What we love about Julian...the two-year post!

Every day, I am truly amazed at this little boy we have in our midst. Julian is super sweet, sensitive, and funny. He can also be raucous, loud, and whiny. But he is certainly a character. Here's an incomplete list of the things we love about Julian:

1. He can count to ten and say his ABC's, and we didn't teach them to him.

2. Whenever we pray at meals, he either claps when we say "Amen" or he won't let go of our hands because he has a few more people he'd like to pray for. And then he goes on and on and sometimes on naming people.

3. He's an amazing sleeper, and he still mostly goes down without too much trouble. Although he is fond of calling mama a few hundred times just in case I'd like to come back in.

4. He is super observant and wants to be sure that you've seen what he's seen. So, he repeats himself until you confirm (sometimes twice) that you too have seen it. School bus. School bus. School bus. School bus. School bus. School bus. School bus. School bus. And then it's more school bus. More school bus. More school bus. (He doesn't quite understand that we can't make more school buses, trains, ambulances, dogs, etc, appear whenever we want them to.)

5. He says "tank you much" whenever you give him something, do something for him, or help him in any way. And he does this without prompting. We're still working on "please."

6. He and Gumbo have found their love for each other. Gumbo finally has someone who will chase him around the table a million times without tiring....even when Gumbo finally gets tired too.

7. Julian is really coming into his own on playing alone. If he gets up earlier than we want to be up, we can put him on the floor in his room and shut the door and he'll play sometimes up to an hour on his own.

8. He loves to sing, and he picks up words pretty quickly now. Lady Gaga's The Edge of Glory is still a current fav, but he's also currently into the Blackeyed Peas I Gotta Feeling. He recently started ending the phrases with me when I sing him to sleep with Go to Sleep Little Baby from O Brother, Where Art Thou?

9. He's willing to share just about any toy, snack, or chair with someone who asks. Until he's not.

10. He looks you in the eyes and gives a sly smile when he's about to test your limits on something he knows he shouldn't do...and then he does it anyway.

11. He really loves his friends, his family, his "family," and people he encounters daily. He loves a good hug and kiss when you leave. Most people tell us that he is the happiest kid they know. We think so too.

12. He's an adventurous eater and isn't a fan of typical kid food. He'd choose cauliflower over chicken nuggets any day.

This is a small and definitely not exhaustive list of what we love about Julian. I could really write forever. It's awesome to see him learning and growing, being brave and being shy, being hilarious and being whiny. It's all a part of who he is, and we love him!

2 years old....already?!?

I'm working on a longer post, but I know you've all been dying to see the two year old/Yoda photos.



In case you've forgotten, here's Jules at one month old:


And here he is at one year old:


Getting a two year old to sit still for a photo shoot is not too tough, but getting them to smile is another thing.





And don't worry. He's not all smiles. He is two afterall!

Cow and Boy

Vince and I love the comic strip Cow and Boy. It's about a little boy and his best friend, a cow. They get into crazy adventures together. The boy often reminds us of Julian...in looks only, really, but we got some cute hand-me-down overalls from Casey and Sam, and we couldn't resist!

Cow and Boy by Mark Leiknes

Balancing the best friend

A little naked time

Sometimes it's just a must.

Mommy's Shoes Are Loud!

Click...Clack...




One of Julian's favorite books is quiet Loud by Leslie Patricelli. See this post for a reminder of the story. Julian found my shoes in the hallway and discovered that they made lots of fun noise on the hardwood floors. What a blast.

Twinkle, twinkle

Julian loves to sing. Or rather he loves to have anyone else sing to him. In the last two weeks he has finally started joining in. Here's a sample:




Last week, we were in the car and Jules was asking for a song. So we started singing Old McDonald. Each of us took turns saying an animal name to sing in the song. Every time we pointed at Julian for his selection, he said duck. EVERY TIME...It was very cute and made me laugh.

On a side note...he doesn't just love children's songs. He loves any kind of music. If we're out somewhere and he hears music, he will point to his ear to signal for us to listen and then pump his fist in the air as he jams out. He also has a penchant for Lady Gaga and whenever you sing the song Bad Romance and you get to the "I want your love...love, love, love, I want your love" part he gives you multiple kisses!

So sweet.

It's coming...we hope!

Sorry we've been out of the blogosphere for a while. We moved into a new apartment on June 30 (yea!), but we still don't have internet (boo!). We've been told that we will have internet at home on Wednesday of this week, but I'm at the "believe it when I see it" phase of this journey.

We have a few great pictures of Julian and our trip to the deep South, and there are a few videos in the queue as well. So, God willing and the crick don't rise, come back on Friday for some new content!

