RIP Stan

I did not want to say anything until everything went though and it was "official", but I am driving a mini van!

Jerrod's car, Stan, was a 1991 Nissan Stanza with 205,000 miles on it. It has been a very good car for us, but he was finally dying. It was time to let him go.

So Saturday we went to the Nissan dealership and found a used 2005 Nissan Quest mini van for a great price. The Quest was probably the only mini van I would consider driving. We bought it that day and drove it home, leaving poor Stan behind. But since the banks were all closed, it would not "officially" be ours until Monday. On Monday I get a call that there was some issues with the paperwork/bank and that we needed to come in and re-sign all the loan paperwork. Everything stayed the same as far as interest rate and payment, but they went with a different bank instead. So I did not want to say anything about the van until the papers have been signed again and it was officially ours. We signed the papers last night after work.

I am now driving around a mini van. I feel like such a hypocrite since I always said I would never, EVER drive a mini van. Being a mom changes your perspective.

Poor Stan got laughed at by everyone. When we told the dealership what we were trading in, the salesman said to us "How much would you pay US to take it?"!!! They did not want it. But they took it and gave us a $100 trade in for it. What a sad ending for Stan.

Like I said, we got a good deal on the van, the finance guy said the dealership actually lost money on the deal. I guess nobody is buying cars and they would only loose MORE money on it if they took it to auction.

I will have to get a picture of it soon.

Funny way to wake up.

Today was one of those rare mornings where I woke up before Julia did. So I tried to hurry up and get ready before she woke up.

I was just about done, when I hear movement over the baby monitor. Julia is waking up. Next thing I hear is her singing her ABC's! Yep, she woke up singing her ABC's. What a silly girl.

Also, I ended up being late for work on Monday because Julia and I both over-slept. I had gotten up with Jerrod at 5:45am, then turned off my alarm, figuring Julia will have me awake by 7:30am, per usual. She almost never sleeps past 7:30am. So when she finally wakes, which wakes me up, I look at the clock and see it is 8:45am!!!! WHAT!! She NEVER sleeps that late! Why can't she sleep that late on the weekend?

One other tid-bit. A several mornings now I have gone in Julia's room to get her to she that she has removed her pj's and wet diaper. She will hand me the wet diaper saying "phew", which is her term for all dirty/wet diapers. Not a big deal except that sometimes she pee'd again after removing the diaper, so now the crib bedding has to be stripped. If she hates a wet diaper that much, maybe she should learn to use the potty? Every morning is a surprise as what I will find when I go into her room. I am just VERY thankful that she does not poop overnight.

Baby "boof"

Julia is all about boofs (dogs to you and me) lately. She still freaks out if an excited dog gets too close, but is talks about them all the time though.

This past week she has been talking about baby boofs. Like she wants a baby boof!! Why it has to be a baby boof, is anyone's guess.

This has caused Jerrod and I to start discussing again on when would be a good time to get a dog. We both miss having a dog in the house, but we know how much work they can be and any dog we get will have to be great with kids and cats. That can be a tall order to fill. (For those of you that don't know, we had to put to sleep our last dog because she ruptured a disc in her back and went paralyzed. Since I was 7 months pregnant with Julia at the time, we thought getting a new dog with a baby coming would not be smart.)

Someday, Julia. Someday.....

No swimming tomorrow

Julia is going to be so sad. Saturdays mornings are when her swim classes are held. Since she still has a bad cough and runny nose, I don't think it would be wise for her to go swimming.

I feel bad for her since she loves it so much. Hopefully she feels good enough next week!

Bad evening

Poor Julia had a bad evening.

She was being whiny when we got home, nothing in particular wrong, just whining over the little things. I read her several books. She then tried to bite my leg. I told her no and explained again (for the 1000th time), how we don't bite. She looked at me like she understood and then bent over and bit my foot!!! That did get her yelled at and punished. When I finally get her settled down, I can tell she is pissed! She starts kicking and stomping on things. I tell her to stop or she gets a "time-out". She looks at be defiantly and keeps at it. So now she earned herself some time in "time-out". Being the mean mommy I am, I made her sit in time-out even though she had the big alligator tears streaming down her cheeks.

