When Messy is Cute & A Follow Up

Today we had our first meeting as a new young women presidency in my home. During the meeting, Stace and Julian stole away upstairs to play in Boo Boo's room. When the ladies left, I walked upstairs and was surprised to hear silence and see the light was off in J's room. I opened his door and found my big boy holding my little boy and rocking in the glider. I smiled when I saw the mess that seemed to have exploded all over the room that had been spotless just a couple hours earlier. Usually a mess doesn't exactly evoke happy emotions for me, but I just thought it was cute:) I guess they just had a really great time! haha!

Tonight little Lien ate "pa-ta" for dinner. He is like his mommy-- he loves his carbs! ha! Of course, he got super messy. I wiped his hands a bit, but then realized it was a lost cause. Up to the bath we went!

I really appreciated everyone's thoughts, comments and votes on the little poll to help me with my internal dilemma about going private with the blog. It seems most of you feel the way that I started leaning last week: keep it public but make the privacy settings extra tight. I feel good about it, and will just do it that way:) Hope you had a nice weekend!

PS: Julian had his first bowling experience yesterday-- will post about it soon! :)

HELP! I am having doubts!

Ok, I need your help. I am so sorry if this is totally silly, but I am truly conflicted here. Lately I have been having doubts about taking the blog private. I at first felt I should in order to keep Julian safe, but since I have announced taking it private, I have begun to wonder if doing so is actually the right thing to do.

I feel like if I say I'm keeping it public now, it could seem as though I just wanted to know who reads my blog, ha! Which is totally untrue and silly! But I have received emails from certain folks who I didn't know read my blog, and they have told me they enjoy reading it (which I appreciate so much), and I can't help but wonder if there are other people out there who want to read it still but would rather not say they read it...I myself like to browse other people's blogs from time to time and enjoy doing so, and I understand if people I know, or friends of people I know, want to remain anonymous:) Plus, I found out that there is a cap where if you make your blog private, you can only invite 100 people. I had no idea of that!

I had a thought to maybe do a blog entirely all about Julian. That one would be updated all the time on new tricks, videos, and pictures, and I would make it into his year albums after each year is over. I would make this blog private. Then, I could keep the Kim and Stace Place public, but just keep the security settings on it as strict as bloggily possible (Ie: one couldn't find it say, by searching on Google). However, I know this option would be difficult because how am I supposed to write about my life without including Julian in it? It would be, to quote Liam Neeson, "like telling water not to be wet."

What do you think? Please vote on the poll at the top on the right! (Or leave a comment if you want to expand on your thoughts!) I really appreciate your opinions.

My Favorite Outfit!

Maybe it's silly to dedicate a whole blog post to an outfit...haha! :) So, I'll throw some other tidbits in at the end so it's not entirely about my outfit:) But y'all...I was so excited about this outfit when I got it for Christmas! And would you believe after how excited I was, today was the first day I have really worn it?! I think I may sleep in it...tehehehe;)

Here are the little Booty and I playing outside after church. He lights up my life!

Reading is his favorite thing:)

Today I was called as the Young Women president. I am truly humbled, truly nervous, and truly grateful. I feel so in over my head, but I am so grateful that I will be serving with three wonderful ladies who are excited to be anxiously engaged in good works with the young women. Here goes nothing! :)

I gave a talk in church today on obedience. I, like most people, had a bit of anxiety when asked to speak, but I am always so grateful for the opportunity after having prepared the talk. When preparing and giving a talk, you get to learn so much, and feel the Spirit so strongly as you share your learning experiences the Lord has blessed you with, the scriptures and quotes you've found, and your testimony.

Today I realized how profoundly grateful I am for my mom. She endured a lot...a lot, yet tried her hardest to raise five children in the gospel. How grateful I am to her for trying so hard to do what she felt was best for her children, even when when facing extreme opposition. I really love my mom. I am forever indebted to her. I don't know who I would be without the Gospel in my life...without the Savior, Jesus Christ. He has changed me and made me new again and again. Without the healing and cleansing power of his Atonement, I would be lost. How grateful I am for his love, and for his example. How grateful I am for my membership in his Church. I know it is true. What more can I say? It is true.

