Dragon Dance

"Julia, Daddy really cracked up over your sleep dance pictures that I put on the blog."
"Why?"
"Because, you're funny! You're a funny, goofy girl!"
"Weeelll, you can do a dragon dance, a hat dance, a light dance, a duck dance, a horse dance, a pony dance... and a door dance, and a house dance!"

In case you're wondering, here is what a dragon dance looks like:

Swimming and dancing

Julia enjoyed day 2 of swim lessons this morning, and chattered on and on about it on the way home. That is, she chattered about all the important things: "Mama, TWO girls in my class were wearing UNDERBRAIDS just like me! Mama, the girl with the black hair, her name is MICHAELA. And Mama, there's an Autumn in my class." I commented that Autumn is a pretty name, and Julia responded, "Yeah, it's kind of like the Autumn that was at Kelly's wedding." I was wracking my brain, trying to think if one of the bridesmaids at Adam & Kelly's wedding was named Autumn, and remarked, "There was? I don't remember an Autumn there." Julia was silent for a moment, then corrected me: "No, Mama, you always say AUTUMN and Kelly's wedding."

When we got home, Julia decided she wanted to be a ballerina, so she put on one of her dress-up tutus and asked me to put on the "wedding music" (which really means the "Light Classical" tv channel.) She spent a lot of time twirling around admiring her billowing tutu, then transitioned to her "sleep dance." Wherever she got that idea. Here are some pictures of the sleep dance:




She even showed off her sleep dance to Ethan when he came downstairs for a lunch break: "You wanna see how you do it, Daddy? You just go like this. That's a sleep dance. I learned it by myself, Daddy." Wow, maybe I should rethink the swim lesson thing: who needs instructors when you've got self-taught moves like these??

Cranky-pants and Julia's favorite things

Madeleine has been a fussy, cranky mess today (teething? the miserable heat? tired from not napping well? all of the above?), and while I had to deal with it most of the day, Ethan got his fair share this evening when I had to go out to a chiropractic appointment. This was just before dinner, so he was also trying to get everything prepared to cook, and the usual trick of putting Madeleine in the kitchen in her high chair and entertaining her while he cooked didn't do the trick. Julia wisely informed him that when she wants to have a quiet dinner with no interruptions, she just puts Baby Dashiell in her crib, and so Daddy should try just putting Madeleine in her crib so that the rest of us could have a quiet dinner. She repeated this to me when I returned home, this time with the assurance, "That's what I do ALL the time, Mama. I really do."

Julia has also been something of a cranky, fussy mess today, and again, I think the fact that we had a dangerous heat advisory in effect today has something to do with all our moods. However, we did get to go to one of her favorite places TWICE today - Rosemary Pool! (where she got to wear her "wet bathing suit," meaning the wetsuit with SPF-50 that I recently bought her.) She started swim lessons in the morning, and then I took the girls there for free swim in the afternoon, which put a temporary damper on the cranky-cranks. Speaking of Julia's favorite places, she informed me last night of all her very favorite places to go: "Playtime Village, Creative Movement, Yia-yia's house, Vermont, Texas, The Museum of Science..." After a few minutes she remembered Rosemary Pool and "Aniesani Park" (aka Artesani Park.) And this evening I asked her what her very favorite food of all is, to which she replied, delightedly, "EVERYTHING!" Hmmm. Methinks she is not being quite truthful there. But hey, it's a good answer, I've got to admit...

Underbraids

Julia has taken an adventurous leap from her usual "one little braid" hairstyle that she instructs me to create every single day. The past few days, thanks to the hot weather, she has requested a "big ponytail," or "an underbraid." What is an underbraid, you might wonder? It is what the rest of the world would simply call a braid:



Julia insists, however, that this style is called an underbraid, despite my attempts to explain otherwise. "No, no, Mama, it's an UNDERbraid because it goes UNDER the back of my head."

And another picture for your viewing pleasure. Madeleine had crawled off into the living room (aka the "toy room" - we no longer have delusions that our living room is actually used for adult recreation anymore) while I was getting ready to go out to dinner for Ethan's birthday last night. When I poked my head in to make sure she wasn't getting into too much mischief, I found her doing exactly what any parent would expect to see their child doing: sitting in a drum, sucking on a tennis ball, happy as a clam. I mean, really, who wouldn't be? What more comfortable place to put your bum than a frame drum, and what more pleasant thing in your mouth than an old, well-used tennis ball?



And finally, some quotes from Julia to finish off this post.

#1 (in reference to the fact that we have one last chapter of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory before we've finished the book.)

ME: Julia, how do you think Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is going to end??
JULIA: Um... THE END!

I am stunned by her powers of deductive reasoning.


#2 (overheard while Julia was playing with her Disney princess reusable stickers and having them "converse")

JULIA: 'Oh, oh, oh, it's me,' said Ariel, shining with twinkly eyes, delighted. 'Not me,' said Snow White shyly.



And I leave you with this one.
#3

"Mama, Baby Dashiell loooves French booty."

Julia works, and Madeleine plays

This morning, Julia decided to play "work." Even though she comes with me regularly to the piano lessons I teach, it must be that her concept of work is defined by what Ethan does, because her game was really playing "Daddy at work." She got her little Pooh computer and her play cell phone and sat at the end of the table. Here's a synopsis of how her game went: she would sit and rapidly type away at the keys on her Pooh computer, with a look of serious concentration on her face. Every two seconds or so, she would chime, "Ding-a-ling-a-ling," then look over at her phone in exasperation, and exclaim, "Oh, it's AGAIN!" Then she would pick up the phone and talk to whoever it was that called (Yia-yia, Neva, Auntie Caitlyn, Auntie Shannon, and Nana.) She would put the phone down and resume her furious typing, only to be interrupted over and over by the ringing phone. At one point, she announced that she was taking a little break, because it was lunch time. Then she said, "But Mama, when Daddy said it was lunch time, he was STILL working. I saw that he was still typing. So I guess I'm NOT taking a little break." Then she opened her computer back up and resumed the cycle of typing and answering phone calls. Finally, she declared, "Mama! It's the weekend!" and packed up her computer and phone and returned them to the toy bin.





