A Waterbed for Julia

Yesterday, Julia woke from a nap crying. It seems the reason for her waking and her crying was an unpleasant one... a brown, smelly, unpleasant one.* Unfortunately, after the dirty deed, Julia had stuck her hands in her diaper and made a quick mess of her sweater and her sheet. After wiping Julia down with some diapers wipes (and stripping her bed! yuck!), we decided she needed a bath and drew one for her.

Once in the water, Julia said she wanted to float. We've been practicing her floating most nights, letting her lie back in the water, with our hands beneath her to make sure her face doesn't go under. As she laid back to float, she was still straining her neck, trying to keep her face out of the water, so Aaron assured her that he was holding her and that she could relax.

The water was warm. The nap had been rudely interrupted shortly before and she was still tired. So, Julia, full of trust in daddy's promise that he'd hold her, relaxed. Completely. About 30 seconds into her float, she fell asleep.

Sound asleep.

After we got done laughing and taking photos and washing her up a bit, Aaron asked me what to do. "I can't kneel here for an hour until she wakes up," he said.

So, we picked her up and dried her off. She woke, quite confused, and started crying again. Poor Julia! What a rude awakening!

With her peaceful countenance and splayed out hair, Julia's slumber floating in water reminded me a bit of the John Everett Millais painting of Shakespeare's Ophelia, expect for the fact, of course, that this situation was much more like Shakespeare's comedies than tragedies, praise the Lord!

*I realize I've now had back-to-back posts about Julia's potty. Sorry! I'm trying to keep my young (4 and under) readers entertained. ;-)

Twenty-two months... fashionably late ;-)

This week, Julia turned 23 months! I know you were scared for a minute when you read my title that Julia was very late in turning twenty-two months, but, Deo Gratias, Julia always turns the appropriate age on the 12th of each month. However, blog slacker that I am these days, this post will be about Julia's time as a 22 month old! Yes, I am really that behind. More on why I've been so busy lately later. Well, maybe. If I get around to it ;-) My sincere apologies to all my devoted readers for my lack of blogging these days... I hope you found other heartwarming, hilarious, insightful websites to fill the void during my long hiatus ;-)

I did say this post was FASHIONABLY late... can I get an Amen?!

A few memories about our 22 month old...

• Julia was obsessed with a nearby pumpkin patch near our house. Every time we passed it (which was nearly every time we left the house) - she would yell out, "Pumpkin patch! Let's go to the pumpkin patch!" Although we often had to defer her request, we did take her there a fair number of times. She loved playing in the play houses there, riding the pony (she's matured quite a bit from the days of Festus, I guess), and looking at all the pumpkins.
• Julia's memory for songs and nursery rhymes continues to sky rocket. In the car, if there's music on, she wants us to sing. "Sing, everybody!" she'll shout, boisterously (am somewhat bossily). Even if we don't know the words, she loudly repeats her request until we're at least humming along.
• Julia has gotten steadily better at art. She progressed from scribbling aimlessly in coloring books to scribbling on the character to now scribbling different parts of the character with different colors.
• Julia has gotten even better at imaginative play. Her favorite toys recently have been the dollhouse at my parents' house and the play kitchen at our house. She's also gotten into her ark and her farm again, making all the animals have conversations that go a lot like this: "Hi, lion." "Hi, bear." "How are you?" "I'm good." "Whatcha doing?" Then, repeat, substituting out different animals/the farmer/Noah.
• Uncle Erik made Julia a house out of a huge cardboard box one Sunday in early October that Aaron and I both had to work and she was over spending the day with him and Aunt Meghan. They have since transported it to my parents' house, and Julia has really enjoyed having a little hangout of her own.
• Julia finally started showing more interest in potty training! She's been successfully using her potty a couple times a day lately. Chocolate chips are strong motivators ;-)

We love our Julia!