After time-out, I try to settle her down and take her into the kitchen with me so I can work on supper. She likes to sit on the counter while I work. So she was sitting on the counter and I was getting the pan ready. She leaned over to get something and slipped right off the counter. I manage to grab her arm right before she hits the ground, but it scared her pretty bad. (But not bad enough since she wanted back up on the counter a few minutes later.) Not hurt in anyway, just scared.

We make it through supper and her bath without any major problems. After the bath it was time to get ready for bed. Since she was still coughing pretty bad (not croupy, thankfully), I wanted to rub some Vick's on her feet. I have never done that before on Julia and she did not like it at all!! It is very difficult to rub Vick's on her feet, then get socks over said feet without getting Vick's on everything when she struggling to keep her feet away from me the entire time.

Hopefully tonight is much better.

Vacation pictures!

As promised, here are some pictures from our weekend vacation.

All excited to be leaving and in the car!

Waiting for supper.

I thought this would be a really pretty picture, but Julia was not into smiling.

We did manage to get her to smile for a family picture!

Julia thought vacation was GREAT!! Laying on the bed, watching TV, eating junk food!


At Smoky Mountain National Park. It was cold and windy. Once again, Julia refused to smile for the camera.


Mimi and Bap-pa with Julia.



We bought this little Explorer back back at the park store. Julia loved it. It contained a play whistle, flashlight, little play hatchet and Swiss army knife (it looks just like the one daddy has), etc.

Julia was so fascinated by the waterwheel, that she refused to turn around for a picture!

Jerrod's family had a tradition that every vacation they would have to stand in front of the park sign for a picture. Here we are continuing the tradition with our family!

And their tradition continues on now with grandkids!

Some pictures of the mountains.

This one restaurant we went to had a carousel in it. Since Julia has a recent fascination with horses, MiMi thought it would be neat for us all to ride it. Julia hated it and the rest of us all got motion sick from it!! LOL

Obsession

Julia is OBSESSED with the color yellow. I think it is going to be her favorite color. She has to point out everything that is yellow. Only Julia cannot say her "L's", so it comes out "yea-yo". SOOO cute.

Even though she knows most of her colors, she will tell you something is yellow just because she likes yellow, regardless of what color it actually is. Honestly, I think she really just likes saying the word yellow.

Julia is also picking up and repeating everything we say. MiMi has taught her two news sayings without even knowing it. Many times this weekend, Julia would do something only to have Debbie laugh and say "Oh, Julia". So for the past two days Julia has been walking around the house saying "Oh, Gee-Ah" (Gee-Ah is how she pronounces Julia). I also noticed Debbie said "well, geesh" or "oh, geesh" a lot. Apparently Julia noticed it too, because she is also saying "oh, geesh" a lot lately!

The funnest part is that she actually uses these phrases in the proper context!

In daycare news, Julia bit once last week, bit once yesterday, AND had another attempted bite yesterday that the caregiver was able to catch in time before she actually bit. Julia has not bit in a couple MONTHS! Not sure why she is doing it again. She knows she is not allowed to bite. Daycare pictures also came back yesterday and they turned out GREAT! I ended up buying the whole package. Luckily, they were not too expensive.

I cannot believe I am considering this!

Let me start off by saying I hate, HATE, hate mini vans. I always said I would NEVER drive one.

Yea, you can see where this is going....

I am actually considering buying a mini van. It is amazing the things you do once kids are in the picture.

Jerrod's car is on its last legs. It is 18 years old, after all!! We have been having to replace small things here and there. It seems like we have to spend a couple hundred dollars on it every couple of months. Now the heater does not work and Jerrod said one day last week it sounded like a piston was mis-firing. Sure, it could just be a sensor and a spark plug, but it could also be something major. We have put off replacing it because we know we would not get anything for it anyway, so we might as well drive it until it dies. Well, I think it is dying.

I had my mind made up for MONTHS now that I was going to get a Toyota Rav4 when that day finally came. (Jerrod gets my car and I get the new one.) I really wanted a Highlander, but could not justify the price. I was worried about the Rav4 having enough room for us, especially if we have more kids. We drive vehicles until they die, so we would have it a while. Jerrod has been trying to get me into a mini van for YEARS! I have adamantly refused for just as long. BUT, in the back of my mind, I knew a mini van was probably the smartest vehicle to get, I just reused to admit it.

