Julia at Four

Julia turned four this month and I wanted to take a minute to give you a glimpse of her at this stage in her life.

Julia (aka J or Birdie) has had an amazing year. She has adjusted to a lot of changes including a new house and a new brother. She has taken on the role of big sister with passion and her love for Benjamin is obvious daily. She is an incredibly sweet and caring little girl who is also very observant and intelligent.  She is the type of person who watches everything that is going on and goes over it all in her head trying to understand every little detail. She will analyze things for a long time before she attempts them for herself but when she does finally make the attempt she usually does it perfectly.

Julia is very creative and artistic and loves drawing and painting. She also loves going to school and her weekly dance class. She's very physically active and is always riding her bike, plasma car or just running around. She also has figured out that she needs her own space and has created little "nests" for herself around the house. The most permanent one is under the ficus tree in our living room - it's cordoned off with chairs so Benjamin cannot enter - and it alternates between a nest, a clubhouse, and a schoolhouse.

Julia's still a picky eater but she knows what she likes and thankfully that includes lots of fruits and veggies, chicken, salmon, and meat. She does have a sweet tooth - especially for chocolate! Her favorite lunch these days is peanut butter and nutella on mini-pitas. On a good day she'll polish off four.  She's also addicted to green apples (emphasis on green) and will eat several of those a day too. She had her 4 yr doctor appointment the other day and was pronounced very healthy at 33lbs and 40 inches tall.

Andrew and I have had an incredible amount of fun with Julia over the past year. It's been great watching her become more and more independent and confident in herself. It's the first year that we've all been able to play board/card games together (Candyland and Go Fish are favorites); Julia has also started writing her name and a few other words (mom, dad, love) and has expressed interest in learning to read; she knows how to snap her fingers, limbo, and can hop on one foot very well; and she can get herself dressed and undressed when she choses to!

We're looking forward to seeing her grow up even more but hopefully not too fast. The other night when she was getting ready for bed I said I would read her stories but she looked at me and said "no Mom, just give me the book light and I can put myself to bed." I was shocked - already?!? Thankfully, a couple of minutes later she changed her mind and I did get my bedtime reading with her. I hope it stays that way for a long time!

Last year I started interviewing Julia on her birthday. It was a neat way to see how she views herself and what are her current interests, like, and dislikes. Here is the this year's interview:

• What is your favorite color? pink
• What is your favorite toy?  Mickey rocketship, No-No, playing in her “school” (a little spot behind two chairs where lots of toys are stored and most importantly, Benjamin is not allowed!)
• What is your favorite fruit? apple
• What is your favorite tv show? The Wiggles
• What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? peanut butter and chocolate (Nutella) sandwiches
• What is your favorite game? Yoga Garden
• What is your favorite snack? goldfish and pretzels
• What is your favorite book? Mickey Mouse Pet Show, Eric Carle's House for Hermit Crab
• What is your favorite thing to do outside? riding her bike
• What is your favorite drink? milk
• What do you like to take to bed with you at night? No-no and pom-poms
• What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Granola bar (or as she says a “noga” bar)
• What is your favorite thing to eat for dinner? chicken nuggets
• What makes you happy? no-no
• What is your favorite animal? Bunnies
• What is your favorite thing to eat? raspberries
• What is your least favorite thing to eat? don't know
• What is your favorite thing to do? ride her bike
• What are you really good at? reading
• What is your favorite movie? Cars
• What is your favorite song? Twinkle Twinkle
• Who is your best friend? Neve (friend from Little Red Hen)
• What do you like to do with Mom? go to the Children's Museum 
• What do you like to do with Dad? read books 
• What is your favorite sport? baseball
• What is your favorite place to go? McDonalds
• What do you want to be when you grow up? a mama (yes, I had tears in my eyes when she gave me this answer!)

at rest

It does happen occasionally!

Reaction

One of the highlights of the morning of Julia's birthday:

Julia had actually asked for this gift back in October or November but she specifically asked for it for her birthday.  We double checked a couple of times to see if it was something that she wanted to ask Santa for but each time she insisted that she was asking for it for her birthday. Okay then.

For those who are curious what it is - you can see it here: Crayola Digital Light Designer.  It's actually a very cool product and has gotten a lot of use in the last couple of weeks.

We interrupt this blog...

to bring you an announcement! I usually don't post too much about Andrew and I here. We started this blog so that family and friends could share in Julia's life and see what we were up to as a family. As it has continued I have come to see it as more than just a space to share with others but also as a record for our own family. I had an epiphany a few weeks ago when I was lamenting that I still haven't gotten around to creating baby photo albums for the kids - I realized that this blog is their baby book. It may not contain every picture that I love but it captures all the stories, memories, and moments that we treasure. So this is really a space for them and for me to create something special for them with the benefit that lots of others get to share in the stories as well!

