Smarty-Pants Update

Julian is 19.5 months!

• On July 3, Julian began to take charge when he says his prayers. Instead of just repeating what we said, he started naming the things he's thankful for on his own. That night, he thanked Heavenly Father for "Grandmama, Pop Pop, Gigi, flowers and ponies." Since then, he has thanked Him for everything under the sun (including the sun) from "socctah balls" to "catfood" and "queso"!
• "Catfood" and "queso" are his two favorite "jokes" to tell! He will say them randomly and sometimes over and over again throughout the day just to make people laugh! Both words have little stories behind them, and you don't understand how cute it is when he looks at you and laughs (and waits for you to laugh) unless you know those stories. It's kinda funny when he looks at the random ladies in the store and says it as we walk by!
  
• He moved into his very own big boy bed on July 8 and hasn't looked back! He is so proud of his big boy bed. He LOVES it! He has never once gotten out of bed at night, and has only done so during naps three times. We just pick him up and put him straight back in it, and if that doesn't work after several attempts, we set up the pack-n-play. He really doesn't like that! But he really learns and remembers when the next time rolls around.
• We've started timeouts. He started swatting last week when my nieces were visiting, so timeouts began. When you tell him "ouchie, that hurts. No hitting." He says "mm, tiss" and then leans in and gives you a soft kiss right where he hit. Melts my heart. But also whenever he hits, I think he thinks it cute, so it makes it harder to have to discipline! :( But it must be done.
• He is OB.SESSED. with his cousins Caroline, Kate and Georgia. And they are obsessed with him! They all have so much fun together!
  
• He is SO fearless at the pool. It's awesome but also a wee bit scary! He really kicks and can propel himself forward really well. But his fearlessness has gotten to the point now where I can't take him on my own anymore (without Stace) because he is SO up and down and under the water and jumping here and there and everywhere, my belleh and I can't keep up!
  
• One of his new favorite words is "ambulance!" and then he imitates the sound of a siren.
• He LOVES to play with choo choo trains, and he can turn anything into a train very easily! He scoots whatever object he's holding along the ground and makes a "chugga, chugga chugga" sound followed up by "choo choo!"
• He is ob.sessed. with this song. Oh man, this boy can dance. He runs around all day saying "Mama! Dada! Baybuh!" and then singing "Baybuh! Baybuh! Baybuh! ooohhh!"
  
• Speaking of dancing, he's always been able to appreciate a good beat and take full advantage of it. It seems that almost any sound with any type of consistency, to him, gives cause to dance! He even gets down to the sound of my sewing machine and the ceiling fan!
• Last Thursday night during a ladies only church meeting, one of the husbands who were supervising the nursery brought him into the room we were meeting in by hand. Julian's eyes scanned the room until they locked with mine. He then grabbed his bottom and said in a slightly pleading tone "poop."
  
• He's been singing a couple words from the song "I am a Child of God" for several months now, but now every time I sing it, it seems he knows even more words. I might even venture to say he may know all the words to the 1st verse, he just hasn't said them all at once yet. I don't even sing this one that much!
• His favorites lullabies are "Hush Little Baby", "Families Can be Together Forever" "Bye Baby Bunting" and sometimes he even requests "Baybuh"...yeah, try turning that one unto a lullaby! ;)
  
• He has a new "monster" type voice. It's HILARIOUS. I need to get a video of him! The thing he uses this voice for most often is "Big dinosaur says RAAWWRRR! Leetle dinosaur says rar. BEEG DINOSAUR SAYS RAAAWWWWRRR!"
• He talks in real sentences now. They are short. But he pieces words together accurately and can string about three- four together at a time! The first time he really did this on his own was Father's Day weekend. He was recalling seeing mommy fishing in Michigan and Grandmama was asking him about it while we were in Orlando (future post). He then said, completely on his own, "Dada fish, toooo!" Yesterday he said "ready, set, go!" and he likes to play with the toy rocketship Katie and John brought to him last week and count off and then say "blast off!" He also loves to ask "what's that sound?!" he emphasizes EACH WORD and says each one emphatically.
  
• Last week Amelia observed/ said something like this: "Julian really likes to learn!" What she was saying is that it's not like we have to force him or sit him down and say "ok, now we're going to learn about each of these arctic animals in your Raffi Baby Beluga book"...he wants to know and asks lots of questions and sits on my lap and gets excited to point out each animal and their colors and the noises they make. He loves it.He also loves his buddy TJ!
  