My heart is filled with love today.

I have decided to take the blog private at the end of this month. Hopefully that will give everyone who wants to be able to read this here blog time to shoot me an email by then. :) Just send your email to sirmanskimberly@yahoo.com or leave a comment here with your email address. :) This same message will appear at the end of each post until the end of the month.

I'm a Dead Ringer!

"What is the meaning of the phrase 'dead ringer'?" you ask. According to this British site, it means "an exact duplicate."

Well, it would be neat if I was about to post that I look exactly like some awesome celebrity, but that's not the case. Nope. But, yesterday I knew for sure I was about to be a goner...a dead ringer, in fact (albeit a different kind).

You see, yesterday I was driving along minding my own business. I glanced down at my gorgeous ring set the hubbster picked out for me when he proposed. Even after all this time, the thing still distracts me-- I love it so much. I started to wiggle it around on my fingers-- lately it's been a little bit looser than normal. And, well, the thing took on a life of its own. The wedding ring fell right on my lap, but the engagement ring said "sayonara sucker!" and fell into the apparent deep abyss between the seat of the car and the console. I wasn't too worried about it-- "hey! It's still in the car. It will be there when I get to the house." So I continued my journey homeward bound.

Upon arrival, I had a bored baby in the backseat, but I had to find my ring really quick. Well, "really quick" turned into thirty minutes and "bored" turned into downright mad. So I took the Boo Boo inside and played with him, but I could not shake the worry that my ring had somehow vanished. While searching, I found five little holes underneath the seat, perfect size for a ring to fall down into. I was driving the car my dad recently gave us-- it has heated and cooled seats-- so I thought maybe those little holes were air vents that LET OUT TO THE OUTSIDE WORLD! I was so dang dead.

I went out and looked a while longer while Julian was safely playing inside. But I couldn't stay long because I felt guilty leaving him inside. Then I called my dad. He always knows what to do. Always. And of course, he had two solutions right away. Like he knew all along I would be calling him with this dilemma.

"I have two solutions for you" he said. "One: take a vacuum with a hose and line it with pantyhose, and suck it out. If that doesn't work, take it to the dealership and they can remove the seat for you." He was so calm, cool, and collected; it calmed me down. But I was a tinge worried to have a random stranger looking for my ring for me at the dealership...because, well you know why.

I then went and picked up Stace. He is always so calm, and though I kid him from time to time that he is not a very good looker-- not to be confused with "good looking"-- (he asks me where things are, even though they are in the same place they've been forever, ex: J's socks. They're in his sock drawer! Bubba!), I knew he would be a dedicated and thorough looker when it came to my ring. But when we'd both looked, poked, prodded, gotten out about 17 flashlights and one lantern, and I had become somewhat of a contortionist, we still couldn't find it, I really began to have heart palpitations. It was that ring or my neck.

Stace had to go, and I was by myself again. Throughout the ordeal, I had in my mind that I should call my friend/(cousin:) Amelia. She always has a solution, and she's no quitter. I knew that if Amelia couldn't help me find it, it was time to take it to the dealership. I always hate to bother anyone and ask for their time, but I thought if I could just use her vacuum (I don't have one with a hose), then maybe I could do it by myself. Well, she comes over, and she of course has her figurative sleeves rolled up and is ready to get dirty in the depths of my car. She is awesome.

So she looks and vacuums for a while while I hold Julian, who seems to have zero interest in what we were doing, unlike my next door neighbors (by then, we'd drawn an audience). Then I feel bad she's doing all the work, so she holds Julian and tries her darndest to keep him happy, and I look and look and vacuum as she had done, and nothing. Then I feel bad that he's crying in her arms, so I take him inside to get a snack. While in there, I hear a happy scream above the noise of the vacuum "I FOUND IT!" I scream from inside "YOU FOUND IT?!?!?!" and come running outside! We hug and I do a happy dance and it was pretty much one of the best moments of my life! I told her I owed her my life. She was like "eh, it's no big thang." Love her. Love this ring.

