More Pictures!

The first picture is Julie in one of her pretty Sunday dresses, looking so big! The second one just cracks me up. She was having a snack of "yo yo" (yogurt, for those of you who don't speak toddler), and instead of sitting in her highchair I propped her up at the table. I just love the effect of the yogurt running down her chin combined with what look like guilty eyes. The final picture captures Julie doing one of her favorite things: building towers! She's getting really good at it too. Two year olds are really a lot of fun :-)

Our Little Chef

Today we discovered the fine art of "water cooking." It sounds more exotic than it is, really! It involves Julie climbing onto her step stool and pretending to cook using various utensils and a tupperware bowl of water. You might also notice the fancy spices that were involved. Nothing tastes better than water with parsley flakes and steak seasoning, yum! Luckily, she only pretended to add the spices, otherwise it wouldn't have been nearly so much fun to sample her concoction, which she did often. I even got to "taste" several times. Enjoy the pictures!

Playgroup

Yesterday we met with our weekly playgroup for some fun interaction. Everyone came to our home for the first time. Yes, we managed to fit five little ones and five mommies into our small place! Julie was a bit overwhelmed at first, crying and wanting to be held, but she warmed up quickly. Here are a few pictures I took while the kids were eating a snack. We didn't plan to line them all up on our bench, but once they were all there it made for such a cute sight!

Immigration Frustrations

I just got a call from our social worker about our immigration petition for our second adoption. They faxed her a letter asking for some supporting documents explaining a few things in our homestudy. The frustrating thing is that those documents were included in the mailing that contained our homestudy! Also, Larry emailed them the same documents a few months ago because we knew they would want them (they wanted them the first time around). So, now we send them in again and wait some more. It will be 9 weeks tomorrow that we've been waiting for this one document. It's the last thing we need for our dossier, after which it can go to China! Please pray that USCIS will be satisfied with the documents we send this time and that we will have our I171H very soon. Thank you!

Pictures

The first picture is Julie learning to ride "Mommy the horsey." The second shot is of the new table we got for her, before Larry finished it. I will post a finished product soon. The third picture speaks for itself, and the last one is a little blurry but I really love it. Larry couldn't get Julie to stand still long enough to get a clear shot, but I like the effect a lot. I also think it's neat how our nativity ornament is so prominent in the foreground.

A, B, C, O?

Julie now knows the entire alphabet from start to finish. She has also figured out that it is fun to intentionally mess up because it will make mommy and daddy laugh. The way she does this is to insert the letter "O" where it does not belong, after which I will always respond with an exaggerated and loud "Oooo?" She has started imitating me now when she does it. I just can't get over how cute she is! She also loves to help push the cart at the store. If we try to put her in the seat, she melts down and throws a little tantrum. If she is allowed to walk freely, trouble is bound to ensue. Our happy compromise is Julie standing between Mommy and the cart, pushing away. She can do this the entire time we're shopping! Who knows how long the novelty will last though. At this point, she also enjoys helping me clean the toilet!

We took our first trip to Ikea this weekend and came away with a couple of great buys. We got Julie a little wooden table with two chairs, as well as two wooden step stools. Larry stained them and put rubber feet on the bottom and they look wonderful! Now Julie can climb up and wash her hands and brush her teeth without me having to hold her. She can also sit at her little table and draw or read. Her current writing implements of choice are colored pencils. What a big girl!

And a Few More Pictures

Here are some other photos taken with the last week or so. We had a big snow on Dec 1st, the most I've seen since living in IL. Julie was not nearly as excited to be out in the snow as I was! The final picture is Julie in a friend's hat from China. She looks so cute walking around in it!

This is Now!

These were all taken on December 5, 2006, one year after the last set. It's hard to believe how much has changed in a year! At nearly 18 months old, Julie could not walk, clap, bang two objects together, pick up an object, feed herself, or say any words. Now, at nearly 2.5, she can walk, run, climb, jump, eat with a spoon/fork, draw with a good grasp, say the alphabet, name 10 colors, and sign more than 250 words. One thing that has been the same over the last year is the spark in her eyes. We have always been able to see her intelligence and spirit shining in her eyes. Julie is such a special gift from God, to whom we are eternally grateful.

That was Then...

These are our first pictures of Julie, taken in China on the day we became a family. I really love the picture of Julie and Larry nose to nose (the second photo). It was the first picture ever taken of the two of them together, and I find it so very sweet. Also, notice how small Julie looks and how little hair she has on top of her head in all the photos! We used to joke that she had the same hairstyle as her daddy, hee hee. It has taken an entire year, but her hair now covers the top of her head! She even has a few wispies starting to encroach on the neckline of her clothes. I am excited to be able to put her hair in little ponytails sometime in the next year!

Life Moves So Fast

It's been a little while since my last post, just because life really does move so fast. There is always something new to share, but not enough time to sit down and write. At the moment, Julie is in her crib for her nap, but she's not sleeping. She often plays a while before she sleeps, but today is different. Instead of banging and playing, I hear her reciting the alphabet to herself! I don't know why it tickles me so, maybe because she is doing it independently. Suddenly she seems so grown up. It simply amazes me to witness her growth. I'm probably more affected because of what happened right before I put her down. She signed what I thought was "flower" and pointed to her dresser. I said "flower" back to her, but that clearly wasn't what she was trying to communicate. To help her clueless mama, Julie then said "no" and pointed to her nose. Ah ha! The light bulb went on and I realized that she was asking me for a tissue for her nose! She had been signing "napkin" up by her nose. When I looked at her nose, I saw that she was, indeed, in need of a tissue. Wow. I don't believe she has ever communicated her need for a tissue to me before. Usually she just wipes at her nose with her hand or maybe ignores it. My baby is becoming a real little person!

