This election cycle, Alabama moved its primary up so that it would be a relevant event rather than a rubber stamp for the already selected candidate. The primary will be on Super Tuesday for most of the state, but Super Tuesday happens to coincide with Fat Tuesday and in Mobile and Baldwin county, the voters will be to preoccupied with their pre-lentan preparations to vote. Our primary, therefore, is today. For all you sticklers, the votes will be sealed until next Tuesday and one election site will be open. Legal disclaimers aside, here are the photos of our day.

Getting ready to head out the door. She had to have "Big Bear" with her. He also has to wear a diaper, which keeps popping off because his butt is a little bit bigger than Julianna's.

At the polling place. There was not a single campaign sign anywhere. Usually the turn is covered.

Showing off our sticker.
This one is completely unrelated to the voting. It just warms my heart so to see her "reading" a book.

Things around here are quite fun.

Rocking our babies. The green one is "Alisoar". It is a dinosaur, but Julianna was calling it an alligator. It sort of morphed into Alisoar. He has joined the sleeping crew.

Everyone is now tucked in and being read to.

Putting a diaper on "toy"

On this day, she decided that the diaper had to be powdered. She also checks them for poopies, takes them off, rolls them up and puts them in the trash.

Putting the babies to bed is our favorite game. We usually do it a couple of times a day. She calls it "lay down". Cannot for the life of me figure out where she learned that. I'm just waiting for her to pick up some of our other phrases, like "you need to pursue a policy of mutual nonaggression with the cats".

Here we are on our way to eat lunch with Mimi. Julianna loves lunch with Mimi. She will go for hours before we leave saying "lunch, Mimi". Mimi introduced her to ketchup. I got Mimi a lovely t-shirt to show my appreciation. On this particular day, Julianna was dipping her chicken all the way in the ketchup so it was completely covered. After awhile, she started eating the ketchup straight out of the container with a fork. I think we might loose our standing with the Mustard Museum.

Yesterday, I put Julianna down after changing her diaper and told her to run around while I selected some clothes. I was washing my hands when she came running down the hall yelling "elephant dress, elephant dress". How could I refuse such a cute request, especially since she went in her closet and selected it herself.

I discovered during nap time today that the Australian Open tennis tournament is into its fourth day. How did this happen? I used to be so up on the tennis schedule.

Maybe it was because my cabinets needed redecorating today?

Or maybe because pizza elmo needed a new diaper?

Or maybe it was the counting lesson--one lollipop?


Probably though, it was just all the fun we are having in my little corner of toddler heaven.

Here are the good ones from Daddy's camera:
Putting our babies to bed.
Showing off cousin Jessica's dress from London.


Giving "toy" a walk down the hall. Caterpillar is too hard. Notice he is in diapers.


This one I wish had turned out . Doesn't she look so grown up, almost like she is out the door with a briefcase and java.
And here is what I normally get.
Enough whining.

My favorite blogger posted at Christmas that she took nearly 700 pictures of her twins. I'm having blogger envy. I was doing better at taking pictures, but once again I'm stuck with Daddy's camera. I never realized how fast mine was until I had to use his. I think tomorrow I'll post the outcome of today's camera use.

Julianna has a few new year's resolutions. First up, reading instructions.

Next, collecting her own power tools.


















Seriously, Julianna has moved to a toddler bed. She tried to climb in the crib on Monday and fell. She did not hurt herself, mostly scared her and mommy. She has done very well so far. She has not climbed out once down for the night, but I'm sure it is coming. Her only real complaint about the bed is that our cat Baby likes to sleep in it too.

Make sure you read the post before this one, for an explanation for the new colors and name.

You might have noticed that the blog name and the template have changed. Our family is growing beyond Julianna and we want the blog to reflect that. If you have not heard yet, we are in the processing of adopting a son. He will be four on Saturday, and like before, our agency will not allow us to post his photo until we have final approval from China. We are many months away from travel as we had just turned in our application when the agency contacted us. It is a funny story. They called and emailed with a message that they had some questions about our application. We thought maybe we had checked some box wrong or they needed some clarification about our work status, but no, the question was would we consider this child. Now the paper chase has begun in earnest and we are looking toward Beijing.