That was the closest to a near death experience I have ever been, and all I can say is that next time, I'd prefer it to be quick and painless.

PS: she didn't actually suck it up into the vacuum. She felt it with the nose of the vacuum, and then reached and plucked it out of the cement wedge it had been in with her hands!

I have decided to take the blog private at the end of this month. Hopefully that will give everyone who wants to be able to read this here blog time to shoot me an email by then. :) Just send your email to sirmanskimberly@yahoo.com or leave a comment here with your email address. :) This same message will appear at the end of each post until the end of the month.

Resolutions: Motivation & Accountability

from Greg Olsen's Facebook page

My ears and eyes have been particularly sensitive lately to any story, quote or scripture that I hear or read which provides inspiration to help me on my quest to fulfill my new years resolutions. And it seems I have found so, so much! It all started when I listened to Elder Christofferson's message to the young adults that he gave last Sunday. What an amazing talk. So inspirational. What a loving Father in Heaven we have. How grateful I am for a Savior who made it possible to get up each day and try again, try harder, and to have hope to one day reach the potential Heavenly Father placed within me. All the quotes in blue come from Elder Christofferson's talk.

Today I am reflecting on my resolutions, and holding myself accountable...to myself. I love the quotes below because they inspire me to keep trying-- to never, ever give up. I hope they do the same for you.

“In reality, there aren’t very many things in a day that are totally without significance. Even the mundane, and repetitious can be tiny, but significant building blocks that in time, establish the discipline and character and order needed to realize our plans and dreams.

It is the accumulation of many days well-lived that adds up to a full life and a saintly person. It is day-by-day that we achieve our goals. It is one day at a time that we overcome imperfections." -Elder D. Todd Christofferson

"Therefore cheer up your hearts and remember that ye are free to act for yourselves-- to choose the way of everlasting death or the way of eternal life. Wherefore my beloved brethren, reconcile yourselves to the will of God, and not the will of the devil and the flesh; and remember, after ye are reconciled unto God, that it is only in and through the grace of God that ye are saved." -2 Nephi 10: 23 & 24

"Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness." -D & C 58:27

“Sincere prayer is the heart of a happy and productive life." -Elder H. Burke Peterson

"Never arise in the morning without dedicating yourself to Him for that day." -Joseph Smith

"Let us remind ourselves at the beginning of each day that we can keep a resolution just for that day. As we do this it gets easier and easier until it becomes a habit." -N. Eldon Tanner What is at least one thing you can do each day to take yourself out of the world and grow closer to the Lord?

"Provide an environment in your home where the Spirit can be felt daily."

"There is danger in the word someday."

Everything in green is from a stake Relief Society conference I attended last May.

The quotes below are from a stake conference broadcast I attended a year ago. I found these in my journal:

"Be still and know that I am God." - Psalm 46:10 "We need to be still long enough to hear the still, small voice. Satan tries to make your world as noisy as possible. Turn off your phone, your iPod, your computer." -Elaine S. Dalton

"Opposition and persecution puts you in the company of some of the best who have ever walked the earth." ("Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you." Matthew 5:12)

Facing a trial and coming through builds faith and confidence. Faith is a principle of action. When uncertain with the path ahead, we fill our hearts with faith, go forward, and pray again and again. If we're living worthily, he will not let us go very far without warning us to turn around if we're headed in the wrong direction." -Elder Larry W. Gibbons

"The key to success is humility." -President Eyring

To parents: "Live the gospel as conspicuously as you can. Keep the covenants your children know you have made. Give priesthood blessings. And bear your testimony! Don't just assume your children will somehow get the drift of your beliefs on their own.... Do our children know that we love the scriptures? Do they see us reading them and marking them and clinging to them in daily life? Have our children ever unexpectedly opened a closed door and found us on our kees in prayer? Have they heard us not only pray with them but also pray for them out of nothing more than sheer parental love? Do our children know that we believe in fasting as something more than an obligatory first-Sunday-of-the-month hardship? Do they know that we have fasted for them and for their future on days about which they knew nothing? Do they know we love being in the temple, not least because it provides a bond to them that neither death nor the legions of hell can break? Do they know we love and sustain local and general leaders, imperfect as they are, for their willingness to accept callings they did not seek in order to preserve a standard of righteousness they did not create? Do those children know that we love God with all our heart and that we long to see the face and fall at the feet - of His Only Begotten Son? I pray that they know this." (Jeffrey R. Holland, "A prayer for the children",April 2003 General Conference)

"The parent who allows their child to hear the Word of God when very young fortifies them before Satan has an opportunity to offer them counterfeit." -President Eyring

Image from Greg Olsen's Facebook page

“Give us this day our daily bread"...

