Julian says words

He's reluctant and maybe distracted, but who wouldn't be with a wooden spoon in their grasp and a computer in their midst.

National Love Your Baby Day

Today is National Love Your Baby Day, or LYB Day.   It originated on this day.  2 minutes ago actually. (by me) 

Here is a list of what I love about Julian, who grows increasingly less baby all the time which is highly traumatic for me.  You hear moms say "my baby isn't a baby anymore!!"  and you're like, alright.. well, what did you expect?  Well guess what, I don't know what I expected.  But not this. Not. THIS.

The list:

1. I love that Julian is cautious.  Sometimes i don't love it because I'm not sure if it's indicative of things that you might not want, like having a kid who's scared of everything. But right now, he's not scared of everything. He's just cautious.  He looks at me when he does anything.  He gets into stuff, sure. But i can kind of count on him not to destroy things in 10 seconds.  Whenever i think, ooh, i should go find out what he's doing, he's usually playing with a piece of fluff in the corner 4 feet away.

2. I love that we share the same sense of humor. I guess this makes sense since i taught him what funny is (you're welcome, Julian).  But i love our jokes. We have so many.  I love that when he grabs my shirt or pants when i walk by he yells, "Aaaaah!"  because that's what you say when you're caught.   I love that he says it before I do.

3. I love that he likes to be tickled and puts up with my merciless tickling.  He's so patient with me. I really cannot help myself.

4. I love that he loves books.  I love that his favorite book is one of my favorite books growing up, and that his favorite part is when the boy says "Mom! Mom!"   And i love that when Julian "reads,"  that is what he says 100 times intermixed with his baby jabber.  "[jabber, jabber, jabber] Mom! Mom! [jabber, jabber, jabber] Mom! Mom!"  

5. I love that he squeals when Sean comes home. I'm a little jealous, but that's fine. 

6. I love his style. This kid really knows how to dress.

7. I love Julian's name. Such a good one.

8. I love his lustrous adult-like hair. 

9. I love how he says "Uh-oh!"  -- "Ha-ho!"  that soft 'h' gets me every time. 

Other words he says:  

hi

delicious

dada

meow! (actually, "ee-oh!"--pretty great)

aw geez!

Ashley

dang-- (not my fault!)  It's drawn out: "daaaang."   i love it.

moo

woof

tickle

boooo!  I found that one out the other night while driving and reacting to another driver.  Julian copied me. Hey, it could have been worse.

10. I love that he is weird. He is. He's cute and funny, but he's weird.  

I love that we are friends. We have our differences, to be sure.  But it warmed my heart when a friend recently said he looks just like Sean and acts just like me. 

Happy LYB Day.

jump?

This is what happens to Julian when he's just lost the will to jump... (or he's completely outgrown it yet his mother continues to put him there)

Fingerpaint

It was a rainy day.  There was nothing to do.  Time to bust out the fingerpaint. I let Julian join in.

Now, i grew up using pudding, but we didn't have any so this is dyed yogurt, i mean slime. SLIIIIIME EWWW...

 

that's some good stuff.

Shagalicious

Julian's hair is out of control. We just cut it!  Since i get my hair cut maybe twice a year if i'm lucky,  I can totally see not cutting his hair as often as someone else might.   Because geez, it grows as if there's peanut butter on it.  (someone tell me they know that movie)

We went to the fountain the other day.  I took some pictures.  That's about all I have to say about it. 

Just eating some grass here. 

We've got a crawler!  

Love the tongue-out/concentration look on his face. Gotta focus to lift all that girth off the ground.

Who doesn't love lying in the grass?  No one, that's who.

The MB--photos

Here are some pictures of our adventures to/in/from the family reunion in Myrtle Beach.   Thanks again, Myrtle.  To read more text about the trip, click here.

This is the first picture I took.  Where are we? Somewhere in Virginia, I think. Oh yeah, at this lovely state park.  We enjoyed the greenery & the not sitting in the car. 

I think co-baths are adorable.  Especially with cousins.  Uhh, that sounds weird.  Children cousins, I mean.  That's a little better. Sort of.

Julian got some presents from his grandparents and auncles.  These blocks are awesome. Thanks again! And thanks Janice, for being Julian's pal.

Man, I love how Monkey Julian holds books up with his feet. Oh oh how i love.

Sean and Julian on the beach. I'm not sure if it's Sean's shirt, his general whiteness, or that he died and is a ghost that is the cause of this white blur.

