Water Cat(s)

Rosie has always had an interest in water. She tries to get in the shower when the water is running, she plays with the running water in the bathroom sinks, and she is very curious about the bath tub when it is full of water and bubbles.

Rosie usually checks out the tub when the girls are taking a bath, so much so that Evelyn calls her a lifeguard. Julia was apprehensive at first when Rosie would hang out on the edge of the tub, but she has since gotten used to it and even seems to enjoy the company.

All of Rosie's water antics remind me of Eric's cat, Chessie. She loves water, too (to put it mildly). Chessie tried to hop into Evelyn's bath once when we were visiting Eric in Denver. As you can tell, the 21-month-old Evelyn was not as excited about a furry lifeguard as Julia is.

Fiery Red Head

Following her bath, I use a towel to dry Julia's hair. The whole family waits on pins and needles to see her red hair standing on end as I whisk the towel off of her head. Evelyn usually makes a comment along the lines of, "Call the fire department! There's a fire on Julia's head!"

The Other Train Girl

It seems that we have two train girls in the house. Under the persuasion of her older sister, Julia has taken a liking to trains. Julia knows about seven or eight of the Thomas trains by name, including all of the ones in the picture below. And, like Evelyn, Julia enjoys watching the Thomas DVDs and looking through Thomas magazines. Whenever we hear the sound of a train horn, Julia's eyes get wide, she pumps her fist up and down in the air (her baby sign for "train"), and she says, "Train!" Whether they're real or imaginary, Julia seems to have taken a liking to trains.

Same Outfit

Same outfit . . . but different girl at a different age. Evelyn was 2 1/2 years old in the picture below.
This picture of Julia was taken today. I can't believe we've skipped a whole year of hand-me-downs!

Locked In

Let's start at the end . . . After working for a couple of hours this morning, Troy came home to find our next-door neighbor, Linda, walking over to our house. She told him, "I think you have a situation in your house." At that moment, Evelyn opened the front door and said, "Daddy! Miss Linda! Mommy is locked in the bathroom!"

Julia may be a chunky monkey, but she is quick. In order to keep Julia safe, baby locks have been popping up all over the house. We have baby locks on the cabinet doors and drawers in the kitchen. The set of double doors to the master bathroom doesn't properly latch, so we use a double-loop baby lock for the door handles. When not in use, the double-loop lock rests, open, on the outside door handles.

I was changing my clothes in the bathroom this morning, and I could hear Julia and Evelyn in the bedroom. The next thing I knew, I heard Evelyn say, "I'm sorry I locked you in, Mommy." I thought she was kidding, but when I tried to push the doors open, I couldn't. Evelyn had, in fact, locked me in the bathroom. With the way the lock works, there was absolutely no way I could let myself out.

Not knowing when Troy would get home from work, I asked Evelyn to bring me the phone. Thankfully I had our next-door neighbor's phone number on the caller ID, so I called Linda to see if she could come rescue me. I think she was a little surprised, to say the least, by my request, but she was happy to oblige.

As you read at the beginning of this entry, Troy came home in time to set me free. Evelyn had a stern talking-to, and the bathroom baby lock no longer rests on the door handles unless it is being used.

Wild Hair

Julia's hair is long enough now to warrant some combing. Here's a shot of our little Sunshine after her bath this evening, which shows a bit of the wildness her hair has when it's wet.

Letter Recognition

We have a set of magnetic letters on the refrigerator. The set of letters has a battery-operated box (also magnetic) that sings songs: one is the traditional ABC song and the other sings a little ditty about the sound a letter makes, depending which letter is in the box. Just like Evelyn did when she was a toddler, Julia enjoys playing with this toy, and she tries to sing along with the ABC song.

Julia is now catching on to the idea of letters, words and reading. For the past two days, Julia's shirt has had words on it. Whenever she looked at her shirt, she started singing her rendition of the ABC song. As I've been reading books to her, she points to the words on the page and again starts singing the ABC song. In my opinion, singing is her way of telling me that she notices there are letters and words on the page. And print recognition eventually leads to reading - yippee!