Well, our first Christmas as a family has passed. We had a great time. We made Christmas cookies and cake and lots and lots of messes. We took the tree down today and Julianna keeps pointing at the former spot, saying, "tree, tree". She is wearing her new Pooh jacket for the second day. She would probably wear it more if she new the secret hiding place, commonly known as a coat tree.




Uncle Don Don kept her full of candy for two days. She is gradually coming off her sugar high, but not pleased with mommy's one lollipop rule. Mommy can be so demanding.









Her favorite gift was by far her Barbie car. Barbie, however, has yet to ride in it. It was commandeered by Little Elmo and Blue Dog, who have been spotted cruising up and down the halls, wind whipping in their hair.

As Julianna would say, 'Christmas Trees'.

Or as mommy would say, Happy Christmas.

Either way, Merry Christmas, everyone.

I thought I would provide a few updates from our house. First, the Internal Revenue Service is pleased to inform us that they have decided not to change our tax return. Who writes these things? It should have said, congratulations, we decided you did not lie on your forms. Or maybe, congratulations, our close examination of your finances is at an end. We are glad, but nonetheless, bitter about the whole experience.



Next up, potty training updates. Miss Kitty and Elanor Bear are diaper free. "Other Baby", as in not that baby but the other baby, is still in her diapers. She does sit on the potty sometimes. We don't have diapers small enough for this kitty, but I would have loved to have a video camera to record Julianna trying to fit one on her.

Julianna is like "other baby", still in diapers but sits on the potty sometimes. We got positive results one day and had a potty dance, but none since.

In retrospect, I'm not sure why I ever thought an open changing station was a good idea. I've spent the better part of seven months imploring certain members of our family to please not throw the diapers, shoes, towels, etc. on the floor while mommy dries her hair.







Then we had this episode. She was quite proud of herself. It was quite amusing until Wednesday, when she wanted a new diaper and proceeded to climb to the top of the changing station and laid down, with diaper in hand.






Maybe I should get my own supply of 2-0 nylon.

How many layers do you need in winter?



Apparently three.

The Minnie Pearl impersonation was an added bonus.

I wonder how long it will take to potty train a toddler, a cat and a bear?

We have been teaching Julianna to say "thank you" an also to be quiet when mommy is on the phone. It makes the weekends pretty interesting when I get a call and she starts crying. We have been doing the "shh" sound and motion when I'm on the phone. On Monday, she took my phone out of my pocket, said "thank you", "called" Maw Maw, and told me to "shh" while she "talked".

These are from Saturday. Julianna was in toddler heaven. We saw a fire truck. She got to sit in the driver's seat and crawl all over the truck. Today we went to the USS Alabama Battleship park and she got to touch planes. We spent a grand total of ten minutes on the boat because every time she looked over the edge she could see all the planes she was not touching and would start yelling "plane, touch". I'm trying to teach her to say "Z plane", but the cultural reference is just lost on her.

Now I'm off to break into the Halloween candy. I'm not 100% sure why I bought any. Last year we had a grand total of two kids, and tonight is Wednesday, so we will be a church anyway. At least I'm stocked up on chocolate for a month....

There seems to be more and more time between posts. Always so much going on. This is our mommy-got-the-camera-out face. She scrunches up her nose and smiles real big. Usually if I take two photos in a row, I get a nice one for the second picture. Then she is running to the camera so she can see them.

Life around here is flying by and Julianna is getting bigger. It has been kind of bittersweet packing up her clothes that are too small. For so long it seemed like she would never grow, now things are getting too short.

Here is a better shot of the short hairdo. It is from our outing to the pumpkin patch. We have learned that pumpkins are "beavy (heavy)", so is a full cup of water, and a case of cokes. We are so exited to have her finally learning adjectives. She knows hot, cold, heavy and loud. She even uses them appropriately. She now knows two verbs--go and see. She is starting to attempt her name. It usually comes out Nana. Language is by far the developmental area she lags most in, so we are thrilled with any progress.

Somebody has a new do...