Julia and Emily's World

Julia had an active day today. It started with a walk in the morning with me. Then she went grocery shopping with mommy. In the afternoon after her nap we did some water play in the backyard. Julia was soaked but it was pretty hot out by then. In the evening Aunt Linda dropped by for a visit. Aunt Linda's mom gave Julia a tricycle. It's a bit big right now but she already loves it. Unfortunately for me, I have to push her. She also gave us a baby seat to go in Papa and Grandma's car once they move here. The potty training is going slow. I think she is still too young for it. At bath time I asked her to sit on the potty but she refused. 10 seconds later she was peeing on the bathroom floor! She doesn't really get it yet but we're not going to worry about it for now. Julia is coughing a bit at night still. It's not enough to wake her up though. During the day she is fine.

Julia has learned a new word...Sami (Sammy). This is an important one because we always said that Sami (Julia's classmate) was her boyfriend. Up until today she would call him Mammmy. Her words are really getting clear and she is not shy about vocalizing at home and at school. Another newish word and her most annoying word is MINE! She screams it at the top of her lungs whenever she wants something and then throws a hissy fit if she doesn't get it. This applies to toys and food. This started in the past day or so and I can't stand it! I have to put an end to it somehow and fast.

Julia lost her favourite teacher at daycare, Betty Anne. Betty Anne was let go due to restructuring and budget cuts. She was Julia's favourite. Julia use to hog Betty Anne to herself and would get upset if she held other kids. She really did a great job taking care of Julia. Julia will now have 2 teachers instead of 3. The class size will remain at seven (6 full time kids and one part timer). Other than that bit of bad news, Julia had a good day. Very little coughing all day. I think she is almost fully recovered.

Julia had a better day at daycare today. She was coughing less and was in a great mood. Her teacher Lisa said that she hardly coughed at all during her nap. Julia's appetite is back to normal too. She looks kind of skinny because of these past few days of not eating too much. I think that Julia's ear tubes has helped her speech. She is now saying her words more clearly and likes to try to repeat everything (I have to watch my mouth while driving). Words like "birdy" and "turtle" are very clear now (she still has trouble with "hippopotamus", "tyrannosaurus", "rhinoceros" but I'm pushing her!). "NO" is VERY clear! But who knows...it could be just a coincidence that her speech has developed at the same time as the operation. Anyways it is fun talking to her now.

Julia went to daycare today and had a good day. There was a birthday party for one of the kids. I was glad Julia was there today because there has been 2 other parties that Julia had to miss due to illness and a doctor's appointment. The care workers were concerned with Julia because her cough sounds so rough. She still coughs at night time. Hopefully it is getting better and she'll have a good nights sleep tonight.

Today Uncle Louis visited. There was a time when Julia was terrified of Uncle Louis. Not anymore. She had fun playing in her ball tent with Lou and even gave him a big hug when he left. Julia's cold is getting better. Today she didn't have a fever and was in a good mood for most of the day. She did take two naps so she is still fighting this thing. Her cough still sounds bad but she seems to be coughing less than yesterday. It is more of a problem at night because it wakes her up. I think she is well enough to go back to daycare tomorrow. Julia is getting use to wearing her ear plugs in the bath tub. Sometimes I have to let her put plugs in my ears first so that she will let me put plugs in her ears (In case you were wondering what was in my ears).

Julia had a better day today. She was in a better mood than yesterday. She is still cranky but better. Julia was well enough to take a trip to the grocery store with Mommy and then to the park. She still has a bit of a fever. It usually goes up during nap time or bed time so we still have to give her Tempra regularly. Now her coughing has gotten worse. It is even worse at night. Her voice is really raspy. Hopefully the fever will be gone tomorrow.

Julia is still sick. We have to regularly give her Tempra to keep her fever down. Her cough is sounding bad. I think it bothers her throat to cough. She is eating a bit and drinking a bit but not nearly as much as she normally does. She was generally miserable the whole day.

After having a nap at Grandma's house, Julia woke up with a fever again. 103.5F. I think it is from the virus Andrew had because she is coughing as well and her appetite is not strong. I really hope it is not an ear infection. She still had a good time at Grandma's though.

Julia had a fever overnight so we decided to keep her home. She has been really good so far. She is in good spirits and her fever is very mild. We were getting bored at home so we had a dose of Tempra and headed to Grandma's house. We are here now. No fever right now.

Julia was sent home early from daycare today...FEVER! She was feeling a bit under the weather this morning and we decided to take a chance and take her to daycare. I got the call at 2:45pm that Julia had a fever. I gave her some Tempra there and took her home. She isn't allowed to stay there with a fever. Once the Tempra kicked in and her fever dropped she was in better spirits. I'll see how it goes tomorrow morning. If she still has a fever then I'll take her to the doctor to check her ears. Given that Nathan, Mya and Jenna are all sick too, I suspect this was something she caught from Andrew on Sunday. Hopefully it doesn't develop into an ear infection.

Tonight Aunt Pat treated us to a nice dinner at Kelsey's. This is Aunt Pat's last night with us. It was fun having her here for a visit. On Thursday she is heading home to New Zealand. In December her daughter Jacquie will be visiting from New Zealand with her fiance Roland. We are looking forward to seeing them. Julia has never met her long distance cousin.