Cat Therapy

Julia is feeling a bit under the weather. We initially thought the congestion and runny nose were signs of teething. But today, a nasty cough was added to the list of symptoms, so now we're not sure.

One thing is for sure, and that is the fact that Julia isn't feeling well. After school, when we popped in the Shaun the Sheep DVD, Julia sat on my lap to watch all three episodes (18 minutes). Not only did Julia get some much-needed rest time, but Rosie also administered some cat therapy. Rosie hopped up onto Julia's lap/belly and sat there for almost ten minutes, with a loving look in her eyes. It's amazing that Rosie knew Julia didn't feel well, and then she tried to remedy Julia's ailments with some cuddles and purrs.

Books and Bundling

One of Julia's favorite upstairs activities is browsing through the books on Evelyn's bookcase. As I'm sure you can imagine, Evelyn does not want Julia messing around with her books, so Julia is only able to get away with this when she is unsupervised . . . which was the case this morning, as I was doing Evelyn's hair in her bathroom. When I finished Evelyn's hair, what did we find?The wind chill has been in the teens for most of the week, but that hasn't kept us from walking Evelyn to and from school. In Julia's case, it just takes some warm layers - long, fleece pants, mittens, a hat and a scarf. Since it snowed a couple of inches this morning, I had to carry Julia in the backpack carrier; navitgating a stroller on snowy sidewalks won't do. I got several comments on how cute Julia was, all bundled up in the backpack carrier.

"Baby" Rosie

Ever the curious little kitten, Rosie loves to explore new places. One of her favorite new places to hang out is Julia's high chair. This afternoon, while she was curled up in the chair, Evelyn put a bib on her. You can tell by the relaxed look on her face that she didn't mind playing baby - such a good sport!

Evelyn's Goals

For the past couple of weeks, Evelyn has been talking about various hair and ballet goals. They seem to be very important to her, and since she has been talking about them for so long (for a Kindergartener, anyway), I thought I should mention them.

Since last June, Evelyn has been wavering between keeping her bangs or growing them out. She didn't make up her mind until two months ago, and we have recently moved into the awkward long-bangs stage. I'm trying my best to be creative with barrettes and headbands to keep her long bangs out of her eyes. Evelyn also wants to grow her hair long enough so she can donate at least 10 inches to "Locks of Love." Currently, if her hair is pulled into a low ponytail, it measures eight inches. Evelyn's hair grows fairly quickly, so she might be able to donate her hair this summer.

Along the lines of ballet, it comes as no surprise that Evelyn wants to dance with pointe shoes. She has been fascinated with pointe ballerinas for over a year. At the end of each ballet class, Evelyn has to touch some of the pointe shoes that are displayed on the studio wall. Every time we go to the dance shop to buy new (regular) ballet shoes for her, Evelyn lovingly cradles a pointe shoe in her arms. She has about five or six more years to go before reaching that landmark, and I hope she makes it! One of Evelyn's short-term ballet goals is to be a part of her dance studio's "Nutcracker" performance. I'm not sure how old Evelyn needs to be in order to perform, but I would guess she might achieve that goal in a year or two.

I will continue to keep you posted on if and when Evelyn meets her goals . . .

La La La

We have converted Julia into a bookworm, just like her older sister. Julia has her favorite books to read before going to sleep, and she is very clear about which book she would like you to read to her. ("Elmer! Elmer!")

In addition to reading stories, Julia has added a new ending to her nap-time or bed-time routine. We need to sing to her. The required tune is set to "Brother John," but we change the lyrics. An example of a stanza goes something like, "Where is Rosie, where is Rosie? She's downstairs, she's downstairs. She's playing with her toys, playing with her toys. We love her, we love her." Julia gives requests to let you know which person or animal to sing about. If you forget to sing to her, Julia will remind you by saying, "La la la! La la la!"