Well, I think I am finally admitting it. We took Jerrod's grandparent's van on our trip this weekend and it was not like the mini vans I remember! It was so nice having the extra room and the fact all 5 of us, and all our stuff, could comfortably fit in to it. I DON"T like the looks of the mini van though. But all the extra space for stuff and people really has it's appeal, ESPECIALLY if we have more kids. It also drove really nice and the inside was very car-like then the mini vans my parents had.

There is ONLY one mini van I would even consider driving, the Nissan Quest. It looks more like a crossover than a mini van. So I did some researching on it today. I must say, I really like it. What I don't like is the price. It is more than a Rav4 would cost. It also has limited availability, since just not many people are buying them, so used inventory is even smaller. (we just cannot afford a new one) But, I have found a dealership that has two 2005 Quests in stock. They have low miles and not a bad price. I think I might be making a trip over there to test drive one, just to see if I could stand owning one.

I feel like such a sell-out and hypocrite. But the more I look and the more I think about it, a mini van is probably the best choice for our family. BLAH..... I hate being responsible!

Back from vacation

We should have just left Saturday evening after all!

Her fever was climbing Saturday evening, so I finally gave her some Motrin. That seemed to perk her up some. MiMi also gave her a long steamy bath. (Jerrod's parents were with us.) It was 10pm before we all went to bed. But sleep was fitful with Julia's coughing and occasional crying. By midnight, I totally awake worried about Julia. By 2:30am Julia was WIDE awake and was NOT going back to sleep. She was running around the room saying "all done" and refusing to lay in bed.

By 3am, we realize NOBODY is getting any sleep, so we might as well just go home then. So there we are in the middle of the night, packing up, getting ready, and loading the van up. Julia, the little stinker, ended up sleeping most of the way home!! Jerry and I shared the driving. On the way home, Julia cough was sounding much better and only had a low fever. I think laying flat on her back was making it just too hard to breathe. Sitting up in her car seat made it much easier.

We ended up getting home about 10am. Which was kind of nice because then we had the rest of the day to get some things done. Like taking a nap!

The rest of the vacation was nice. We did a lot of shopping and I spent way too much money, but I have not shopped in months. We also spent a day in the Smoky Mountains. It was quite chilly, but neat to see. I am not used to seeing mountains, so it was a treat for me. Also, the leaves were just starting to change colors, so that was pretty to see!

Julia made out like a bandit on the trip with lots of new clothes and toys/books. We also found a great Christmas dress for her. Jerrod also got a lot of new clothes.

Julia's excitement for the whole trip was seeing lots of doggies (which she calls "boofs"). We saw a stray dog at the rest stop AND there were several dogs staying in several of the rooms next to us at the hotel. So Julia got to see lots of boofs and was loving it. She even got to see baby boofs (puppies). She kept asking to see the boofs, so Jerry would take her on a walk in the hallways of the hotel hoping to see one. Jerrod even asked if she wanted a boof of her own and she said "yep". We will have to talk about that....

Julia is feeling much better today. Still has a bit of a cough, but doing much better. Hopefully we have avoided Croup this time.

P.S. I took a LOT of pictures. I will post some once I get them off my camera!

On vacation, getting Croup

We are currently on vacation in the Smoky Mountains. We leave for home tomorrow morning.

Julia started with a cough today. By late afternoon/early evening the cough was sounding croupy and she was starting to run a fever. We debated just leaving tonight, but that would put us home way after midnight. I figured she would get a better night sleep in the hotel than in her car seat. She is sleeping between us in our bed on vacation, so we will be able to keep a close eye on her tonight.

Poor little girl. Sick on vacation.

Ren Fest and Horses

This past weekend the three of us went to the Renaissance Festival. Julia really seemed to enjoy it. She likes to people watch, so she really enjoyed it. We tried to see if she wanted a princess hat or a toy sword, but she wanted nothing to do with it.

Then she saw the giant swing! She wanted to ride it, but unfortunately, she was still a little too small for it. So she had to make do with just watching it. She stood there for 20 minutes just watching it and the kids riding it.

Then she saw the horses. She LOVED the horses. I held her up to the fence and she just stared at them saying "horses" the whole time. They were giving horse rides and Jerrod suggested that we let Julia take a ride. I thought it would not be a good idea; with her extreme fear, I did not think she would get anywhere close to a horse. After about 20 minutes of watching the horses, my arms got tired and we moved on. Julia kept talking about the "horses" and finally she drug Jerrod and I BACK to see the horses. So I finally decided to see if Julia would like a horse ride. Once we got about 5 feet from the horse her grip tightened and she buried her head in my chest. I tried to put her on the horse, but she screamed and screamed. I did not want to frighten the horses (although, they seemed to be pretty bomb proof), and did not want to traumatize Julia, so I gave up on trying to get her one the horse.

