Seeing Mimi at school

Jerrod's mom is retiring from teaching after 35 years. Her last day is tomorrow. Julia and I were going to surprise her at lunchtime tomorrow, but then we found out that the teachers were having a surprise luncheon for her today, so we went today instead.

Julia and I baked a cake this morning to bring and Julia put the sprinkles on it.

Debbie was definitely surprised to see us!! Julia was excited to see Mimi at school. Even Aunt Ninnie came up to surprise Debbie! Julia was BEYOND excited to she her Aunt Ninnie!

Waiting is hard to do.....


Come on, MOM!


Sitting with Mimi..


Cake was her favorite part of the meal!


Sitting with Mimi and Aunt Ninnie!


Happy Retirement Debbie!! Hope you enjoy it!

Baby Jude

Julia is ALL about Baby Jude lately. It is "baby Jude" this and "baby Jude" that.... She talks about him or to him constantly.

The other day she pinched her finger. Both mommy and daddy gave it a kiss to make it feel better. That is when she decided that Baby Jude had to kiss it too. So she stuck her finger in my belly button and I pinched what skin I could around it, to make it seem like Baby Jude was kissing it.

The neat part is that Baby Jude REALLY responds to Julia. Anytime she plays with my belly, or talks loudly, Baby Jude gets all active. She talks to my belly and he responds by giving her some good kicks. She is already talking about when he comes out. Although, I don't know if she is going to like him as much then....LOL!

Climbing out of the crib

Julia finally discovered yesterday that she could climb out of the crib. I am sure she could have done it MUCH sooner if she had ever tried. Considering that she is almost 2 1/2, I think that is pretty good. I also think it is a good thing we are moving her to regular bed in a few weeks.

Yesterday at nap, this morning, and again today at nap, she climbed out of her crib. I guess there is no keeping her in if she wants out!

It is really funny to see how she climbs out. She sticks her feet through the bars of the crib and pushes on the wall until the crib rolls over to the padded rocking chair (there are hardwood floors in her room). Once the crib is up against the rocking chair, it is an easy climb up and over the side and a gentle plop down into the padded rocking chair!

She is so proud of herself for figuring this out too!

More pictures

The first set of pictures are going to really embarrass Julia some day... But I was just so proud of my little girl learning how to use the potty!!


Well, she is already somewhat embarrassed about me taking pictures of her on the potty! LOL


The cats love to sleep on the back of the couch. I guess Julia figured that if the cats could do it, she could too....


Playing in the park!

Loving these pictures!

I am in LOVE with this picture! I love the setting and the outfit.


Here are two more. I like them as well, but not as much as that first one!



Julia looks so grown up in these pictures!!!

Off my mommy!

Often when Jerrod and I will hug or cuddle together, Julia will get jealous and want Jerrod to get away from me. "My mommy" she will say. She also quite frequently gets mad when on of the cats sit on my lap. She will start crying for them to get off "Julia's mommy".

Well, it seems Baby Jude has started the same thing already!!! Jerrod tells me every time he hugs or cuddles me, he gets constantly kicked by Baby Jude. I know he loves to kick his big sister when I am holding her too.

I guess mommy is the prized possession! I am going to soak it up now, because in a few years, they are going to want nothing to do with me....

Ballerina

Lately, Julia has become obsessed with being a ballerina. She has two outfits that she considers "ballerina" outfits. One is an actual ballerina outfit and the other is just a dress with a big, puffy, tulle skirt. These two outfits get CONSTANT use! They are either being worn, or in the laundry. I think I might have to see if I can find another ballerina outfit or two.... Julia will even spin, and spin, and spin when in these outfits because that is what a ballerina does! I think I need to teach her to hold her arms over her head while she spins, though, like the real ballerinas do.

Here is my little ballerina. (Complete with a juice spill on the outfit!)

30 week belly picture

Took a belly picture today. I am officially, 30 weeks and 2 days pregnant! You can also see my new haircut. It is a lot shorter than I am used to, but I am liking it.


Baby Jude seems to be continuing to grow nice and strong. I know his kicks and stretches are starting to hurt me now! I have not weighed myself in 2 weeks, but I don't think I have gained much (if any) weight. Jerrod has been telling me for the last week or so just how thin I am looking. LOL I am not sure how I can look thin with a big belly sticking out in front, but he says I am. He is not talking about the belly, but the rest of me.

