The Cutest Boy (the cutest boy) I Ever Saw (i ever saw) Was Sipping Sandwich from a Straw?!

Yep, that's right. Sandwich. He thought it'd be a much more fun way to ingest his sandwich. 

Creative little kiddo!

 

It has been a shamefully long time since I made a Julian post!  I am so sorry to you, my faithful Julian post readers..haha! jk! I think by now I know that people don't read my insanely long posts about my chil'rens! But I am so grateful for this blog...such an easy way to document the big and little things that happen in my children's lives and then copy and paste the entries into a yearly album.  Without further adieu...this photo was taken while Mr. Guzza was dancing at one of his Pop Pop's & Uncle CF's band's shows! (that was a lot of apostrophes...hmm...)

Julian loves to do what Mommy and Daddy do.  

Exhibit A: 

 

Here is Julian "going for a run" racing ahead of his competition: Daddy! 

Speaking of racing...this boy LOVES watching the Olympics!  

 

Gymnastics, swimming, diving, running. He thinks it's all fantastic! I'm pretty sure he gets most excited about all of the flips done in gymnatics and diving, though.  Here he is captivated: 

 

He ALSO LOVES jumping, and the Olympics have only furthered his love for the activity. He makes this emphatic "huh-uh!" sound as he's doing it...like it's requiring all of his strength as he jumps. It is so endearing. He told us he's going to be in the Olympics one day.

 

Here he is preparing to learn how to do a backhand spring;)

 

  Here he is again showing us his gymnastics moves:

 

Now, to go running, one needs proper footwear. We got him a pair of new kicks...they're a little big but we just wanted to give him a little wiggle room! ;)

 

and the grand finale:

 

you're welcome.

Did you notice how we have a bit of a problem with playfood getting strewn every which way?  

Enter: the shopping cart! 

 

I found the most adorable consignment shop in Gainesville! It is not in the nicest area of town (near Sams Club), so that's my only excuse for not having found it sooner...I've been here over 3 years now for goodness' sake! But we found this little shopping cart, and now cleaning up our play food is just a mere trip to the grocery store to pick out our food! So much more fun:) (*When Julian walked into this store, he said with the sweetest little wonder in his voice "this is a beautiful place, Mama!"* Incidentally, it is a really pretty store, haha!)

Now, it's time to get serious. If this is not the cutest little boy I have ever seen in my entire life...

 Do you SEE those cheeks?! Holy cow. 

And they are just as soft and squishy and kissable as they look!

Julian and Daddy goofing off before Family Home Evening. 

Both of the main men in my life, for a brief period, had facial hair: 

That Monday night, we learned about the Priesthood:

Did you see that sweet beard Stace is sporting? The following Saturday after this FHE, Stace shaved his beard off & wondered if Julian would notice. He asked "Hey Julian, do you notice anything different about me?" J said "yeah!" Stace said "oh yeah, what?" and Julian said "umm, the priesthood!" Yay! It is so awesome/ gratifying when he remembers things we talked about in Family Home Evening:) 

He likes to have "two" of everything because HE IS TWO, after all. So it only makes sense. duh. He does not want three crackers, he wants two, of course.  He will tell you "I'm going to be three in December."  When he told his Aunt Candace that on her birthday last month, she said "well that's a smart sentence for you to say." Indeed:)

Speaking of birthdays, every time I ask him if he had any dreams, he says yes. Then I say "what did you dream about?" And every time, he says "a bihrthday cake" :) I love his little imagination!

Speaking of imagination, here he is with his rocket ship: 

He knows all about transportation of every sort! He will tell you how a submarine goes down, down, down into the water.  He will tell you how firemen use the firehoses on their firetucks to hook them up to the fire hydrants to get the water to put out the fire on the houses. And he will also tell you with so much enthusiasm about every single fire hydrant we pass! (What color it is, where it is, what color it's "hat" is, etc) When we introduce this kid to the punch buggy game, it's ON! I'm pretty sure he'll take no prisoners. ;)

Right now his favorite books are: 

The Brave Little Dear (far and away!)

Little Critter books

All Because a Bug Went Achoo

His Look and Find Mater the Greater book has been a favorite for a few months

Franklin the Turtle books

Miss Mary Mack

a Dinosaur treasury book

Whatever book happens to be his favorite at any particular time usually happens to be the song that he wants sung before nap time and bed time.  A while ago I posted how he said he wanted to hear "The Peter Song" and Stace and I weren't sure what that meant, but Stace made one up and it was fine. Then the next day I realized he was talking about Peter from his then-favorite book, "The Snowy Day." So right now, he wants "the brave little dear and the beaver and grass (there is pretty grass in his book) and bear and bunny and big scary wolf song." So that is what we sing on a daily basis, twice a day. Off the cuff. It's awesome. Speaking of naps, nap time is ending! Today I walked in when I noticed he'd figured out how to turn his light on. I was ready to be firm and tell him it was time to go to sleep. But he was so sweet and peaceful, I hated that I'd walked in and disrupted him. He was just quietly reading books on his bed, and told me earnestly how much he desperately needed to read the book that was on his lap (Spot's Easter). It was so adorable.  So as of today, nap time became either "sleep time" or "read-a-book time". Of course he chose book time. :) I can't say "quiet time" because that's what we call his time outs.

