The things we find when mommy is on the phone...

This photograph came from Love Without Boundaries

They provided formula to Julianna's orphanage. It was taken November, 2006. I just think it is adorable.

I feel somewhat obligated to make at least one post about the US Open, which started Monday. I've blogged about the other three tennis slams that it feels like I should mention the one that is played in our own country. I guess all I can say right now is, I'm grateful it is played in a time zone close to mine and that some of the best matches are night games, which in my new world translates to after "baby is asleep matches".

Julianna is learning a new word this month--Audit, as in this is your friendly IRS calling. I suppose it is good that she is learning about life's little realities at such a young age. Fortunately, we have had practice in paperchasing, so finding all those little receipts should not be a huge issue. At least we don't have to certify and authenticate every single one.

We are working toward another milestone--dressing ourself. It was her idea. She grabbed a pair of shorts I was folding and proceeded to try and put them on unassisted. She can already do her shoes by herself. We still have to do the straps.

She has learned where her umbilicus is. Still working on patella.

Today was one of those really fun days in mommy-hood. Julianna has starting saying two word sentences. Right now it is always "Bye, bye (object)", but it is a discernible sentence. Today, she colored with crayons without once trying to eat them, she asked to finger paint, she stacked blocks (and knocked them down, which is apparently more fun), she pointed to five body parts, she pointed to almost all the animals on her animal picture and, best of all, we read four books before bedtime. Actually reading, all the way through, and one had more than three or four words per page. Last week she could not do any of this, but suddenly, she hits a ton of milestones in one day. Next up on the agenda is learning patella and umbilicus. And maybe our colors.

Blogging everyday is just hard work.

Our little girl is one and a half inches taller than she was on gotcha day. The first casualty of growth was shoes. It is sort of bittersweet to have her not fit the cute tiny shoes anymore. She is starting to look so much like a little girl and not like a baby.

While we are taking this nostalgia tour, Julianna and I are watching a video of Journey, live in concert from the Escape tour (1981). My very first concert experience was Journey. Ah, the memories. True to form, Julianna dances to the upbeat, rocking songs and completely ignores the slow ballads. I think her career as a concert cellist is in danger.

The word of the week is "lawnmower".

We headed up to Tennessee this week to spend some time with Phillip's family. We took a grand total of five pictures the whole time. It was a very pleasant trip. Julianna took her first boat ride. She seemed to enjoy it and wanted to get on the boat when they went out a second time. She swam a little, but this is not one of her favorite activities. She likes her feet on the ground when she is in the water, but this is not easy in a lake. She has learned to sign peach and thoroughly enjoyed eating them.

We also made a trip to the adoption clinic at UAB. They thought she was not quite where she should be, having been home for four months and want her to start some interventions. We will go back in six months for a check up. She has, however, grown an inch and gained 2.5 lbs since coming home from China.

Now I have to brag on how smart she is again. When we were doing the last minute load up and saying our goodbyes, I put Julianna in the front seat. She pulled down the safety belt and was trying to insert the tab into the catch.


Don't call the social worker. I did not let her ride here. She rides in her car seat.

This is going to be a post about how smart Julianna is. Right now she is sort of letting me watch tennis. She occasionally will go to the TV and point at the tennis balls and say "ball". But what really surprised me was when she watched a service point and then pick up her racket, took it to the TV and pointed at the one on the TV. Maybe I can enroll her in tennis lessons...

She has a great memory. When we are out walking, she remembers every house that we have seen an animal at and will start calling out the name before we reach the house--cat, cat, dog, dog. What amazes me is that we have seen the pets at most of the houses only once, but she remembers.

She is trying nearly every word she hears. She almost did a two word sentence last night. She said bye, bye dada, once, but then returned to say them each a couple of times and switching. Hopefully soon.

Every time I see her on the bike like this, I think she looks like she is ready to jump a Harley and tour the country.

It has been a strange day around our house. Julianna has suddenly decided that she does not like to have her diaper changed. She cries and whines all the way to the changing table, then sits quietly on the table. I guess she is exerting some toddler power. The other strange thing today involved Miss Kitty. She needed a bath and for the first time Julianna complained about the separation. She does not even play with her all that much during the day, but was very upset that I took her out of the crib and put her in the washer. It was just so weird. Right now she is wailing like a banshee for no apparent reason. Ah, the joys of toddlers.

