Slow Down, My Girl!

Whoa....Julia has been doing so many new things lately! It seems like all of this new stuff happened at once and all I can think about it all is wishing time would slow down a little! Here are some new things within the past 2 weeks:
- 2 new teeth
- pulling up and wanting to spend a lot of time standing
- clapping on cue
- crying when I leave her sight (This makes everything harder! Especially going back to work after lunch!)
- picking up small foods on her plate and eating them. I am still extremely conscious about what she is eating and so far, she likes the healthy stuff that I am forcing on her. She has not had any meat yet and is fine without it. She has 2 vegetables, rice cereal and a fruit for lunch and dinner. She has 4 bottles a day of formula. Tonight, I steamed some broccoli and broke it into small bites for her. She finds a way to get the bites into her mouth...usually by picking them up in her fist and sucking her hand in a way that gets the bite into her mouth. Pretty brilliant if you ask me. She hasn't mastered the pincer grip just yet, but is learning so fast how to make things happen.
- enjoying spending time with other people and being perfectly content letting others hold her. I was really worried about her social skills (or her lack thereof) early on, but she is doing great these days.

Of course, Julia still loves John the most. It is such a sweet bond and I have never seen 2 faces light up more when they see each other. John is finishing up his 3rd semester of school this next week. He has taken 4 summer courses...two each term. This is the maximum that a student is allowed because the content is crammed into 5 weeks. He is doing well, but is spending a lot of time writing papers and doing school work. He gets a much needed 3 week break after next week before he starts his fall semester. As soon as I get home, he starts on his school work and so I get to have my Julia time. She likes a nap around 5 and wakes up around 7 so this gives me some treadmill time. Yes, I am still hard at it! I do a 30 minute workout 6 days a week and try to burn at least 350 calories. I usually alternate between speed work (running a little) and walking fast at an incline. I look forward to the days of no running because my body resists every second of it. My work out time is such a good stress reliever and very good for my blood sugars. It's been three weeks now and I haven't slacked yet!