This is as close as Julia came to riding a horse that day. She thought it was great fun!

All this week we have been hearing about "horses" from Julia. I told Julia that her Uncle Bill has a horse or two and that the next time we go visit, we will go see them. As long as they don't get too close, Julia will really enjoy it.

Julia's funny sayings

Now that Julia is talking constantly (and I do mean constantly), it is so funny to listen to her. She uses complete sentences most of the time too. Their are two things that Julia says that makes me laugh every time.

First is that she must have been a New Yorker in a past life. She is always asking us "What you doin'?". Yes, she says "doin'" instead of "doing". AND it sounds just like someone from New York saying "doin'". The inflection is spot on!

Next is Julia trying to say her name. Apparently "Julia" is pretty hard for her to say. So instead when she says her name it comes out sounding like "Gee-Ah". Which is a little better than what she was saying a couple weeks ago, "Ah-Gee-Ah". So now we have been calling her "gee-ah". I think she earned herself a new nickname. She will eventually get it, but for now, it is really cute.

I am still in amazement at how fast she is picking things up and how her speech is developing by leaps and bounds. We can usually understand her most of the time now.

Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day

October 15th, tomorrow, is National "Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance" Day.

I have a wonderful daughter who is the light of my life, but I still occasionally think back at what we went through before her. The two miscarriages.........

I feel strongly that everything happens for a reason, even if you don't understand what that reason is for a long time, if ever. I appreciate Julia SO much more because of my miscarriages. My miscarriages are the reason I did not go insane during the 10 months of colic (well at least not completely insane), I was just so happy to have a baby and be a mom. If I would not have had the miscarriages, Julia would not be here.

Sure, I still get sad and frustrated. I hate the fact that I had to take FIVE pills a DAY in order to prevent another miscarriage and that I need to be on these meds months BEFORE thinking of getting pregnant again. Any pregnancy while not on the meds would probably result in miscarriage. So everything has to be planned in advance; no rash decisions, no "oops" pregnancies, it kind of takes all the romance out of it!:P But I gladly did it for the chance to be a mother and I would do it all again in a heartbeat.

So tomorrow I will allow myself to take a moment to think about the "what would have been's" and mourn my two lost babies. Then I will go back to living in the "now" and loving my daughter.

Monkey caught on action!

I told you Julia was becoming a little monkey, I now have proof!

I came home one evening, left Julia to play in the living room while I put her diaper bag away in her room. There was a cable truck in front on the house working on the neighbor's cable. Julia is fascinated by "big trucks". So this is what I saw when I came back into the living room 10 seconds later!


Same night, Daddy was watching her while I was upstairs putting something away. I am not sure what was on the table she wanted...

My scaredy child.

I don't know if she is going through another fear period or what. But Julia has some extreme fear.

I thought she was finally getting over her fear over everything. She was doing much better socially and was actually doing okay around crowds. Now noises of all sorts scare her. Even airplanes in the sky freak her out. If she hears something she does not like or scares her, she covers her ears and runs to one of us crying.

The daycare brought someone in to do development testing on all the kids. We got Julia's report back today. It said that Julia was really shy for the evaluator and had extreme fearfullness and stranger anxiety. I think they had a hard time assessing her because of it. They marked down that she could not do several things that I KNOW she can do and she does at home on a regular basis. It was because the evaluator could not get Julia to do what s/he asked. They had to rely on the caregivers to tell the evaluator how Julia was doing in certian areas. Out of what they did get Julia to do, it showed she was right on track, even ahead developmentally.

Then we had a bad night last night. Julia cried when put to bed, after a few minutes the cry changed from "I don't want to go to bed", to "I am terrified". I went in to check on her and you could just see the look of terror on her face. I got her settled down and laid her back down. 15 minutes later she is screaming in terror again. Once again I got to her and see she is scared out of her mind. I rock her some more and sing to her to calm her down. In less then 2 songs she was snoring. Poor girl was so tired. Then AGAIN at 4:30am, she was screaming in terror. I rock her some more and she is quickly back asleep. I have no clue what could have scared her so much. She has a night-light in her room.