Walking on the road

A couple weeks ago Julia got spanked TWICE within a couple days of each other because she ran away from me to go walk on the road by herself. Jerrod and I explained multiple times to her why she was not allowed to walk on the road and how she could get seriously hurt if she did.

After that weekend, she seemed to get the hint and was much better about holding our hand when close to the road.

Now she constantly tells us that "bad kids walk on the road" and how "they need to hold their mommy's hand". We never told her "bad kids" walk on the road, just that she was not allowed to walk on the road without holding mommy's or daddy's hand. Somehow she equated that to only bad kids walk on the road without their mommy. She especially says this when she sees some kids walking down the road. It is just too funny to hear!

She was/is fascinated with walking on the road because our road does not have sidewalks, so any Julia and I walk anywhere, we have to walk on the road until we get to a main street. Luckily, she now knows she has to hold our hand our stay in the stroller when close to the road.

Potty trained?

I don't want to jinx it, but I think Julia is officially potty trained. AND it only took 3 days!!!!

I decided last week that it was time for her to be potty trained. So this Monday morning we did away with the diapers and went straight into underwear. Things went MUCH better than I thought they would. I had been explaining to her for the days leading up to potty training that she is now a big girl and she was going to wear underwear and she was not allowed to pee in the underwear and get it dirty, she had to pee in the potty. This really seemed to help her. I think that is just her learning style. I found that if you explain things to her, she does MUCH better with it. So anyway, I put the underwear on her and had her sit on the potty every 30-60 minutes. I think we had about a 50% success rate that first day. On Tuesday morning I was ready to throw in the towel, though, she was peeing in her underwear right after I just had her sit on the potty. But by the afternoon/evening she did much better. The accidents she did have were on the bathroom floor, so she tried to make it in time. Yesterday was really good. Only one pee and one poop accident all day! And the pee accident was once again in the bathroom, so she almost made it. Then today she was been accident free!!!! Well, she did have one at nap time, but I did not hear her yelling for me to let her out of the crib so she could use the potty. So I blame myself for that one and don't count it. I have started putting underwear on her at naptime, but still sticking with a diaper at bedtime for right now. Oh, I very rarely have to tell her to go use the potty. She has figured out on her own when she needs to go, and just goes to the bathroom and does her thing.

I am so BEYOND EXCITED!!! I am so proud of my big girl. You can tell Julia is very proud of herself too! She loves wearing her underwear and tells me diapers are for babies. I hope she does not regress when Baby Jude comes. Sure, I know she will still have the occasional accident, but that is to be expected.

Her new room

We are making Julia a new room. We are turning the junk/cat room into her new room. It is bigger than her current room. Baby Jude will get her old room.

We got the room cleaned out, but have stalled for the last couple of weeks because of having to do other things.

After we cleaned it out, Jerrod took Julia into it and pointed to the wall where we will be building a closet and said "That whole wall will be full of Julia's dresses and clothes". Julia really took this to heart.

Now anytime we are in that room she lifts her arms in the air towards that same wall and said "all of Julia's dresses go there" or "wall of Julia's clothes". It is so funny to hear.

Then today while I was making lunch, Julia walks into that room holding her baby doll. I hear her telling her baby doll all about the "wall of Julia's clothes". LOL She was really getting into it too. Carrying on an entire conversation with her baby doll about it!

Oscar the Grouch

Julia really likes Sesame Street. We have several DVD's that she watches.

The other day we were in the hardware store and I needed to buy some grass seed. This hardware store stores their bulk grass seed in the old fashioned tin trash cans. Exactly like the one Oscar the Grouch lives in. Julia saw those trash cans and immediately starts yelling "Oscar the Grouch, Oscar the Grouch!!!". I had to lift the lid on each one of the cans so she could look in it to see if Oscar was in there. She was so excited about it too!

Now anytime she sees a round trash can, she starts yelling "Oscar the Grouch!".

Continued counting

Julia has been counting to 10 for awhile now. Recently I have been trying to teach her to count to 20.

