January Ft Wayne/Peoria trip

In which we travel 1500 miles, Jonathan plays 2 recitals, and we see family and friends, all in 6 days! (wish I had pictures from the performing spaces... St. Mary's in Peoria was beautiful!)

Some videos from the past month

Here is Julia reading her book of poems. She reads very loudly and enthusiastically. I like how her toes stick out from under the book.



And here is Julia dancing to Mannheim Steamroller. Unfortunately, this is not the best example of her dancing, but it is the best we were able to capture on video. Usually there is much twisting and clapping of hands as well.

Finally another update!

Happy New Year friends and family!

Our apologies for not updating recently, other than pictures. We were very busy at the beginning of the holiday season, which allowed us to relax and enjoy the end of the holiday season as a family. It was absolutely wonderful to have such quality family time, especially after a very busy semester for Jonathan. This means, however, that we have not written an update since the beginning of November. Thank goodness I keep a text file on my desktop with a running tally of Julia updates:

• Physical development: We've definitely entered the climbing phase. She climbs on/off chairs and the end of our bed. She attempts to climb into her booster seat and her crib. And she has attempted the coffee table (which has been greatly discouraged). She hasn't tried to climb out of her crib yet, which we hope she won't because we really don't want to move her out of her crib until after we move. We're also in the imitation phase. Julia likes to do whatever Mommy and Daddy are doing. For example, when I brush my hair or put my makeup on, Julia rubs her face and takes my brush and brushes her hair, too! And now she always helps me put her lotion on after her bath. Julia has also recently learned to open doors. She first did this the day after Christmas. Jonathan and I were in the kitchen and she shut herself in our bedroom. We went to let her out, but she closed the door again so we left her alone. Then suddenly we saw the door handle move and the door opened! It was pretty funny! Julia recently started figuring out how to "ride" her horse, although she has not figured out how to actually sit on it while she rides it! Wearing our shoes, moving objects around the house, stacking objects, and sharing objects with Mommy, Daddy, or some other lucky victim continue to be favorite activities.
• Social/Emotional Development: Julia has always been on the shy side, but she's definitely becoming more of a social creature. Given some time to warm up to visitors (at home) or a foreign environment (when we're out), and as long as Mommy is close by, Julia has really started enjoying interacting with people other than Mommy and Daddy. She can be quite a ham when she wants! She did really well with Jonathan's parents at Thanksgiving and even better after Christmas. The temper tantrums continue, and we've been trialling time-outs with more positive results lately. She tends to throw things or hit things during her tantrums, but she's gotten much better about picking up what she's thrown or giving things "gentles" when we ask her to. She's very affectionate in general. She gives the best hugs and pats. She's also recently started coming up to me and rubbing my back. She's such a cuddly bunny. Oh, I'm not sure I've posted this on here before, but for awhile now when she's hollering at us for something, we ask her to "be patient" and she calms down and starts babbling in a very quiet high-pitched voice.
• Vocabulary: We're still waiting for that "word explosion," but Julia's vocabulary is certainly expanding. Her comprehension is VERY extensive, but it's been lots of fun to start hearing her use words back. We're keeping a list on the sidebar of the blog of all of Julia's words, so check it out! And Julia continues to like "reading" out loud. We have an updated video of that which I will ask Jonathan to post.
• Mealtimes: In a previous post, I believe I mentioned that Julia was starting to try to use silverware. This is a skill she has really gotten better at over the past couple months. She can feed herself most of her meals, thanks to some chunky silverware and plates with suction! She's also pretty much transitioned to sitting at the table in her booster seat with its tray.
• Music: Julia loves playing the piano. She especially likes it when Daddy plays with her because he improvises all sorts of wonderful accompaniments. She actually made me get off the bench once, and went and found Jonathan because she wasn't satisfied with my meager performance! She's gotten much more careful about how she touches the keys and deliberately presses certain ones down, instead of just banging like she used to. She also has been known to sing along to her playing (was her own idea), which is really cute. One of Julia's favorite parts of the Christmas season was listening to Christmas music. She was especially in love with our Mannheim Steamroller CD, to which she dances most enthusiastically (we have a video somewhere that I will try to remember to ask Jonathan to post as well). She enjoys listening to music in general, and will often start clapping and/or dancing if so inspired.
• Christmas: Julia loved the whole Christmas season! We talked a lot about Baby Jesus being born, and her favorite Christmas books were "Who is coming to our house?" and "The friendly beasts." We also got her a Little People Nativity set, which we let her have at the beginning of Advent. She quickly learned who the Baby Jesus and his Mommy Mary were, and whenever we would talk about Baby Jesus she would go find and bring us her Baby Jesus. Julia also liked watching us light the Advent wreath. And she had a blast "opening" the digital Advent Calendar from Gramma Wessler each day. Getting the Christmas tree was a marvelous adventure. She loved riding in the hay wagon and walking through the snow. She helped us decorate the tree, and she never tried to take any of the "pretties" off the tree. Whenever we talk about the tree, she points at it and often says "vroom vroom" because we rode behind the tractor to get the tree. Another aspect of Christmas of which Julia approved was the eating of cookies and the drinking of eggnog. Julia also helped me cut out gingerbread people, which she loved. Last year, Julia was only interested in tearing the wrapping paper off her presents, this year she only wanted to play with the first present she unwrapped!
• Misc: SNOW! During our first snowfall, it was warm enough to take Julia out to play in it. She absolutely loved walking around in the snow and picking it up in her hands. Unfortunately, it hasn't been warm enough since then to play in the snow, but hopefully we will get a few more chances before the winter is over. POOH BEAR! Julia has never really been interested in watching TV (probably a good thing), except for the occasional football game, but she's lately become enamored with one particular Pooh movie ("Blustery Day"). She's not interested in any of our other Pooh movies, but she sure loves this one. Watching it is a big, rare treat (usually reserved for when Mommy needs to be uninterrupted for half an hour). She can now identify pictures of the main characters and bounces whenever we talk about Tigger. DETAILS! For awhile now, Julia has had a pretty regular habit of picking up tiny specks of nondescript things off the floor and giving them to us. She's now also become obsessed with "pills"... whether they're on her clothes, Baby's face, etc. I will frequently go into her room in the morning and find her picking at the pill on the knees of her jammies. Yes, a little OCD... not that she could have gotten that tendency from either one of her parents!

Well, if you've made it to the end of this post, congratulations! Just remember that it was two months of updates! :-) Many of the things I've mentioned are in photo form in the recent albums I've posted. Love you all!

19 Month Photos

Christmas Pictures