Julia and Emily's World

Today was Mya's birthday party. All the cousins had fun playing together. They can make quite the racket. They had a lot more energy than a few of the grown ups. Julia was happy to see that there was a Dora cake.

Congratulations to Todd and Rebecca. We wish you all the best. Mommy and I went to the wedding while Julia stayed with Grandma and Papere. It was a great wedding. We had a lot of fun.

Well not too much happening lately. This weekend was fairly normal. Julia went to Grandma's on Saturday morning and stayed there for her nap. Later we went back there for dinner. I went out with the guys for Todd's stag (I drink like a little girl. My tolerance is nonexistant). On Sunday Julia went to church with Mommy while I took a nap. Then Julia came home for a nap and I took a nap again. Julia started today in the preschool room. She was very reluctant to go into the room even though she has spent most of the past two weeks visiting the room for basically the entire day. She eventally went into the room. She has been sleeping at nap time without a pullup. This has gone well but today she had an accident in her sleep. Overall the toilet training has been excellent. Even number twos in the toilet now! We're almost ready to ditch the diapers for good. No pictures recently so I thought I'd post a REALLY old one! This is from around 1975.

Today Julia went to the dentist. Her front top two teeth were getting stained and we wanted to make sure it is not decay. The dentist confirmed it is just stained from something in her diet and not decay. To get the stain off the dentist gave Julia a bit of a polishing. Julia was scared at first and didn't want the polishing. She told the dentist "My teeth are already white!". Finally she co-operated and was very still during the polishing. Julia was very happy with the results. Afterwards she got to pick out a toy.

Grandma and Papere returned home from vacation to God's Country (Alberta) this weekend. Julia was so excited because she missed them so much. She was looking forward to it all day. She said "Grandma is bringing me a present!". Well she was right. Grandma and Papere DID bring her presents! Dora stuff. Lucky girl. Today she was back on her regular Sunday routine with Grandma and Papere...church in the morning followed by lunch at McDonalds. Grandma and Papa also came back from vacation to Chicago recently. So Julia also got a present from them too (more Dora stuff). Julia is loving it. All these presents and it isn't even her birthday. Oh, we did explain to Julia that Mommy is not the one having the baby, it's Auntie Jackie. So Julia went to school to clarify this error with her teachers. She said, "Auntie Jackie is having a baby AND Mommy is having a baby!". She doesn't quite get it. Today Julia said she has a baby in her tummy. Whoa...th...

Julia and Mommy made more cakes together this weekend. This time it was banana bread. Julia loves to help but is not thrilled about the mess...especially on her hands.

Julia has quite the imagination. She has been telling tales at home and at school. Here are some of her stories. 1. She told her teachers that Mommy has a baby in her tummy. 2. She invited her teachers over to our place because mommy will make them chocolate cake. 3. The teachers do not let her nap because they give her too much work to do. 4. Papere spanks her hands when she moves around too much at church. Papere also spanks her hands at Grandma's house. 5. She went on the airplane to tell Papere that spanking is naughty. Julia is going to get us all in trouble one of these days...especially Papere! Julia also made up a new song on Saturday. It goes "buddha, buddha, buddha...buddha, buddha, buddha...buddha, buddha, buddha". Pretty simple. She said she learned it from the man at Grandma K's church. She's been there ONCE!

Julia brought home a big zucchini from school on Friday. They grow them in the garden (100% organic of course). So Mommy and Julia made a chocolate zucchini cake together. It was actually really good. Julia had fun making a BIG mess in the kitchen. Here are a few pictures of Julia eating the cake and making some silly faces.

Today we went to African Lion Safari. We didn't take our car into the safari, we went on the bus. Julia like it. It was her first time on a bus. The tour was around an hour long. It was a bit too long for Julia. By the end she didn't even want to look out the window. We had our lunch after the tour and watched the elephants swim in the lake (you can see them in the distance in one of the pictures). That was cool. We also went on a train ride and a boat ride. They also have a nice water park there too. It was fun until some kid crapped. I spotted it on the ground and Sheryl told one of the workers. "Everybody out of the water!". Gross. That was the end of the water play for us. In all we were there for over 6 hours. It is kind of expensive but there is lots to do. Overall it was a lot of fun.

Julia has continued to test us with peeing on the carpet. Funny eh? She can go all day without an accident at school and once she comes home she's laying her mark all over the place. She's like a stray cat or something. She even tells me how to clean it up and what cleaners to use. Smart ass! Next time she's getting on her hands and knees and cleaning it herself. I guess I have to look at the bright side...it's not poop! Anyways it is probably an attention grabbing move so we can deal with that. I don't think this will last long. She didn't have an "accident" tonight so maybe we are heading in the right direction already. This week Julia spent some time in her new preschool class. She did fine from what I heard. The tough part of this week was that it was too hot to go outside until today. Aside from an hour early in the morning they would spend the whole day inside. Today she saw an airplane overhead and waved "Hi Grandma, hi Papere!...

On Saturday we went to Auntie Mikiko's memorial service. After we went to dinner with everyone for Chinese food. On Sunday Grandma and Papa came for a visit. Julia was so excited to see Grandma that she had three accidents! It had been around 10 days since her last accident. She and another accident last night and again tonight. No sure what is going on but it's a bit of a set back. No accidents at school that I know of though. Julia will be moving to the preschool class later this month. She will have new teachers and new classmates. She is still a bit nervous but she did spend some time in the new class today.

This weekend we went to London with Autie Jackie, Uncle Gary, Selena and Mya. We started off on Sunday at Storybook Gardens. It's a great place for small kids. The weather forecast was iffy but it turned out to be perfect. It just rained a bit mid-afternoon. The kids had fun in the waterpark, seeing animals (the peacocks roaming free made them a bit nervous), and playing on the climbers. For lunch we had a picnic on the grounds. After Storybook Gardens we went to the hotel. This was all the kids first time staying in a hotel. Julia insisted that we were at Grandma K's house. At the hotel we went to the pool before dinner. Julia experience at the pool started off rough. There was a small shallow pool for little little kids (2 ft deep). I sat Julia on the edge of the pool to give her a chance to get use to it. We'll she got use to it quickly because she FELL IN! I had my back turned, Sheryl yelled, and I turned around to see her UNDERWATER! She was fine. Scare...

Today was Mommy's birthday. Julia made her a birthday card at school today. She was very proud of her work. She also bought Mommy pink and purple flowers. That was totally Julia's idea...very thoughtful. We celebrated Mommy's birthday at Grandma and Papere's house. We had ice cream cake. Julia got a thrill eating blueberries right off the tree in Papere's backyard. She clean out the whole tree (all 7 blueberries). Mommy's best birthday present was that Julia FINALLY did a number two in the toilet! This is a relief because she has been holding it for days lately. Overall her toilet training has gone very well. Zero accidents at school for the past two weeks. Her only accidents were IN THE CAR on the way home on Monday AND Tuesday! I'm and expert at dismantling car seats and putting them back together now.