Yesterday on the drive to my parent's house I hear from the back seat:

"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, (long pause) 17!"

I guess she just could not remember what came after 12! So after some thinking, she decided 17 must come next. She then started all over again.

Mother's Day

First off, Happy Mother's Day to all the mother's out there. I am so happy that I am a mother. At one point, I did not think that was ever going to be possibility for me. I am loving every minute of it!

My Mother's Day started off with Julia waking from a nightmare sometime between 3-5am (did not look at the clock) and having to go comfort her by rocking her back to sleep, and being woke up at 8am this morning to hearing Julia on the monitor saying "Mommy, Daddy, I peed on my bed...."! Oi!

Did not get anything for Mother's Day, Jerrod told me to just buy an extra of whatever I was buying our moms. LOL Lot of thought went into that! Oh, well. I have a happy, healthy daughter and a healthy son on the way. Life is good!

We saw Jerrod's mom yesterday as they are leaving on a trip tomorrow and really needed today to pack.

This afternoon we went my parent's for mother's day. It is so fun to watch Julia play with her cousins. She could not wait until her cousin Nathan got there!

Here Nathan is giving her a ride in his Hummer!



Then Nathan decided to let Julia learn to drive it! She quickly figured out how to make it go, but it is really hard to turn so someone had to jog beside it to make sure they did not crash into anything!

Here she is driving. Darren is getting a ride and Nathan is helping direct her. My Brother-In-Law, Bruce, was chasing after her helping her steer.


She was so proud of herself and thought it was so much fun. It took her no time at all to figure out the car.


Between her and Nathan driving it, they completely drained the battery before the night was over!! LOL

At one point, Julia was trying to ride the tricycle. She is finally big enough to reach the pedals. She was trying to figure out how to actually pedal it to make it go! With a little push-start from daddy, she figured it out!!




She did not understand about steering yet and could only do it on the really flat parts, but she was doing it!

What a BIG girl she is becoming! Too bad we don't have anywhere around our house that she could ride a tricycle or a electric car. I might have to watch the garage sales this summer for a tricycle and take to over to Jerrod's parent's house so she can ride it there.

Julia was loving riding and playing until my sister showed up with Baby Gavin, they she was all about the baby!! She just wanted to hold him so badly! She would hug him and kiss him and pat his belly/back, etc....


Gavin might not have been too excited for Julia to be holding him, but Julia was sure loving it!!


She held him several times tonight. She would try to comfort him when he cried.

She gave everyone hugs and kisses when we left too (except for Uncle Dan).

Mommy's belly hurt?

Now since Baby Jude is getting so big and his kicks and movements are becoming harder and harder, occasionally I will say "wow" or "oh" and hold my belly after a particular strong kick. Each time, Julia will look and me and ask "Mommy's belly hurt?". She thinks my belly must be hurting me.LOL

Not long ago, Jerrod said that Jude needs to hurry up and come out already. Well, Julia picked up on this and is constantly telling me that "Baby Jude come out now....". She will even say "I will help" as she pushes on my belly.

29 week appointment

Had an appointment with my midwife this afternoon. Everything still looks great. Jude is still measuring big. The midwife confirmed that all the minor issues I am having are completely normal for this stage of pregnancy, even though I never had them with Julia. Although, I find it a bit disturbing that every time I sneeze, a few drops of pee leak out!! But still completely normal! I also had my second sugar test today. Because I have several risk factors for developing gestational diabetes, my midwife wanted to play if safe and test me twice during this pregnancy (she did the same thing with Julia's pregnancy). Luckily, I have never had an issue with my sugar levels.

Since the sugar test takes so long and I had Julia with me, I thought I needed some help at this appointment keeping Julia entertained. Jerrod could not take off work, so I asked his mom to come along, since the appointment was after school. Imagine my surprise when Debbie AND Jerry showed up. Apparently Jerry got home early from work. So all four of us went to the appointment. I knew Jerry would be excited to hear the baby's heartbeat too, so I shrugged off what little embarrassment I had about talking about my incontinence in front of him and he seeing my belly full of stretch marks, and had them all come in the room with me. I guess it is true that you lose all modesty once you become a parent!!LOL Jerry never got to hear the heartbeat of his own kids, so I think he got a kick out of hearing his grandson's. He was quite fascinated by all the measurements and other stuff the midwife did.

