25-26

Aaron just turned 26 this month and I'm 25, so I thought it'd be appropriate to blog a little about our last month 25-month-old and this month 26-month-old. Got it? Good.

My backdrop substitute for the rocker she is outgrowing... the front door! I think it will be fun to see how tall she's getting!

• Julia is a smart cookie. One afternoon, when I was getting her ready to put her down for a nap we were lying down together on my bed and Julia hugged onto me tight. "No crib, Mommy," she said, "Just snuggle!" Who could resist such a sweet request? Like I said... smart.
• One evening over at Meghan and Erik's when Mary-Claire was still a very tiny newborn, Julia was playing with Mary-Claire's plush vegetables and Mary-Claire was sleeping in her swing. While all the adults were talking, Julia piled the vegetables onto Mary-Claire, covering her tiny body and face, then joyfully proclaimed that she was playing with MC and sharing the vegetables! Such a funny sight.
• Speaking of Mary-Claire, Julia says the right sorts of things about her adorable cousin. Whenever she sees pictures, her voice gets high and she says, "Awwww! How cute, baby!!!!!"
• Julia makes up some really great songs. A while back she was singing a song that had a repeating cadence of, "Jesus loves me too much!" Haha.
• My mom and Meghan told me that one day, Julia was coaxing Mary-Claire to get up and walk over to her. Of course, she didn't. Newborns... so lazy ;-)
• I'm guessing it's because there's a baby in the family with Mary-Claire (?), but Julia continues to LOVE to pretend to be a baby, making "baby sounds" and even movements that she thinks are babyish. Although we encourage her to act like a big girl, it's also funny in some ways that she already has enough awareness of the differences between herself and babies to modify her behavior to act like them. On the flip side, sometimes I affectionately call Julia "Baby" only to be corrected, "I'm not a baby, Mommy! I'm a big girl!"
• I knew we'd officially entered the terrible twos when Julia got so angry with me for saying no that she looked like she was shaking. When I approached her, she threw up a hand and said, "No! Just stop.right.there. Go away, Mommy! Leave me alone!" Umm... where did that come from??? I didn't know that two-year-olds can sometimes sound more like teenagers. Julia has been having a lot more time-outs as a two-year-old than a one-year-old, and is often reminded to take a deep breath to calm down! 
• Julia loves pouring her water and playing with her food, despite all our efforts to teach her to eat and drink politely. When asked what she is doing as she pours water and smears vegetables, she will admit, "Making a mess!" But then, she'll often exclaim, as if surprised, "I'm all wet! Oh no! What a shame!" (The "what a shame" line is from Gee Gee Mary, I'm pretty sure ;-)
• Speaking of lines from grandparents, Julia also said, "Oh Phooey!" the other day. That one is from Papa Gary.
• Julia is still a good eater and will try anything at least once. Unfortunately, sometimes she'll decide she doesn't like something (even if she LOVED it the day before), and then whenever we try to feed it to her her, she'll exclaim, "I don't like peppers/chard/onions/tomatoes/whateverelse! It's yucky!!" We try to convince her it's delicious and that she needs to take one bite. She usually will, and then promptly spits it out. I can't tell you how many meals I've been thrilled about because I feel like I've hit on a perfect combination of healthiness, deliciousness, and kid-friendliness, only to be met with obstinence and declarations of yuckiness. Aaron and I will be eating it and I'll exclaim over and over, "But this is so GOOD! I don't understand! What's not to like! What could Julia possibly not like about THIS?!" *Le sigh.* 
• Julia's language continually improves and becomes more refined. Just last night, she found her ringleader hat from her circus birthday and exclaimed, "My magical hat!" Julia said her little, "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, presenting.... Mommy!" line perfectly clearly. I then imitated the Julia of two months ago, saying, "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and gulls, presen... Julia!" and Julia said knowingly, "Mommy! It's girls! Not gulls!" Haha!