Today was Julia's first day in her new room at school. She was very excited when we got there. It was "Bye Bye Daddy!" as soon as she was ready to explore. This room is very big considering that there are only 7 toddlers in the class. There is a large climber, lots of play areas and real toilets. No more diaper change tables and no more sleeping room. All the toddlers sleep in the room on portable cots which they set up during nap time. The yard is also bigger. It has a large outdoor climber, a sand pit, a little bridge to walk over, picnic tables and a vegetable garden to tend to. Julia is loving it!

Today Julia went to the doctor's with Mommy for her 18 month check-up (new height and weight posted). Along for the ride was Aunt Pat. They arrived early (1.5 hours early) so they had lunch first at the hospital cafeteria. This cafeteria had a large aquarium and birds so Julia had fun. At the doctor's office Julia was very nervous as usual. This time she had reason to be a bit nervous because she had to get 2 needles, one in each arm. I had the afternoon off to set a court date for my ticket. It took a lot less time than I though so I had a couple of unexpected hours free. I took advantage of the time by taking Julia to the park. She is getting a lot more brave. I had to stop her a couple of times from going down the slide by herself because I didn't have anyone with me to catch her at the bottom. She's still not crazy about the swings. Aunt Pat brought a nice pink Dora outfit and a cute hairy frog that Julia loved (see pictures). Julia had SOME success on the...

Today was Mya's birthday party (I forgot my camera so no pictures. Lots of pictures on Selena and Mya's blog though). Julia had a lot of fun with all her cousins, even Nathan! At first she was very nervous will all the people there but once she warmed up to everyone she started to have fun. Mya's cousin Jenna was there too. Jenna and Julia interacted quite frequently. Usually they were fighting over toys. At one point Jenna had baby's head and Julia had baby's feet and they were both pulling and both yelling. Julia was quite stressed. After the party we dropped by Louise's place to pick up Aunt Pat. Aunt Pat will be staying with us for a couple of nights. Julia looks to be quite comfortable with Aunt Pat so far. They will be spending a lot of time together tomorrow so I'm sure that they will be best friends by tomorrow afternoon. Losing the soother hasn't been easy. She hasn't had a full night without it yet. I think we'll just hav...

After starting potty training, Julia was ready to tackle something a little more challenging...losing the soother. I was expecting this to be a tough battle but step one went off without incident. Tonight Julia went to bed without her soother. She asked for it, didn't get it and she still went to sleep. It's been 3 hours and so far so good. We'll see if she gets through the night. What a big week! First the potty now the soother. Maybe next week we'll find her a part time job. I heard Dairy Queen is hiring. Here are a few pictures of Julia playing outside with our neighbours Danny and Nicky.

OK, I now have actual physical evidence. Julia pee'd in her potty at home today! Sheryl put her on it before dinner and right away she went. It's been a good (and surprising) start to potty training this week. I think that is enough potty talk for this week. Next week Julia moves into a new room at daycare. I took a peek today with Julia. I think she will like the change. There is a bigger jungle gym in the room, toilets, and even a bird. Although I'm not sure if the bird is staying with the current class or the room. There will be 7 toddlers in the room, one more than right now, with the same 3 care workers. It's a large room for 7. It is meant for around 10 at least. I'll post some pictures of the room once she gets in there.

OK, I'm going to stick to this weeks potty theme. Today she tried out her potty at home. I really thought that she wanted to use it because she was saying "potty! potty!" and headed upstairs to her potty. When we got there it looked like she just wanted to play with it as you can see by the pictures. We did put her on it but she didn't do anything. She did however have some success with the potty at daycare again. Papere and Grandma are at home now. This visit flew by. I can't believe that their 2 weeks went by already. Julia again was calling for "Papa" as soon as she got home. She as actually yelling "PAPA!". They will be back soon so I don't think she'll forget them this time around.

We'll she did it again. Pee on the potty today. Maybe she's ready for it which would be nice. There would be no more diaper changes, rashes, fighting on the change table. I guess we have to take it day by day and see how this goes. Tonight was the last night Papere and Grandma were in town. They leave in the morning. Unfortunately for Julia they were out in Toronto for the evening and came home after she was already in bed. Julia was calling for "Papa" on the way home and also when she got home. She was upset that he wasn't around. She's going to miss them. We went to Swiss Chalet for dinner. The food took a long time and Julia was getting restless there. We had to eat quickly and scram.

Well wasn't I surprised to be told today that Julia used the potty at daycare. They put her on it 3 times and guess what...2 pees and a poop (or "BM" as they like to call it at daycare). Before I get too excited, this was the first time they put her on it so we'll see if she has a repeat performance. There are older toddlers in the class who are potty training so maybe she has picked it up by copying the others. Anyways, they will keep trying with her to see what happens. She's a bit young for it (she just turned 18 months) so they don't know if she is really ready. If they could potty train her then it is worth every penny sending her to daycare! Julia will be moving into a new room at the end of the month and this room has mini toilets. This will be ideal if she is ready to start potty training. We ran out and got her a potty tonight because she was sitting on the bathroom scale at bath time saying "potty!". I don't want her to have a...