Before the midwife walked in Julia was laying on the table saying the dr. was going to listen to Baby Jude in her belly. So when the midwife asked her if she wanted her to listen to her belly Julia agreed, UNTIL the midwife turned the doppler on and started for her belly (she was just going to have Julia listen to her own heartbeat). Then Julia got scared and changed her mind.

Since I had just drank that super sugary drink for the sugar test, the midwife had to chase down the baby to find his heartbeat. But it was loud and strong once she did. I am now on 2 week appointments! I cannot believe I am in the 3rd trimester and this baby will be here before I know it!

I think Jerrod's parent's coming to this appointment made them understand why I go to a midwife and not a regular OB. I know they were really skeptical when I first told them about it when we were first trying to get pregnant. They accepted it, but I really think they just thought that is was just one of those crazy things I do that they don't understand. They both said today they see why I like the midwives so much better than a regular OB.

Oh, the midwife DID NOT like the fact that I was still mowing grass; 2.5 hours with a non-selfpropelled mower was just too much in her opinion for a hugely pregnant woman to be doing. She agreed to continue to allow me to do it as long as I broke it up into 2 or 3 chunks of time and took a break if I started noticing pain or Braxtin Hicks contractions. Sure mowing grass is hard work, but it is also good exercise. I have only gained about 6 pounds this pregnancy so far and I want to stay on that track and not gain a lot. With Julia I only gained about 18 pounds and had lost that all within a week of having her. Since I am bigger to begin with, I don't need to gain all that extra weight!

Sure sign she is ready...

Julia gave me a CLEAR sign today she is ready to be potty trained...... She changed HERSELF!! (well, almost)

After nap, I set her on the changing table to change her diaper. Before I even got a chance, she had her diaper off, got herself a wipe and wiped off. I then put the new diaper under her and pulled the front up. She then grabbed the front of the diaper from me, held it to her tummy and strapped the tabs on the diaper herself!

Sorry little girl, but when you can basically change yourself, it is time to be potty trained!!

She was doing sooooo well with potty training before we had to pull her from daycare. Then she majorly back-slid. Now I cannot even get her to SIT on the potty, let alone use it!

I was going to do a potty training boot camp this week, but I had too many appointments. I really want a week were we rarely have to leave the house.

Well, next week is the week! Poor Julia will not know what is going to hit her! Since she HATES being wet if her diaper leaks, I think putting her straight into underwear is going to be the most effective way of potty training her. Sure it will be a lot of messes at first, but I am hoping she quickly catches on.

If she does not become mostly potty trained in the next month, I think I will put it off until the baby is born. It is just getting too close to Baby Jude's birth after that.

Maturing?

I have to wonder if Julia is maturing and growing up.

For the last couple of weeks, she has been such a good girl! She has been listening to what I say and doing what I ask. She has been behaving when we have to go to appointments and have to wait. She is also being good when we go to the store.

She had been holding my hand without complaint and will even stop and hold out her hand when I tell her to "wait for mommy and hold my hand".

The other day we were getting ready to head out the door and she was unwrapping a piece of candy. She threw the wrapper on the floor and ran to the door. When I sternly told her we do not throw trash on the floor and to pick it up and throw it in the trash can, she did it!!! She has been also doing other things I ask her to do! We really need to work on her cleaning up her (toy) messes, so I am slowly moving to that.

She has been WONDERFUL in the few restaurants we have been to recently. Waiting patiently and not fussing.

The meltdowns have seemed to be much less too!

She is still a toddler and still acts like a toddler, she does get in ornery moods a lot, but I really think she might be growing up and maturing! Although, I am sure I have just jinxed it and now she is going to be a real handful!

Compassion

I am surprised at how much compassion a 2 year old can have.

The mother of a friend of ours recently died. The viewing was on Sunday. We were taking Julia along with us. All morning we talked about how Uncle Barry's mom got sick and died, so now Uncle Barry is sad and we are going to go make him feel better. (I am not sure how he got the "uncle" on his name, but that is what Julia calls him). So all Julia talked about that day was going to see Uncle Barry and make him feel better.

