Julia's First Live Show

Julia was spoiled by both of her grandmothers with some beautiful clothes, fun toys, and delicious candy for Easter. Rather than putting together more Easter gifts for Julia, Aaron and I decided to take Julia to see Sesame Street Live as our present to her. So, the first Saturday in April, we drove downtown to the big event center to see the show.

Before the show started, there were some characters out singing in the lobby of the event center. Aaron put Julia on his shoulders so she could have a good view of them. Then, before the characters left to go backstage to prepare for the show, he jockeyed Julia into a good position, close to the character, and Ernie touched Julia's hand. She was so excited. We joked that she was never going to wash that hand again. She still talks about how Ernie touched her hand.

There were also some cool sets where you could get your picture taken. We went around getting photos of Julia with lots of her favorite Sesame friends. There was also a coloring station, and Julia enjoyed making some Sesame Street art.

Julia was in a daze. Oh, the wonder of it all. ;-)

We then took our seats in the auditorium. We had a great view!

Then, the show started. Julia was so entranced. She was bouncing on Aaron's lap to the music, and singing along. She did get concerned whenever a character would leave the stage, asking over and over, "Where did So-and-so go? Where did So-and-so go?"

At the intermission, we got some popcorn. My morning sickness was still dictating I eat pretty often to stave off nausea, plus, who doesn't love popcorn during a show? We all enjoyed eating it!

The second half was a lot of fun, too. Julia continued to be thrilled about seeing all the Sesame characters and really enjoyed all of the music. Aaron and I were both so delighted to see how happy Julia was, and all three of us really had a great time.

After the show, we met up with Elizabeth and Sarah for lunch, before heading home. Julia fell asleep on the way home, tuckered out from her day of great fun!

March 2013

March, oh March. It will ever be imprinted on my heart as the month we found out we were expecting a second child and the only complete calendar month that our precious Francis Marie lived on earth and grew inside me. I had the morning sickness to prove it, and, while the sickness was awful, it was also sweet, because of the good health we thought it meant our baby. I wasn't really able to cook at all, since I was so sick. Our grocery bill really dropped as our fast food/take out bill really climbed ;-) March was the month we told our families about the new grandchild/niece or nephew they could all anticipate with love. It was the month of our new baby/new pope party. It was the month we celebrated Easter with the joy of new life inside. It was a beautiful month :-)

Aaron was on ER in March, so he worked a total of 15 shifts, half night shifts, half day shifts. Julia and I did more new creative activities while he worked because I'm less patient than Aaron about playing dollhouse for an entire evening and I had to come up with some new things we could do together, for myself as much as Julia, I think ;-) Aaron had a fun month, though, doing a lot of stitching and other small procedures. I was on my Community Hospital Internal Medicine rotation in a rural town about 45 minutes from home. I had to commute, which, not gonna lie, was really hard while feeling so sick. It was also hard to see patients while feeling so sick. And hard writing note after note and doing dictations while feeling so sick. Okay, I guess everything at work was hard that month. But, my hours were pretty sweet. I only had to work Monday through Friday, and I got done really early almost every day, so, all in all, it was a really good, easy month for a first trimester, morning sick-feeling medical student momma.

We had some fun times outside during March, especially on some of the days we were blessed with beautiful weather. As you'll see, the weather was all over the place - in some of these photos we're in coats, in others we're in short sleeves. It is Oklahoma, after all.

I made Julia a poncho with lots of different ribbons/tassles to twirl, to encourage her to twirl something other than her hair while we sit and read together. Umm, it didn't really work. She still twirls her hair. But, she does like her very colorful, warm poncho. Don't worry... she doesn't go out in public in it ;-)

Cold day at the park.

Sporting a new do, right after her second visit to the hairdresser!

Daddy was on night shift, so I decided to make it a special bubble bath night. I brought the bubble machine into the bathroom, and made bubble solution with Julia's baby shampoo and water. This kept us entertained for a loooonnng time!

On another night Daddy was working, I made Julia some paints for the bathtub using shaving cream and food dye. She LOVED it!

I realized after a while that the food dye might be bad for the grout... Uh oh. So, I started frantically scrubbing grout, and, with a lot of elbow grease, was able to get the tub clean.

We made play-dough!

Anyone remember Cecille from Sesame Street???

Babysitting Mary-Claire one evening

Yes, these photos are from March... from our side yard. Should I be embarrassed to post these? Probably. Am I unabashedly posting them because they are cute? Yes.

March was a real blessing!