Julia turns Three!

Note:  This post is four months overdue.  I am still working on putting together a photo/video slideshow, and it clearly is taking more time than I have.  So I give up for now and am publishing her 3 Yr Post without photos.

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All about Julia at THREE YEARS OLD!!!!

• Stats: Weighs 30 pounds (50%), and is 37 1/4 inches tall (50%)

SLEEPING

• She has dropped her nap for the most part, though she plays happily in her room for some "quiet time". We can only get her to nap a couple times a week. But she wakes up fairly late for her age (anywhere from 8:30-9:30). Even without a nap, she almost never acts tired. We'd like to run an experiment some day to see what time she would like to naturally go to bed at night if we let her choose. We're pretty sure she could stay awake a LONG time without acting tired or asking to go to bed.
• When she does sleep, she still sucks her thumb.
• Her bedtime routine is a little ridiculous as she tries to stall: 
• Potty and PJs
• Read a couple of books
• Sometimes "tell me a story", in which we make up a story about Princess or Ballerina Julia
• Cover her up with her Dora blanket Gran made her (she still doesn't sleep with sheets or a comforter)
• Turn off her lamp
• Sometimes "I want to feel things" (giving her comfort in the dark that we can still feel things like our noses, eyes, mouths, etc. even though she can't see them)
• Say bedtime prayers (for MONTHS we had to "lay on her heart" while we prayed)
• Make sure she has a slew of her favorite animals in bed
• Turn on her mobile "1 time.  Not 2 times." (Mobile went back up when Jackson got his mobile)
• Sometimes a "One more hug!" or "One more kiss!" as we're about to leave her room 
• Multiple iterations of "good night", "sweet dreams", and "love you" as we're walking out her door 
• WHEW!
• Her adorable prayers typically go like this, "Dear Jesus, thank you for the world, and the sunshine, and the rainbows, and mommy and daddy and Jackson, and help us get good rest, and thank you for {insert any fun activities we did or gifts she got that day}."

NOTEWORTHY

Here are our most favorite notes written by her Mother's Day Out teachers over the past year:

• September 21 - "Crying was less today. She's getting really pushy and hitting - that means she is getting comfortable - good. Very smart. Answers correctly to many of my questions." I asked her teacher about this the day this note was written. Me: "So she's pushing and hitting???" Ms. Jackie, laughing out loud: "Oh, yeah! But she is so smart." Since when did brains compensate for being mean?!
• Toward end of first semester - Background: Nolan is a kid in her class who began the year by pushing Julia and being mean to her. It scared and bothered Julia and she really didn't like him. So for many months, he was bullying her even though Ms. Jackie said it was because Nolan wanted Julia to be his girlfriend. Then we got this note one day, "Nolan is no match for her anymore. She would floor him in a minute if he messes with her."
• March 31 - "She has learned not to give her friends the answer when I ask a question unless I ask her to help. Took ALL of her clothes off during rest time." Yep, I talked to her teacher afterward and she truly meant "all" of her clothes. Julia was stark naked.
• April (Easter week) - "She was the only one who knew Jesus died on the cross. Good job mom and dad." :-)
• April 26 - "Doing great. She knew what letter 'fish' begins with. Blew me away. I still can't believe she is one of my younger ones."
• May 5 - "After we had circle time today she took the book and 'read' the classmates a story - they actually sat around her and listened attentively. It was a joy to see."

PLAYTIME

Things she loves to play and do:

• Pretend ALL THE TIME (pretend people, pretend animals, pretend places, pretend phone conversations, pretend trips, pretend meals, pretend ANYTHING)
• Dress up. She loves putting on her leotard with attached tutu and ballet shoes so she can be "Ballerina Julia". She uses her two drawer-fulls of tiaras, gloves, princess shoes, necklaces, and princess dresses multiple times per week (thank you Kendall for the hand-me-downs!).
• Jumping on the beds
• Play-doh
• Ring Around the Rosie
• Hide and Go Seek
• "Teacher". She praises mommy and daddy when we get the right answers.
• Manis/pedis. She loves getting her nails painted.

LEARNING

• Can count to twenty and recognizes all 20 numbers
• Can count from 10 backwards to 1
• Has known her lowercase and uppercase alphabet for a long time, and is really enjoying practicing writing them by herself. She's gotten fairly good with her own name.
• If given a sound that a consonant makes, she can usually name the letter that makes that sound
• Draws smiley faces very well and is starting to do better with her attempts to color in the lines

FAVORITES

These are a few of her favorite things:

• Loveys - Bunny and Sammie the Lambie
• Animal - bunny rabbits
• Song - Alphabet (ABC) for singing, Monkeys Jumping on the Bed when jumping
• Videos - Dora, Diego, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Strawberry Shortcake movie, Beauty and the Beast (but only the happy scenes with fun songs), The Little Mermaid,
• Foods - Chocolate chip muffins by Entemann's, yogurt, PB&J sandwiches, chicken nuggets, fruit, and pretty much any sort of chip, cracker, or dessert

