Trick or Treat

Oh, this photo is a classic.  We went trick-or-treating with my Dad and Susan at the Night Eyes event at the zoo.  This picture captures AJ, who reminds me so much of my dad, with a look and mischievousness that I think my dad probably had at the same age (and still has today).  Happy Halloween!

The Birthday Girl

Well, Miss J was very excited to be the birthday girl.  She started talking in mid-September about how her birthday was coming up, and then she tried to milk it throughout the entire month of October by saying, "Mama, it's my birthday coming up, so I should get (insert one of the following: [a cookie, the first piece of pizza, to go first in go fish, etc. etc.]).  I admired her ability to claim the day and even the month for her own.

On the actual birthday, we had a family party.  The boys did some secret shopping with Joe for a present. This was the first year when the boys were excited to buy Julia a present.  She is no longer into "baby things" and wants to be just like her big brothers.  Instead of liking an age-appropriate show like Thomas the Train or Caillou like the boys did at that time, she prefers Scooby Doo, Octonauts and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  Joe recently took Julia on a solo trip to Chicago without the brothers.  I packed movies that included Sesame Street, Bambi, and Strawberry Shortcake.  When they were pulling out of the driveway, Joe said to her "Okay, Julia, you have the car to yourself.  What would you like to watch?"  She said "ummm...do you have any Ninja Turtles?"  So the boys were thrilled to choose the Octopod toy for her and I don't think she got the wrapping paper off that thing before the boys were trying to open it "for her" and "just show her how it works."  She basks in their attention and relishes just being one of the big kids.  We finally kicked the pacifier around the first of the year this year, and her talking and vocabulary have exploded, which combines to make her seem like she has suddenly stopped being a toddler and entered the realm of preschooler.

Julia still loves all things pink and purple.  Originally it was pink, pink and only pink but somewhere along the line purple crept into the mix as well for a little change up.  She also loves helping in the kitchen, playing with MagnaTiles and sorting/carrying things around, like sorting little plastic pieces of fruit into piles by color and carrying various collections around in one of her many "purses" (a few of which are real purses and the rest of which may be random bags, plastic baggies, shoe boxes, etc.)  She is also starting to show more of an interest in dolls lately and will carry one or two special ones around with her.

 The coveted Octopod

Fascinated by her gift from her cousins...a purse!  *loves it*

Happily blowing out the big girl candles

Cousins!

Nothing makes me happier than a visit from my sissy and our adorable, brilliant, adventurous and fun cousins, Violet and Zoe.  They came for eight days, and we had fun going to the pumpkin farm and taking in the Covered Bridge Festival in our old stomping grounds.  Julia was giddy for weeks leading up to the event, asking regularly if this was the day our cousins would come.  It is fun to see her play with the girls, because their play is so different than how Julia plays with her brothers.  With the boys, Julia is all bravado and posturing, trying to impress them with roars, one-upsmanship, boy humor ("I just farted, brothers!") and eventually some physical wrestling/hitting/alpha dogishness.  She is so driven to fit in and impress her brothers that she even literally insists that she has a penis.  It usually goes something like this:

Julia: (Using her loud and proud announcement voice) "Brothers, look at me! I have a penis right here!" (points in general vicinity of her lower torso)
AJ (a.k.a. Mr. Logical): "No, Julia.  You are a girl and girls do not have a penis."
David (a.k.a Mr. Dramatic): "Julia, No!  You do not have one BECAUSE. YOU. ARE. NOT. A. BOY!"
Julia (sobbing): "Mama, AJ and Davey said I don't have a penis!"
Me: "Sorry, Charlie, but you do not have one."
Julia: "My name is NOT CHARLIE and I DO have one wight (right) here!" (gestures vehemently to lower torso)

With her girl cousins, it is a different scene.  They pretend, hold hands for no reason, giggle, and coordinate play.  There is talk about ponytails, hairbands, painting fingernails and shoes.  There was also a lot of "Do you want to do this?" or "Would you like to do that with me?"  (Or perhaps this is just that my sister's girls are very well-trained and polite...)  Don't get me wrong--the girls also play in the mud, ride horses and climb the furniture, but there was a noticeable increase in the coordinated social play with the girl cousins around.

The boys seem to do less coordination and more pushing their way into play if they like what their brother is doing.  It was so much fun to see the girls together and notice the differences.  Before I had kids, I thought gender differences were almost exclusively due to nurture, not nature, but now that I have my own children of both genders, I think it is more of a balance between the two (and varies based on the kid, of course).

Here's to years of cousin visits with more apple cake, games, pumpkin patch visits and pony rides.

Coffee, Earrings and Mustaches

With Julia's third birthday coming up, we have been talking about getting older and growing up.  Most of the time Julia is excited about growing up and proudly talks about being a big girl now.  Every once in a while, she will cling to her status as the youngest and talk about how she is still our baby.  One night she asked me if she could get earrings like mama, and I told her when she is older, she can get her ears pierced. She asked if she could please, please pretty please have pink earrings and I said that would be fine by me.  Another morning AJ and Julia were watching Joe shave when AJ started talking about how he would have a mustache one day (he is convinced it will be in second grade.)  And Davey has been interested in coffee lately, asking me if he can help make the coffee and how old he needs to be to drink it.

So one night at dinner, Julia put all of these things together in her fascinating, soon-to-be-three-year-old mind and said "Mama, one day when we're all growed up, I will have pink earrings and the boys will have mustaches and we will all sit around and drink coffee with you, Mama!"  It was like a momentary glimpse into a time warp.  Usually it is hard for me to picture the kids all grown up, but with these little details to focus on, suddenly I could picture them all as college students home for winter break as we sit around with coffee.  

Mr. AppleHero

One of the greatest things about our new house is that we have our very own apple tree in the backyard.  We watched it anxiously all summer as the fruit grew, waiting to see if we would truly get full-sized, edible apples in the fall.  The kids patiently shook off the annoying beetles that plagued the tree this year, saying "Shoo! shoo!  Get away from our apples!"  When picking time arrived, they were delighted to roll out the back door and finally get to pick the apples after being told all summer to wait until they got bigger.

But the most memorable part about our first season of apples by far was AJ's discovery of his own abilities to climb the tree and be a helper.  He has a general fear of heights that has frustrated him on the tall slides at the park and on the tall inflatables at the bouncy house places.  But this tree and its low, climbable branches have held his attention all summer.  At first, he would only stand on the lowest branches if Joe or I lifted him up.  But on apple picking day, he was so excited to help that he climbed more than halfway up the tree to help us reach more fruit.  That night he said to us proudly "What would you have done without me today?  I really was a big help in picking those apples!!"  It was awesome to hear him so happy and pleased with his accomplishment.

And then came the apple cake, the applesauce, even the apple pie. Grandma Julie really spoiled us.