Like Father, Like Daughter

I guess neither of them like to ride alone......






Yes, the first picture is actually of John in a very similar car 20 "something" years ago. I love having the two pictures to compare and am truly thankful for every childhood photograph of John, what a gift to be able to show our kids when they grow up! Isn't it amazing how alike they look?

A Girl And Her Fork

Peak - A - Boo!!!

Mom pulled out the camera.....

FINALLY! I have been so exhausted lately I haven't even really felt like doing what I truly love to do, and that's take pictures of Tula. But today was a fun day and I didn't want it to pass without a few shots so I ended up with 200 photos to sort through at the end of the day but I was thankful for each and every one of them! Daddy was home from work by about 1 and Tula loved spending the afternoon with him. He built her a brand new car, and didn't make her have an afternoon nap, so he was pretty much Super Dad today. She loves it when she gets a new toy that her and her Daddy get to take the time together to build. She truly tries to be a little helper, she sits beside him and tries to pass him everything and keeps saying her new favorite word...."dat". Kind of in a question though, as though she is asking if he needs it or something. Adorable.

Here are some pics of the car building and then Tula trying out her new fork. She has used it a couple times and is actaully getting pretty good with it. I usually let her sit and eat for awhile, this finger food thing is taking us a bit to get adjusted to and I always wonder if she is actually getting enough food? After she thinks she is "all done" I give her the fork and she will sit in her high chair and play with that and pick at food for another 15 minutes or so. The novelty of the fork hasn't worn off yet and we are hoping it doesn't for awhile, it is making mealtimes so easy with an entertained baby.

I want you all to know that I *just about* ended that sentence with the word "toddler". I actually typed it and then deleted it and put baby. Am I in denial or what?

Here are some of the pics from today....there are way more in the gallery if you feel like looking! She was a ham today!

One Year Update!

Seeing as how Tula is now a full 2 weeks past her first birthday I figure I really need to get on her 12 month update. It has been such a crazy busy last couple of weeks, the time has really flown since her birthday and this blogging thing can be tough to keep up with in times like this. Plus, I am getting ginormous and to sit at the computer for an extended period of time is getting more and more difficult for me to do. In fact, at this stage of the game, everything is getting more and more difficult. I am starting to feel very hot, very tired, and very ready to meet my son! I am so excited to be "un-pregnant" again and actually be able to get on the floor and play with Tula or run around and chase her. The poor girl has a fairly inactive Mama right now and that makes for some long days when Daddy is at work. I spend lots of time sitting on the sofa or chairs beside her while she plays at my feet, or somewhere in the vicinity. There have even been a few times that I have had to bring her into my bedroom with me and shut the door and take a nap while she just plays. I usually wake up to find everything removed from the cabinets or my closet ripped apart, but it is all babyproofed and the little bit of cleanup that I have to do is well worth the nap that I get out of the deal. I have never been a big napper but the combination of the heat, the pregnancy, and being Mommy to a now mobile one year old has given me a change of heart. I squeeze them in when I can.

Well is true what they say, it's fun to be one! Tula is doing so many fun things right now and we could not be enjoying her more. The first big thing, she is a walking little girl! She started taking steps by herself a little with some coaching from Grandma while she was here visiting the two weeks before her birthday. She loved holding Grandma's hand and doing loops around the kitchen and first floor. Then we went to CT, and although she would show off from time to time that she was capable of walking on her own, she still loved to hold anyone's hand that would take it and wander around the property, inside and out. She spent all day, every day, walking around, mostly assisted. I knew that as soon as we got home she would figure it out quick because I am incapable of holding her had like that right now, but I had no idea that we were bringing home a completely walking girl. Literally, we walked in the door from the airport and put her down to start unpacking and getting settled, and she just popped herself up and started walking around the living room. As though she had been doing it all along. Of course she was weeble wobbling a little, but it was a complete shock to John and I that she had it figured out so quick. As the week went on, she just got better, stronger, and more confident. Now that we have been home a week, she is no longer the helpless, crawling baby I had last month. She is a little toddler who pitter patters around the house. She loves to come and "find" me in whatever room I may be busy in, she loves to be chased around now that she can run away, and she loves that she can hide things now that she is mobile enough to bring things from one place to another. So far, I have found my flip flip in the tub, mail keys in the box under the kitchen cabinet, and cookies in the toilet. I finally had to put a cabinet lock on the one under the sink because that's where our garbage can is and she was constantly into it. Otherwise, the rest of them are all safe and babyproofed for her to be in. I got sick of finding her getting into the garbage though so that one under the sink had to get done. She was not impressed when she realized it.