OTHER

• Adores her baby brother and is a wonderful big sister. She is his biggest cheerleader and copies what she hears us say: "Good job bud!," "Way to go buddy!", "Come here buster", "Hi Pookie Jackson," and when we're in the car, "Jackie-poo! No sleeping, Jackie-poo!" When he was younger, she talked to him with "Goos" and "Oohs". She loves to be my helper by grabbing a burp cloth, toy, or diaper. She absolutely loves laying down beside him and playing with him in his crib, her bed, the floor, you get the idea.
• later gator juice = Gatorade
• calepitter = Caterpiller
• "Hey! What's the big idea?!" = a line she got from Mickey Mouse
• Thinks it's funny to call her bottom "bo fanny" and "tushy" while shaking it back and forth or looking at it in the mirror.
• Is still maddening to feed
• Has the most delightful laugh when she's happy, and the most awful screaming when she's having a tantrum
• Loves to play with all sorts of animals
• Adores her cousins immensely

Jackson at 11 months

Some things about Jackson's past month:

• Walking!!  
• He wants to walk ALL THE TIME with holding just one of your hands. On Saturday, Sept. 24th he finally got the steadiness and confidence to WANT to walk on his own.  He would go back and forth between two people, and he walked a good 10 feet and looked pretty darn steady doing it.  Just two days later, he easily walked the length of our living room.  For those that care, here's a video of him walking throughout the month.
• He loves to walk in circles.  He loves to walk up stairs and then try to "walk" down them (which looks more like falling a few inches and landing on the next step with me holding him up by the hand).  He combines these two loves by walking up our first 3 steps, u-turns on the landing, goes down 3 steps, u-turns on the tile floor of the foyer, and repeats this process until I can take no more. 
• Doesn't want to walk with a walker, and doesn't want to cruise on furniture.  He only wants to walk either on his own or with the assistance of a person's hand holding his.  We have a video of him crying out of frustration when we dared to test his ability to cruise along our padded ottoman!
• He also can get very frustrated when he gets sat down, laid down, or picked up by me rather than allowing him to walk.  This can happen with other people, but it most especially happens with me.
• Definitely drinking from a sippy cup again.  Yay!  That took him a lot of practice to figure out how to drink.
• He is a BIG momma's boy.  He was playing happily with daddy in the living room a few weeks ago when I happened to walk from one room to another, in which I crossed his path but didn't touch him or pick him up but rather kept walking.  He started crying even though daddy and the toys they'd been playing with were still right there with him.  He wants to be with me all the time.  I do my best to sneak out of the room from time to time and force him to learn to play contentedly by himself.  Sometimes this works; often it does not.
• Has no issues being on his belly anymore whatsoever.  He still army crawls though, and has yet to crawl ever on his hands and knees.
• He loves to play with any toys, books, or puzzles that have flaps, doors, sliding windows, etc.  His motor skills have become pretty good in this area and he really likes to study these things to figure out how they work.
• He gives Julia big smiles and laughs when she makes funny faces at him.
• He's learned how to play his first game on the iPhone: Peek-a-boo Barn.
• He continues to show a love for animals and seems to have no fear of them.
• Sometimes he took only one nap a day, othertimes two.  He seems to be in that transitional phase where two naps is sometimes difficult to get from him, but one nap often seems insufficient.
• He loves bath time, loves his sister, and is starting to learn how to give kisses.  Here's a video with all three things:

Julia's First Day of School

Julia finally had her first day of school today!  We switched her to a Monday/Wednesday program, but last Monday was Labor Day and then Wednesday she was recovering from a stomach bug.  So on Thursday once she felt better, we created a post-it note count down of days to build up some anticipation and she finally got to peel off the last sticky note today!

Jarret stayed home long enough to attend the drop-off with us.  We were both amazed at her bravery!!! For the past two years, we watched Julia approach the drop-off with tears, fearfulness, shyness, and clinging to us (even though she always ended up having a great time, but still...no parents wants to watch their child go through that.)  This morning instead we watched our beautiful, maturing 3-year-old daughter walk in with smiles and boldness this morning.  

Daddy walking his kiddos into school.
Julia loves to ask to ride "the special way" on the stroller.

She wanted to only make silly faces, but when I kept
telling her "Don't you smile at me!" then she finally complied.

I was trying to give instructions to Julia to smile, and
instead it resulted in a goofy picture of me.

It seemed like her reaction was, "O.K. I'll take
a picture with you people, but WHO are you again?!"
I also love that out of all the backgrounds we could have taken
this picture in front of, we managed to take their picture with
the toilet behind them.  Great scenery.

Her new teachers for the year, Ms. Jan and Ms. Melissa!

She gave us joyful hugs and kisses bye, and then had no concern about walking away from us.  THESE are the years I want to savor!  What a wonderful balance and blessing of a child who still enjoys and needs the bear hugs and kisses from mommy and daddy, yet enters school with boldness and excitement.  What a great start to the school year!!!