September 17, 2009

Julianna and I had a very busy, but great week!

She started tap/ballet classes on Tuesday and was so cute I could hardly stand it. They made us moms sit in the waiting room and watch the class on a t.v. out there. I was afraid she would get clingy and get freaked out and too shy to participate - but she did GREAT!! She listened very well and followed instructions as well as anyone. After class her instructor even emailed me saying how well she listened and how much fun she was to have in class (Yes, maybe she emailed the same thing to everyone in order to suck up to all of the parents. If so, it totally worked!!!). She did have one pitifully cute moment though. On the floor of the studio there are a bunch of painted little circles. In order to get these 2 year olds to refocus after each dance or whatever, the teacher would tell the kids to go stand on a circle. One time Julianna went and stood on a circle and I guess another little girl wanted that circle. She just sort of bulldozed her way onto it (and therefore J off of it). Julianna looked confused, kind of slumped her shoulders and hung her head and went to stand on another circle. She recovered great though and moved right on and I thought it was probably all forgotten. I never mentioned it, and quite honestly forgot about it myself until later in the day when I asked her how great her dance class was. She looked a little sad and said, "I wanted the purple circle." Awwwww. But she really did have a wonderful time.

Wednesday we had library story hour where Curious George came for a visit and then a play date with her best friend. I can't say she was particularly fond of George though. After her success with the very creepy costumed bunny at Easter, I really had high hopes for Santa at Christmas - now, not so much. Oh well, we'll see. She didn't freak out or anything, but she just pretty steadfastly refused to go anywhere near him. She liked him fine from afar though, and even asked about seeing him again today.

Today we were back at the library for her regular Thursday music class, which she always enjoys.

It was also fairly cool (though VERY humid) here the past few nights and we went to the playground each evening after dinner.

Anyway, I took tons of pics and have a couple cute J stories.

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I was looking for my keys and couldn't find them (what's new, right?). I started shaking my purse and then shaking my diaper bag. I finally found them in the diaper bag.

Julianna: You found them?
Me: Yes.
Julianna: You found them 'cause you listened for the sound.

Pretty observant kid, huh?

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My mother is on a cruise to Bermuda this week. I think she almost backed out though after Julianna really laid it on thick when we told her Mimi was going on a BIG boat for a while. In tears:

Julianna: NO Mimi, stay here with Julianna.
Me: Julianna, Mimi has to go, but she will be back soon.
Julianna: Mimi, take Julianna with you too!!

She adores my mom, obviously.

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Another pretty amazing dinosaur story. You know those little capsules that you put into water and they turn into a little, in this case dinosaur, sponge? Well Ryan must buy them buy the boatloads, because he gives her a new one every time she comes. She has dozens of these little dinosaur sponges. She keeps them in a little square bucket with a little chart taped on the inside so that she can identify them. Anyway, when I was at Ryan's dropping Julianna off tonight, she took one of the sponges out and threw it on the floor.

Julianna: NOT a dinosaur.
Ryan: Yes it is. It's a stegosaurus.
Julianna: (pointing at the chart) No, not a stegosaurus, it that one.
Ryan: Oh, you're right. It's a Dimetrodon.
Julianna: NOT a dinosaur.
Ryan: Yes it is. It's right here.

Ryan and I started looking through her flash cards to find the Dimetrodon and prove to her it was a dinosaur. We found the card, and I know you see this coming, but one of the facts on the back was, "Not actually a dinosaur."

I'm telling you, this kid is an absolute SPONGE!

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Monday night we went for a boat ride with Mimi and Poppy. Putting "pinecorns" in Mimi's hat on the way down to the docks.



It was dark on the way home.



Before class started. Wearing her new tap shoes! She loved them!




Looking serious about her Dinosaur stickers!








Look, it's Curious George. Julianna is in the camouflage on the far side.




At music class.

Playing the bells.


Dancing


Fun with beanbags.




Being silly with a sticker on her nose.

Pics from Ryan

Ryan sent me several cute pictures. All are from the Mountains over the July 4th weekend except the ones with the hibiscus tree -they are from a few days ago at Granddaddy and Grandmama's.






Helping with deadheading.

September 6, 2009

I am dropping off a few cute pictures, and of course, have a few more cute stories to tell. Really, Julianna is so cute and so darn charming right now. I could do nothing but follow her around with a piece of paper and I still couldn't write down all the cute things that she says and does fast enough.

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Julianna and I were at the playground and a little boy that was about 4 or so started chasing Julianna around pretending that he was a scary dinosaur. Julianna leaped into my arms and screamed, "Mama I'm scared! It's a Carnotaurus!"

By the way, this really is the scariest looking of the dinosaurs, in my opinion, so I'm not surprised that's the one she thought of.

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Dada and Julianna were pretending like they were dinosaurs and Julianna wanted Ryan to be the Triceratops. Ryan put one finger on either side of his head to make horns and chased Julianna around. She stopped him and said, "NO NO Dada! Need three horns!"

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We were driving down the road and Julianna let out an excited squeal.

Me: What????
Julianna: I have my own freckle!!!

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I gave Julianna a kiss right after I brushed my teeth. She said "Spicy!"

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Our little kitten is really a Dr. Jeckyll/Mr. Hyde character. Yesterday when Pumpkin was being rather feisty, Julianna shrugged her shoulders and very matter-of-factly explained to me, "Mama, sometimes Punkin is wild and sometimes he's nice." It was so cute! It was like, oh well, you get what you get.

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Cute pigtails!






Her new Halloween pj's say, "I'm so cute it's Scary". Ain't that the truth!


Julianna is helping "Punkin" learn his birds.




She really is having as much fun as she looks like she is having studying the bird encyclopedia. What a strange kid!


Working on a puzzle.


My favorite from the last few days.


On the boat last night:





Snuggling with Mimi after more lake swimming. Man that kid is a little fish!




Pretty baby.

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.

August 30, 2009

Dropping off a bunch of cute pics and a couple cute stories from the last couple of days.

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Swimming in the pool with Julianna.

Julianna: Owwww. I hurt my soul.
Me: What do you mean you hurt your soul?
Julianna: (Pointing to the bottom of her foot) My sole! I hurt my sole!

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As I mentioned last post, Julianna is crazy about Dinosaurs and can identify several of them. Rather than carnivores and herbivores, she classifies them as either Mean or Nice. I think it's obvious which fall into each category.

I bought her some Dinosaur flash cards from the $1 bin at Target the other day. I swear we had just run through them once or twice at the most. Anyway she took the cards to Dada's house on Thursday and pulled the first one out and said, "Look Dada, it's a Ankysaurus". Of course, we had to look at the card ourselves to see if she was right. It was an Ankylosaurus! I will say that Ryan also has several little dinosaur toys and books and things, so she probably was exposed to it more than the one time we went though the cards, but still - this was no run of the mill t-rex or stegosaurus!

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I just talked to Ryan and he said that Julianna showed him another card and said "It's a Iguanadon. It's Mama's favorite."

The Iguanadon had stripes like a zebra and I did say when we were looking at the cards, "Oohh Julianna, look at this one. It has stripes like a zebra. I think it might be my favorite."

I'm telling you, this kid has the most incredible memory!

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Ok, 'nuff bragging on her. Here are the pics:




Reading Danny and the Dinosaur.













Wandering around the beautiful Davidson College Campus. It's not Chapel Hill, but it's close. Go Heels!







She's walking backwards in this one.




Lollipop bouquet!