I believe that we would all readily acknowledge that we have needs each day that we want our Heavenly Father’s help in dealing with. For some, on some days, it is quite literally bread! That is, the food needed to sustain life that day. It could also be spiritual and physical strength to deal with one more day of chronic illness, or a painfully slow rehabilitation. In other cases, it may be less tangible needs such as things related to ones’ obligations or activities that day: teaching a lesson or taking a test, for example.

Jesus is teaching us that we should look to God each day for the bread, the help and sustenance that we require that particular day.….that we would look to God that particular day.

This is consistent with the counsel to “Pray always and not faint…”

The Lord’s invitation to seek our daily bread at our Heavenly Father’s hand speaks of a loving God, aware of even the small, daily needs of his children, and anxious to assist them one by one. He’s saying that we can ask in faith of that being that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given. That is of course, tremendously reassuring. But there is something at work here, that’s more significant than just help in getting by day to day. As we seek and receive divine bread daily, our faith and trust in God grow.

As you ask in prayer for your daily bread, consider thoughtfully your needs, both what you may lack and what you must protect against. As you retire to bed, think about the successes and failures of the day and what will make the next day a little better. Your [daily] reflections will increase your faith in Him as you see His hand helping you to endure some things and to change others. You will be able to rejoice in one more day, one more step toward eternal life.”

-Elder Christofferson

And how wonderful to know: “The Lord is pleased with every effort, even the tiny daily ones where we seek to be more like him.” –Ezra Taft Benson

I have decided to take the blog private at the end of this month. Hopefully that will give everyone who wants to be able to read this here blog time to shoot me an email by then. :) Just send your email to sirmanskimberly@yahoo.com or leave a comment here with your email address. :) This same message will appear at the end of each post until the end of the month.

Spooked by Santa & Other Christmas Goodies

Though this was technically his 2nd Christmas, this was Boo Boo's first time he went to see Santa, because somebody was a super paranoid new mom at the height of the SWINE FLU season last year, and wouldn't dream of taking her three week old to the mall. So, things started out ok, perhaps:

But things started changing:

And then they changed dramatically:

We had an amazing Christmas celebration with all of my siblings, nieces, nephews, my dad & stepmom...

My brother Aaron, niece Kate, niece Caroline and sister-in-law Elizabeth. (Note: these girls aren't their girls...)

They're HER girls (below!) You can see where they get their crazies from! ;) That is my sister-in-law Beth!

I actually called the title of "crazy, fun aunt" when the first niece was born. I think I've kept up my end of that deal...hehehe...

My dad got Julian and his cousins the best present any of us could ever ask for! He got all of them four years of prepaid college tuition! All of my siblings and I had this too. It was also neat because I used to do public relations for the state's Prepaid College Plan. That was a great job. Good cause:)

Sorry to Stace. I wish we had gotten another picture where he wasn't blinking!

Here we are on Christmas morning at Stace's parents' house!

Grandmommy & Aunt Candace picked Julian out the CUTEST little monkey stuffed animal! Julian LOVED him! He kept giving him hugs over and over again. It was pretty much the. cutest. thing. ever!

I LOVE this picture of my little Lien!

Here is Popster with Boo Boo and his soccer ball he got in his stocking.

More pics to come when I get them!

I have decided to take the blog private at the end of this month. Hopefully that will give everyone who wants to be able to read this here blog time to shoot me an email by then. :) Just send your email to sirmanskimberly@yahoo.com or leave a comment here with your email address. :) This same message will appear at the end of each post until the end of the month.