It so happened that Julia fell asleep in the car 10 minutes before we got to the funeral home, slept through the viewing in Jerrod's arms, and slept the entire way home. She did not wake up until we pulled back into our driveway. She asked about seeing Uncle Barry and we told her we already did and she slept through it. She started crying about this. She was so upset that she missed seeing Uncle Barry and making him feeling better. We explained we would see him again soon.

So everyday this week, sometimes multiple times a day, she asks about seeing Uncle Barry again.

Monday evening Julia and I stopped at the store and picked up a card and plant to give to Uncle Barry the next time we see him. When I told her the card was for Uncle Barry, she told me that "Uncle Barry's mom got sick and he is sad.". I explained to her that was right, his mom got sick and died and he was sad. She also helped pick out the plant for him. Right now the plant is sitting on the front porch until we see him. (our cats would eat it up if I brought it in the house!) So every time we go outside, so points to the plant and says it is for Uncle Barry to make him feel better.

Big hug, little hug

Julia loves to do hugs and kisses when it is time for bed. Personally, I think she is just stalling, but hey, I will take them when I can get them. Usually during the day she is too busy playing to be bothered to give me a hug or kiss.

The funny part is that she will tell you if she wants you to give her a big hug or a little hug, a big kiss or a little kiss. It is usually a combination of them all.

Almost made our first call to Poison Control

I thought we were going to have to make our first call to Poison Control tonight.....

Julia had removed the cushions from the couch so she could jump on it. I heard her crunch on something and looked to see what she found under those cushions to eat. That is when I spotted one of those Silica packets you get in stuff broken open and the crystals everywhere!! ACK!!!! I immediately have her spit out whatever she had in her mouth in my hand. Luckily, she listened to me. I don't think she actually ate any, but I could not be completely sure. I yell for Jerrod's help, explain to him what happened and he hopped on the internet to see just how dangerous it was and what, if anything, we needed to do with Julia. I thought of calling poison control immediately, but since I knew Julia did not eat much, if any, I thought I would give Jerrod 5 minutes of research first. In the meantime, I removed Julia and vacuumed up the remaining crystals.

According to what Jerrod found, Julia would be fine. Especially since Julia told us she did not actually eat any of it. I tend to believe her because she was spitting it out before I even realized what she was eating. The only real warning Jerrod did find was that sometimes the Silica is covered in an insecticide or fungicide. Since I am someone who taught Pesticide classes, I knew that it could not have been an extremely toxic pesticide, because you need a license for those and they would not be allowed to be in packaging sold to the general public.

So she will be just fine, but we are keeping an extra close eye on her anyway.

I can only imagine that the packet must have come out of some Christmas present and slipped between the couch cushions without us realizing it. I guess I need to vacuum under the cushions more often!

Gym and Storytime

Since our library takes the month of May off from storytime and we just finished our swimming lessons, I was looking for something else I could take Julia to. The Rec Center where we go for swimming lessons had something called "Gym and Storytime". It was being held every Friday in May. It was cheap, and it keeps Julia around other kids, so I signed her up.

Her first class was this past Friday. Basically it is just free play for 45 minutes on a bunch of different equipment. Then the last 15 minutes the instructor reads a couple of stories while the kids have a snack.

It took Julia awhile to warm up to the equipment, but she seemed to have fun. During the storytime portion, she did something that completely surprised me....She was actually talking to the instructor!!! She was telling her about the flowers and fish at our house. Except, she kept saying "I have flowers at my Mommy's house" and "I have fishes at my Mommy's house". She kept saying everything was at her "Mommy's house". I sure the other parents were thinking that Jerrod and I were divorced and she only had these things at her mommy's house, but not at her daddy's house!!!

I did manage to snap a few pictures...

Probably one of her favortie pieces of equipment there once she figured it out!

"Okay.... This looks fun"


"Oh, you jump! Wow"


"YEAH!! JUMP, JUMP, JUMP......."


Relaxing on a pad thing...

"It's moving"

Julia is still fascinated by my growing belly. Every night at bedtime she says "See the belly" as she pulls up my shirt.