 

 This boy could eat watermelon all day long and never tire of it:

And cookies...cookies too. 

Good thing cookies aren't around nearly as much as watermelon or we'd all be done for!

 Julian on one of his Daddy-son dates. They seriously have so much fun together. Stace really is the best daddy! You should have seen him tonight as we were all in Ella Grace's room and Stace was putting on Julian's pj's. He was being so silly and goofy (and Julian was hysterical), and so tender and giving lots of kisses at the same time. This happens on a daily basis. I love our little family.

 Daddy always wraps Julian up like this after bath time.  Julian thinks it's SO fun...he loves it!

Julian's favorite thing to do in life is go to the pool.  He and Daddy have SO much fun together swimming. One of these days I just need to get a video. I wish I had a professional videographer secretly following my children around all day so I could never forget a single moment. Because these moments are far too precious for words and I have an awful memory (which explains my obsessive documenting of the days of our lives...)

 

 Julian also loves going to church! He knows that during the sacrament, it's time to think about Jesus. Did I tell you the "thank you Jesus" story from several months ago? I think so. Well, if not, that one is locked in tight like a steel trap in my mind.  So I know I won't forget that one! He loves nursery and has so much fun there. Last week we had a family home evening lesson on "Loving Thy Neighbor" and we talked about ways we can show our love for those around us, and wrote them down on hearts and posted them on our walls. Then we went to Publix and let Julian pick out a treat to bring to his nursery teacher. He picked out a piece of yellow cake with chocolate frosting. He enjoyed going to their home and giving it to them (a couple), and seeing their cute puppy!

 A few weeks ago, his nursery teachers informed us that they were going around in a circle introducing all the children. "This is Julia! This is Nicholas! etc...") When they got to our little guy and said "This is Julian!" He retorted forcefully "No! I'm Boo Boo!!!" For the last couple months (since we toured a school and he told a teacher he was Boo Boo and we tried to say "Julian" he has been very adamant about the fact that his name IS BOO BOO! It's like he understands we want to start using his actual name more and he's been fighting it tooth and nail!) But lately, we have really been trying to be conscious of it and to only refer to him as Julian (it's HARD!), but success has arrived!  Today he told us "I'm Julian!" yay! Just in time for preschool in a couple weeks:) Here he is all ready for church (minus the shoes, of course.)

 Lately he has preferred that Daddy or I say our family prayer in the mornings. I have been wanting to hear him pray again, so I knew he would rise to the occasion if it had something to do with being a rock star big brother and helping his baby sister. So I told him Ella Grace doesn't know how to pray and she needs him to help her learn.  So he said with so much  authority and you could tell he was loving it: "ok! Ella Grace. This is how you pray. Fold your arms. Close your eyes. ssssh! Ella Grace. Ok. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank thee for our frieds. We thank thee for our toys and our books and our house and our family. We thank thee for temples. Please bless our food, and please bless the yucky baby food. And we say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen." (I once told him that Ella Grace's food was "yucky baby food" to dissuade him from wanting to take it from her and eat it!)

He sure LOVES his one-on-one Daddy time and one-on-one Mommy time!  It makes his life complete. And I notice such a dramatic change in his behavior when he gets that time with both of us each day.  He really is the sweetest, sweetest kid. (Not biased, of course;)

JOY. In its purest form.

Now, if this isn't the sweetest thing...

 

His kisses and the way he shows affection with his loves and hugs are just the best. He is so sweet to us. He is just a good boy!

 

He really loves being a big brother, and he's good at it. He sure loves his baby sister. He watches us break food up into really tiny pieces to give it to her, and therefore has started to do the same.  He's so gentle and loving about it, not to mention so willing to share. 

(Not with the toys and books with her so much...but he can be! Tonight in the bath he was great! If he takes what she's playing with, he will give her something else usually...which is nice-ish:)

Now let's take a moment to reflect on how beautiful he is...ahhhh....

 Not done yet? Oh, here ya go...

 His hair is still a force to be reckoned with. His luscious locks are enviable. But are the tamable? That is the question...

 

 Here is Daddy giving him his latest trim-a-roo back in early July.  He already desperately needs another!

 Look at my Mr. Goldilocks!