I really hope this is just another phase she is going through and she will quickly out grow it. I don't know what else I can do to help. I have her in a great daycare with other kids, I take her to swimming classes (which she LOVES), we try to take her out to festivals and other places.

My child is weird

My child is so weird!

I was driving home with her yesterday and I hear her gagging. I look in the rear view mirror to see her in the mirror hanging by her car seat (You MUST get one of these little mirrors if you have kids, they are awesome!). I see her sticking her fingers in her mouth and down her throat causing herself to gag.

But the weird part is that she thought this was FUNNY!!?? So she kept doing it!! She would stick her fingers down her throat to cause her to gag, then she would laugh! I asked her to stop, but she thought it was just to funny to stop. I thought for sure I was going to be cleaning up a mess when I got home. Luckily, no messes, just one weird kid!

Bedtime

In the last couple of weeks we have been reading Julia bedtime stories. We read to her all the time, we just never started doing it at bedtime. So we finally decided she needed to be read bedtime stories.

Jerrod read the story and Julia and I listen. Right now we are reading the classic fairy tales (not the Disney version, but the Brother's Grimm versions).

Julia has been playing or whining about not wanting to go to bed through the entire stories. Jerrod was getting frustrated and figured Julia was not getting anything out of it and could care less about having a bedtime story. So one night I put her to bed without Jerrod reading to her. She immediately started screaming for Dada and pointing at the book. She really wanted Jerrod to come in and read her the bedtime story!


Julia has also decided that she now has to be covered with a quilt at bedtime. She always sleeps with her Blankie, but when we were without power I did not want her to get too cold at night so I would cover her up with one of her quilts. She now thinks she needed to be covered with the quilt every night. Just like a big girl. She already has to sleep on a pillow and has been for months.

She is growing up so fast. She will be in a big girl bed before to long.

Julia found her heaven!

Julia has only been to a library once in her life and that was probably a year ago. I don't borrow books from the library anymore because I am TERRIBLE about returning them on time, so I end up with fines. So I no longer allow myself to borrow library books. I just buy books, I buy a bunch at second-hand sales, so that helps. Julia REALLY loves books, so she has a small library herself!

Well, I am putting together some school programs for work. I needed to find some books on life cycles I could read to 2nd graders. So I needed to go to the library.

Last night I pick Julia up and head to the library. I am really hoping I can find what I need fast and get out of there before Julia throws a big fit. I already know what books I want, I just need to look up their call number and find them. So we get to the library and I find the catalog computers. I sit at one and sit Julia in front of the one next to me. She thought it was GREAT that she got her own computer to play with. I quickly look up the call number and write them down on a piece of paper. Julia now thinks she needs her own pencil and paper just like mom. So I give one to her and she scribbles all over the paper pretending to write. She also is clicking the mouse and typing on the keyboard just like mommy! (the computer ONLY went to the library catalog, so I was not worried about Julia messing it up)

I get the info I need and get Julia down start looking for the books I need. This is when Julia realized there were rows and rows and rows of BOOKS!!! She squealed in delight!! She kept saying "books, mommy, books!" while running up and down the aisles of books. She just kept squealing with pleasure at being around this many books!! Since the library did not have many people in it and she obviously was having such a good time, I just let run and squeal.

I find all the books I needed and am ready to check out. It took a little convincing to get Julia away from the books over to the check-out counter. She sat on the counter while I checked out the books. She even found a rubber band that she thought was a bracelet and had to wear it.

It is finally time to leave and I walk her out holding her hand. I think she was reluctant to leave such a wonderful place! She was in HEAVEN around all those books!!

I am definitely going to see if there is a story time at our library we can try to get to. The look on Julia's face when she saw the rows and rows of books was priceless!

Hungry

Julia goes through spurts where she is just hungry all the time. She is currently going through one of those spurts.

She is asking for food as soon as we get home from daycare (sometimes even before). She will eat a snack when we get home and STILL eat a huge supper. And yes, the daycare feeds her and says that she actually is a really good eater for them. I just think she just plays so hard that she is hungry often. They do have snack time around 3pm.

The other night I made salmon patties for supper. I was not sure if she would like them. Salmon is a pretty strong flavor. I cut up part of one and she devoured it and asked for more! So I gave her the rest of it. She finished it and was still asking for more! So she got some cheese and a bagel and a cookie for dessert! That is more that I ate for supper!!!

