mickey's, we met back up with the rentsies and explored Disney Springs: home of the v. v. long-awaited souvenir shopping sites!!!

Again, thanks to some pro-vacation planning by our lovely cousin, we enjoyed Disney fireworks from the Polynesian beach that evening!

And back to the resort pools the next day!

^^ Before we knew it, it was time to pack up and clean up one last time... 

...and hit the road again for the airport!  Whoever booked a 6:15am flight [not me...ok, it was me] and didn't factor in the fact that the airport was an hour away from the condo will NOT be responsible for vacation logistics next time......

...but with smiles on everyone's faces and only a tiny bit of pep left in everyone's steps, we made it to the airport, boarded the plane, and successfully departed with no delays!  [Oh, did I mention that the old man one row back from us on the aisle seat got up to use the restroom halfway through the flight and nearly passed out signaling the flight attendant team to coming running with oxygen tanks and a first aid kit while simultaneously begging for medical personnel to assist? ...Super luckily another nurse was on the flight, otherwise I was just seconds away from chucking these two sleeping angels into the arms of the creepy man sitting next to Scarlett so I could assist in the life-saving efforts.  ...Because, you know, OB nurses are professionals at taking care of geriatric men and all.  Thanks be to God that it seemed to be just a little bout of low blood pressure and low blood sugar and he was escorted off the plane by a team of paramedics as soon as we landed!  Also thanks be to God that Scarlett and Juliette watched all of the commotion through their eyelids and never budged!]

And the best part???! ...All the girls were home and showered and snuggled in for naps before the men even made it out of Florida and put a dent in their roadtrip home! 

VIDEO RECAP HERE!

 

Florida and family time and everything in between...we will never forget it!!! <3