This weekend we loaded up and headed to Wisconsin. We had important business there. Our mustard supply was dwindling.
Fortunately, there is a wonderful place to restock.
You can find mustards from all over the world there. It would be somewhat embarrassing to admit to the number of mustard bottles in our refrigerator. I will say, however, that there is not a single bottle of plain ol' French's anywhere in our house.
The witticism is free.
With the man himself, the Maestro of Mustard, our hero, our icon Barry Levenson.
With the local royalty, her majesty, the Duchess of Mustard.

If you have not had enough of the punnys, hop on over to the official web site, and start exploring the world of mustard.


http://www.mustardweb.com/index.htm

I have not taken any new pictures this week. Totally without excuse.

Julianna has picked up a new word--"poo poo". It was really strange to hear her say it and to use it in proper context. It is not one that I have really been working on her learning, I just say it when I'm changing her diaper or to explain the purpose of toilets. Yesterday, she starting saying poo poo, and guess what, she needed a new diaper. She did it again today. She is starting to notice when she needs a new diaper and is starting to request changes. She is also not real excited about wearing diapers anymore. I had to put her in a pull up yesterday because she flat out refused the regular diaper. I'm hoping this signals the beginning of toilet training, but she is still quite young so I'm not going to pressure her about it. I'm just going to enjoy hearing about her adventures rather than smelling them. That was really bad. I think I'll send myself to time out.

Julianna had her dedication yesterday. The dress got finished on Saturday night, but not at midnight, so I had plenty of time to spare. I'm going to get some formal photos done in the dress.
Julianna has finally learned "no". Sigh. It is not her favorite word and half the time she does not use it in proper context. All in good time, I suppose. Mostly we are just thrilled that she is using words at all. She tried a sentence this week. It was "garble, garble cracker". This was progress over her usually which is "cracker" in continually increasing tones. Hopefully we will soon be saying "I would like a cracker please, mommy" (I can at least dream).

Mommy, your books don't have any duck pictures!!

Julianna has discovered that mommy likes to read books and that mommy likes to read books to her. This has lead to a new game around our house. When I am occupied in a task that does not involve her, she will get a book and come ask me to read it to her. And by read, I mean look at about four pages before she tries to take over the project or get down. In some ways it is good because she is learning to sit in my lap and read and also because it means she wants to be with mommy, which makes me happy.

We are having a word explosion around here. She is attempting lots of words and picking up more and more. She is also starting to use them for requests. Yesterday she asked for an apple and when we are out and she is ready to go home, she will starting saying house. The funniest word so far is "R2", which is has not quite mastered, but she is trying.

In my prolonged attempted to write this blog, we have now completely read through a book, cover to cover in one setting. (Plus three or four partial readings).

I was so excited on Saturday as I headed to work. I made it out of the house in one trip, with very little drama from Julianna. I had my list, my coat, my parking passes. I was set. I get to the hospital to see my first patient and there is not a stethoscope in my coat pocket. "Someone" had taken it out of my pocket. No one has of yet confessed, but I have a short list of suspects.

Our Brown Envelope has arrived!! Hallelujah, I was starting to worry.


To catch everyone up, when you adopt internationally, there is a collection of paperwork to be completed at the consulate of the country of origin. The consulate will send you the paperwork sometime after your I171 is approved so that when you travel, you will have all the necessary forms. Good thing our has finally come.

The letter accompanying our packet is actually dated for before we traveled. Why it took four and a half months to get to us, is a mystery for the US Postal service.

May I speak to Pa Pa, please?

Julianna is now the proud owner of a Library card. We attempted story hour last week, but it did not work. They will restart in the fall and hopefully by then she will be able to sit in my lap and listen to a story being read. She does like picking books off the shelves and turning pages. And the toddler size tables are just too cool. She is getting better with the books. She let me read about four pages of one before she decided the pages were just turning too slowly and she had to speed up the process.

She is working really hard on her words. The new ones are cheese, diaper, bath, bike, truck. We are trying to do sign language with her as well, but it is slow because half the time we have to look the symbol up in the book before we can use it. I think we will have to start sooner with baby #2 and learn it before we have the little one. We had not planned to use it with Julianna, but she is acquiring spoken language slower than we had anticipated.