The other night Baby Jude was really moving around when Julia went to play with my belly. She had her hand on my belly and felt him move. She looked at me and said "It's moving!". I explained to her that was her baby brother moving inside of mommy's belly. So now every night she tells me "it's moving" regardless if Jude is moving or not.

She also LOVES to put her mouth right up to my belly and say "Hi baby Jude!".

I she is knows something is up, but I am not sure she completely understands.

More language developments

Julia has made new strides in her language development recently.

She is now using contractions. She can quite clearly express her opinion, thoughts and desires. Her speech is clear enough that most people can understand her. I am amazed at some of the sentences she can put together. She can also carry on a lengthy conversation with you.

She is singing more and more songs. She loves to sing and I will often catch her singing to herself.

The other day we past a wooden giraffe and Julia yelled out "GIRAFFE". How she knew that was a giraffe, I don't know. I have never told her what a giraffe was. She must have picked it up somewhere. That girl does not forget a THING!!!

Barney with Aunt Stacey

My youngest sister, Stacey, LOVED Barney when she was little. I think that is part of the reason I despise Barney so much now, I just had too much of it with Stacey. Stacey, on the other hand, still likes it. So when ever the nieces and nephews are over, she is more than happy to oblige them in watching Barney!

Better her than me!

Who's in there?

Every night at bed time, I sit and rock Julia for a few minutes. In the last few weeks, Julia has started to pull up my shirt and plays with my belly while I rock her. I have been using this time to try to explain to her that her baby brother Jude is in there. She seems to understand that there is something in mommy's belly. A lot of nights she will look into my belly button and say she can see baby Jude. She also talks to my belly button telling Jude "Hi".

On Monday night she was doing her usual playing with my belly. When I said something about Baby Jude being inside, she said, "No, Handy Manny is in there!". WHAT? So I have a Mexican handyman in my belly?LOL She was quite positive about it too! Jerrod and I got a good laugh over it....

Makeup

Julia discovered my make-up drawer quite awhile ago. Normally she would just take the brushes and pretend to be putting on make-up. But now she has discovered that she likes putting on the real make-up. One day she had eye-liner all over her face and several times now she has put lipstick on herself. Since I rarely wear make-up, I don't mind her playing in it.

Here she is with her lipstick on!

Day at the farm

Since it was such a nice day out and Julia has been talking about Grandma and Grandpa (Jerrod's parent's are MiMi and Bap-pa to Julia) a lot lately, we went and spent the day at my parent's farm. (They live about an hour away, so we don't go there as often as we would like.)

Julia just had a BLAST!! Their house sits a half mile off of the road and is surrounded by farm fields. So Julia could just run and run and play and play. She kept checking out the cows and pigs and just having a ball.

Her cousin Jenna was there today too, so she had a buddy to play with.

Here they are in the huge sandbox. Julia kept throwing sand all over Grandma!!


Wagon rides are the best!! She was very good about sharing and making room for Jenna in the wagon. Jenna, on the other hand, did not want to share the wagon with Julia! LOL


After lunch, my sister came back from the dr. appt she had for her youngest and to pick up Jenna. Julia just LOVES her baby cousin Gavin!! She just wants to hold him and hug him and kiss him, etc.. She was also trying to pick him up and carry him off with her. I have a feeling that she is going to love her little brother (at least until she realizes that he is staying for good).

She loved holding him...



Helping Aunt Stacey scrub out her cooler...


We found baby kittens in one of the hog barns! This momma cat was friendly and did not mind us checking out her kittens. Julia was quite facinated by them.


Since Jenna did not want to share the wagon, Julia got a lot of wagon rides by herself. This picture also shows some of the acres and acres of land my parent's have that Julia can just run on!


I literally had to drag Julia to the van to go home. She kept saying "no, I stay at Grandma and Grandpa's". Even though she was beyond tired, she just wanted to keep playing... We will have to spend more time there this summer. Mom even said that Julia can spend the night anytime she wants too!

Belly shaking

Baby Jude has gotten strong enough and big enough that now his movements make my whole belly move and shake. It is so neat to see portions of my belly move and jump. I swear he is doing somersaults in there sometimes by the movement and the way my belly rolls all around. My whole body sometimes shifts because of a big movement from him. It is like he can almost throw me off balance with his moving antics.

