stories from Seth

My brother-in-law periodically sends me conversations that he and Julianna have when I'm not around.  Some of them are downright hilarious.


Like this one:

Jules: "Girls say no, boys say yes."

Seth: "What?"

Jules: "Girls say no, boys say yes."

Seth: What does that mean?

Jules: "When I wanted to ride the motorcycle, mom said no.  You said yes.  Daddy said yes."

And this one:

Jules: My dad has a new job
Seth: I know, does he like it?
Jules: Yes.
Seth: When are you going to get a job?
Jules: When I grow up and be a daddy

There will be more to come later.  I am sure of it.

love

I just overheard Julianna say to Jonathan, "Let's talk about my brother now,"and he said, "What about him?"  She answered, "How do i stop being ugly to him?"  

That child melts my heart sometimes.

what Jules thinks of Mommy - Take 2

A while back, I asked Jules a series of questions about myself and it was fairly amusing to hear her responses.  I posted them here on the blog and reading over it recently I decided to ask her the same questions again to see how her answers would change.  Here's what she told me today.

1. What is something mommy always says to you?
Don't be mean to your brother.


2. What makes mommy happy?
flowers


3. What makes mommy sad?
being mean to my brother and hurting him


4. How does your mommy make you laugh?
telling jokes


5. What did your mommy like to do when she was a child?
She liked to play.


6. How old is your mommy?
this is gonna be a hard one - 25


7. How tall is your mommy?
(measuring with a little blanket) seven blankets long


8. What is her favorite thing to watch on TV?
the news


9. What does your mommy do when you're not around?
work on the computers


10.  If your mommy becomes famous, what will it be for?
to be fancy


11. What is your mommy really good at?
computers
Super Mario Brothers

12. What is your mommy not very good at?
playing Super Mario Brothers


13. What does your mommy do for her job?
she goes to school and teaches the kids computers


14. What is your mommy's favorite food?
fish


15. What makes you proud of your mommy?
doing splits


16. If your mommy were a cartoon character, who would she be?
dinosaur train mother (teranodon mothers)


17. What do you and your mommy do together?
make cupcakes

18. How are you and your mommy the same?
sometimes we match

19. How are you and your mommy different?
because I have blond hair and she has black hair

20. How do you know your mommy loves you?
because I love you right back

21.  What does your mommy like most about your daddy?
because you married him

22. Where is your mommy's favorite place to go?
to the den


-----

And just for fun I decided to ask her the same questions but about Daddy this time.  Once again, I did not make these up.  They're straight from the mouth of the little girl.  Enjoy!


1. What is something daddy always says to you?

Don't attack your brother

2. What makes daddy happy?

when I play Super Mario Bros with him

3. What makes daddy sad?

when I hit him

4. How does your daddy make you laugh?

by telling jokes

5. What did your daddy like to do when he was a child?

He liked to watch Dukes of Hazzard.

6. How old is your daddy?

25

7. How tall is your daddy?

(measuring with a little book) eight books long

8. What is his favorite thing to watch on TV?

Dukes of Hazzard

9. What does your daddy do when you're not around?

watch TV

10.  If your daddy becomes famous, what will it be for?

getting rich

11. What is your daddy really good at?

Super Mario Brothers

12. What is your daddy not very good at?

driving cars

13. What does your daddy do for her job?

he used to build cabinets

14. What is your daddy's favorite food?

candy

15. What makes you proud of your daddy?

getting richer and richer

16. If your daddy were a cartoon character, who would he be?

Mickey Mouse

17. What do you and your daddy do together?

play Wii

18. How are you and your daddy the same?

we both have brown eyes

19. How are you and your daddy different?

because I have blond hair and he has black hair

20. How do you know your daddy loves you?
because we do special things together

21. What does your daddy like most about your mommy?

because she's the same inches as Daddy

22. Where is your daddy's favorite place to go?

Let's see.... I think it's the candy store

the take home lessons of summer

I love summertime.  I must be an adult since now I absolutely salivate thinking about the Farmer's Market and the fresh produce stand up the street.  There's not much better than a sliced homegrown tomato with salt and pepper.  I used to think my parents were weird when they said stuff like that.

Anyway, Julianna loves fresh corn on the cob.  One of my favorite pictures of her is this one of her gnawing on an ear of corn, taken shortly after she turned two. 

I cannot believe how fast she's grown.  She's even upgraded to a full ear.

Today I am thankful for fresh produce, for a healthy kid who keeps on growing and for new summer memories.  What are you thankful for?

more bathtime fun

nine months

Dear Joshua,

So much has happened in the last two months that I’m not sure this letter will be able to do it justice. That’s probably because I’m a slacker and I failed to get your eight month letter written so now I’m having to cram everything into one. Regardless, you are changing at lightning speed and that makes it hard just as well. Your face is changing shape, you hair is getting a tad lighter, your torso is thinning just a bit, your babbles have gotten louder, and your mobility has improved tenfold. I just can’t keep up with it all!

You’ve developed a fondness for your mama lately and you cling to me quite a bit. When I’m making lunch or dinner you swiftly crawl to my legs and pull up on them so that you’re standing by my side. Then you beg and beg to be picked up. I remember this age with your sister and it was a lot easier to put her in the sling and carry her around the kitchen but for some reason I never remember to do that with you. I’ll try to do better with that and I hope that you’ll try to go to other people a little more willingly. Thanks, Tud.

