Julia at Thanksgiving

Ephesians 6: 2-3 Honor your father and mother, this is the first of the Ten Commandments that ends with a promise. And this is the promise; that if you honor your father and mother, yours will be a long life, full of blessing.

Julia is a blessing. She had us all laughing and entertained on Thanksgiving. It was one of those gorgeous fall days where you don't even need a sweater.

Between cooking and getting things ready we took her outside to play "house" and we found a preying mantis on our french doors. It was so beautiful. Side bar--I don't really like bugs, but because I am/was a teacher one year I found a preying mantis outside my building and me and my students decided to keep it and take care of it as a class pet. It was so fun for the kids because they had the job of "collecting" food for it, like crickets and such. Anyway, Paul, that was his/its name really grew on me and so when I saw this preying mantis on our door, I didn't scream like I normally would if I saw a big hairy spider or a beetle...I just said cool, and Julia was so intrigued by it. She kept saying hi to him and waving at him, as if he could see and understand her. Aunt Sara felt that since we found such a rare bug this was sure to be a great Thanksgiving...well, it was!!!

Julia really bonded with Aunt Pia this time. Usually she is attached to Auntie Sara, her fav because Sara spends a lot of time with her. Sara has two jobs, lives off campus and is finishing up her degree at Rutgers, and still makes it a point to see her niece and nephew. To say that she adores them is truly an understatement. Sometimes on Saturdays she texts me right when she gets out of work, just to see them.

Paletza got on Julia's good side by tickling her and playing with her. Julia loves to be chased. She kept going up to Paletza and pointing her two fingers at her and saying, "I get you!" Or she would walk over (after her pjs were on) and pull up her shirt and point to her belly and shout, "Belly!!!" so Paletza would tickle her. It was very cute.

At our Thanksgiving dinner Julia was given a little bit of everything we had to offer. I was thankful that she at least attempted to eat her turkey and corn, no mashed potatoes though, she's never been a potato fan (french fries don't count of course! especially with ketchup) she ate grandma's corn muffin and absolutely loved cranberry sauce...I thought that was odd, but she is my fruit girl, so it makes sense. She ignored the green beans, and I think I forgot to give her some ham to try.

She of course was finished 2 minutes after we started but we made her sit for awhile in her high chair because I knew once she was out she would be visiting each person around the table and saying everyone's name...which she did! But everyone loved it! Especially grandma, because she says GRAN MA very well now and enunciates each syllable...it is so adorable!

We also had her show everyone how she knows how to read. John loves to write out the words she knows on regular paper and he shows them to her and she can identify words like elbow, arms up, nose, baby, play, mouth...she says most of them...sometimes you might have to show her the sign language for play but most of the words she remembers from practice...it really impresses everyone. She isn't sounding out words, but she is site reading, which is very impressive for a 23 month old. She has been doing Your Baby Can Read since she was about 8 or 9 months...we even have Mark doing it already since Julia watches them regularly...more about Mark's first Thanksgiving tomorrow!!!

Well, for dessert Julia was allowed to have some yummy ice cream and chocolate chip cookies...she was sooooooooooooooooooo happy! She kept saying "Ice Cream!!! Ice Cream!" because we didn't scoop it fast enough. Then she got down after eating and was running around the living room from a sugar rush...very funny...Daddy filmed her going around and around and singing very loudly. All in all, she had a great day, she ended the evening watching a Barney video with her aunties and then John read her a story and she went to bed...

Thank you Lord for our blessing...Julia we love you sweet cakes!