• His interests span such a wide variety of things! He LOVES animals (especially the ponies outside his Grandmama and Pop Pop's house), cows he spots as we are driving in the car, puppies and kitty cats. He LOVES sports (he hasn't met a ball he doesn't like yet!), he LOVES music and musical instruments, he LOVES dancing, he LOVES books, he LOVES the pool, he LOVES dinosaurs, he LOVES "bubbaflies" (since we visited the butterfly garden here in Gainesville last week), he LOVES to have friends over, he LOVES his wagon, he LOVES to run (and still thinks it's hilarious to do so...he laughs the whole time while he's running), and he sure loves his family members (aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents).
  
• We were in the garage a few days ago, and he grabbed a tennis racket and said "HIT THE BALL!" I grabbed a mini beach ball and said "1, 2, 3!" and threw it to him and he swung it! After a few tries he was hitting it! It was awesome!
• Favorite foods: yogurt, cheese, peanut butter (he says it perfectly, but places particular accent on the "butt" part) and bread, grapes, crackers, blueberries, strawberries, oranges, peaches, pears (he's all banana'ed out lately, I think), tomatoes, pasta, black beans, ham, Goldfish, Kix, milk (still hasn't grown out of calling it "moot")...those are the things that come to mind now, but I know there's more. He still (knock on wood) will pretty much eat anything you put in front of him.
  
• He still says flamingo "rah-nu-nu"
• A few days ago he experimented with water colors for the first time! He loved it! (He loves to dip "deep!" anything, so getting to dip the paintbrush in the water was a real treat.) He always asks me to draw him rah-nunus and ponies.
• He LOVES to play with the bubbles and bubble wand outside!! He picks up his little baseball bat and says "hit the bubbles!"
  
• Still doesn't watch TV yet, and the only movie he's seen is his Danny and the Dinosaur Scholastic 15 minute one, and parts of Toy Story 3 back in my 1st trimester when I couldn't keep my eyes open. So there's that....Annnnd the Justin Bieber "Baby" music video. Oh wow. Such discrepancies. (I did turn on "Tangled" today for the sweet little girl I was watching, and he loved seeing the "pony!" in it:) We've toyed around with the idea that the new Winnie the Pooh movie might be his first movie theater experience!
  
• Yesterday we were about to read "Danny" and before I got to the first page, he said "One day..." which is how the book starts!
  
• He loves to say "Indians, bears, Eskimos, guns, swords, DINOSAURS!" (These are the things Danny sees in the museum, in that order.) He'll say it before we get to it in the book, or in random car rides I'll hear him reciting it. (Pronunciation: "Indyens" "Bayuhs" "Et-moes")
  
• This boy knows what he wants you to do and is not afraid to say it. On Friday we picked up Gigi and she opened the car door and said "Hi Julian!" and the first thing he said to her was "Gigi! Sit down!" and he pointed at the seat next to him. He has done this a lot lately to lots of people! Including Dada and I, TJ, etc.
  
• Last week his cousins came to visit from Monday- Wednesday. Even a week later, he wakes up from his naps and in the morning, runs to the front door, peeks through the blinds and says "Care-line! Wh'arrrrrrre you?" Then turns to me and says "Care-line: bye bye." He also thanks Him for "Caroline, Kate and Georgia" during every single prayer.
  
• We never really have trouble understanding what he wants and/ or is saying, and he always seems to understand us.
• July 25, 2011: I have been waiting for this day to come. I knew it would. Today he pooped in the bathtub for the first time. He wasn't phased.
  
• BABY GIRL IS SOMERSAULTING RIGHT NOW! hahahaha...this is awesome:)
• He still LOVES when we do "Boo Boo samwich" but he knows he has to say it in order for it to happen! ;) He says it with this sly, anticipatory smile on his face...it's adorable:)
• A few nights ago I was at church and Stace was putting him down for bed. Stace asked "do you want to say the prayer?" He said no. "Do you want Dada to say the prayer?" he said no. Stace then asked "do you want Monkey to say the prayer?" and he said yes. So Stace folded Monkey's arms and Stace gave monkey a voice and so monkey said the prayer. Julian chimed in and thanked Him for Caroline, Kate and Georgia!
• We've been working on "yes ma'am" a lot and he's gettin the hang of it:) He is really good at "please" and "thank you"!
  
• He has to have his monkey in order for a good night's rest in his big boy bed:) Ok, he doesn't have to have him, but he likes to snuggle with him:)
• This is also melts my heart: for the past week or so, he looks up at me with his hands outstretched and pleadingly says "Mommy, hold you!" And I say "oh, you wanna hold me?" and he says "yes!"
  
• He's quite the hygienic little Boo Boo: he LOVES to brush his teeth and wash his hands! And of course, he LOVES his bath, as always! Especially when it's in the "bathtub pool!" (our big bathtub) Good night everyone, he says!