The Big Girl Bed

Juliana is now sleeping in a Big Girl Bed. She was so happy in her crib that we were in no hurry to make this transition. But we did want to make the change a few months before the twins arrive. It seems that she was ready, she has been to visit her crib in the room that will belong to the twins, and doesn't even miss her crib music - although she has gone into the other room to turn it on a few times and had told me that she will show her brothers how it works :)

We purchased a nite-lite called the good night lite. It is a behavioral tool that shows a moon during the sleeping hours and turns to a sun when the set wake-up time is reached to signify that it is ok to get out of bed. So far it seems to be working well. The first morning (Saturday) she told me that the moon was on for so long; by today she didn't get out of bed until 15 minutes after the sun came on. So far so good.

And the bed...purchased by Nonni and G...not just any bed - it's an elaborate princess bed. It came with components to raise it to loft height so there will be a play area/desk space below at some point. And there is also a slide that can be added...eventually. Once it is at loft height, there is a turret that can be added as well. Here are some pictures from last Friday when it arrived.

Christmas Day

We spent the afternoon with Scott's family: Nana and Papa, Sean, Amy, Jake, Sara, Erik, CJ, Kathy and Kara. The kids all received lots of presents. Juliana was still not feeling great, but made it through the afternoon.

Christmas Morning at Home

After Juliana was in bed Wedenesday night, we assembled the Santa presents for the morning. Scott assembled the work bench and I filled her stocking. When she came downstairs in the morning she was excited to see the work bench and find presents in her stocking. She spent quite some time with those surprises and we had to coax her into opening the presents from under the tree. Eventually everything was open and she was happy to play with her new things.

Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve with my parents, brother and sister-in-law. Juliana still isn't back to normal, so she rested on the couch while the rest of us enjoyed the yummy turkey dinner - it was much quieter without her at the dinner table.


After dinner and clean-up we started opening presents. Juliana received so many wonderful presents including a bouncy seat for her baby doll, cool school computer keyboard and games, and books and clothes. One of her presents was a rocket chair (Little Einsteins) that Unle Nick had to blow up for her.

The Horse

When the first Christmas present you open is bigger than you are, makes sound, moves and you can ride it...will the other presents pale in comparison? Leave it to Uncle Nick to buy something over-the-top. I have a feeling the kids will always look forward to seeing what's under the tree (or in this case in another room) from Uncle Nick and Aunt Becky.

Christmas Card Pictures Not Used

This year I really wanted to take Juliana's picture outside - she has an adorable coat and hat that look perfect over her Christmas dress. I should have learned my lesson 2 years ago when I tried to take a picture outside in early December. However, I thought we could take a quick picture and be done even though it was very cold. It was clear that Juliana was not going to be a willing participant as soon as we got outside - she had no interest in standing next to the Penguin and started complaining immediately that her hands were cold...it's not like I was wearing gloves.

There was no coaxing a pleasant expression for one good picture so we gave up and wandered around the house - looking for a Plan B. We ended up taking pictures of her on an old trunk and the one that we used in the Christmas card was good in the end (after bribing her to smile and look in the direction of the camera of course). Here are some of the pictures that we did not use.