Julia's play with her dollhouse and her Little People barn/nativity/ark are worth mentioning in their own separate section:

•  After receiving a Little People Nativity set for Christmas, Julia would make baby Jesus cry and ask everyone (Mary, Joseph, and all the wise men) to take turns holding him. She also had Jesus turn to the wise man bearing a gift of gold and made Jesus jump up and down angrily, demanding loudly, "I want gold! I want gold! I want gold!" How holy of Him. ;-)
• The dollhouse baby (Mary-Claire) and girl (Julia) have quite the adventures together. In the dollhouse world, Mary-Claire walks and talks, of course. Non-lazy newborn.
• When the Julia doll wants her parents, the Mommy and Daddy are Kaitlin and Aaron. When Mary-Claire wants her parents, they flip to being called Meghan and Erik. Haha!
• Just to give you an idea of the randomness that ensues while playing: Julia was playing the Julia and Mary-Claire dolls while I was being Mary and Joseph. I made Mary tell the girls, "We're Jesus' Mommy and Daddy! We're married to each other!" Julia made the Julia doll say, "I'm married, too!" Mary said, "You are? Who are you married to?" Julia said, "That girl!" pointing at Mary-Claire. Haha! Then, Julia had the Gee Gee doll get out of the van and say, "Oh my goodness! The barn looks beautiful in the wintertime!"

I could go on. and on. and on. and on. Because Julia says or does something funny every day. But, I've already written a short novel in this double-header monthly milestone post... so, suffice it to say, we loved 25 months and are currently loving 26! You make us smile, Julia! :-)

Snow Day Sewing!

Aaron and I had a snow day yesterday! I went into the work for about ninety minutes, and then was told to go home because the roads were getting bad.

Snow days have never lost their magic. This may have been my last snow day ever, since when you're working in medicine, you usually work in any weather. People get sick rain, snow, or shine. I sincerely hope it wasn't my last, though, because there's just nothing like a snow day. Such an unexpected midweek gift!

We went out in the backyard for a very short amount of time since Julia has a cold. It was warm for a snow day, with water dripping on us from the trees since in the afternoon it was above freezing.

Julia was so excited.

Daddy helped Julia build Frosty.

I didn't have to wear my white coat yesterday, but that doesn't mean my day was white coat free... because I made one for Julia! Aaron and I bought Julia a chef outfit and a pilot hat for Christmas, and wanted to add a white coat to her costume collection, since she loves playing doctor and veterinarian. I didn't find one online that both fit our budget and looked good, so I decided to try my hand at making one.

A few weeks ago, I bought a used white coat at a thrift store for $2.50 (it was $5, actually, but I had a 50% off coupon... for the win!). It was a women's X-small, but was still, of course, ginormous on Julia.

The coat after two washes in hot water, soap, and bleach!

Too big for even Julia's imagination to shrink.

Flapping her wings!

I made a pattern using a too large 4T sweater I got for Julia on clearance and a paper bag. Then I laid out the coat... and started hacking away!

I made sure to preserve hems wherever possible to minimize how much sewing I had to do (e.g. by cutting the sleeves from the ends of the sleeves, I preserved the cuffs).

I made the coat a long, knee-length doctor length instead of a short student length. The student white coats hit at the hip and are way less flattering. Besides, if she wants to imitate mommy and daddy, the days of the short white coat are numbered ;-)

The cut coat, pre-sewing.

I sewed the seams and zigzag stitched over the raw edges inside to prevent fraying. I also removed the adjustable back belt, the ID loop, and the logo on the pocket.

Post-sewing

The buttons started too low for a toddler coat, so I made a button hole higher up on the coat and sewed on a button that had originally been the bottom button before I chopped off the bottom of the coat.

New, higher up first button.

The finished product!

If I had to do it over again, I would use something larger than a 4T for a pattern, since I fear Julia will outgrow it more quickly than I'd originally intended. But, otherwise, I was really pleased with the results... and Julia was too!

Paging Dr. Julia! With the sleeves rolled up a bit.

There is some room to grow, as you can see with the sleeves unrolled and the coat unbuttoned. Hopefully she will have lots of fun times in her new white coat!