Having a walking girl has been so fun for John and I. As sad as I was for it to start, I am enjoying it now that it has happened and Tula is so much easier to play with and bring around. Not only is she mobile, but is starting to seem to really understand what we say to her. If I am in the kitchen and she is in the living room and I call her or ask her to come, if she is interested, she will. When I ask her if she wants to go for a walk in her red car, she will walk over to it and sit down and wait for me to do up the seatbelt. She walked over to the fridge today and banged on it to tell me she was thirsty. All that stuff that just makes her seem so much older. It's fun for John too, they can wrestle on the floor and he can really play with her. This weekend when he was out doing the yard, Tula and I joined him and he loved having her out there waddling around and playing in the rocks while he worked. They even went for a little Daddy/Daughter drive to get the car washed and pick some things up at Costco.

She loves having him home so much and we miss him like crazy when he is gone. But she is learning that when Daddy is home, she has him wrapped around her finger. She wants him for all naps and bedtime when he is around. See, Mommy nurses her and then puts her down, and although she doesn't normally cry at all, she puts herself to sleep. Daddy rocks her and snuggles her and shushes her and makes sure she is sound asleep before he leaves the room. He has to, she makes sure of it. If she it the slightest bit awake when he puts her down, she lets him know, and he continues to rub her back until she is dreaming away. It's sweet, really. Because she was always breastfed and never took a bottle, John never had a lot of opportunity to do some of the soothing stuff, so he loves finally having the chance to do it. Watching the two of them together right now, more than ever, just melts my heart. They absolutely adore one another and it is pure joy for me to watch.

We finally took Tula's bumper pads off her crib this month when she started trying to use them to step on (I guess in hopes of getting closer to escaping the crib?) I just took them off one night and it didn't even phase her, I thought she would notice or have a couple nights of not sleeping well when she woke up and realized they were gone but that wasn't the case. We also had to put a GummiRail around the top of her crib to prevent her from chewing ALL of the paint off. At first I didn't realize what all the white speckles around her mouth after naptimes were and by the time I figured it out it had become a habit and the damage to the crib was done. We covered it with this railing and that seems to be working though, hopefully that will solve that problem.

Tula still loves and is eating mostly pureed food. She still has Cheerios for breakfast with some milk in a sippy and sometimes still a bowl of cereal with fruit and milk too. Lunch is almost always two YoBaby yogurts, and dinner is usually pureed sweet potatoes. This week I tried cutting the sweet potatoes into little cubes and steaming them and letting her feed herself and she seemed to like it a lot, and ate enough that I felt like I didn't have to "re-feed" her pureed stuff afterwards. Didn't try a lot of new foods this month except nectarines, and they were a smash hit and a new favorite! Not pureed, either. She like to eat little pieces of them and they are soft enough for her to chew. I did try giving her little bits of apple cut up and although she liked them, she wouldn't stop choking on them so I think I will try that steamed again. Oh yeah, and bananas are "out" again. I can't remember what the status was on them last monthly update. But lately, Tula and bananas are on the outs.

Tula really starting drinking milk well from a sippy cup this month. She seems to like it and will drink it with almost any meal and snack. She is still nursing when she wakes up and most nights before bed, and if she asks throughout the day. By asking, I mean pulling as my shirt, and we are working on proper nursing etiquette. She seems to know the sign for milk but uses it more for the sippy cup so I am unsure how we will curb the pulling at the shirt situation. Most of the time, offering her her sippy cup helps. With all the added milk intake, her 12 month weigh in was great. She weighed 16 lbs 15 oz, up 12 oz from last month, which is the biggest monthly gain she has had since December so I was pretty excited. The Doctor seemed happy to and I think everyone can breathe a sigh of relief know that Tula will soon and finally be in the 17 pound range. We only waited 6 months for that to happen, she has been 15 or 16 something since December so I am glad to see her finally growing. She is still small for a one year old, but growing by the month and that's the most important part! Thank Goodness!

Tula now has four teeth up top and the two on the bottom. When she laughs and I see her top ones all lined up it makes her look so old to me. No new ones seem to be on the horizon and I don't know if it's because of lack of teething or sheer luck but sleep is still going great. Tula has been sleeping through the night consistently for well over a month now, even while we were in CT she wasn't waking. This is such exciting news for me. With another baby on the way so soon, I didn't want to be waking up with two throughout the night. That would have been exhausting. So I am delighted that she has started this new thing without too much pressure from us. I wanted it to come naturally and it did, It took 11 months, but it was worth the wait. These nights of uninterrupted sleep are a dream come true! I forgot how good that feels!

Speaking of sleep and bedtime.....it's 12:30 am and I need to get there. That's all I can think of for now, I have two weeks till a 13 month update and at the rate she is changing that will be another long one too. It's like every day she goes to bed a bigger girl than when she woke up. And it's like I can just watch her figure out her world and surroundings more and more every day. This truly is such a fun age!