I absolutely love all the movement. He is actively kicking up a storm as I type this. Jerrod had his arm draped over my belly one night this week as we were in bed drifting off to sleep. The baby was being as active as ever. Half asleep Jerrod says to me, "he is kicking my arm..".

I have a feeling he is going to be one active baby after he is born! I just hope he does not have colic too!!!EEK!

"A tomboy who loves dresses"

That is how one of the mothers in the Mom's group I joined described Julia the other day. I think it fits Julia quite well.

Julia loves to wear dresses. They are her favorite outfits and will wear one several times a week. But the way she plays and acts, she is definitely part tomboy!

This is the outfit she picked out the other day. Notice how she had to wear the Tutu also?



Is there such a thing as a prissy tomboy?

Boonshoft Museum

Since today was another nasty day out, I decided to take Julia to the Boonshoft Museum. We have never taken Julia to the Boonshoft Museum before so I was interested to see how she would like it. The Museum is geared for younger kids, so it was prefect for Julia. She LOVED it!! I think we will be buying a family pass so we can go again, and again.... Jerrod said he was jealous that he did not get to go along.

They had this HUGE play area, with all kinds of hands-on stuff for kids 6 and under. Julia had a blast in that section. She liked the other areas too, but pretty much ran non-stop the entire time, so I only got a few pictures in the play area.

Playing in the log cabin.


Julia's FAVORITE part of the ENTIRE Musuem.... A HUGE (and I do mean HUGE) water table!!!!! She just played and played in this water table. I had to drag her away to go do other stuff there. She managed to find her way back to the water table later too...




Playing with one of the other activities they have.


She was really trying to figure this machine out...


And figure out how a microscope worked...


Of course, the slide was also a big hit. For some reason she took off her shoes and socks towards the end.

I did it

I did something today I never thought I would ever have to do...... I filed for unemployment. Even though my last day was a couple weeks ago, because of my severance, I am technically employed until May 1st.

I never thought I would have to be on unemployment, but I am glad to have it there.

Sandbox

Julia got her very own sandbox today. Actually, the sandbox was given to us by one of Jerrod's co-workers. Hey, free is good. Excuse Julia in nothing but a diaper and her Elmo shirt. That was her 3rd outfit of the day. We could not get pants on her and she ran out of the house like this. I figured it was in the 70's today and she is still young enough to get away with it. I also realize that the patio is still a mess with leaves and such, but I have not had a chance to get to it yet.

Watching Bap-pa fill up the sandbox.


Starting to play, but still not too sure about it.


She did not want to put her butt down in the sand! LOL


She finally sat in the sand and realized what fun it was to dig your toes in the sand!


This is what I get if I ask her to look at me and smile! Silly girl! I just wanted one picture of her face!


She had fun and was covered in sand by the time she was done. I think she finally remembered playing in the sand on the beach last summer. There was also more than a bit of sand on the patio by the time she was finished! I have a feeling we will be spending a lot of afternoons out here.

Bouncing and other random things

Julia bounces A LOT lately. She loves jumping and seems to always been jumping/bouncing now. All day and all evening! She even continues to bounce in the swimming pool during her swimming lessons! I am not sure where she is getting all the energy from...

She is also fighting her naps. I think she only napped once (maybe twice) this week. I still lay her down in her crib, but she just plays and does not nap. I really am not ready for her to give up the nap yet. For now, I am going to continue to lay her down for a nap, even if she does not actually sleep, at least she is getting some quiet time!

I think Julia and Jude are already playing together. Lately Julia has taken to screaming. Not screaming out of frustration, it is more like she is playing with her voice and seeming what it can do. Right now screaming is fun for her. Well, Jude seems to love to hear his big sister scream, because EVERYTIME she does it, he gets really active. Almost as if he is trying to join in on the fun.

I have to wonder how Julia is going to do with the new addition. She LOVES babies, but I wonder how far that love is going to go once she realizes that this baby is not going home. She has let me hold other babies, but lately if another kids comes close to me or a cat sits on my lap, she starts crying/whining and saying "Julia's mommy".