Madeleine, on the other hand, is more interested in exploring her surroundings than imitating what she sees. Last night, it was unbearably hot down in the living room, after a day of blazing temperatures and high humidity, so in the last half hour before bedtime, I brought her up to play in her room, where I could turn on the air conditioner. She spent a good deal of the time playing - where else? - under her crib:



And although she had plenty of toys and books to play with,:



she decided to shun them in favor of this aluminum cap, which she flapped around gleefully while saying "Da da da da da da da!":





To each his/her own, I suppose!

And on a final note, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ETHAN!!!

Powers of observation

It is amazing to me, sometimes, to realize how much Julia is overhearing, noticing, and picking up, without Ethan or I directly saying things to her. I suppose I should know better by now, but it still surprises me when she comes out with something that I had never even realized she was aware of. For example, yesterday while we were out in the backyard playing with our neighbors, I mentioned to my neighbor Cynthia that we had to get more work done on our car, which, combined with the work we'd done about a month ago, was really starting to add up. I then commented that we have so many expenses on this month's credit card that it's going to be a pretty hefty bill. Julia unxpectedly piped in with, "Oh, and Cynthia, after we got back from the Texas trip, it wasn't on our credit card!" Referring to the fact that both our hotel and rental car expenses were not on last month's credit card statement, despite the fact that our trip fell within that month's billing cycle. I had commented on that to Ethan after receiving our bill, and Julia obviously overheard and still remembered that information over a month later. On other occasions, she has repeated things that Ethan or I think we've sneakily encoded (Ethan, driving: Oh man, that guy just effed me. Julia: Daddy, why did that guy eff you?) Or she'll catch me doing something, like eating a piece of candy mid-day (no matter how furtive I try to be about it) and persistently ask me why I'm doing such a thing when it's not allowed for her. OR, as she did last night, she will peek out her bedroom window when she's supposed to be sleeping and notice that Ethan and I are out in the backyard talking with Cynthia (with baby monitor in hand, of course!) and we will suddenly notice a little shadow on our back porch and Julia will denounce us for being out there ("Mama, I can't be inside with no grown-ups!")

Of course, she is not always quietly observant. Sometimes, as you all know by now, she is loudly contrary. Yesterday morning, she was mildly cranky that Madeleine was around so she couldn't play with her matchbox cars without Madeleine trying to get her hands on them. She asked me if I could put Madeleine up to nap, and I told her sorry, but it wasn't naptime yet. I could tell she was sort of glowering and feeling grumpy inside, but she didn't throw a fit or make a big deal over it. However, she clearly wanted some space, and I think she wanted something to be upset about, because she told me she needed a time out. I told her that was fine if she wanted some space, but I guess my answer didn't satisfy her. She exclaimed, "Mama, I'm NOT being on good behavior! Mama, I'm hitting EVERYBODY." Okay... I didn't even bother to get into the fact that she hadn't, in fact, hit anybody, or really done anything that was worthy of reprimand. I instead granted her request for a time out (which, in all reality, is just that - a chance to get some space and quiet and get re-centered) and let her go up to her room. So, to sum up this blog posting: Julia's powers of observation when it comes to noticing things said and done by others: phenomenal. Julia's powers of observation when it comes to accurately describing her own actions: completley delusional.

Scary puppets

Yesterday afternoon, I took the girls to a puppet show at our town library. The entire show consisted of three separate story acts: The Bear and the Beehive, The Rabbit and the Moon, and The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Can you guess what Julia was afraid of? The bear? The bees? The man in the moon who turned into an actual man and started dancing around? Nope. It was, in fact, the caterpillar. As he grew bigger from eating more and more green leafs, he apparently grew more and more terrifying to her. As we (the audience) sang "Munch, munch, munch, crunch crunch crunch" while he ate the leaves, Julia moved from an increasingly panic-stricken, "But he's not going to eat us... But he's not GOING TO EAT US, RIGHT MOMMY??" to "MAMA! I WANT TO GO HOME RIGHT NOW!" as she clutched onto my arm. After I explained to her that the caterpillar was a puppet on the arm of the puppet lady, and the puppet lady was moving his mouth, and he was NOT going to eat us, she responded with a somewhat disbelieving "Okay..." and sat back down to watch the rest of the show.

Madeleine, on the other hand, sat transfixed on my lap for the first half of the show, staring in fascination at the puppet stage. I had not expected such rapt attention from her, but of course, seeing as she's an 8-month-old, it didn't last. During the second half she preferred to leap off my lap and crawl over to other children and reach out to touch them. However, she is starting to show signs of listening/understanding, which is really exciting. Last night, Julia, Ethan and I were all hanging out in the living room. Madeleine started crawling away, into the dining room, all the way across the room to the kitchen entrance. Unhelpfully, the safety gate between the rooms was open, since we had recently finished dinner and had been bringing dishes in and out. I figured I would need to get up and grab Madeleine and shut the gate, but I decided to take the lazy approach first. "Madeleine! Come here to Mommy!" I called. She turned around at the sound of her name and stared at me, then started crawling towards me. I began clapping and exclaiming over her good listening, which just about put her over the top, and she began crawling even faster, squealing with delight as she made her way to me. As Ethan put it, "All right! She now has the intellectual capacity of a dog." Later in the evening, of course, she decided I was not nearly as interesting as her overwhelming desire to get into the kitchen, but hey, at least it's a start!