Weird Baby Stuff

Some of you will remember that when Julian was probably 8 months old we went to the doctor because Julian was doing this weird thing with his head...almost like an involuntary twitch. Vince's aunt works for a neurologist, and he said it was probably WBS...weird baby stuff. Nothing to worry about really, just something that kids do from time to time that freaks well-meaning parents out.

I'm wondering if we need a second opinion. Thoughts?

Life with a Toddler

Julian is a ton of fun! He's always on the move, and we are having a ball!



Julian didn't want what we had for dinner, so he had a cup of peanut butter instead!

BEST.KID.EVER!

Early this morning (the morning after graduation when we are exhausted), we hear Julian saying, "Down. Down. Down." That's his sign that he's ready to get out of the bed or at least have someone in the room talking to him. So, Vince got up, opened the door, and said, "It's still sleepytime, buddy. Can you lay back down?"

And HE DID!!!

BEST.KID.EVER!

18 Months Ago

Can you believe that this little guy...



Is now THIS guy?!



I love toddlerhood. Julian has such a great personality and every day he becomes a little more "him." He totally gets attitude, but he is also sweet and cuddly. Everyone always gets a wave goodbye or even a blown kiss. Some, like Yoda, get kisses.



He's totally observant and wants to make sure we hear every "zoom" (car, airplane, truck, pretty much any form of transportation), see every bird (or squirrel, dog, cat, anything with legs really), and he picks up every stick (or rock, flower, ball, dog poop - sad but true).



We are so glad to have had these 18 months with Julian. We know it just gets more and more fun as we go forward!

Happy Mother's Day

The day I became a mother was a wonderful day...hard, but lovely!



And it honestly gets better and better. I love being a mother to this precious little child. I couldn't imagine it any other way.



Today was a great day. I got cards from my guys with a gift certificate for a massage! Wahoo! Then we headed to breakfast at M. Henrietta's. I had a fried egg sandwich, which was actually much fancier than it sounds: toasted sourdough bread with gorgonzola cheese, tomatoes, bacon, two eggs over medium, topped with micro greens. YUM! Then off to the farmer's market.

After that the day was pretty much as usual: grocery shopping, cleaning the kitchen, a hot bath (unusual), and a little vegging. I may get the hem into the skirt I made months ago, so that I can wear it this week.

I love my family, and I'm excited to have many more Mother's Days to celebrate with them.

Shoes

Julian loves shoes! I think it was his first word. Today, he decided to wear my shoes. The best part of this video is his facial expressions to himself in the mirror.

Not much is happening

Julian turns 18 months old on Monday, so we will have some updated Yoda pics to share. But otherwise, not much is going on here. Julian shocked us the other day with some of his new words. Zipper is a favorite these days. He also loves to make all the animal sounds. One day I will catch it on video.

I promised a picture of Jules with Yoda and Moses, so here you go. Our friend Jonathan was in town from Boston, and he was staying with us.



We also bought a used bike trailer for Julian to ride in, and we went and got him his first helmet. It still needs a bit of adjustment, but he MUST wear at hat or helmet whenever one his people are wearing one.

Where did my little baby go?

Remember this tiny guy?



He's more like kid these days.

Seattle...more pictures

We had a great time in Seattle. One of the best parts was seeing family. My (April) mom flew in from Texas and stayed with us in the hotel for the first few days we were there, until we made the trek to my sister's. We mostly went to Pike's Place Market a couple of times per day and went to the Seattle Aquarium.



One of Julian's favorite words is fish. Although it sounds much more like shish. While he loves the fish, on this particular day, there was one fish that got a bit obsessed with him and kept trying to eat his buttons or something. He would move everywhere Julian would move. Needless to say, despite the layer of glass between them, Julian didn't care for it that much.



Mom and I took the ferry across Puget Sound to Bremerton, where my sister Mika picked us up. Julian got to meet his Aunt Mika and Uncle Tim for the first time, as well as his cousins Jon and Colin.



My two favorite moments during our trip were 1) when Julian was eating dinner and Jon was serenading us with his viola while Colin sat on the table make faces and 2) when we all played Rock Band and Julian really got into it.



Great trip.

PSA

Don't text and drive...



Especially with a fruit basket on your head.



(Bridget...that's the basket y'all gave him for his birthday with the fruit in it!)

Trip to Seattle - part 1

We had a great trip to Seattle for the AACRAO 2011 annual meeting. This group is the primary professional organization for college and university registrar's. It involves several days of small meetings and seminars on best practices in the field and solutions that people have found for common problems. Sometimes, it gets a little too big school centered, but I always learn a lot while I'm there. and of course, this year it was in Seattle, one of my favorite cities to visit. I may have to take a stab at living there sometime, but for now a visit is great.

