Liquid Gold

Did any of you know that until very recently you could donate your breastmilk to a hospital? Better yet, did you know you could sell it on ebay? I was digging through my freezer a few weeks ago and found the remains of Julia's milk stash. I stared at it for a while not knowing what to do with it, and then looked at the dates (from 2009!) and decided it was time to pitch it. Oh the agony of all that wasted milk! It was better than how much I had for Ellie that she wouldn't touch... more than 475 oz of it in my deep freeze at one time. Live and learn. I didn't waste time pumping for Julia and nor did she take a bottle.

Fashionista

Ellie has been putting outfits together lately that are completely awesome. Unfortunately, if I make any sort of reaction and say I'm going to get my camera, she dashes off and disrobes. These are the two pictures I managed to get. We love color around here! On average, Ellie changes clothes a few times a day, which I hear is on the low side for her age :). Mostly, she likes wearing a dress-up costume until we leave the house or eat and she has to wear "normal" non-princess clothing. Phooey.

Egg Cooker

Ellie asked to make eggs one morning about a month ago and since Julia wasn't up yet (and wanting to participate), I let her go for it. She cracked all of the eggs by herself and scrambled them, almost completely before I had to finish things off. I was SUPER-impressed!

A Little Tea

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.

Get Outside!

For about a week and a half, we had some lovely weather up here that was perfect for spending the entire day outside. So for a few days, we did just that!

If You Give a Pig a Pancake

Last Saturday I took the girls to a pancake breakfast to meet the pig from "If You Give a Pig a Pancake." One of our local big bookstores has a restaurant inside and we bought tickets to have pancakes and meet the pig. There was much excitement the morning when we left the house (and much confusion from Julia because she wasn't sure why we hadn't eaten yet). We arrived and were seated and anxiously awaited our pancakes and the pig. We received the former and continued waiting for the latter a bit. Eventually, the pig came out and each table had a chance to meet the pig and take a picture with her. Julia was my only child brave enough to be photographed by the pig the first time we saw her. Then after a story and craft time, Ellie braved it and had her pic made with Pig. It was great fun!

Both girls were beyond thrilled to have such giant glasses of milk. Ellie said she would pretend her's was coffee.

Why eat what Mom has cut up for you when you can just pick up the entire pancake and eat it?