Taking steps towards taking steps

He took a few steps towards his soccer ball the other day (he loves to walk with daddy and kick it! It cracks him up!), a few steps towards the trash can, and other instances, but he always decides to squat & then crawl after a few steps.

AND! I feel guilty I left bananas out of his favorite fruit list. How could I forget? He gobbles them down like there's no tomorrow! So, blueberries, bananas and grapes are tops on his fruit list.

He can also say "elbow" "teeth" and "chin." He can show you where these things are too. We are working on saying & using "please", and "thank you" is hit or miss!

He looooves books. Yesterday when he woke up from his nap, I went into his room to get him. Usually he is just delighted to see me, but yesterday he was only delighted to see the books on his nightstand! (Ok, and probably delighted to see someone who would read them to him!) He was pointing to the Spot book on his nightstand and making a noise like he really wanted it. So we went and sat in the glider and read Spot's Birthday Party, Baby Cakes, and others. Lately he loves Mr. Brown can Moo, Can You? by Dr. Seuss. He still loves to chase any kind of ball you give him around the house. He pushes it with the front of his hand, and then chases after it (this all started with the beach ball, but now it's any type of ball)! He also loves bath time!

Lien is paying his Grandmommy a birthday visit. (Notice my sly & casual usage of his new nickname, eh, eh? ;) It's becoming more natural now to say it:) I hope they are having fun, but I am missing him terribly! Be good little Boo Boo! Mama loves you!

I think this is my favorite wrapping job I've ever done on a gift! (This is Grandmommy's other birthday gift!)

I have decided to take the blog private at the end of this month. Hopefully that will give everyone who wants to be able to read this here blog time to shoot me an email by then. :) Just send your email to sirmanskimberly@yahoo.com or leave a comment here with your email address. :) This same message will appear at the end of each post until the end of the month.

Snake Believe

Aunt Jessica (my sister) was feeding Julian blueberries the other day, but all too soon, they ran out of his favorite fruit! So, Auntie Jessica pretended like she was grabbing another blueberry from the plate and put it to her mouth and made a funny little munching sound and he laughed! He got the game! SO then he grabbed a pretend blueberry, put it to his aunt's mouth, and she did the funny little munching sound, and he laughed! And he kept pretending to feed her for many more laughs! This was the first instance of Boo Boo playing pretend!

The video above was taken tonight. Please excuse the "Modern Family" TV show playing in the background that my little sister was watching. I didn't have time to tell her to turn it off! I had to act quickly: he was being a snake, so I grabbed the camera and pressed record before he stopped! You have to be quick with these babes! He then shares his knowledge of various animal noises, says "button" and signs "more" food :)

PS: his kitty cat sounded much sweeter tonight! :)

Lien?

Lion? No...

Liam? No... (but for the record, we luh-huh-huh-huvvvv Liam Neeson)

Lien! Yes...?

A few weeks ago it popped into my head out of nowhere to call Julian "Lien" (pronounced just like if you took the first syllable off of his name), as a nick name. We call him "Boo Boo" all the time, but Stace pointed out recently that he would eventually outgrow that name. (I can't imagine! gasp! the horror!)

It has always been my intention to just call him "Julian." I love his name! But I am loving more and more the little nickname Lien. I just told my little sister about it and she thought it was soooo cute. I value her opinion very much. I think her liking it made me even more excited about it. What do you think?

I have decided to take the blog private at the end of this month. Hopefully that will give everyone who wants to be able to read this here blog time to shoot me an email by then. :) Just send your email to sirmanskimberly@yahoo.com or leave a comment here with your email address. :) This same message will appear at the end of each post until the end of the month.

Berry Cute!

Last week I reported that grapes were Boo Boo's favorite fruit. I stand corrected.

he LOVES blueberries! We got them because they're on sale this week at Publix, and boy oh boy, he's been poppin them things like pills! He is definitely his daddy's son. Stace loves them too! I wonder if Stace ate them while Julian was in the womb? oh wait.