But, that means what this blog is not is a space for me to write about other things - ideas I have, recipes I'd like to share, and thoughts on topics other than Julia & Benj. And I've wanted a place to do that, to have a creative outlet that is not kid focused and where I can explore other interests. So my announcement is that along with a good friend of mine I have started a new blog! It's called Daily Deliberations and can be found here. I'm very excited to get the project started (we've been working on it for almost 10 months) and hope that you will check it out!

Now back our regularly scheduled programming....

Blizzard Nemo in Pictures

Andrew and Benj getting the fire going:

Checking out the snow:

J swimming through the snow:

Benj trying to get warm after being outside - in Julia's fleece and Daddy's slippers!

  

Blizzard Nemo!!

Somehow Blizzard Nemo doesn't seem to have the same weightiness as The Blizzard of '78 but hopefully in 34 years Julia will still be talking about the birthday she celebrated camping by the fireplace!

The storm started Friday morning but didn't get really serious until later in the day so we were able to attend Julia's dance class in the morning. Miss Sandy made sure to include plenty of gymnastics to get all the "wiggles" out of the kids before being cooped up for who knew how long. We made it home before lunch and settled in for the weekend. Friday afternoon and evening were uneventful but Friday night around 9:30 we lost our power. No big deal, the kids were already asleep and the house was pretty warm. So we went to bed hoping for a short outage. Unfortunately, that was not the case. We woke Saturday morning to a chilly house!

Andrew got a fire started in the fireplace and we brought in a bunch of wood from the pile. But the big excitement was that it was Julia's 4th birthday! She had cinnamon buns for breakfast and opened a couple of presents from us - a Mickey Mouse rocketship and a Crayola coloring globe. It was a fun celebration and she loved the gifts.

As the day continued we watched the snow, played in the family room, and kept the fire going to keep that room and the kitchen warm. We went out in the afternoon and played in the snow a bit. It was so deep (over 2 feet) that Julia was wading through it and saying that she was "swimming" in the snow! Once we got back in and warmed up we made Julia's birthday dinner - grilled steak and potatoes. yum!

We had a cozy dinner in front of the fire complete with a birthday cake made out of candy:

After dinner we watched a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on the iPad (the only show that day as we conserving battery power) and then settled down to camp out in front of the fire. Julia started in her tent and then ended up sleeping next to me on the air mattress. Benj ended up curled up with Andrew on the couch. It was a cold night! The house was below 50 degrees when we woke up.

We woke up early, shivering, and not wanting to get out from under the blankets. Well, at least Andrew and I didn't, the kids were complaining they were cold but couldn't stay still! We waited awhile and then made our way out to one of our favorite breakfast spots - hoping they had power. They did! As we hunched over our coffee and slowly thawed out we made a plan to go to Grandma Les' and Grandpa Rick's and then visit others later in the day. We had packed a bunch of stuff with us because there was no way we were staying another night in a cold house.

Thankfully, everything went uphill from there. Grandpa Rick and Grandma Les have a generator and had cranked up the heat to make us comfortable, from there we went to Grandma Laurie and Grandpa Boo's and ended up having an impromptu birthday celebration for Julia and Alex, we spent a warm night back at Grandpa Rick's, and by 10 the next morning our electricity was fixed!

It was definitely a weekend that I don't need to repeat anytime soon. But it was an adventure and the kids handled it great! Maybe more actual camping is in our future!

Loose Ends

So there are quite a few posts in my queue. Between the snow storm last weekend, computer issues, a teething Benjamin, and being super busy due to a new blogging project I am starting (more to come soon!) the photos and stories are stacking up. So I'll start with a few photos from some outings we had at the end of January and earlier this month.

First up - the Providence Children's Museum with Grandma Les.  Julia had a great time climbing into the tree house to slide down, Benj loved rolling the balls through tunnels, and they had fun seesawing among many other things.

Next we took a trip to the Boston Children's Museum with Grandma Laurie and Alex.  There was lots of bubble making, playing in the water room, and trying to hoist ourselves up on a swing!

Last up is a trip to our local Biomes Center, again with Grandma Les, where we were able to touch turtles, starfish, sea anemones, and see lots of other sea life including sharks, eels, blowfish, and octopi!

Next up, our Nemo experience! Stay tuned!