Breaking news! (from 6 days ago)
Last Tuesday night, one week before Julia's second birthday, she spent her first night away from me! She still wakes up a few times each night, so I have been nervous to leave her. She stayed at Nana and Poppy's house for the night, while I stayed at my sister's house. (I felt much more comfortable with leaving her, knowing that I was just a 5-minute drive away in case she got too upset.) Julia did pretty well. She did miss me but had fun too. She went to bed late, since we had had a birthday party for my niece that night. Then she woke up at 3:45 a.m. and never quite managed to get back to sleep (sorry Nana!). I enjoyed a little get-together at my sister's house to watch the season premier of Lost. Trevor was at home working, so we didn't get a date night this time. (Maybe next time!)
I'm glad we reached that milestone. When I went to my parents' house the next morning, I was a bit teary when I reunited with Julia, thinking about her growing up and all that mushy stuff that moms think. We spent a record 13 1/2 hours away from each other.
More book talk
This weekend, Julia looked at Trevor and said, "Hey you - you wanna fight?" I cracked up and then asked her where she learned to say that. She said it was from a book, and I asked her which one (I don't remember reading her a book that used that phrase). She said, "with the skunk." So there's some book out there with a spunky skunk in it. Yesterday at the grocery store, she walked up to a little boy and said it again: "Hey you - you wanna fight?"Made-up song
Last night, Julia overheard me telling Trevor that I was so tired that my brain around my eyes hurt. She starting singing, to the tune of "The Farmer in the Dell," this song:
"Brain around my eyes, Brain around my eyes, Hi ho the derry-o, brain o' mama's eyes."
Second verse:
"Mama takes a wife, mama takes a wife, Hi ho the derry-o, mama takes a wife."
23 months
23 months! (8 days late)
Next month, Julia will be 2! I can't quite grasp that one yet.
We spent the last month packing, moving, and unpacking. Julia handled it like a champ at first, playing contentedly by herself while I packed boxes. Then she got sick, and I spent moving week carrying her in the baby carrier for hours. She just wanted me to hold her and sing to her all day long. She's adjusted well to living in a new house.
Julia was a bit hungry this week when I was putting ingredients in the crockpot, so she ended up sitting on the counter and eating a bit of several chili ingredients: beans, meat, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes.
Julia has been taking very good care of her baby dolls recently. She tried to put on my baby carrier one day, but didn't succeed because the straps are about 80 inches long. So I made her a little doll sling that she carries her baby in. A couple of weeks ago, Julia had disappeared into the other end of the house, and we heard a door slam. Trevor went to investigate; she can't open door knobs yet, so she'd need help getting out of the room. She was in the bedroom, sitting in the same place where I always sit to put her to sleep. She had turned on the white noise machine. When Trevor opened the door, she said, "I taking care of my baby." She read some books to her doll and put her to sleep.
She has been doing a lot of water play at the sink, and one day she wanted to wash her baby. I've mentioned several times on this blog about how much Julia dislikes having her hair washed. When she was rubbing hand soap onto her baby's head to wash it, she whispered to her doll, "It's alright." I was so impressed by the way she comforted her doll!
7-word sentences are common now. I think the current world record is a 9-word sentence.
In order to completely understand everything Julia says, you have to read all the books she's read. She doesn't watch t.v., so her imaginary world is full of book characters. She's always quoting books and talking about the characters. Here are a few examples:
Last week she was saying, "Culda culda (mumble mumble). I asked her what she was saying, and she said, "From book. Sam I am." (She was saying, "Could you would you on a train?" from Green Eggs and Ham."
She told me yesterday that someone woke up, but I didn't understand the name. So I said, "Who woke up?" She replied, "Peter. From Book."
Today Trevor came to me and said Julia was swinging on the bed frame and saying, "I do undershalt." When he didn't understand, she said, "baby mice." So he came to me to ask what the baby mice do. I replied, "Baby mice do somersaults."
Month-day
5 days ago was Julia's month-day, but the 23-month post will happen later, when I can get pics onto the computer (moving displaced cords and computers that haven't yet been set up).
For now, here's a conversation from a month ago:
(Background: Julia likes Humpty Dumpty, and we've talked about how he is an egg and his shell cracked.)
When Julia does something funny, and then she hears me tell the story to someone else, she enjoys it. Then she likes to retell the story herself later. One day we were driving, and she started retelling one of her funnies. It was about a day when she had woken me up at 4:45 a.m. being super silly. She had heard me tell other people that we were cracking up when she did that. So after she retold the story, she laughed and said, "We laugh! We cracking up! We eggs!"
A little bit backwards
I've been trying to teach Julia not to talk with her mouth full. Usually I say, "It's hard to understand you when you have food in your mouth. After you swallow your food you can tell me."
She is usually in a hurry to tell me, so a few times she has spit her food onto her tray, said her piece, and then picked the food up and started eating again. Yesterday it was a song she wanted to sing that just couldn't wait until she finished chewing. =)