Julia's New Interests...

It is really neat to see your child in all different situations grow and blossom and learn. Lately, I've been noticing that Julia is quite the social butterfly. She is learning people's names and remembers places with people. Like for example her blond friend Cayla from church came over the other day for a playdate (the girls are literally a week apart...Grace and I did our birthing classes together and her due date was Jan 3rd and mine was Jan 13th...we shared the same Doula, same doctor, and same hospital...well Julia came 2 weeks early, and Cayla came about a week late...go figure!)

Now, everytime we get in the car to go to church and I say, Julia are you going to play with your friends today in church, and she says, "Cayla?" She gets so excited then and for the rest of the car ride she sings, "Cayla, where are you?" (Its a song we usually sing for daddy with his name, but Julia switches it up to be funny) It is so cool that she knows Cayla is her friend from church! I am so amazed sometimes by her memory!

I love how Julia greets Cayla with a hug and a kiss, and sometimes Cayla is just not in the mood and it is funny to see her so unaffected by Cayla's dismissal.

Julia has been playing with her lego blocks a lot recently, although I am sad to report that she really gets very frustrated when the pieces don't do what she wants them to and she either cries and gets very upset or whimpers "Help!" and uses her hand sign for help. I'm still trying to figure out the right way to handle her frustration...I usually just say, "Julia show me what's wrong, I will help you." Sometimes she shows me and sometimes she is just too upset. Is this because she is the first child and traditionally first borns are very detail oriented and usually perfectionists?

She still is really into playing house. She "steals" Mark's burping cloths all the time and uses them as blankets for her dolls, and now that Mark plays with toys she covers her dolls with a blanket and puts a baby toy on top for them. It is so funny. She copies every thing I do. My little shadow!

We've also noticed how athletic she is becoming with the soccer ball, and forward rolls. I can tell she is going to be some sort of athlete with how limber she is and how much she loves to run and be outside. She definitely got that from her dad and my dad!

My mom has been coming over once a week or so and she practices with Julia's fine motor skills. They do writing and drawing projects (my mom is an artist) and things like putting stickers on pieces of paper cut into fun shapes. Last Friday my mom brought over this giraffe that Julia had to actually stuff it with stuffing and a sound maker and then Velcro it up (it was kind of like a miniature build a bear). I think it's really good for her to have all these different experiences. She is so good with holding a pencil and pen (a righty) she makes me so proud as a teacher/mom!
She is so careful to hold it correctly and everytime it begins to slip down the pencil she carefully fixes it while holding it close to her chest and then begins again...it is so cute :)

That's my Julia update...oh and today John and I took both kids Christmas shopping for the cousins for an hour or so and they were both fantastic! It was a dream to just go strolling through the stores with the double stroller.

Thank you Lord for my 3 best gifts...John, Julia and Mark!