Some Louisiana Pics

Pool time, self made OJ, birthday parties, bird house painting, quilt making, bird feeding...

Julia's Recent "Firsts"

Julia has had several "firsts" in the past month and I thought I'd post a little something about 'em.

First Movie!
Julia had her very first movie theater experience at our awesome dollar theater. On a whim, Dan and I decided to take the girls to see the movie ??????? Julia basically sat on my lap for 40 minutes and then on Dan's lap for 40 minutes. It was a stretch to get her to stay seated for that long but she was totally fascinated by the BIG screen for a good portion of the time, then by her snacks, and then by jumping around on her Dad's lap/legs.






First time to wash dishes
At first I couldn't believe I haven't let her wash dishes before she was almost 20 months old. Then once she began washing them, my fears of a soaking wet child and a wet kitchen floor reminded me of why I didn't let her wash them in the first place. But the child had FUN.







First fingernail painting
Ellie decided it was high time to paint her nails a few weeks ago, and not to be outdone by her older sister, Julia made the same declaration. She watched Ellie have her nails done first, and then she let me paint her pointer finger before escaping and running off. Once I corralled her and stuck her on the couch, she rather enjoyed having her toenails "done," but opted out of having any more fingernails painted. She was ecstatic and showed her feet to everyone who could figure out what she was showing them. We had to wear her Tevas for the next week so her nails were visible. :)

Horsey Fun

The Spring weather has been beautiful the past few days. Yesterday we went to visit the horses (Julia's first time), ate our lunch in the back yard, and then ate our dinner out there too. I even felt so inclined to run and push the girls in the double jogger - and I got a little sunburn. Ah, the signs of warmer weather.

As mentioned, this was Julia's very first time to ever visit and feed the horses (which we call "horsey's"). This was old stuff for Ellie and she was pretty excited to head one block over and get to see her old pals again. Julia, on the other hand, was NOT too thrilled to be standing next to something that weighed as much as a car. After I fed him the apple pieces we brought with us - since no one else was brave enough to :) - Julia warmed up to the horse. Ellie handed her some grass which she shoved in his face and he ate! It was all over after that. She let me put her down and proceeded to run along side the fence, pointing at all the other horses, saying "nay nay," and even trying to get inside the fence. Ellie grew tired of the horses and began gathering grass and sticks to bring home with us as her treasure. Then we got the idea that since it was such a nice day, we would picnic outside. Since all parties were hungry, we left the horses behind and walked home for a nice picnic lunch in our back yard.









But today we have just been playin' and swinging and playin' and swinging. Ellie enjoys throwing her head back and watching the sky as she swings and Julia delights in swinging with her beloved baby. As I write this it is beginning to rain and shouldn't stop until sometime tomorrow (when we have an easter egg hunt scheduled, hmmm).

Happy Spring!

Julia is 18 Months...

...and she has been for about, oh, 3 weeks! I have been meaning to sit down and do a comprehensive blog about sweet vibrant Julia and her milestones. Where did the time go?

Blah Blah Blah:
Da-dn (Dad)
Ma! (Mom)
Eh-EE (Ellie)
Ooh-ah (Levi)
E-I (Eli)
Shs (shoes)
Apmm (Apple)
Wee! (swing or slide)
Bu (buckle)
Ba (ball)
Ba Ba (baby)
Mo (more)
Wa (water)
Uh-ma (Oma)
Pom (Pop)
Hasn't learned Opa or Tudi yet... I'm sure it's coming very soon.

Babies Babies
Julia loves her baby dolls. LOVES them. A few days ago she wandered upstairs and I asked Dan to go and see what she was up to. He was gone for a while and came back down with J. Dan had been watching her while she fed her baby, put her in the bed, and covered her up. Then picked her up and repeated the process again.

Mischievous
Other times she'll wander upstairs and find markers or stickers and go to town on whatever paper or portion of skin she can find. She loves stickers just about as much as she loves her babies and can go through an entire sheet of stickers in 5 minutes (Ellie never cared that much for stickers until recently. Hmm...)

Run for it
It was only a matter of time before she took what Ellie had and ran off, and that time has arrived folks! Ellie is no quiet bystander and a tussle usually erupts when she is trying to retrieve her stolen goods. I usually tell Julia "that's Ellie's" and surprisingly Julia hands it back (most of the time anyway). Thank goodness for the stage of distraction and offerings of another toy. :)

Reading
She has only very recently enjoyed being read to, and only for about 30 seconds before she hops down and moves on to something else. The two favorite books she has are one of 100 Animals and one with reflective mirrors on the inside (I'll have to get the titles of these books but right now I can't remember). Both of them were gifts and she loves them.

The Fake Smile

Just about any time I tell Julia to smile these days I get a look like this:

Wild Pony

Apparently we have a resident Wild Pony that I just found out about. I hear he likes to be fed apples. He comes out when he gets home from work and his favorite thing to do is toss about two little girls until they cannot stay put any longer and are strewn about the floor in heaps of laughter and giggles. Again! Again! Isn't it fun to be little?