The other night we were driving home from swimming lessons and it is supper time, so I ask Julia what she wants for supper and she replies "Macaroni and Cheese!". I laughed. I think this is the first time she has actually answered me when I have asked her what she wanted to eat for supper. And yes, she did get macaroni and cheese for supper that night.

Julia loves to give me directions while I am driving. She is constantly saying "go that way", " go over there", "go in there", "turn that way", etc..

She did come thiiiiiiis close to being put in time out today. She has only had to be in time out on a few occasions, a stern warning is usually enough, but not today. I was trying to get Julia dresses so we could go grocery shopping. She was not wanting to get dressed. I finally get her to pick out an outfit. She loves to pick out her own socks too, so I tell her to pick out a pair of socks to wear. She tells me know and shuts the drawer. I then pick out 4 pairs for her to chose from and she takes them from me and throws them across the room. I warned her if she kept it up she was going to sit in time out. I told her to do something else and she told me "NO". I told her that she does not tell mommy "no" and she is about to be put in time out. She lowers her head and buries it in my chest. She knows she has misbehaved and now is sad. That is the problem disciplining her, she has such a sensitive soul!

Pregnancy Update

I have not blogged much about this current pregnancy because I am sure everyone would get tired of me saying the same things over and over; I LOVE being pregnant and this is a BIG baby! But I thought I would give an update.

Everything is still going great. I still love being pregnant and the baby is still REALLY big. In new things, this baby is MUCH more active and strong than Julia ever was at this age. Julia was an active baby in the womb, but this boy has got her beat. He moves a lot. And his kicks and movements are really strong. I don't think I felt strong kicks like this from Julia until much later into the pregnancy. I just love all the movement. My midwife told me this the the annoying stage of pregnancy because of all the movement, but I told her that movement is NEVER annoying! I savor every bit of it. My belly is HUGE! Much bigger this time around. Some of my maternity tops are already starting to get tight/small. I am only 25 weeks!

I have been having more pain, much earlier this time. I am having painful round ligament pain, that I think is from all the extra walking I have been doing now that I am not working (Julia and I walk all around town. Well, I walk, she rides in the stroller.). Then this week I started having very painful pubic/pelvic pain. It is the actual bones of my pelvis that is hurting. I remember having some of this late in Julia's pregnancy. I am really hoping it lightens up or goes away soon.

We have been talking about the baby with Julia all along, but I think she is finally starting to figure it out a little. She loves to pull up my shirt and rub my big belly. I will tell her that her baby brother is in there and she seems to at least understand part of it. The funniest thing is that she will look into my belly button and try to see the baby that is in mommy's belly.

Oh, it seems I am doing really well weight-wise too. I gained back the weight I lost in the first tri do to morning sickness. I think I am up only 2 or 3 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight. With Julia I only gained 18-19 pounds and lost it all pretty much right away (especially since she was 9.6 lbs and all the fluid and stuff). I am hoping the same thing happens again. It looks like I am on track for that to happen.

My food preferences are also much different this time. With Julia I really wanted ice cream and Mexican a lot. (Which are now Julia's favorites) Not this time, actually Mexican turns my stomach most days. The only food I am really wanting this time around is Seafood.

I actually bought some stuff for the baby last week. Carter's was having a huge sale and Julia needs some new pj's. I got Julia her pj's and picked up some oneies, sleepers and a few other things for this little guy.

Counting

Julia has been able to count to 10 for a couple months now. But now she is starting to count "things". She will count on her fingers, she will count her hair bows, count her candy, etc. This weekend she was counting her steps. Jerrod and her were outside and Julia started counting the number of steps she was taking. Jerrod let her go to see how far she would get to. Well she got all the way to 10, then Jerrod asked her what came next. She took another step and said "Eleven", took another step and said "Twelve". She took another step and was stuck, so Jerrod asked her what came after 12. She thought about it and said "One" and started all over again! I must say that I am impressed!

Julia also has her ABC's down pat, without a problem! She also knows most all the colors (primary and secondary). We recently started working on shapes. She is catching on fast. I will probably start letter recognition soon, too. She already recognizes certain words.

I am still amazed at just how smart she is. She also has the memory of an elephant! I swear this girl does not forget a THING!! She can remember things from months and months ago!