There are so many things to see and do there. and the view is simply incredible (when it's not too cloudy!). One of the things I really wanted to do this time was to visit the Science Fiction Museum/Experience Music project. Yes, you read that correctly. They have a scifi museum and music museum all in one...a truly interesting experience (http://www.empsfm.org/).

Of course, my bad luck, the main scifi exhibit hall was closed for renovations, so I had to settle for the Battlestar Galactica special exhibit. but they did their best to make it up for me since it was the primary reason for my visit.

I did not really view the music stuff, but the sculpture in the entry way was quite amazing. It is a 35 foot tall tornado made up of hundreds of guitars.
And of course, there was Battlestar Galactica. I won't post all my pics here, maybe on facebook. but suffice it to say, it was a quite impressive collection of both the recent SciFi Channel series (I know they changed their name, but I refuse to acknowledge that ridiculousness beyond merely mentioning it) and the old 1978 series. Here are a few selected images.


And perhaps my favorite part of the exhibit was not even part of the exhibit at all. These signs surrounded every display. :-)


Stay tuned for more from Seattle. In our next episode: where will the concierge send our intrepid hero for good local food?

Julian's Crew

Julian loves...absolutely loves...to read books. He chooses to read over just about any other activity right now. You can tell him to pick out a book..."Julian go get me The Little Blue Truck." And he runs right over to the shelf, grabs the aforementioned book, and brings it back to you to read. (I don't know if this is unique to other 16 month old kids, but it certainly shocked me the first few times he did it.)

Lately, though, he has started wanting others to sit with him while he reads...namely Yoda and Moses. (No, I don't yet have a picture of this phenomenon. I've usually been the one doing the reading. But don't worry; I'll get one soon!)

Yoda you all know from Julian's month-at-a-time pictures during his first year. (Yes, I'll post another one at 18 months.) Moses is a doll that our friends Joey and Maiko gave to Julian when he was born, and he's also the leader of the Israelites. Moses is actually a reversible doll. One side is Moses holding a staff and the ten commandments, but if you flip it over, you see Pharaoh's daughter holding a baby Moses in a basket. It's a pretty cool doll.

Anyway, one day about a week ago Julian grabbed a book and brought it to me. He no longer wanted to sit on my lap, but he begged to sit next to me. Fine. Then he started pointing to the window sill where Yoda and Moses sit. (Those two are always hanging out together. Spiritual leaders, you know.) I grabbed Yoda and sat him next to Jules, but that wasn't enough for him. Then I grabbed Moses and sat him with us as well. Julian looked over to them, then looked to me and smiled. He then settled in for the reading of Quiet LOUD.

We're heading to Seattle tomorrow, but when we return I'll try to get a shot of the three musketeers.

Mardi Gras

Happy Mardi Gras!

Peekaboo!

The Sweetest Face

"Mom...I'm trying to eat a snack here. Why are you taking my picture?"



"Well, if you must take a picture, at least let me finish my bite."



"How's this?"

Is it weird...

to miss your baby while he is sleeping?

Because he is, and I do.

Shiner

Julian has been pretty lucky so far with accidents, meaning he hasn't had many.



But when he was on a walk with Gumbo recently, the leash got wrapped around the stroller and pulled it over.



Jules' face made good friends with the ground, and he got his first shiner.



He's such a sweet kid that he cried for a minute and then was over it.

Words

Julian's words and sign language are getting more frequent and more recognizable. The signs he uses on a regular basis are milk, daddy, gumbo (dog), and eat.

His words include:
daddy
gumbo
cat
mama
bubbles
ball
balloon
shoes
bock bock (sound a chicken makes)
eye
nose
sweetie (his grandma)
bubba (grandpa)

I need to start writing them all down when I hear them. He will pretty much repeat what we are saying, but some of the words he uses on his own. It's fun to hear him chattering more. He talks quite a bit, and we love it!

On the Twelfth Day of Christmas...

My true love gave to me, twelve...I mean...one drummer drumming...

On the Eleventh Day of Christmas...

My true love gave to me, a little bit of penguin love...

On the Tenth Day of Christmas....

My true love gave to me, a trip to the Shedd Aquarium...

On the Ninth Day of Christmas...

My true love gave to me, a big fat lip and sore nose...



Julian has mostly been pretty balanced with his walking. The other day he was walking very quickly, and he tripped. He fell nose and lips first into the doorjamb. A bloody lip and a red nose later, he was just fine.

On the Seventh and Eighth Days of Christmas,

My true love gave to me, some friends to play with JB...



Neighbor and good friend, Nora, and her son Henry who is five weeks older than Julian.



Having a grand time! (I love that Henry looks like he's riding a Harley!)



The Blonde and Blue-Eyed. It's something like the Young and the Restless.