There's some new July pics in the gallery of Tula at a Reading time we went to put on by a local library. She loved walking around amongst the kids and although she wasn't that into the story she loved the crowd. I sat in the back in the chairs and couldn't believe I was watching MY toddler wander around and sit next to random kids, look at them for a minute, and get up and walk some more. The girl is not shy at all sometimes. Check out the pictures and see if you can spot her in the crowd......

A Birthday Extravaganza!!!!!

We are home and settling in after a whirlwind week! Tula turned one just over a week ago and it feels like we JUST stopped celebrating it! She was lucky to have more than one party with more than one crowd, and of course got spoiled rotten everywhere she went. Tula is so loved by so many people, and her birthday and all the celebrations that came with it were a testament to that. To all of you who attended a party, wrote a card, send, gave, mailed a gift or even called to say you were thinking of us on Tula's birthday, thank you so much. It meant the world to me to know that my baby is so adored by so many people.

The festivities began here in AZ with a double birthday party with her friend Kayden who was born the day before Tula. We had the party on Saturday, June 28th at Kaisha's house. Kaisha is Kayden's Mommy, for those of you who don't know, and has become such a good friend of mine. At first, we were hesitant to do our party together, both of us wanted our Little One's birthday to be a special day just for them. but the more we thought and talked about it, the idea to celebrate them together really grew on us. First of all, we were both having celebrations with family the following week out of town, so it would really be just friends. And we have all the same friends, so we figured why not? Kayden and Tula love each other and I am pretty sure if they could talk they would have told us they wanted it to be together. Plus, who's kidding who, Kaisha offered to host it and that meant my pregnant butt would have a lot less work to do, so I agreed.

We had so much fun! My Mom was in town and she helped us make the cakes. She decorated a crown (prince and princess) cake for Tula and Kayden and did a fabulous job! Mom, you still got it after all those years. Dad always tells us about how "Your Mother made all your birthday cakes" and what a wonderful job she did. Not to see that I didn't believe him but I had no idea how good until I saw for myself. They looked professional. Thanks Grandma! My Mom also taught Kaisha and I how to decorate so we could each do our own smash cake for our kids. We had a tiny number one cake pan and Tula got a pink one and Kayden got a blue one. So I am proud to say that I too, made my baby's first birthday cake. And it wasn't even that hard. And I enjoyed it......I may actually even do it again.

Anyways, back to the party. We had 46 guests, 30 adults and 16 kids under the age of 2! Most of the crowd were Moms, Hubbies and Babies from our Playgroup, Kaisha had a few friends there, and our next door neighbors and neighbors from down the street came as well with all their kids. I felt so lucky to have all these people in my life. Moving to Arizona has been the hardest thing John and I have had to do as a couple and one thing we were both petrified of was the loneliness of holidays and special events and not being able to share them all with our loved ones. While nothing can take the place of family, to be surrounded by so many good friends made for such a fun day for us, and I can honestly say I didn't feel the least bit lonely. My Mommy friends that I have made through our playgroup have been such a blessing in my life (and Tula's) and I don't know what I would do without them. Again, we felt very loved and celebrated on Tula's big day and who could ask for more?

Tula loved the party and really was a champ. I thought she may get a little overwhelmed with so many babies around but she actually did great and seemed to just be taking in the attention. She wasn't quite walking on her own at the time of the party, but would take anyone by the hand who was willing and do loops around Kaisha's house stopping to say hi to everyone along the way. The cake smashing was fun for her as well. She seemed to like her cake too. It took a little while for her to get into the whole "smashing" part but she did eventually. I can't say she ate bunch, licked the icing mostly. She maybe lasted all of 10 minutes before she was reaching out to me to wipe her hands off. We plopped Tula and Kayden in the tub together to rinse off the icing and then it was back to the party. We opened all our presents afterwards and Tula had fun with that too. She got spoiled by her friends! She still loves the wrapping paper most of all, and of course books that she already has. This happened at her party in CT too, and I think it's hilarious that the gifts that get the most reaction out of her are books she owns already. I guess it's nice to know she really does like them.

Most everyone started clearing out during and right after presents it was naptime for sure. Daddy and Kyle took the kids out to Kayden's pool while the Mommies and my Mom cleaned up the house. Tula could hardly keep her eyes open and by the time we buckled her seatbelt to go home she was out like a light. She has a great day though and I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. Thanks Kaisha for hosting and sharing Kayden's big day with us! We love you guys and loved celebrating with you!

The next day, Sunday, the 29th, was Tula's real birthday. I will say it wasn't as emotional for me as I had anticipated. I think the hardest part was the beginning of June and that i was going into the last month of her being a baby. I cried a lot during the beginning of the month, but as time went on and it started to sink in more, it become more of something exciting to look forward to. I had a few little cries thoughout the day, but for the most part, we just kept it really low key. Tula actually had a huge morning nap, so John and I slept as well. We went to Kona Grill for lunch and went home for another huge Birthday nap for Miss Belle. John and I took off and ran errands, it was the last day we had together before our trip to CT where Grandma was in town. It could have been our last time alone before baby #2 comes....eeek! We picked up groceries and had dinner at home. We prayed for Tula and thanked God for her. We had a quiet dinner and then sang Happy Birthday and let Tula play a little with the cake Grandma had as a spare to practice on. It was a fun night. Tula stayed up a little later with Daddy and her put her to sleep with a story and a sippy of milk. And a big long birthday snuggle, of course.