I began weaning you two weeks ago. I just couldn’t take it anymore. You were biting me all the time and I was beginning to think that you weren’t getting enough milk to be satisfied but I was never really sure if it was that or just that you wanted to crawl all over me. More than both of those reasons though, I mostly wanted to quit nursing to see if it would help your sleep habits. Two weeks ago you would still wake up anywhere between 3 am and 4:45 am each morning and then sometimes one or two times after that. Since then you have certainly been better. For the last four nights in a row you have slept from 9 pm until 6 or 6:30 am and I am definitely pleased with that. I still nurse you whenever you wake up and I pump before going to bed so that you can at least get some breast milk, but that is dwindling fast so I think you’ll probably be on all formula here in the next two or three weeks. I’m trying not to have guilt about that despite the fact that you don’t seem to mind too much.

Last month you learned to crawl. You started crawling at about 7.5 months old. Before we went to the beach you would get up on all fours and go forward a “step” or two and then turn around and sit on your bottom and then do it all over again. You couldn’t quite figure it out. Sometimes you would push one leg out straight to the back and sometimes you would just rock or even push yourself backwards. But then by the time we got home from the beach you had gotten much more efficient and were finally getting around. As the month progressed you naturally got faster and now you are so fast that it’s hard to catch you. You will giggle and go when you see me coming after you. It’s actually a lot of fun!

You are also pulling up like a champ now, Josh. You immediately stand up at the end of your naps. You will have nothing of sitting on the floor next to someone and you must be climbing on them at all times. You can even climb our stairs quicker than I would ever think a baby should be able to. We only had one baby gate with Julianna and I’m hoping that will do with you as well, but I’m really not so sure about that. When I put you in your car seat now you protest with the greatest amount of strength and determination by twisting your body sideways and climbing out of it faster than I can blink an eye.

Now you are thisclose to walking. In fact, you’ve taken three steps at a time on your own on multiple occasions. I wouldn’t be surprised if I can officially say that you’re walking by the time I publish this letter tomorrow. You definitely have the desire and you are already brave enough to let go and try it on your own, it’s just that most of the time it’s easier to drop down on your bottom and take off. And we all like to take the easy way out sometimes so I don’t blame you.

We have an appointment tomorrow to see how the doctor thinks you’re doing. I’m certain that she’ll think you’re as perfect as I do, but I’m still eager to hear it. I’ll go ahead and apologize in advance for the shots that they’ll have to give you. You’ll be a trooper though. I know it.


Currently you are learning to wave “hey” and “bye-bye.” Nanna discovered that when she sings “Where Is Thumbkin?” you will flap your hand back and forth as if to look for your thumb to make it wiggle. You babble sometimes, though not as much as your sister did. How could anyone? Anyway, you will occasionally say “ma ma” or “da da.” You love to bend your knees and “dance” to music and we often find you staring up at the TV with your neck breaking off because you’re standing so close.

You have five teeth and will soon have the 6th. Of course, that helps with the eating thing and you can chew some pretty good stuff now even though most of the time you don’t want to. You’d never really guess this looking at your thighs.

You don’t really like vegetables unless its carrots or green beans but you do eat fruit.  I think your favorite food has got to be yogurt. You’ll eat any flavor and if the yogurt cup is on the table when you’re eating something else you will rock back and forth in your chair until I offer a bite of it. When you had your first taste of ice cream at Pap’s birthday party, you really weren’t impressed. I’m not worried; you’ll learn soon enough. I can’t believe we’ll be planning a birthday party for you soon!

Joshua, I know you won’t remember this when you’re older but I’ve been trying to exercise at least a little bit each day and you usually come with me. You’re my exercise boy. You ride in the bike trailer or between my legs on the bicycle seat and you are fascinated as you look at the world around you. When you ride in the jogging stroller you “talk” to the things we pass along the way. You get very enthusiastic when we see a dog. I hope that you’ll continue to be my exercise boy as you grow up because I’m learning to cherish the time with you. Especially since you still can’t ride your own bike. :)

Speaking of animals, I don’t know which you adore more, your sister or the cat. I imagine that once the cat gets a hold of you like he did your sister’s face one time that you’ll prefer Julianna, but we’ll see what happens. For now you love grabbing handfuls of cat fur as he walks by. And Simon loves that he’s finally getting a little attention.

So brother, happy nine month birthday. How quickly you’ve come to have lived outside of my womb for as long as you were inside it. I hope you like it here.

Love,

Mama

ironically the rain prevented us from using the gutter properly

My dad and aunt celebrated big birthdays this week.  The family got together and had a fun surprise party for them at my sister's house Sunday night.

We decided to surprise them with a gigantic banana split.  We bought a ten foot gutter and lined it with aluminum foil and then filled it with bananas, Neapolitan ice cream, chocolate sauce, caramel sauce, butterscotch sauce, walnuts, whipped cream, and cherries.  YUM!  It was delicious and so much fun to make. 

My aunt was truly surprised and that was loads of fun to watch.  Unfortunately, my dad couldn't be there for the beginning of the party since he took a shift at work, but nevertheless it was great to get together with family and do something so unique.  I think we'll do it again sometime.  After I run a few hundred miles.