Half a Year Old!!!

A very merry HALF birthday to my little man Giulio!!! I can't believe it's been 6 months; the time just flies by! As I write this, Giulio's behind me in his jumperoo playing with all the little toys and periodically jumping for joy. Those giant thighs of his must be made of pure muscle, because he can jump really high!

Giulio jump, jump, jumperooing!

So Giulio is the size of the average one year old weighing 22 lbs and measuring 27.5 inches long! Basically he's huge! By the end of the day my arms hurt from carrying him, but he's my sweetie pie baby face and I love carrying him around all day anyway!

ALMOST crawling on the carpet

I don't have a lot of new stuff to report. He's eating a bit of solids and is ALMOST crawling. I really thought I'd be announcing that he started crawling in this post, but he hasn't quite figured it out yet: he can only go backwards.

"Watch as we roll over!"

He loves Olney and just laughs and laughs when Olney barks and whines. The more Olney whines, the more Giulio laughs. Olney's good and let's Giulio pet him sometimes, but mostly Olney just licks Giulio every chance he gets.

Notice what a handful he is!

Oh, and Giulio is loving bath time. Now that he can sit up, he is all by himself in the big bathtub. He can splash and he loves his squirty crab toy the best. Fabri got some great photos the other day while I was giving him his bath!!

Last night Giulio watched his Daddy play soccer for the first time. He's playing in a tournament with the Savigliano hospital and the first game was against the Savigliano police (of who we have many friends including, if you recall, Gabrielle [whose wife just had twins!!])

Oh, one other important new happening, the little man has two little teeth in that mouth!!

5 Months Old!!

The little man is 5 months old. He weighs 21 lbs and is a little bit longer than last month. It's not easy to measure the length of a rolly polly wiggle worm baby!

He can roll both ways and is very close to crawling. He's doing a lot of cute babbling too!

We just started solids this week. So far he likes apple sauce and avocado. Next we'll try pears and, when he hits 26 weeks, vegetable broth with potato, zucchini and carrot!

Zia Giovanna's Wedding

Giulio went to his first wedding last month. 2012 is a wedding filled year! We have 2 surprise friend weddings that come up this fall and then Giulio's Auntie Laura is getting married. Good thing this kid is such a party animal or I might be worried...

We woke up Saturday morning and got dressed in our finest attire. Thank goodness Giulio has a bunch of hand me downs from a family friend, because I never would have bought such a fancy (and cute) ensemble.

We went to the church where Zia Giovanna was dressed in a beautiful white dress and married Zio Paolo who was quite handsome himself.

Then we drove out to the wine hills to a fabulous party. After a brief deluge, the likes of which the Italians had never seen before, we dried off a bit and got right down to celebrating.

Giulio took a brief 20 minute nap, but he did not want to miss out on even a second of the party. He wasn't fussy at all though and was still dancing at 1am when I decided that all little babies should have been in bed an hour ago and we went up to our room.

The next morning we were finally able to see the real beauty of the place Giovanna & Paolo had chosen.

Then there was a party at Ruffia for all the folks that were still in town. Giulio did take a nap at one point, but mostly mingled with the crowd. Fortunately this little man gets along with everyone and all I had to do was feed him and put him down to nap when he got fussy.

Now Paolo is Giulio's REAL Zio Paolo instead of an imposter uncle that only buys presents every other birthday...

Giulio is (and has been for ~2 weeks) 4 months old!

The cutie pie baby face, is now weighing in at 19 lbs 12 oz and is 26 inches long! He can roll over from his belly to his back and has been observed ALMOST rolling from his back to his belly. 

Four months old means prefering standing to sitting and bouncing to standing still.

Giulio & I rocking our stripes while Giulio bounces on the couch!

It means when you're hot, you go in the pool

or into the bathtub!

It means getting to visit Daddy at work

and having Mommy read a story before bed every night!

How many piggies can you see on the bed?

But even though 4 months old is soooo big, 

Giulio can nap on Daddy's lap AND cheer for the Nats at the same time

the little man still needs lots of sleep (averaging 9 hours a night now)!!

International Travel Baby!

No posts for a whole month! That's some bad blog writing. We've been busy little bees. We just got back a little two weeks ago from the US and we're all FINALLY over the jet lag. Of course now that we're back on track, Giulio and I are both a little sicky...ugh.

In Paris getting ready to board this Airbus 380 for Washington!

Giulio got to put both of his passports to use this month. We had a WONDERFUL time in the US and Giulio performed like a champ! We can't wait to visit again in October. Here are some of my favorite photos from the trip:

Rooting for the Nats with Grandma & Grandpa at the Battle of the Beltway!

I got these blue eyes from my Great Grandpa.

A little tummy time - Giulio rolled over for his first time during this trip

Sticking our feet in the ocean!

Hanging out with Auntie Laura.

Does he look like his Grandpa Barry?

3 Months Old

The little man is 3 months old today. He weighs 16.5 lbs and is 25 inches long. He's just the best baby ever! He hardly ever cries, he gets along with everyone and he's just the cutest thing.

From Giulio - 3 Months Old

What do you get a 3 month old who has everything (that will fit in our apartment)? Something that doesn't fit at all! This is Giulio in his new jumperoo: From Giulio - 3 Months Old 3 months old means...

From Giulio - 2 Months Old ...more interaction with Olney,

From Giulio - 2 Months Old meeting more friends and family (especially on our trip coming up),

From Giulio - 2 Months Old of course more wine tasting,

From Giulio - 2 Months Old watching the dancing at our first sagra (food festival),

From Giulio - 2 Months Old and sleeping in our crib in our own bedroom!

Party Animal

Giulio has been going out and meeting new people a lot. Giulio is a regular at Baladin following my family tradition of taking children to brew pubs.

From Giulio - 2 Months Old

Basically Giulio has been keeping busy by growing like a weed! The other day at his check up he weighed 15 lbs 13 oz. and is over 2 feet tall! He is wearing mostly size 6 months clothes (he'll be 3 months old June 12) and if he keeps growing at this rate, he'll be taller than me by his first birthday!

From Giulio - 2 Months Old

Giulio is always up for a trip in the babybjorn and rides face front now so he can see the world!

Family Portrait on the Couch

From Giulio - 2 Months Old