Lazy riverin'.  good times.

 

While there, we took some family pictures. A photographer came but who needs him when you have your awesome Canon that fogs up?  Ah yeah.  Still, super cute pic of the grandkids.

here's Julian, Janice, & Collin.

Julian and the grandparents. Aww.

Here are some pics of our little familia.

(Special thanks to Rene for the custom onesie.)  

I'll say it again: adorable.

With Julian's creepy uncle Rob.  Just kidding, Rob. At least Julian doesn't seem to think so.  Look at that adoring expression.

 

 

a few of the fam.  Gotta love pictures with half of the people posing.

We visited the nearby amusement park.  It was very amusing, especially the non-incident that did not occur on the swings ride that i forced people to go on and then immediately regretted because I thought my brain was going to be tossed out of my ears, flung into the air along with all of my vomit.  I did not puke, however. No, I did not.  And that's all I'll say.

Here's a pic of Sean, Julian & Flying Bobs.

 

Here's a nice candid shot of people.

Cute.

 

On the drive back we made a pit stop in DC and saw some monuments.  Here am I in front of Jefferson's.

 

How patriotic am I to inadvertently wear the colors of our nation's flag?

In fact, I'm pretty sure we all inadvertently wore the flag colors. Except for Julian. He knew what he was doing when he meticulously selected his clothes for the day. 

Sean & Julian in front of the man.

 

Often called the Father of Romance, what better place to be proposed to than at the foot of Jefferson's feet? We stumbled on this scene and i almost didn't believe it was real, for some reason. I think I almost blurted out, "seriously?" before Sean swiped us all behind a column. Then he stuck out his arm and snapped a pic. Ha ha.  Congratulations you two.

 

And the last photographic documentation I have of the trip is when, on the way home, we got off the road in New Jersey to find a park to eat lunch and sit in the grass. I punched in "parks/gardens near me" in the GPS and Judy took us way out in Booneyville, through the quiet countryside and rolling hills and farms to where she eventually instructed us to "turn left onto Road."   Yes, just "road."     Which we did.  And it was this surreal beautiful moment when, even now i wonder, was it really that great? but it was one of those times where you think, everything is perfect. This is all perfect. We have a blanket, all the food and snacks any of us could want, a perfect tree on perfect grass in perfect weather, and we get to watch old men fly their model airplanes.  Perfect.

 

Lastly, video of Julian "walking."  What's the difference if Sean has to move his hips for him? It's not that different from old men who have hip replacements that help them walk, is it? I should have asked them.  

Cheerio, or should I say, "Cheerio!" (<-- said in a SC accent.)

UNO!

Julian is one today.  Here is a hodgepodge of pictures of him going peach picking, him at his birthday party the other day, and him today on his birthday. Enjoy.

Family pic by the peaches. 

Peekaboo Sean

Reeeeach!

Look at this face, would you? Geez.

 

Ok, here we are at the party.  This birthday hat is amazing, made by ME.  Just kidding, that's a lie. A talented friend made it. I wish i could borrow it.  Curse my giant adult head.

So we had some pinatas.  One to appease the kids, seen here...  It's cute. Little T-Rex? Baby lizard?  I thought it looked like a baby with a lizard head on it.

Opening some prezzies.

Aw yeah.  Lemon cake with lemon frosting with lemon curd inside and awesome dino cupcake things that Sean got me for my birthday (last year).   Set beside jello with plastic dinosaurs inside that you had to "excavate."

Awesooome!

Here's Sean swinging at the pinata we made, a beautiful beautiful triceratops.

Julian opening some presents.  He liked it, but...

I think he was happiest when the laundry bag fell on him.

Julian was bustin' another tooth on the day of his party so he mostly chewed on a spoon all day. 

What a champ.

I just wanted to show you what I wake up to every day. 

Liking the cake? Mad at the cake? He wasn't a huge fan of eating it or even getting that messy. He took a lot of coaxing.

After a while, we decided to wipe him down and throw him in the bath.  Here is Ashley and Sean oblivious to the fact that, mid-cleaning, Julian has discovered the cake with his feet.

Oh, now they see it.

We decided that the cake was kind of a bust since it had hardly been touched. So we put it and the baby on the floor.  C'mon, Julian!  Touch it! At least touch it.

Too cute.

 

My captions are terrible. It's late and I'm so danged tired but I had to get this up before the clock struck 12.   Happy birthday to the best baby I've ever had.