out trip to see the fishes

We spent this morning at the aquarium. Julianna loved seeing the fishes and we got lots of cute pictures with the new camera. FUN!

i wish i wore a size three

Last night my mom and and went shopping for Jules some new clothes. I've been wrestling with her this week trying to get her chubby little arms through the sleeves of her shirts and then when I do finally get the shirts on, her belly sticks out underneath or it's stretched across her chest so tight that you can practically see every fine little baby hair she has across her torso.

We started out in Carter's. I immediately found the most adorable little brown sweater shrug with white polka dots and started searching for her size. My heart sunk when I realized that I was in the baby section so I quickly started making my way back to the toddler sizes. As I walked through the rounders I saw another outfit that I was determined to buy for her, thinking that they would certainly have that same outfit in the larger sizes too. Wrong.

Utter disappointment came over me when I looked at the choices I had for toddler size clothing. The selection was not as good, the prices were higher and the colors not nearly as soft and pretty. This same thing happened at three other stores. Walk in, pass the cute little rompers, dresses, and bubble suits, journey to the back of the store to the limited selection of T-shirts and sweatpants. *sigh*

My baby has grown up and she doesn't get adorable baby clothes anymore. Carter's didn't have either outfit in the larger sizes and although I did get a couple of pairs of leggings and a few shirts for her for this fall, I was still extremely sadded by the realization that my little girl is no longer a baby.

And I still can't believe that my 1.5 year old will soon be wearing a size 3T.

you’re so vain

As you might already know, we're at the beach for a few weeks. The condo that we're staying in has an entire wall in the living and dining room covered with a mirror. For what that mirror is for I simply don't know, but we'll leave that for pondering another day.

Anyway, we've gone out to eat for a few nights and we've actually cooked dinner several nights as well. As we would sit to eat at the dining room Julianna would start to make weird slow movements while she was chewing and picking up her food to eat it.

After being here for several days and watching her eat a few meals like that we finally figured out what she has been doing as she's eating her dinner every night. She's been watching herself eat in the mirror. She'd cock her head to one side or put her food in her hair and watch calmly as it happened.

On other occasions she'll be dancing in the living room as a commercial on TV or something or other plays some music and she'll catch a glimpse of herself in the mirror and her body will still be twirling in a circle but her eyes will stay fixed on herself in the mirror.

It's ridiculously amusing entertainment for us and I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE HER ENROLLED IN A BALLET CLASS.

recipe Wednesday

I was going to write about this Barbecue Chicken Ring Pampered Chef recipe for today's post. Then we made it for dinner last night and it wasn't so good. Well, it was good, just a little dry. I think I would make it again, but use barbecue sauce instead of chili sauce. I can't find a link to the recipe so tomorrow when I get un-lazy I might post it.

Instead you should try this one for the Florentine Chicken Ring. This is one of my favorites. My husband even likes it and it's easy enough that I'll keep making it. Plus it's got meat and vegetables. What's not to like?

sixteen months

Dear Julianna,

Today you’re 16 months old. That seems like such a small amount of time to represent the time that you’ve actually been here with us when you try to imagine how much love that has grown in those short 16 months.

Let’s see… what has happened this month? It seems like I wrote the last birthday letter to you last week. I guess what pops into my mind first is that you’ve cut so many teeth that I can’t keep up with them all. Another one came in this week. I think you have all but one on the top and all but two or three on the bottom. But man! It must be hard being a toddler, cutting teeth, and having diarrhea all the time.

We’ve been at the beach with Nanna and Papaw for the past week and you’ve done so many adorable things I’ll never be able to recount them all, but I’ll share just a few that I remember. Tonight on the way home from dinner we found out that you’d fully learned the meaning of a new word when Nanna said something like, “Now Courtney, I know you’re going to laugh at me for saying this, but…” and right on cue you laughed out loud amusing and surprising us all (and beating me to the punch). It was really cute because we weren’t totally aware that you were even listening to our conversation, much less fully comprehending it.

Another time this week you were begging for Lucy so you could go take a nap so I told you that we’d go take a nap but first you needed to tell Nanna and Pap that you loved them. When you realized that you were standing in the middle and they were on either side of you, you simply held out both hands at the same time and waved to both of them – your one finger wave to “sign” I Love You – but you did it with both hands outstretched to either side. It was hilarious and precious at the same time.