Yesterday (August 7th), Daddy decided to be spontaneous and declared it water park Tuesday! There is a water park in Ocala that is normally $40 per person (waaay overpriced!), but they have a special running through this Sunday where it's $12 per adult and free for children. Well, yesterday was the only day we could swing it, so he said "let's go!" We had a great time! There was a little kiddie area and Julian also enjoyed the wave pool (wearing a life jacket) with Dada while I watched and fed Ella Grace. It was a little sad though because he wanted to go on all the big slides (which was awesome! It was like he got a taste of how fun water slides are in the kiddie area, and then he couldn't get enough! Normally he's pretty wary of new things like this.) But he did not like hearing that he was too little to go on the big slides. So, instead, he insisted that he was just "too big." :)

 

Lately he has been making expressions with his hands at the ends of sentences to add enthusiasm when he's excited about something...which could be something very simple, like how he is going to eat a peanut butter sandwich...it is SO cute! 

Tonight Daddy and I were helping him clean up his books (he had gotten about 1/8 of the amount down from last time today during what we now call "read-a-book time" or "nap time") I helped him for a while, but he was losing steam, and we were almost done.  So I told him he needed to finish with Daddy while I walked out.  He did not like that I walked out. But with Daddy's encouragement, he put all the rest of the books back on the shelf by himself. He opened the door when he'd finished with this big smile on his face, and I smiled and asked if he had finished. And he excitedly told me how he cleaned them all up! I knelt down and gave him a big hug and told him I was proud of him, and he beamed. Then he walked me in and showed me how the floor was all clean and told me excitedly how he had done it all by himself! Then he pulled me down himself for me to give him another hug.

I seriously can't get enough of my little man.  He is just getting sweeter and sweeter every single day. He is SO much fun.  I'm not just saying this. I hope I can always remember the sweet feelings of these days we share in these precious moments of his little toddler life.

Lately we have been playing a little game where I tickle him, and then he does a little karate chop through my hands and says "I broke the tickle machine!" then I say "uh oh! I better fix it! Then I make some "beep-bop-dee-doop" type sounds and move my hands really fast and say "I fixed it!" then I get right back to tickling him. He laughs hysterically and the cycle repeats itself. 

There is no upset that a ride on Daddy's shoulders for a game of airplane won't fix! 

He is still the craziest sleeper! I just went into his room now and got another picture of him off the bed, but it is getting so late and I'm not going to upload it now!

 Have I ever told you about the book "How Big was a Dinosaur?" Oh, we LOVE this book in our house.  Aunt Jessica bought it for him for his birthday at the Fernbank Museum last year.  

It's awesome. Oh! And there's a dinosaur who lives in our house. His name is Guzzasaurus.

 This boy LOVES his cars! He still loves trains and setting up train tracks, but man oh man does he love his little matchbox cars and "Cars" cars.  Here we are reading a story in The Friend about a little boy who likes to share everything EXCEPT his cars. Julian can be pretty good about sharing his cars, but he can also have a rough time of it too when both he and TJ want the same exact Lightning McQueen car (even though we have two! of course they do...:)

  Julian hit the eye candy jackpot at a gas station in Ocala yesterday!

 Julian also LOVES puzzles and matching games! Of course he did not put this 50-piece puzzle together himself, but he sure thought it was so cool doing it together! He LOVES Finn McMissile!

 Here he is feeding Finn some on his breakfast: 

 This picture is from a few months ago. He'd made a pattern...

His laugh is HILARIOUS. Still as infectious as ever.

 He loves getting to play with his friend TJ! Here he is just as we left TJ's!

 I think I forgot to share this story.  There is a park near our house that has roly-polies in the spring time. You have to look pretty hard, but if you do, you can probably find one or two.  Well, Julian LOVED looking for roly polies (sadly...I guess it's too hot for them now because I haven't seen one in months). On this day (below) we had found one roly poly (after we had been searching for a while) and J was rolling it around with a stick. When it was time to leave, he told me he really wanted to find just one more roly poly.  We needed to leave because I had to put Ella Grace down for a nap, but I also knew it would make Julian's day if we could just find one more.  I said a silent prayer that we could find another quickly. I turned around and looked for about three seconds and there was another one! I know this seems so silly, but I know that Heavenly Father loves us so much, and that He and our Savior have such a special place in their hearts for little children.  I know They care about the things our babies care about. I also know they are kind and that tender mercies are everywhere all around us. Sometimes you're not sure if a prayer was answered, or if something was a coincidence. I knew this was an answer to prayer.

 Julian LOVES to help me in the kitchen!  He is really good at cracking eggs!  He has yet to drop a piece of shell in the bowl, and he's cracked quite a few in his day!

 Here he is helping me make dinner by pouring the items in our crock pot:

Here he is experimenting with bubbles!

 Look at those eyes...I die...

