September 3, 2009

I know I have been a bit wordy lately, but J is saying and doing so many things right now that I don't want to forget but totally know I will if I don't write them down.

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I was putting Julianna down for a nap and she, as always, didn't want to go. She started her bargaining tactics.

Julianna: Just one picnic, mama
For a picnic, we spread a blanket out on her bedroom floor, line up a bunch of her stuffed animals, and make some pretend meal in her kitchen and then feed it to all her babies. ONE picnic can take a LONG time!
Me: No Julianna, it's time for a nap. We can have a picnic when you get up.
Julianna starts really crying. I ignore her and ask if she has seen the remote control because I want to turn off the cartoon that is on and usher her into her room. She completely quits crying and says, "No mama, I'm crying!" and then starts crying again.
I'm not sure that came off quite as funny in the telling, but I again had to choke back the giggles.

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We were at the playground and Julianna was playing with a little girl that was 4 years old. They were playing in a little house (those plastic Little Tykes type things) that had a little window. The little girl was on the inside and asked Julianna, on the outside, what she would like to eat through the little window, obviously pretending like it was a drive-thru of some sort. Julianna didn't miss a beat and said "I want chicken and french fries and a Sprite and honey dipping sauce." A little embarrassing for me, but SOOO cute!

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Yesterday evening was so incredibly lovely that I took Julianna to a playground right after dinner. I kept seeing her sucking on all of her fingers. She is a thumb sucker, but never sucks on the other fingers. I repeatedly told her to stop because her hands were dirty, but she just couldn't seem to keep them out of her mouth. I finally asked her, "Julianna, why do you keep sucking on your fingers???" She said, "They taste like noodles!" Hee. We had chicken and egg noodles for dinner last, which she LOVES! I guess I didn't wash her hands after dinner. What a slacker I am.

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Julianna's fascination with Dinosaurs continues and she really freaked me out a couple days ago when I was looking at her flash cards with her. We came to a Ceratosaurus. I was stuggling to pronounce it and have absolutely NO memory of ever seeing it before.

Julianna: That one is MEAN!
Me: Yeah, he looks pretty mean. What do you think he eats?
The answer I was looking for was either "other dinosaurs" or "plants".
Julianna: Swimming dinosaurs.
I look at the back of the card and sure enough, it says its diet is aquatic dinosaurs. What?? There was no picture of water or swimming of any kind on the card. How she knows this stuff I haven't the slightest idea.

And if that didn't freak me out enough, today she did the same thing with another dinosaur (the Baryonyx) remembering that its diet consisted of fish. I once again stuggled to remember having ever even heard of the Baryonyx.

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Ok, one last one.

Today Julianna and Mimi were going to look at the bird encyclopedia. Mimi opened to a random page and J immediately identified a cuckoo bird on her own. We didn't even know she knew a cuckoo existed, much less that she could i.d. the thing. She also identified an Oriole in one of the new books from the library. The truth is, I have no idea how many birds the kid knows. She is always surprising me by identifying yet another one I didn't realize she knew. Its both amazing and kind of freaky at the same time.

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Dada got Julianna this camouflage shirt. She LOVES it - probably because he has one too.








On Campus Again:

My favorite of the week.




They had this little stage set up from some little music thing on campus this weekend. Julianna got up and sang and danced for us like crazy. She was SO darling, but didn't know when her 15 minutes were up and did NOT want to get off stage. What a little ham!




Julianna's first french braid!! I am totally rusty, but was shocked that she sat still long enough for me to do it. It's been so very long. In high school and college summers I babysat for a family with 4 little girls (and one boy). I used to put french braids in almost every day for each. I was a french braiding machine back then. I hope J will let me get a little practice in.