Juliettables

Juliette has learned her first sign language word: "all done."  This motion is made by holding up your hands and twisting them back and forth at the wrist.  (Again with the wrist action - she loves it!)  So different than the boys, who basically only learned "More" "Food" and"Milk."

She can also pull herself up to standing, and is probably days away from starting to creep around holding onto the furniture.  My guess is that she'll be walking by her first birthday.

I've also pinned down a grain allergy for her.  Everything from baby cereal to oatmeal to Cheerios to crackers to pasta, and even products that have "may contain wheat"warnings even when it isn't an actual ingredient.  Her nose gets stuffy and crusty, her eyes get blocked up with mucus, and she gets severe stomach cramps for about 6 hours.  She even reacted just from putting a piece of cracker in her mouth and sucking for a second, even though she didn't actually eat it.  The doctor will send her at 12 months for an allergy test so we can pin down exactly what it is.

I find it interesting that this discovery comes on the tail of my looking into the Paleo diet.  We didn't end up eliminating grains completely, but we did try to cut down how much we eat.  Now it might be that Juliette has no choice but to eat nothing but fruits, vegetables, meat and dairy.  The "good" thing about it is that she can't even have gluten-free or specialty flour products.  All of people who can't eat wheat try to substitute with expensive and time-consuming alternatives.  In Juliette's case (if the allergy continues) she will simply have to avoid them altogether.

She is still firmly entrenched in the clingy, separation-anxiety stage.  We've tried a babysitter a couple of time but she generally just cries the whole time we're gone.  If I manage to leave her with James, and escape undetected, as soon as I reappear she's waving her hands and starting to fuss for me.  It's endearing and frustrating at the same time.

She still melts everyone's heart that she sees.  Those big blue eyes just twinkle and mesmerize people.  She is such a joy every single day.