We walked over to the neighboring hotel’s pool the other morning, but didn’t have bathing suits on yet so we just dipped our feet in from the side. A nice looking family stopped by the waterfall to photograph their three daughters and you watched the big girls with wide-eyed anticipation. I told you to tell them to “Say cheese” and you would reply “cheece” quietly. I took my eyes off of you for a split second and as soon as I had noticed you were gone, you had already reappeared by my side again – with one of the big girls shoes. Which you promptly threw into the pool. I apologized to the family more than once, but still I was humiliated when the teenage girl carried off her shoes delicately as if they were covered in manure.

Anyway, while you can sometimes be a little booger, you’re also so sweet that even the bugs can’t resist you. Earlier this month you had several bug bites that kept swelling up and getting pretty red. We took you to the doctor just in case it was something we should worry about. I made Daddy go too because it was a Saturday (and because I’m afraid the nurses and doctors are starting to think I’m a neurotic, overreacting first-time mom who thinks everyday that something’s wrong with her precious little baby). There we learned that you’re now over 27 pounds, but mostly that we shouldn’t worry too much about your bites as long as we made sure to keep them clean so they didn’t get infected.
We hung up a paper growth chart for you one day a few weeks ago. Because you grow like a weed. It only makes sense to start marking it somewhere. After all, you wear mostly 2T and 3T clothes now.

You’re still working on the potty stuff, but lately you’ve been “telling” me more and more when you need to go. You’re learning new words every day. Recent words include “bubble” and “ocean” and your new signs include “cracker” and “I love you.” You’re making lots of progress this summer with swimming, blowing bubbles in the bath tub and “swimming” with your arms and kicking your feet with Pap in the pool.

Along the same lines, you’re still being instructed on manners and temper tantrums, but all of these things take time and I realize that. I also realize over and over how again how my time with you keeps going by so fast, that’s all. I feel like I close my eyes each night and the next day you’re a whole month older. Your father even pointed out to me how easy it is to not celebrate the present and take it all for granted so I’m going to work on that. So Jules, know that I love you with all my heart. And stop growing up so fast!

Love,
Mama

this one’s for my family who couldn’t be here earlier today to hear (and get) this joke

My mom's little bity bandages are slowly coming off from where she had the staples covered after her knee surgery. They told her to let them come off on their own as the scar heals and the scabs go away. They're very irritating to her as the edges curl up and get caught on her pants, the sheets, a blanket, or whatever might be on her lap.

This afternoon I walked out to join her on the balcony and the wind was a tad bit chilly so she was covering up with a beach towel that had previously been hung out to dry. We were sitting there pretty quietly when all of a sudden she exclaimed, "To heck with this! This one's going to have to be a present for the people* staying a couple floors below us!"

And with that she ripped that little sticky tag off and threw it over the balcony.

*Actually, she used their condominum number, but I'd rather not post that information here.

list of the week

Things I Love About JK Rowling:

1. She's dedicated. Seventeen years. Countless hours of hard work. Over 4,000 pages. All to bring us a fictional story about a young boy. Need I say more?


2. Did you read jkrowling.com the other day? Her acknowledgements? Just plain awesome.


3. She's so darn creative. How in the world did she come up with things like a patronus, house elves, polyjuice potion, and names like Hagrid, Mundungus, and Dumbledore?


4. She was insistent that the movies stay true to the books.


5. She describes ordinary people in a magical way. Really when you think about it, the main characters are all normal people that you can relate to in some way or another. JK Rowling provides realistic descriptions of their feelings throughout the book and you can just imagine that it's all perfectly real.


6. Her writing appeals to people of all ages and I guess say that she doesn't intentionally write with one specific age group in mind.


7. She doesn't shy away from difficult topics to write about. Death and having integrity, fear and searching for truth are all issues she writes about in the HP series.


8. Her writing is so brilliant, can draw you in so much that you'll get cranky not being able to keep reading when you want to, stay up until waaaayyy past midnight to get your hands on the next copy, and weep with sadness when the journey is almost over.