So we had Monday to recoup from the two days of celebrating and then Tuesday morning we flew out to CT. Tula did fabulous on the plane. Because we booked the tickets for 10 am, we caught both nap times and there was lunch and playtime in the middle to keep her entertained and happy. Grandpa Lee picked us up from the airport and Tula went to him right away. One thing I learned this trip, she is definitely not a shy girl. She loved seeing all her family in Connecticut and seemed to take to everyone right away. As long as you would get up and hold her hand and walk with her, she was okay to go with anyone. She did countless laps around the house and in the yard. It was fun to watch, she had such a good time exploring the different house and different yard. She loved looking at all the flowers and trees outside and finding new little trinkets or stuffed animals to hold around Nonnie's house.

We had a great week visiting. Tuesday night we had dinner at home with everyone, Wednesday John went out with friends and I shopped most of the day and met my friend Maria for lunch, we had dinner at home again. Thursday was a quiet day preparing for the fireworks that night down at the beach at Aunt Carmella's house. It was fun to see, Tula was not as interested as I thought she would be, but I think by the time they started to was just overtired and ready to sleep. The fireworks were really loud because we were so close to the water so my dad held her across his legs and covered her ears and bounced her a little. She was out like a light before the grand finale!

The next day was Friday, Fourth of July, and the day of her party. Grandma C, Great Aunt Gayle and Nonnie did a great job hosting, as usual. There was a big tent in the backyard and lots of balloons. A couple big tables filled with all sorts of wonderful things to eat. I think there was about 60 guests there. Of course, once again, Tula got completely spoiled with presents! She walked around all afternoon, the party started at one in the afternoon and I don't think she went down for a nap until 5 or 6ish. She walked around holding hands with whoever would take hers and wore herself out completely. By the time we were ready for cake she was ready for nap so down she went. I thought we were going to get a second round of smash cake pictures but no such luck! I went and laid down with Tula for awhile and had a big nap myself and came back down to the yard around 8 and there were still people there mingling. It was such a fun day, we miss being surrounded by so many people who know and love us. It was a great birthday party and a fun day!

Saturday was another low key and stay at home day, my Mom and Dad and Tiffany flew back to DC and we had a big afternoon nap a took advantage of having babysitters around. John and I went out for dinner by ourselves and left Tula with Grandpa and Grandma, and came home for a visit and then off to bed. Our flight left early Sunday morning (well, around 10, we had to be at the airport at 8) and we landed back in Phoenix around noon. The week really flew by and when we landed we felt like we had just left.

So that was our how we spent Tula's first birthday "week". We had so much fun and I constantly found myself looking at her entertaining everyone and thinking "She CANNOT be one! Where did the time go?". I think especially for us to be back in CT, where she was born a year ago, it just brought back so many memories of her being that little tiny baby she was and it still seems like yesterday... But, as hard as it is for me to believe (and accept), she is definitely one and no longer that little baby. And as much as I miss having that little tiny thing to hold, having a one year old is so much fun! It was so great to be able to share this week with all our family and friends and for them to see Tula at this fun and exciting age. Again, to everyone who helped us celebrate Tula's birthday, here in AZ or way out in CT, thanks so much. We loved seeing our little girl get so much love and were so proud to be Tula's Mommy and Daddy this week.

A few birthday shots:



I love cake!



Yum!



Family pic, party in CT.



Yes, she got an ipod for her birthday. She absolutely loves it. It has a speaker attached to the back and she cab listen t her own tunes all the time. It's one of the few toys that she freaks if you take it away from her...lol. Tula is one spoiled little girl!

Happy Birthday, Baby Girl!

http://gallery.mac.com/christacoppola#100330

Here is a link to the slideshow I made for Tula for her first year. I suggest when you click on it, to sit and let it load for a few minutes before you press play, or it will keep timing out on you. Let the grey line at the bottom get about half way or so and then you should be good to go. Also, if you watch it in small or tiny mode it will take less time to load =)

I hope you enjoy watching it as much as I did making it. I heard this song when I was pregnant with Tula and they have been in my head and heart ever since. To go through all these pictures of her first year was so tough, I had over 10,000! But I picked some of my absolute favorites to share with you all. The video at the beginning was the first video we took of her, the evening she was born, one year ago today. Happy Birthday Tula Belle! What a wonderful gift this year has been to us. Mommy and Daddy love you to pieces!