Weekend in Houston

We had a great time in Houston last weekend for our short visit with family. We were there to celebrate Madison's 3rd birthday (belated) and to meet our new niece, Katelyn. We met at the park for the party. Julia and Madison were excited to see each other.

Wheee!

Kyle holding Katelyn, or "Baby Kae" as Julia calls her.

Getting kisses from Gigi

Great pic of Julia and Pop

Madison and Julia with Great-Grandma

Katelyn was very content all day and slept most of the time.

More playtime

Great pic of Julia with Papaw

Julia always enjoys staying at Mamaw and Papaw's house when we go to Houston.

Love this expression!

Julia with Uncle James

Love this picture too!

Recent Pictures

Julia loves reading her books. I like this picture even though she blinked.

Julia's first illness that required a doctor's visit: conjunctivitis (pink eye). It was going to be a few minutes before the doctor came in so the nurse put a little gown on Julia and it was one of the cutest things I've ever seen!

Julia was bothered by the fact that the nurse took off her shoes, so she struggled (while I took pictures) to get them back on her feet.

Having fun on her friend Rae's trampoline. She couldn't keep from falling down when Rae jumped near her, but she still enjoyed it.

Playing in with the giant balls in the indoor playscape at church.

I love this picture! Too bad it isn't in focus.

Julia put her felt purse on her head like a hat and knew it was silly.

Julia loves helping water the plants.

At the park in our neighborhood.

Counting to 10

Here is a video clip of Julia at the library. Listen carefully when she walks to the shelf with all the puzzles - she "counts" them (1-10). She does this all the time at home now - she counts when she goes up the stairs, and when there are several toys or objects - but she rarely performs when we ask her to count for other people.

Julia: 18 Months

Little Julia is 18 months old already!

Her current stats:

• Weight: 22 lbs. 10 ozs. (21st percentile)
• Height: 32" (75th percentile)

Here are some pictures of recent bath time fun...

Some things we want to remember...

• She tries to sing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" on her own now. She says "Eeese Bobber...Down...Rain...Out" and does her version of the hand motions.
• She insists on walking up and down the stairs every time. If we start carrying her, she wiggles and says "Walk! Walk!" She often says, "big girl" when she walks up the stairs.
• She loves to count anything she can. If she's looking at her books and sees two of something she'll say (for example) "Ball...One more ball...Two Balls!!" If she is counting objects or steps she usually says "two, ree, vour, siss, eight, nine!!" She knows the other numbers but chooses to skip them. And she NEVER says the number one - she must thing it is implied.
• Her favorite song is "Old MacDonald." She gets it stuck in her head for days at a time and will sing, "E-I-E-I... oin' here, oin' here!" throughout the day.
• A couple of months ago we started taking her to Gymboree Play & Learn classes, which she absolutely loves. She calls it "mommaree" and will often ask to go throughout the week on days we aren't scheduled to go.
• Some of her favorite foods right now are mango and pear. She will usually eat 1/2 of either in one sitting, along with other snacks. Olives are another favorite. She is taking a break from peas, and is back from a long break from bananas.
• She is still talking up a storm and repeating all kinds of things we say. I made a list of words she says a few weeks ago and came up with 200, but we think it is at least 225 since she adds to it daily and I keep thinking of some I forgot to include.
• We've noticed for some time that she is a little obsessive, but it is becoming more evident lately. Maybe it just means she is a rule-follower. Examples:

1. Things need to be put away. After I pour her a cup of milk, she watches to make sure I put the cap on, and the milk back in the refrigerator and sometimes I don't do this fast enough for her and she says, "back, back!"and touches the refrigerator door.
2. Doors that are supposed to be closed should stay closed - like kitchen cabinet doors and the coat closet door. If she is in her high chair eating and she sees that I left a cabinet door open, she will let me know.
3. Consistency is key. If she sees me do something a certain way once, that is the way it should always be done. The other day she wanted to bring a puzzle out into the living room, so I directed her to a certain place to work on it and I scooted her over so she could lean her back against the wall. The next day, she brought in the same puzzle and put it in the same place and struggled to maneuver herself into the same position up against the wall before starting to work the puzzle.
4. Socks and shoes must be worn at all times. Ever since the beginning of fall - when the weather cooled off so I put socks on her everyday and when she started walking and needed shoes - she has developed an obsession with socks and shoes. She used to just get excited about them, but now she asks for shoes almost immediately after being taken out of the crib each morning and after her naps. Once this week I had to take off her socks and shoes and when she started walking on bare feet she started saying, "yocks! yoosh!" over and over again. This rule also applies to us apparently, and it makes us laugh. As soon as she notices that one of us isn't wearing socks and/or shoes, she acts alarmed and says, "yocks! yoosh!" and goes to find some for us to wear.
5. It is important to clean up. We've recently taught her to clean up at night before bedtime and occasionally before we leave if she has pull a bunch of toys out (and if we have time before dashing out the door). We learned the "Clean Up" song at Gymboree and she begins singing it as soon as we tell her to start cleaning up. I often come find her when we're about to go somewhere and if she is in the middle of something she will immediately put it down and start singing the "Clean Up" song, and she won't come with me until every last toy or book is put away.

Almost There!

"Dee-tee Dotty! Good Girl!"

It's what Julia has started saying when she gets off the toilet after success. I hesitate to even write anything about her recent breakthrough because she may go through another down phase. But for now, she is wearing big girl panties when we are home and pull-ups when we leave the house, and the last 2 days has only had 2 accidents at home and did not go at all in her pull-up. When she has an accident she comes to me saying, "no no dee-tee" and she usually finishes going in the toilet.

For the last month or so, every time we have gone to a store, restaurant, church, or other public place we go to the restroom when we get there and sometimes before leaving and she almost always goes. This, along with wearing cloth panties at home, has helped her tremendously. I should have started that long ago.

For a long time now (at least 10 months), she has been almost perfectly trained for #2 - unless she was sick or had lots of family around she would just take care of it during one of our many frequent trips to the potty during the day or when she got older she began letting me know. Dirty diapers are extremely rare (maybe once or twice a month), and we're grateful for that! It also means I don't worry about a poopy accident in her panties.

I'm hoping we're over a big hurdle this time and she won't regress. Just before she turned 15 months old, she was very close to being potty trained. She would keep her diaper dry all day and yell "dotty" so we would take her, but after that she had lots of ups and downs in that area and I thought we'd never get where we are now. Now she just needs to start telling me again and we'll be done.

Snow Day!

We had a fun snow day here last week and got 3 inches of beautiful snow. The snow had just begun to fall when Julia woke up and I wasn't sure how long it would continue, so I bundled her up before breakfast and took her outside. She was excited about the "know" until we went outside. At first she wasn't sure about it, but I told her the snowflakes were kind of like bubbles, which made her eyes light up. The problem with that is that she kept calling them bubbles the rest of the day. She also kept saying, "mess" when she noticed the snow on the bushes and on her clothes and shoes.

Later on, we went to the front of the house to see how much had accumulated on the ground. Julia didn't really like walking in it so she mostly stood and looked around. She also tried eating the snow from her gloves, which she seemed to like.

At this point, Julia was very concerned about the mess on her shoes (notice her expression) so we went back inside. Her suede boots and her socks were wet, so I didn't blame her.

Daddy came home from work in time for us to go out once more. We took Julia to one of the parks in the neighborhood where we began making a snow man. We didn't stay to finish because Julia was cold and complaining about her shoes. The only waterproof shoes I had for her to wear were some rain boots I bought for later on so they were huge and she couldn't walk in them.

It might be a long time before we have another family pic in front of our house with snow!

Sesame Street Live

We took Julia to see Sesame Street Live last weekend with some friends. Julia and their daughter, Raegan, are big buds so we went together. Julia really enjoyed the show!

Riding together and holding hands.

Julia wasn't quite sure where we were or what was going on until we got seated.