The tech whiz has just discovered the Nintendo. Wonder if they still make games for the Super Nintendo version?

Maybe she will have her own blog at Christmas.

This is totally a staged picture. She tossed the hat every time I put it on her head, so Grammy would get all focused and ready and I would drop the hat on for a quick photo before the toss.

Finally, pictures. Julianna has decided to pick up some more words. She now says bird, bear, ball, Paul (for monkey Paul) and book. Hallelujah, she can say book. She is even starting to enjoy books. Right now she has her favorite books and likes to turn the pages and look at the animals on the pages. Every once in a while, she will let me read the words on the page and not just point out the animals. She is picky about her books, though. Not every book with animal pictures will do. It always amazes me how selective she can be.

She is going to be a technology whiz. She has been running around the TV room with my palm, trying to call Pa Pa. She has learned how to put discs into the CD drive and we are working on learning to put them back in their case. Yesterday I caught her with my iPod (trying to call Pa Pa, of course). She likes to play with the computer mouse and push the keyboard buttons, which makes blogging a challenge. She has also discovered the reset button, meaning some blogs are written twice. Thankfully, blogspot added a autosave function.

Baby's patience is now exceeded. Bye bye

It is another no picture post. I have taken some, just need to download them.

We went to the doctor today. Julianna has grown 3/4 of an inch and gained 3 ounces. He is not at all concerned. He was also not worried about her language skills and we will go back in six months for another check-up.

Happy Fourth to everyone. Mommy is taking her first real day off. I loaded Julianna and Daddy up in the car this morning, bound for his parents and I am going to relax. Would you believe it is raining at Wimbledon? I guess I can scratch that off my days plans. Probably a good thing because there are only so many hours in a day. With any luck I will finish her dedication dress today.

I am enjoying being a mommy. She is quite the little sweetheart. We seem to have come to a standstill on our language acquisition. She is pretty content with "da" and pointing. It is a bit frustrating for me because it does not work for complicated requests. I guess she does not see the need.

Well, off to start my busy day of relaxing...

The Championships at Wimbledon have begun. I have watched a little tennis while Julianna plays in the TV room. Her patience runs thin after about half an hour, so no complete matches. She still does not have a lot of independent play, so it is a lot of her getting in and out of my lap and bringing me things to look at/play with. Eventually the excitement runs out and we have to find new activities. She has toys in the room, but finds anything on the computer table more interesting. Right now she is running around with a software disc. I guess the good thing about not watching much of Wimbledon is that it spares me having to listen to John McEnroe bemoan the loss of serve/volleyers in the game. The world is dominated by base liners. Life changes. Move on.

Things are pretty good around our house. Our biggest issues continues to be night time. We still think she is having night terrors, nightmares or both. Some nights she is up a couple of times and some nights she is up every two hours. We got an article yesterday about night terrors. It said you should wake them up either 15 minutes before their terrors if they are consistently at the same time or 30 minutes after you put them to bed if not. It is suppose to break the sleep cycle and prevent. We tried the 30 minute wake up last night and had a good night. Need some more data points before deciding that it made a difference.

The word of the week is defiance. I still wonder how much she understands, especially after putting her in the time out chair three times in a row for the same offense. She will get out of the chair, head straight to the stove and turn knobs. Back to the chair. Sometimes she pokes her lower jaw out in clear defiance and commits the offense. Sometimes she just seems to be going about the business of play and falls into forbidden territory.

The pictures are from her birthday. Doesn't every two year old need a tennis racket? Notice it is Wilson, like mommy, not Prince, like daddy.

It is hard to believe, but today is the three month anniversary of getting our little girl. Exactly twelve weeks ago today, we flew into China, took quick showers, and met our beautiful girl. We were so exhausted by the end of the day that I fell asleep on the bed with Julianna, completely awake, sitting on my stomach. I thought it might be fun on this anniversary to relive some of those parenting dictums that have fallen away at our house. I hope you enjoy our silliness.

10. We won't loose any of those sippy cups


About half of them are spread out somewhere in the house. We did at least make it to
eleven weeks before leaving one at a restaurant.