Julian has started to tell you what the kitty cat says, but his kitty cat is FEROCIOUS! haha! His dinosaur "rawr" sometimes switches from that of a "Little Foot" nature to more of a T-Rex. I blame this on daddy. Stace has been teaching him to pronounce his "rawrs" with a little more gumption. This has flowed into the kitty cat sound. It sounds like a kitten and a t-rex mixed.

We found Julian a counting book with dinosaurs at TJ Maxx the other day, and he took one look at it and said "rawr!" It's amazing that he knew that they were dinosaurs instantly. He'd never seen those particular drawings of dinosaurs before. He's only seen the life-size ones at Islands of Adventure (which he loved, btw), and the one in his Danny and the Dinosaur book. It's fascinating how much he picks up on!

On Sunday at the end of the Sacrament blessing on the bread, he said "ama!" right after everyone said "amen!" We were so surprised he did that! It was adorable. He said "ama!" before everybody else could on the blessing on the water. He did that last night too! I guess he figures the prayer should be done by about that time.

He is really good now at telling you whether he is "all done" or wants "more food" with his signs. It's funny. I used to be really opposed to teaching sign language. And I'm not all for it now, by any means. I'd rather him say the words, if possible. But just a few signs has made a big difference at mealtimes!

He had to have his "boat" with him!

One more tidbit: Whenever he says "hi dada" he always pats Stace at the same time. It's so cute! We have no idea where J got this patting bit from, nor why he seems to only do it when he says "hi dada!"

I have decided to take the blog private at the end of this month. Hopefully that will give everyone who wants to be able to read this here blog time to shoot me an email by then. :) Just send your email to sirmanskimberly@yahoo.com or leave a comment here with your email address. :) This same message will appear at the end of each post until the end of the month.

Sweet Inspiration

Church was so great today! I learned a lot, which lately is more difficult because Julian is so active! I heard a few quotes that I really loved, and I wanted to write them down before I forget them. :) So here goes:

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." -Plato

"I try to proclaim the gospel everyday. Sometimes, I even use words."

Someone included these "signs of having the Spirit with you", by Elder John H. Groberg in a talk they gave. I looked up the list after church:

*You feel happy and calm.

*You feel full of light

*Your mind is clear

*Your bosom burns with love for the Lord and others

*You feel generous

*Nobody can offend you

*You feel confident in what you do

*You are very forgiving and kind

*You want to make others happy, even those opposed to you

*You are glad when others succeed

*You gladly and willingly perform church work

*You bring out the best and say the best about others

*You wish you could keep all the Lord's commandments

*You feel like praying and reading the scriptures

*You feel you have control of your appetites and emotions: food and sleep in moderation, sexual restraint, recreation

*You are calm and control your speech

*You feel a deep desire to help others-- usually in a way that no one else will know about

*You feel no anger

*You speak and think only good about others

*You feel sorrow when others have problems & sincerely desire to help them

This list spoke to me. I love a list or a quote to look at and say "this is what I want to be like, or do. This is my goal." So, how great to have a list & a quote in one?! :) I can say that my favorite blessing in the entire world, alongside the Savior himself and my husband and baby, is the Gift of the Holy Ghost. It does lead us to do good. It inspires us to "be a little better, to try a little harder." It fills us with love, peace forgiveness, and joy.

Sending good booga booga your way. :)

I have decided to take the blog private at the end of this month. Hopefully that will give everyone who wants to be able to read this here blog time to shoot me an email by then. :) Just send your email to sirmanskimberly@yahoo.com or leave a comment here with your email address. :) This same message will appear at the end of each post until the end of the month.

The Cutest Mistake

HA! No! Not Julian! He's no mistake! ;) AWESOME surprise! But no mistake!...

Here is a video of Julian sharing some of his tricks! :) On this particular afternoon (a few days ago), he was very much enjoying saying the phrase "uh oh!" (Thus, the title of the post...hehehe;)

There's plenty more (tricks) where this came from, too! Will be posting more soon. I want to try and get a video of him saying more of his words and pointing our his body parts tomorrow! He seems to get shy when there's a camera pointed at him, or a new person watching...I promise I'm not making this stuff up! lol! He's just modest, just like his daddy;)

Julian keeps saying Uh-Oh! from Stace Sirmans on Vimeo.