 July 7th: I'm sitting poolside feeding Ella Grace under the shade, quite a ways from where I see Stace and Julian swimming. All of a sudden I look down & see my 2 year old, drenched & goggley-eyed. He says between exhasperated breaths "hey Ma! I loveyou, Ma!" He then quickly waddled away with the top of his little booty crack showing. Then I was surprised again when he came back about 5 minutes later and said "hey Ma, I'm gonna tiss you, Ma!" Then he kissed my leg & said "Daddy loves you, Ma!" And he was off again:)

 This kid, in goggles...I mean...everyone in goggles (let's be real)...but this kid in goggles...I die again...haha!

This was Sunday, July 29th, right after he said "Mama, I am going to get married in the temple one day! And so is Caroline!" Melt my heart.  I've recently pulled out wedding day photos so we have been talking about the temple and how Mommy and Daddy got married there. Also, there is a  framed photo of Caroline and I on my wedding day in Ella Grace's room.  When I sent this photo to my mom, she could not stop saying how much Julian looks like me in it. We've talked nearly every day since and she still can't stop talking about this photo.

 I hear the words "Hey Mama! You wanna play a game?!" at least thirty times a day!  And unless I'm feeding Ella Grace, my answer is always an enthusiastic "oh, yes! What game should we play?!"
He then tells me "the racing game!" (I think I have permanent marks on my knees from all the racing we do around here!) or the Dora and Diego game. "Mama, you be Dora and I'm gonna be Diego!" Me: "ok! what are we going to do?" J: "there's an animal in trouble! We've gotta save him!" etc...

 He's a tracing pro. This kid is so ready for college by now. Ha! jk;) But seriously.

Tonight (August 8th) we had the missionaries over for dinner.  Elder Salveson asked him: "are you going to be a missionary?" And Julian replied enthusiastically as he was running from one adventure to the next through the living room: "yep!!! I'm going to be a missionary one day!!!" 

 Life is messy when you have a two-year-old. And a 10 month old.

 But it's amazing.

 Here are some Julian statuses I've made on Facebook to help me remember. Want to make sure I put these things here so they don't get lost in FBLand before I have a chance to put them in our album!

June 23: "We paused Saturday morning cartoons to say a family prayer before Stace left. Julian said "Dear Heavenly Father, please bless mama, dada and Ella Grace and Boo Boo and my picnic table. Please bless my cars, my silver car and my red car and my silver track (?) and my red track and Diego and Alycia, and the dolphins who's stuck in the net and the volcano who is sleeping and the giant octopus. And we say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.""

May 28: "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" by the Hawaiian guy just came on- in the beginning he does a lot of "ooohhh's" and "hooo's" and Julian just said "Ma, is that a ghost song?"""

May 26th: Julian thinks Adele's song says "Boo Boo has it!" he loooves it. ha!

May 24th: we just left swimming lessons and Julian must have gotten choline in his eye. He said "Mama! My eye hurts! Say a prayer so that my eye will feel better!" This is the first time he's initiated a prayer to ask for something in specific.

May 1: "Today I was at the party store with one of my Young Women Annabelle Olsen. We passed the ginormous displays of candy strategically placed near the checkout, and Julian pointed to the jawbreakers and said "Mommy, I want that!" To which I lovingly replied "Julian, that's called a choking hazard." Julian then said: "MOMMY! I WANT A CHOKING HAZARD! I WANT A CHOKING HAZARD!""

April 21: "It's easy sometimes to find ourselves starting our prayers often in the same way with the words "Dear Heavenly Father, we thank thee for this day..." I noticed this recently when Julian started a prayer this way. I thought "uh-oh...I'm teaching him rote memorized prayers...not good!" After a very long (yet wonderful!) day, we were helping J say his prayers tonight. After Stace whispered "we thank thee for this day" for Julian to repeat, Julian said "we need a new prayer!" And he was right. The little ones in our homes are so often the wisest. We can learn so much from them if we listen & remember what they say. Luke 9:46-48

April 14: "Julianisms tonight: *after strapping him into stroller, Stace said "Boo Boo! are you ready!?" to which he replied "I'm ready to rock n' roll!" *today was a fun-filled day, as we got to enjoy the park, beach, water spout park, and went on a train ride, so I just asked "Julian, what was something that made you happy today?"out of everything he could have said, he smiled and said "my family!"

April 9: "I've been so touched lately at Julian's displays of compassion. Yesterday his little friend was crying upstairs in her room because she was scared, while we were all downstairs. He was telling her encouragingly "it's ok! come down...don't be scared." And then today Ella Grace was fussing & he leaned up to her stroller and said "it's ok, Ella Grace" with such empathy in his voice. Then I just bumped my elbow in the closet door, cringed & said "ow!" and he said "it's ok, I'm here. don't cry. here's a crayon!"