9. No character toys
We broke this one before we even made it to China

8. She will sleep in her own bed in her own room


We can dream

7. No caffeine
How about no caffeine in her sippy cups?

6. No eating in the car

5. We will have a bookshelf filled with classic literature for our darling to enjoy.


I guess Dr. Seuss is a classic

4. We will read from the above mentioned classics before bedtime every night.

3. Our child will eat whatever we make for dinner (ie, no special baby meals)


Good thing I own this.

2. No junk food
Thanks, Mary

1. Our house will not be taken over by baby paraphernalia


And pigs will fly.

Happy Father's Day. Julianna and her daddy have gone to visit his parents, so mommy has the afternoon to herself. Now I have to come up with "what I've been wanting to do but could not because of the baby". Unfortunately, my favorite fabric store is closed. Cannot really go to the movies because I still have to take call and would most likely spend the entire time in the lobby answering calls. I'm not really in the mood to sew after the sewing machine ripped a huge whole in the dedication dress (the needle got embedded in the bobbin plate, which had slipped out when I put the embroidery hoop on. Sigh). No good tennis matches on. I guess I'll just take a nap.

This is Julianna in one of Cousin Jessica's dresses. It is a six/nine month size. She picked the red shoes. I had her in white ones for about five minutes and she exercised her option of selecting her own footwear. The band aid is for no particular reason. She does have boo boos on both knees, but they are healing nicely. She just wanted a band aid. I think it is cute that she is all decked out in a frilly dress and socks but has rough-n-tumble knees.

We have had our crib for an embarrassing long time, and this happened for the first time Tuesday...
The photograph did not turn out as well as I hoped. I could not get high enough, so let me explain. In the left corner is Julianna, sound asleep, in the right corner is a cat, and not just any cat, the cat that Julianna is afraid of, the one that has bitten me three times since we got back from China. It was a frightening sight. Fortunately, she has not done it again.

Julianna had her big birthday this weekend. The big number two. We had a good time. Number of photos taken by her parents=0. Number of photos taken by her grandparents=+100. I even took the camera downstairs where the festivities were. Good thing she has grandparents or nothing in her life would be photographed.

This is today's shoe selection. Julianna has taken to selecting shoes right after her first diaper change. I think she just likes putting them on and does use any great criteria in her selection process. She loves to stand up and put on her shoes like a big girl slipping into shoes. She has started wearing the shoes more consistently as well. Up until now, we would put the shoes in her diaper bag and put them on at the destination because she would inevitably get them off in the car.
Here we are, bed hair and shoes. She has a sock on her hand. She caught her fingers in the door and has a bad boo boo on one finger. The sock is so she will not pull the band aid off. The experience did not in any way change her habit of closing and opening doors.

Yesterday, or maybe Sunday, she decided to eat bananas like the adults in the house and not cut up on her plate. Emily Post would be aghast that anyone in our house eats bananas like this, but I'm sure it is not the only uncouth activity we partake in.

Today we took part in that great American privilege--voting. We had a "I Voted" sticker and I was going to get her picture in it, but we lost it. They just don't stick quite so well after you pull them off five or six times.

We scheduled her baby dedication. It will be July 29. That means about seven weeks for mommy to finish her dress. I guess I should go start...

I've said how much I like footed jammies, but how about footed jammies and shoes?

It is another no picture post. I'm sure they are boring. I went to work this weekend. First full weekend back. It was sort of strange. I had to take daddy's car because the car seat is in mommy's. I had to take my coat, two parking passes and a patient list. Nearly left without the parking passes. I also had to remember the dictation codes for three systems and the computer codes for two. I did not write them down anywhere because I thought I would always remember them since I use them so much. Brilliant plan that was. I'm sure someone can reset the computer codes this week. Perhaps I'll even write them down...

Today is just one of those frustrating parenting days. Julianna was so tired at nap time that she could not keep her eyes open, but still managed to fight sleep for an hour and a half. Strong willed indeed. It is frustrating because I feel like I don't know what the right thing to do is. Do we walk out and let her fall asleep on her own? Do we sit in the room with her (she thinks this is an invitation to play)? Rock her? Stroke her arm and back (forty minutes today)? I just do not know and it is driving me crazy.

The camera is still by the computer from the last photo download, so no new pictures. Poor kid.