I have decided to take the blog private at the end of this month. Hopefully that will give everyone who wants to be able to read this here blog time to shoot me an email by then. :) Just send your email to sirmanskimberly@yahoo.com or leave a comment here with your email address. :) This same message will appear at the end of each post until the end of the month.

Going Private

I have decided to take the blog private at the end of this month. Hopefully that will give everyone who wants to be able to read this here blog time to shoot me an email by then. :) Just send your email to sirmanskimberly@yahoo.com or leave a comment here with your email address. :)

This same message will be at the same of each post until the end of the month.

The Many Faces of JMan

Today I discovered two teensy little white specks trying their darndest to break through the surface of Boo Boo's gums. Both on the top, one a molar and one a kanine on opposite sides. That brings the toof count to 11!

As of yesterday, sometimes when he laughs he goes "HA HA HA!" with this huge grin! It's like a totally intentional fake laugh that is actually a real laugh. (I am so eloquent, no?)

Please enjoy the many faces of Julian:

making the sign for "vegetables"

making the sign for "vegetables"

New Words: After I handed Julian something tonight at church, one of my young women looked at me and asked "did he just say 'thank you'?"

Yep, he's moved onto "thank you"! He can also tell you what the snake says "sssss!" and then sticks his tongue out with that same adorable little grin! He can say "Jesus" (I am trying to spell how it sounds...it's really difficult! "Jee"...saliva slur..."Jee" or something like that! :) and then he can say "amen" (sounds more like "ama!")

Newfound body word recognition and movements: He can now also show you where his toes are when you ask him. He is getting the hang of how to fold his arms for prayer. He is taking a step or two at a time, but then prefers to crawl.

Foods: He loves trying new things! He still loves tomatoes. He insisted on eating the diced red bell pepper I had on the counter yesterday while preparing dinner. We think he just thought it was tomato and that's why he wanted it so much! He also liked it...well, a few pieces at least. After that, he just threw them on the floor. His favorite fruit so far is a grape, as far as we can tell (just like me! I definitely I ate grapes more than any other fruit while pregnant with him, too). But he'll chew it, then spit out the skin. He does the same with pieces of apple. He has nine teeth.

Current Favorite toys: any ball you hand him, it will entertain him forever. He LOVES the ball toy his Great Uncle CF and Aunt Elaine got him for his birthday (he is holding one of the balls included with that toy in a pic below). He also LOVES the pretend birthday cake toy his cousins Natalie, Fiel, Emme, Clee, and Andrew got him. (Candace: he can blow out the candles now!) He also LOVES the little pull along puppy from Hannah and Chris. Oh! and the Weebles he got from the Lunt Runts! ;) And the Melissa & Doug cutout shape puzzle Santa brought him. Please note: we haven't even opened many of the toys he got yet (ahem, Katie, and others!)...we're trying to make the novelty last as long as possible!

Side note: He can say "apple" like a pro! "Aah-pple!" Tonight, while trying to distract him at YW from playing with markers, I pulled out one of the flash cards I got at the Target $1 bin when he was brand new. I have always just used them to show pictures (they're super illustrations for kids!) and describe to entertain during church. He took one look at the card I showed him and said "ah-pple!" Right on, boy genius! He's been able to do that for a while now though...again, just didn't write it down before. It's still as cute as ever though. In fact, I never wrote this story down either: a few weeks ago he was sitting on the counter at Stace's parents' house and there was a bowl of apples next to him. He pointed at one, said "Aah-pple!", picked it up, and took a teeny bite! So cute!

Today we were reading books, and I was trying to read him a new book, but he moved it over, picked up his Danny and the Dinosaur book and handed it to me. Message received little one! So Danny and the Dinosaur we read. And he was happy:)

Left: If he ever becomes a famous chef, I have lots of pics of him playing with kitchen utensils that he can publish in his memoirs! ;)

Right: I looooove it when he sits like this!

Oh! And he also sat criss-cross applesauce for the first time today!