13-month-lady!

Julia turned 13 months on January 12th! She is less and less baby, and more and more toddler. Her personality continues to shine through more and more and we love it!  Yay, Julia!

Yes, that is a gold permanent marker in Julia's hand.  We are lucky that she doesn't know how to uncap things yet! :-)

• Julia loves other children. She points and shouts out, "Baby!" whenever she sees anyone under the age of ten, give or or take. She gets some funny looks from little kids sometimes when she calls them baby! A little girl played with her in the church cry room the other day, and Julia was in seventh heaven, just beaming up at her. She freaked out when the girl had to kneel and stop playing with her, and pointed sadly, crying out for her six year old "baby." We've had a couple lovely visits lately from dear friends with babies, and Julia has gotten similarly excited and was actually surprisingly gentle with them.

• Besides avoiding eggs and limiting her from any of the sweets or other less than healthy food that we eat,  Julia ways what we eat almost all the time now, which is nice. It's easier only preparing one meal for the three of us. Julia has gotten good at using her spoon. The other day, she was even trying to eat bread with it - ha!

• Julia is obsessed with music. She calls it "me" and requests it often. Since we usually play music for her on my laptop, she find it and bangs on it, saying "me" or "bu bu" (for one of her favorite songs, "Buzz Buzz") or "do do do" (for one part of this song, another great favorite). She dances by bobbing up and down, bending at the knees, and by waving her arms up and down.

• Julia is the queen of imitation. She mimics so much of what we say and do. Once, at mass, a lady next to us kept coughing, so Julia kept imitating her - maybe not the best time or place for her mimic skills, but it was funny!

• She gives great hugs and will kiss books if there is a picture of a kiss, but her kisses are rare treats these days!  When we ask for a kiss, she usually asserts her independence and tries to push us away.  Oh well... ;-)  She has been really cuddly lately, though, hugging me with her head on my shoulder.  We've been doing a lot of slow dancing lately, when she's tired, in addition to our usual spirited dancing when she's energetic.

• Julia is starting to understand pretend play a little more.  She has a little kitchen from my parents and will use the spoon to stir the pot and then "eat" spoonfuls of imaginary soup.  These skills are some of the ones I am most eager for her to develop - imagination is one of the best gifts God has given humankind, in my opinion! :-)

• Julia's vocabulary continues to expand!  She's got words for so many things, even some adjectives, which are more abstract.  We have a book of opposites, which she really seems to understand.  When we get to the page of loud and quiet, she puts her finger up to her mouth and says, "ki" very softly and says, "shh."  When she is shivering in her towel after her bath (she's a chatterer like me!) she says, "Cole!  cole!"  to let us know her current temperature. 

• Julia is a great walker these days!  As the weeks have gone by, she her ratio to walking vs. crawling has dramatically increased, to the point that she rarely crawls.  She's getting faster and steadier, too.  She also can kick a ball while walking, which makes her already almost as coordinated as me.  I think she'll probably surpass my athletic ability at age 15 months or so ;-)

We're having a blast with our growing Julia Grace!  She is a delight!