- Julia has become almost ridiculously affectionate. She throws out her arms and says, "Hug!" probably about 12983103948 times a day. She also says, "Kiss!" about 3492384 times a day, which, although less than "Hug!" is still quite a bit. Julia is not too discriminating with her affection. She says, "Hi!" to people and immediately jumps to trying to hug and kiss them. The checkout lady at the grocery store, the old man we pass while out on a walk, the little boy at church, the squirrel in the tree, the zebra in the book, the airplane in the sky... everyone is greeted and promptly offered hugs and kisses. When she does give them, they melt your heart. So wonderful. Julia doesn't actually give out as many hugs and kisses as you might think, though, because 1) airplanes and squirrels and the like don't give hugs and kisses 2) strangers have thus far been kind enough to not get fresh with my baby and 3) although Julia does give lots of hugs and kisses to family, sometimes she offers, only to push us away if we get near, saying, "No, no, no, no!" So, she's maybe less than genuine these days.
- Speaking of being less than genuine... Julia has also taken her manipulation skills to a whole new level.
- The other morning, Aaron was in bed, but Julia wanted him up. So, she stood there with her arms outstretched, saying, "Hug!" When Aaron got up to oblige her, she quickly ran off before her could hug her, saying, "Mooyah!" (music). She must have known that he would not have gotten out of bed to let her watch music videos, but would definitely get up to give her a hug. Tricky girl. She has tried the hug bait-and-switch several more times since then.
- When we take Julia to bed and she doesn't want to go, she doesn't say, "No!" or ask for anything she really wants (i.e. Mooyah). Instead, she now asks for one of the two things we give her before bed, since she figures that if she asks for one of them, she might escape the evil clutches of her crib - 1) milk or 2) book. She pleads for them even if she's just finished milk and just recently said no to reading a book. Smart girl.
- We bought a used jogging stroller recently. We all really love it and Julia has been having fun going fast.
- Julia has been singing a lot recently on her own. I love listening to her sing while she's in her stroller - beats an iPod any day! She's also getting great at dancing and can twirl well.
- Julia loves counting. She points to things and counts to ten. She also loves the Count from Sesame Street and does a pretty good impression of his laugh, "Ah, ah, ah!"
- One morning this month, Julia woke up and randomly called me, "Mommy." And later that day called Aaron "Daddy." We have some books with parents called "mommy" and "daddy," so maybe that's where she picked it up? Not sure. For a while, she switched between the new titles and her old "Mama" and "Dada," but the old began fading more and more, and now she almost exclusively uses the new monikers. I know it's good because it means she's growing and developing... but writing about it gives me a lump in my throat because it's been a bit sad for me that Julia's baby name for me has been lost.
- Speaking of names, Julia has also called several of us by our first names recently, calling my mom "Terri" instead of "Gee Gee" a couple times, "Aaron" instead of Daddy, and "Kate" instead of Mommy. It's so bizarre and funny to hear that. Most recently, I was showing her some photos, and there was one of me, so I asked her, "Julia, who is that?" and she answered, "Kate." Cracked me up.
- Julia has loved being tickled for a long time, but only recently discovered that she has the power to "tickle" people too (in quotation marks because I don't think she's actually ever really tickled anyone... she just tries to and we, of course, pretend to laugh ;-)
- Julia is a little fish. She loves baths and has recently started loving having water poured over her head. She says, "Ready, set, go!" and smiles widely as we dump water over her. We took her in my parents' pool the other day, and she had a blast. She didn't want to get out even though she was freezing and chattering.
- Julia's recent favorite word (besides the perennial favorite "no") is "again!" If she loves something, she wants it over and over and over, like her recent favorite game of...
- Hide and Seek! Julia hides in a very obvious spot... and we find her. Over and over and over. She may or may not hide in someplace new. She may just stay put... and expect us to rediscover her. Over and over and over.
P.S. Here is what Julia was looking like this time last year! Craziness!
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