It seems like she eats non-stop sometimes. I guess she is a growing girl going through another growth spurt.

Oh, I was a bad mommy yesterday. I was running a little behind yesterday morning. After getting me and Julia dressed and ready, I realized daycare will have stopped serving breakfast by the time I get there. I really did not have the time to let her sit and eat a bowl of cereal. About that time Julia started asking for a cookie. So I gave in and gave her a cookie and juice to eat on the way to daycare. What a nutritious breakfast! Oh well, Julia at least really enjoyed it!

Some recent pictures

MiMi (Julia's name for Jerrod's mom) and Julia hanging out while we all clean up the yard.



Styling in her sparkly sunglasses.

Ready to drive away in Grandpa's car!

Julia loves to walk around in our shoes, here she is in daddy's. (I think in this picture Julia looks like a spitting image of me when I was that age.)

We still love stickers here. She also loves to put the stickers all up and down her arms, at least it is not on the furniture or the hardwood floors.

Being the girly-girl she likes to be. Hat, sunglasses, necklace, bracelets, watch, tutu and sparkly shoes!

Hurricane Ike pictures

FINALLY, I got my pictures off of my camera and I can show you all how bad our yard looked after Hurricane Ike came through Ohio. Who would have ever thought a HURRICANE would come to OHIO!!!


This is our front yard.


The whole tree bent over and twisted

Here you can see our electric line hanging down and some of the minor damage done to our spouting.

Our back deck. You can see about 4-5 whole tree broke off in this picture!

More of the deck.

Our front yard. Jerry, Jerrod's dad, is trying to cut up the limbs so we can transport them.

Here he is trying to cut down that really twisted limb. I was getting pretty scared with him that high up on a ladder with a chainsaw. Luckly, he had on a harness and was tethered to the tree.

Some of the back yard.

Julia, Grandma, and Great Grandma supervising all of the yard clean up.

In total, I bet we hauled close to 50 pick-up truck load to the city compost facility. It took 3 weeks to get it all cleaned up, and we still have some dead limbs that are stuck up in the trees that we could not get. After every windy day, a few more fall out.

I am still amazed that we did not have major damage to our house.

Little Monkey

I think Daddy was sleeping on the job!

On Saturday afternoon I ran to pick up a few groceries. I left Julia at home with daddy so we would not have a repeat of the last grocery trip with her screaming through the entire store.

I get home about 45 minutes later and see Julia is applying her sunscreen to her legs. (Julia loves to put on lotion) I ask Jerrod where she got that from, and he said he did not know. I walk into the kitchen and see how she got the sunscreen. It was sitting on the table.

Julia had somehow known it was up there. She pushed out the chair, climbed up on the table, crawled to the other side of the table to get the sunscreen. She then crawled back across the table to the chair to climb off the table and down back to the floor!!

I'm sure Julia was really proud of herself for getting it. You just have to wonder where Daddy was during all of that!LOL

Great weekend

We had a GREAT weekend! Did not do anything special, but it was really nice all the same.

Saturday morning Julia had her swimming class. We also finished painting the computer room Saturday. Then Saturday night we had another couple over and we cooked supper over a campfire. Julia got to run around the yard for hours and have fun.

Then on Sunday we went to my parent's house for supper. Everyone was there except for my brother. So Julia got to play with her cousins. Lets just say Christmas is going to be fun this year, and LOUD!

The house even got mostly cleaned. Although that is a never ending battle with 5 cats and a toddler living here.

I finally downloaded the storm pictures off my camera along with some new Julia ones. I hope to get them posted in the next several days. My home computer is soooooo slow, that it takes awhile to do it.

"I wet" and other Julia "stuff"

I think we are starting to get really close to potty training. Julia is very interested in us using the toilet and wants us to use it on her command. She is also having some success at daycare at going in the potty chair.

Julia is one of those types of people who hates to make mistakes. So until she knows EXACTLY how to do something, she will refuse to do it. But once she does finally decide to try it, she is usually really good at it. We figure potty training is going to be the same way. She is taking everything in and learning all about it, then one day she will finally work up the courage to try it and that will be it! She will be potty trained! I hope that maybe that will happen by the time she is 2, but I am not going to push it.

