seven years

Dear Julianna,

Yesterday you turned seven years old.  That’s like a whole year in dog years.  You’re practically ancient!

 

We celebrated your birthday by going to Fire and Sticks, which is your favorite restaurant since they cook the food right in front of you and since you get to order shrimp which you love.  You sat there completely self-sufficient, eating your salad with chopsticks like it was no big deal and I marveled at the fact that I used to spoon feed you and now you can do everything all by yourself.  When the cook threw the shrimp on the grill you were so excited you turned to me and said, “I just want to reach out there and grab one. They look so good!”

Over the last several days your dad has been reminiscing about how difficult it was to get you out of my belly and into the world, but when I remember your birth I remember it differently.  Mostly I just remember the first few months at home alone with you feeling tortured because I didn’t know how to calm you down or how to get you to sleep or eat enough to get rid of the jaundice and I felt like a prisoner in my new life as a mother of a newborn.  We both felt truly honored to be given the gift of being your parents and we immediately loved you beyond compare, but it was rough for me to adjust to being a mom.

The difference in life with you now is amazing.  For the most part you make your own decisions.  You get ready by yourself, you take care of your body by yourself, you entertain yourself, you take care of your own things, and we mostly just remind you of responsibilities.  It makes me sad in one respect because you don’t need me like you used to, but it’s such a breath of fresh air to be able to focus on me a lot of the time.  Thank you for letting me do that.

 

You eat almost anything and even if it’s not your favorite thing in the world, it pleases me so much that you’ll try a few bites without complaint.  You proudly tell people that you’re the second tallest girl in your class and the tallest girl is only about a centimeter taller.  You read on a 3^rd grade level and consistently get perfect report cards.  You also told the dentist the other day that you’re the second smartest in your class.  I guess you have your mother’s tact.  We’ll work on that.  Until then you just keep doing your multiplication facts, girl.

Jules, you get more aggravated with your brother than I do (which is certainly saying a lot).  You are meaner to him than you are to anyone else (at least that I know of) and sometimes it breaks my heart.  Other times I just think about how much he deserves it.  Kidding.  Sort of.

You desperately want to be able to invent a real joke and make Daddy and I laugh.  Surprisingly sometimes you really can.  Other times instinct tells you that we’ve just laughed to be polite and you run off only to try again ten minutes later.  I admire your resilience and I truly dread the day one of your classmates is cruel enough to really hurt your feelings badly.

When you got your ears pierced earlier this year it didn’t surprise me one bit how brave you were.  You’ve always been a tough girl and only barely flinched when you’ve gotten shots or taken a bad fall.  That experience was no different and I was beaming with pride.  Plus, you just look so beautiful with those aquamarine birthstones shining in your ears.

You’re learning about girly things which both terrifies me because I know I’ll have to guide you and also tickles me to death because I can relate.  You’ve asked us about girls having babies, you’ve told us about boys that “like” you, you just had a “spa” birthday party, and you’ve asked for your first friend sleepover.

It’s exciting to witness your growth, Julianna.  It’s exciting because it’s different experiences than my own so I get to do it all over again through you.  And it’s a lot more fun this time around.  Thank you for letting me share all of this with you.  Thank you for being a great kid.

I love you to pieces.

Love,

Mama

birthdays are fun!

In Julianna's lunch box today:

On her door when she woke up this morning:

Delivered to her class at lunch today:

seven

• Seven is eye rolling.
• Seven is giggles followed immediately by attitude.
• Seven is sassy butt smacks and big grins.
• Seven is eager to get the highest score at the bowling alley.
• Seven is memorizing the planets in the solar system in order and plenty of facts about each in one short afternoon.
• Seven is still not influenced by trends but definitely already influenced by friends.
• Seven is hard working.
• Seven does not like to be kissed.
• Seven is tall.
• Seven is accepting of responsibility even though sometimes she doesn't like it.
• Seven loves video games and screen time.
• Seven is fun.
• Seven is mostly self-sufficient.
• Seven is learning, reading, growing.
• Seven is beautiful.

I'll go ahead and admit that I'm jealous

Julianna had three girlfriends from school over this morning for her birthday party.  First we took them to get their hair and nails done at Jonathan's stepmother's shop.

They LOVED it.

They all chose the same nail colors but different stickers.

Then we went to IHOP (Julianna's choice) for brunch/lunch/sugar.

The car was filled with giggles.

Finally we came back to the house and opened gifts and ate more sugar.