Yesterday was a big day in our home. One year ago, in Fuzhou, China, we became a family of 3. Yesterday was Julie's Adoption Day, also known as Forever Family Day. I am humbled and awed at the gift God has given us. I thought and thought about how to celebrate, wanting to come up with something profoundly meaningful and symbolic. Should we light a candle and pray for Julie's birthmother, should we look through the many pictures we took while in China, should we go out to eat somewhere, should we should we should we? I got hung up on wanting to think of something that Julie could look back on and feel good about. I was worried that she might think our choice of celebration trivialized the event somehow, or made light of something that has an element of loss for her (loss of her birth country and culture). In reality, I don't know what emotions she will feel about this day as she grows older. Finally, we just decided to wing it for this year. As Julie grows, we can ask her how she would like to celebrate. We ended up taking her to one of her favorite places in the world, McDonalds with the toddler playland. After that we came home and had cake with 1 candle in her piece. The cake was a ring-shaped cinnamon crumb cake. I chose it for the symbolism of the never-ending, unbroken circle, a fitting image of our forever family. Julie blew out the candle, scaring herself quite a bit! We took some pictures to compare to those we took a year ago. I will post them after I get them off the camera.

The day didn't quite end there! We put Julie to bed and came downstairs. A while later, we heard an awful thud. You guessed it, Julie climbed/fell out of her crib for the first time. She was pretty upset about it, so hopefully she won't try it again for a while. We've been having some sleeping difficulties lately. Julie used to fall asleep right away at naptime, but now she just stays awake indefinitely. Sometimes I can rock her to sleep and put her down, but sometimes she just wakes back up. She's not upset about any of this, luckily. However, I think she is too young to give up napping! Those days that she doesn't nap, she is ready for bed by 6:30 and sleeps straight through for 13 or so hours. That sounds pretty reasonable, but is it really ok at age 2.5? When she does manage to nap, we end up with a different problem. We put her in bed at night and she stays up for hours before falling asleep. Last night she didn't fall asleep until 10PM! Then she sleeps late in the morning, starting the cycle over again. I really don't know which scenario is better!? I did notice that she's cutting a 2-year molar, so maybe that is part of it? Although, like I said, she is not upset or in noticeable pain, so maybe not. As one of my friends is fond of saying about childraising, "just when you figure it out, it changes." Well, I'd better wrap this up and go see to my very awake little girl!

Big Girl (and cute too!)

We've always had trouble getting Julie to smile for pictures. Once she sees the camera, she gets too interested in wanting to look at it that she resists posing for a photo. Yesterday, however, we discovered that she really likes the anticipation of counting to 3 and seeing the flash go off. With our new tactic in hand, we proceeded to conduct an all-out photo shoot! After all, there's no telling when the magic will wear off and we'll be back to the usual "deer in headlights" pictures. These are some of my favorite pictures of Julie!

Milestones

Today Julie is 29 months old. I can't believe that she's only a month away from being 2 1/2! Fittingly, she has already accomplished something new today....jumping! She's been trying to jump for some time, but her right foot always remained attached to the floor at the toe. Today she managed to propel both feet off the floor as she jumped! She lost her balance a few times after landing, but that only added to the fun. It was almost as exciting as the day she began walking. I love how toddlers bring simple pleasures back into the lives of otherwise serious adults. What a blessing!

Next Time Won't You Sing With Me

Julie is learning the alphabet! It's not something I set out to teach her specifically, but we have a video about the ABC's as well as set of plastic alphabet pieces that I picked up at a garage sale. Recently I realized that the set was missing letters, so I snagged a complete set of foam letters for use in the tub. Once wet, they stick to the side of the tub or to the tile wall. Somewhere along the way, Julie has learned the names for several different letters. She can consistently sign and say A, E, I, M, O, R, and U when she sees them. She's semi-consistent with B, L, P, and Y. If I sing the ABC song slowly, she will attempt to mimic my sign and my sound for every letter. It is so exciting to see her learn! Also, this is one of the few areas where she is a bit ahead of her age-group. As we like to say, she's a smartie! Yes, we're biased, as always :)

Julie Songs

Here are the lyrics to a couple of songs I made up while attempting to soothe Julie.

"Jesus loves His Little Julie"
to the tune of Jesus Loves the Little Children

Jesus loves His little Julie,
Jesus loves His Julie girl!
She is cute and she is strong,
She’ll be His her whole life long,
Jesus loves His little sweetie Julie Girl!


"Mommy Loves Julie"
to the tune of Jesus Loves Me

Mommy loves her Julie girl
She’s the best in all the world
She is cute and she is strong
I will love her all life long

Mommy loves Julie
Mommy loves Julie
Mommy loves Julie
She is my Julie girl

More...Broccoli?!

Yes, that is correct. Julie seems to have a love for vegetables, particularly those that are green. At lunch she couldn't get enough pea pods and at dinner she kept requesting more broccoli. Don't get me wrong, I couldn't be happier! I just hope it doesn't wear off once she realizes that she is "supposed" to shun veggies. She also loves fruit. Her current favorites are grapes, pears, raisins, blueberries, oranges, apples and bananas. Other foods that rank high on her list include milk, water, scrambled eggs, tomatoes, cheese, black olives, corn, beans, Fig Newtons, vanilla ice cream, cookies, chocolate chips and ketchup. She has already discovered the art of using french fries as vehicles for scooping ketchup into one's mouth. If a french fry isn't available, she will gladly use her finger! The only food items we've found that she doesn't really like are fruit juice, soda and applesauce. Thank you God for such a good eater!

Chicago Marathon

Here is our little sweetie after the Chicago Marathon. She ran a great race!

Testing!

Well, we are joining the ranks of all the other bloggers out there! This is a test post, just to see what happens :)