BUT....I think she is starting to understand the feeling of having to go. She will also tell us when she has gone by coming up to us, pointing at her diaper and saying "I wet". Or if she poops, she will say "I poop". The other night Julia was up in the middle of the night. Unless she has a poopy diaper, I don't chance waking her up even more by changing her. But this night, after making sure she was fine, I go to put her back in her crib and she says "Mommy, I wet" "I wet, I wet". So I had to change her diaper before she would let me put her back in her crib. Then another night, I changed her and got her ready for bed. After about 2 minutes (while I was still working on her pj's) she said "I wet". Sure enough, she was. She is also starting to ask to sit on the potty. She is usually always already wet by the time we get her diaper off, but I think the time between when she realizes she has to go until the time she actually goes is so short, that we just cannot get her on the potty fast enough. It will come with time though...

Little miss is also got an attitude. One morning she spilled her dried cereal all over the floor. I told her to pick them up. She looked at me and say "Mommy do it!"!!!!! Sorry babe, I am not your maid/servant.

She is getting good with her colors and speach. One morning I held up two outfits and asked which one she wanted to wear. She pointed to the navy one and said "The blue one"!!! WOW, I am impressed.

Julia also ripped her very first book page this week. Julia has this favorite book that I bought second-hand for a dime. She has loved it from the time she was tiny. Even though it had paper pages (unlike a baord book), she had always been really careful with it. In fact, she is careful with all of her books that have paper pages. But she ripped her favorite book this week. She had it in the car with her. I think the page had a small tear in it just from the constant use it gets. Well Julia saw it and just could not help herself, she just had to make the tear bigger and bigger. Since she was in her carseat and I was driving, I could not do anything to stop it other than to tell her "no". Well, if you read my pervious post, you would know that she does not listen very well anymore. So the page got almost entirely ripped. She is going to be back to board books only in the car. I will have to search Amazon and see if I can find another copy of this book.

Terrible Two's

Oh my, has Julia entered the terrible two's!!!

I noticed at about 18 months Julia started throwing temper tantrums, doing things she knew she is not allowed doing, being mean when mad and just outright disobeying us. I figured then at we were headed into the terrible two's.

OH.MY.GOD....She has taken it to an entirely new level lately!! Temper tantrums complete with throwing herself on the floor and flopping around all the while screaming. She also tries to bite, hit, scratch and throw things when she is going through one of these tantrums. I try to ignore them, but after 20-30 minutes, I just have to intervene.

I am just amazed how quickly she can go from happy Julia, to a full out fit! I am also amazed at what such minor things can set her off.

I had to get some groceries last night. I think Julia screamed almost the entire time. She wanted something, but I would not let her have it, so she screamed. And when I did let her have something, she would play with it for 10 seconds before throwing it on the floor, only to scream when I would not give it back to her. By the end she was in such a tantrum, that if I did not have her strapped into the cart, she would have seriously hurt herself with the way she was thrashing about!

I think Julia is going to be spending a lot of time in time out if she keeps this up!

My motherly instincts were right!

First off let me say Julia is FINALLY better! She actually went to daycare Weds and Thursday.

Pedi finally called Weds afternoon with the tests rests. Urine was negative, rapid strep was negative. But white cell count was up and she was anemic. Pedi was a little concerned with her being anemic, but thought it was just from being sick. So nothing to show what was wrong with Julia. Pedi actually said that there might be a chance that she has Mono!!!!! WHAT!! Aren't you sick for WEEKS with Mono? Urgh....

I had a really hard time believing it was not Strep again. Considering this latest illness acted EXACTLY like the last when she had strep. AND the fact that Julia spit out so much of her antibiotics. I had thought all along that it was just the Strep back. So the negative Strep test confused me.

Then the Pedi calls back early Thursday morning. The lab incubated the strep test for 48 hours and IT came back POSITIVE!! The pedi did not get that result back until late Weds night. I just KNEW IT!!!! Julia had the same symptoms, same everything as last time.

I asked it that meant more antibiotics. The pedi said since Julia is now doing fine, we will hold off on antibiotics. BUT if she spikes a fever in the next several days, all I have to do is call the office and they will call me in an antibiotic for her. There is an order already written up in Julia's chart for it.

So, my motherly instincts were right! I really should have pushed for the Strep test in the beginning. Luckily, Julia is a trooper and does not seem bothered by her recent sicknesses.