She had a blast and I think it was a special celebration for her.

Yes, I'm jealous.

the week in pictures

As I was cooking dinner the other night Josh brought me this and placed it up on the counter and ran off yelling, "You can look at it now, Mama!"

So sweet, that boy!  And I love that he's writing his name by himself now.

Speaking of handwritten notes, check out this note Jules left for the tooth fairy night before last.  Girl has got some negotiating skills.  In case you can't tell, she colored the tooth with a marker ane the note says, "Dear Tooth Fairy, This is one pretty tooth. It is 3.00. Take it or leave it. Love Julianna"  The toothe fairy normally leaves her $2 bills at our house but obviously those aren't special enough.

Yesterday we had pretty enough weather to start hiding a few Easter eggs outside.  Julianna had a lot of fun hiding the eggs for Josh and then dancing around the ones she hid.  It was entertaining to say the least, but I could have done without all the bickering that started when he hid the eggs for her and then kept immediately telling her where they were.

Josh has also had some simple fun building with blocks this week and playing with some funny glasses he found.

I was given a $10 Target card and a ticket good for leaving work 30 minutes early one day at our staff meeting this week.  Hoorah!

We're watching the ACC basketball tourney this weekend and running in two different races.  Wish us luck!

What are you up to?

update on goals

Now that its mid-March, let's check and see how I'm doing on 2013 goals, shall we?

I pledged to:

read 40 books

get more involved at church

run at least one half marathon and complete at least one triathlon

take my kids to Disney World

(re)read New Testament gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John

spend more time taking care of my physical living space

sell a bunch of my crafting junk

lose 15 more pounds and maintain that loss as well as the thirty I've already lost

plan a couple of trips to states I've never visited (not necessarily go, but at least plan)

How it's going:

• I've read 5 books (oops! better get crack-a-lackin on that one)
• I'm no more involved at church than I was last year (although there's a small group starting in April that I might like to help lead)
• I run my first half marathon this weekend
• we haven't even begun to plan the Disney trip
• I've read my way through Matthew already and I'm on chapter 5 of Mark
• haven't made any changes in my living space and I have no idea where to start
• haven't sold a single crafty thing
• I've put on ten pounds since Thanksgiving and I'm hoping that after the weekend I can concentrate on this again without stressing over fueling a long run
• planning trips... uh..... who has the time for this?

Have you looked back on your yearly goals lately?  How are you doing?  Any tips on organizing a house top to bottom without feeling overwhelmed?

phones, elementary school art, and baby girls

Forgive me for the in-cohesiveness of this post.  My excuse is that my brain is lacking oxygen because Jonathan has been making me plank each weeknight and now I can't think about one topic for more than ten seconds.

So!  Look at this pop art my daughter did in art class at school.  I love it and just might frame it for her bedroom.  I just wish she hadn't folded it up.

I had one day without my phone.  Actually it was about 26 hours.  It totally killed me.

Fortunately Verizon is pretty awesome and they overnight-ed me a new one and fortunately my dad got me a Samsung Galaxy Note for the time being.  That was kinda fun!

Last week at Bingo With Mom at Julianna's school I snapped this pictures.  It's on the wall in the Elementary School Gym.  I love it.

And in a moment I'm not very proud of I yelled at my son the other night, "Stop sticking your things in every hole you see!"  He was jamming a little toy in the keyhole of our coffee table drawer.  If I hadn't been so mad it would have been funny.

You may not be able to see these two pictures very well, but they're little snippits I read in the latest issue of Runner's World that I loved.  There are some pretty amazing people in this world.

Last but not least, my sister announced that she's having a baby girl at her this past weekend and I am so excited!  Now I've got lots of shopping to do!

recipe for a perfect birthday

It turns out that I have the recipe for a perfect birthday.

First you take a normal morning except you add in two UNgrumpy children, a husband who cooked you magnificent eggs and fixed an extra cup of coffee. 

Here's Josh asking me "When you do your thumb like this does it go up or down?"  I guess I'm on my phone too much in the morning before school.

Then you add a decent day at work which included the juniors taking the ACT test which gave you an extra planning period and time to listen to more of your audio book.

Add in a quick craft with the kids.

Follow that by a nice 5.5 mile run with friends and then a free dinner from Jersey Mike's.  It helps to make you feel special if you have fifty runners sing "Happy Birthday" to you.

Thanks for all of the birthday wishes, y'all!  Thirty-four was pretty good to me and today was a pretty perfect birthday!