Happy Halloween

No GREAT pictures of our jack-o-lanterns this year. But here's the best we've got. From left to right, it's Arthurs (a mask), Tim's (a ship) and mine (a face).

Chairs

Here's Maya in her two high chairs:

Here's her old red chair, which she's finally grown into:

and her new (fancy) high chair:

The First Annual Julien Halloween Party

We had several of our friends over last night for our first ever pumpkin carving party. Tim made a bunch of Halloween inspired food (which was all fantastic, if a bit spicy). We encouraged people to bring pumpkins and carve them... I was surprised at how many people are completely turned off by the feeling of pumpkin on their hands! Here's one example:

But Zane toughed it out and shared a "scary smile" with his jack-o-lantern:


Jim also handled Evie's pumpkin:


Liza got a lot of help carving her pumpkin (Ned cut the top off for her, Rebecca cleaned it out for her, and Kate traced her design). But she did do a significant portion of the carving, and Team Banks ended up with a lovely final product:



Rebecca launched into her own carving, and ended up with a great bat pumpkin:



Alice and my dad opted for more traditional pumpkin designs:



I'm a cheater (I'm not ashamed of using a template, since I'm no artist):

but there's no picture of my final product; perhaps in the next post or so...

The men did a lot of standing around watching pumpkin carving:


And then there were the costumes:

Maya as a cat:

Evie as a monkey:

Zane as a pumpkin:

Addie as a cat (Maya had already spit up on her costume, so there are no pictures of them together):

And my student Alex as a gladiator:

Skyping with Grandpa and Aunt Jocelyn

Maya's new favorite thing to do while sitting up (yes, better than watching Mizzou football)? Skyping with family and friends!

Some Maya Photos

Here are some sundry photos of Maya:

Learning to sit up:

Hanging with Uncle Arthur:

Waiting for the party to get started:

Race for the Cure

Exactly two weeks from today, the Julien family is going to get up super early on a Sunday and participate in the Komen Austin Race for the Cure. Tim is planning to actually run the race (a 5K), while us other two will be taking it slow at the back of the walkers... :) If you're interested in supporting our efforts, pick your favorite Julien: Maya, Christine, or Tim.

Sitting Up

Maya is on the verge of sitting up all on her own. On a soft surface, she can do it all by herself for about 15 seconds before she goes crashing over:

Her favorite thing to do while sitting up? Watch Missouri's football team crush an unsuspecting opponent (this week, Texas Tech):

Some Sundry Orlando Photos

Maya and I have returned from a successful trip to Orlando. We got to at least briefly see some family, I and the students I accompanied had a successful conference, and Maya got to add another state to her list of visited places. Here are some photos:

Jamie, Sally and I happened across this turtle outside the hotel. He looked like he was waiting to cross the road to Downtown Disney:

Jamie outside the tinker toy model in Downtown Disney:

Me, Maya, my postdoc Angela (center), her baby Evie, and three of the UT students that went with us (from the left, Tanu, Patty, and Diane):

Sippy Cups and Tables

Maya has started holding her own bottle. So we decided it's time she learned to hold a sippy cup. We bought some nice ones with rubber nipples and handles. I think she might still think it's a toy, but she understands how it works. The first time she got some water out of it, she made a face, but she put it back in her mouth again and again, so it can't be all bad.


She also apparently likes the taste of our dining room table:

No worries about the table drying out...

Friends and Family in Orlando

One of the reasons Maya and I finally decided to come to the Grace Hopper conference in Orlando was because we found out our friend Jamie would be here for the conference and that our extended family would be here on vacation at the same time. So today, after the conference, Jamie and I broke Maya out of daycare and spent an hour poolside here at the Hilton resort. It was lovely, and Maya still loves the water. But Jamie and I both forgot to take pictures... sorry...

Day care here is fun; it's first of all great that they have day care with the conference. Unfortunately, not a lot of people are taking advantage of it, which is too bad. But the upside to that is that they have a lot of staff and not many kids. So the kids get a lot of attention. :) Maya got to "finger" paint today, which I'm told was so messy it required putting her in only a diaper... They also got to play with masks (I think Maya was a monkey...). They think she sleeps a lot here, too...

This evening, my parents picked us up and took us back to their condo, where we met my sister, brother, sister-in-law, and their four kids. Dad made dinner, and the rest of us just hung out and caught up. I think Maya was a bit overwhelmed by all of the activity... Here are some pictures (potentially duplicates of those on Sarah's site...):

Here's Maya and her Uncle Robert:

And me with Nate and Meagan:

And the girls together:

Grace Hopper 2007

This week, Maya and I are in Orlando for the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. They have child care for Maya during the day, which means I can attend all of the conference events with an added piece of mind. The child care seems great! Jamie is here, as is my post-doc Angela (she's an official blogger; here's her blog if you want the official word on what's goin on), and we've brought four students from our department with us. Hopefully everyone gets a valuable experience! Back to "work..." :)

A Visit from Grandma and Grandpa Julien

Finally! Tim and Shelly joined us for a few days in Austin this weekend. Maya was taken with them immediately; I think her grandfathers have taught her that men with beards are pushovers. Here are some photos from the visit:

Hanging with Dad

Visiting Addie

Since Maya and I are headed out of town this week (to Orlando, yippee!!), we had to get an Addie hit before we left. Here are some photos of the sweet baby:

A happy mom:

And a happy dad:

And little Addie is still too small to really appreciate some of her toys, so Maya tried them out for her:

Addie has the same swing that Maya's buddy Evie had at work. Every once in a while, Maya managed to relinquish the swing for the newborn bundle...

Adelaide Taylor

And one final post for this evening...

Our friends James and Laura welcomed Adelaide Taylor yesterday morning (a full week late, much to Laura's chagrin...). We have, of course, already been over to ooo and ahhh over the little bundle of joy. Here are some (very amateur) photos to tide you over until Laura and James get their blog updated...

Because there are never too many pictures of Maya...

Here are a couple more. She's slowly starting to eat "real" food. We tried rice cereal first, though Maya didn't like that. We've switched to bananas, and she's really taken to them. She's learning how to move the food to the back of her mouth (instead of the front), though her newfound love of raspberries (the spitting technique, not the food) seems to get in the way of ingestion:

Her other new favorite thing is her "jumperoo." I swore we wouldn't have any of these huge pieces of baby-toy-furniture, but I stand corrected. Maya loves to be standing, and it's just hard to do much when you're holding her in an upright position all the time. She loves her jumperoo...and the toys attached to it.

And, some late breaking news... Maya rolled over on her own for the first time today. And it looked intentional. She's been trying to replicate the move without much success, but I'm sure she'll get the hang of it...

Jealousy...

Our most recent house guests were Jeannette (our friend from college) and her mom. They're in Austin all this week because they're visiting the Spa at Lake Austin. (That's the jealousy part...) They decided to come in a few days early and spend some time with us. We went to the capital, Mt. Bonnell, and grabbed some Barbecue down at the Salt Lick. I may get to see them again this weekend en route to the airport. Here are some photos from our trip to the capital:

The Runners Visit...

Soon after Dave left, we had more house guests. Our friends from college (and running team mates of Tim's) Lucky and Tyler came to visit. Lucky also brought his girlfriend Lacee--our first chance to meet her. We showed them around Austin, and just generally hung out and caught up. We did get a chance to go out and see some music; my parents watched Maya overnight while we all went to Pete's Dueling Pianos. Not the best live music in Austin, but arguably the most fun. We did learn that if Lucky had been born a girl, his name would have been Agnes... Good times.

Here's Maya with Lucky and Tyler: