Okay...I actually have a minute....Julia started gymnastics last month. She LOVES it! Mostly she enjoys bouncing on the trampoline, but the other stuff is okay, too. The first class, we had a teacher who put them on the balance beam and the high bars (okay low bars), but the regular teacher doesn't really do that. Here's some pics....
This one is from Christmas time when Julia was putting on her makeup - what a star!
She's talking so much now and is so sweet. She's very polite - please, thanks and your welcome, bless you, excuse me, etc. Bath time is still fun - she likes to paint and splash, but doesn't care for getting her hair washed. Bedtime is pretty good, though she definitely wants to stay up longer. She reads the books to us now, too. And, she loves her books!! Sometimes I take her to the book store (one of her favorite new books is one she picked out - something about teeth by Dr. Seuss) and she hates to leave. Which brings up her love of shopping and just being around places with lots of people.....I'm guessing that's some residual effect of living in China.
Her favorite activity is to watch TV - she loves the Wonder Pets and is starting to get into Dora and Diego....but she'll watch just about anything. She knows MINE pretty well but shares and is very proud when she shares. She loves to do art projects and sing and dance and jump on the bed. She doesn't eat as much as she used to but still eats just about anything. She recognizes the GOLDEN Arches from about a mile away and prefers strawberry milkshakes with her happy meal (you can thank daddy for that one!)
Julia loves visiting both of her grandma's and they both enjoy spoiling her and she really loves her grandfather's roast beef (whenever we see grandfather that's what he makes and she calls it by name and links the two - grandather/roast beef).
Another cute thing she does is movie nights when we make popcorn (thanks to Uncle Joe and Joey's Boy Scout troup - we should be good for a while). When I put it into 2 bowls, one of them is bigger. If I give her the smaller bowl, she'll switch bowls with her daddy to make sure she gets the bigger bow. When his little bowls runs out, she'll dip her hand into her bowl and scoop more into his....awe, come on say it, how cute!
She's growing like a weed and is so much fun to be with. She's warm and smart and funny and loving and just perfect. If only she would stop biting her friends at school. We actually figured out the routine - she only seems to bite if she is sick...which, fortunately she has been pretty healthy. Yes, fortunately for us and the other kids. She's doing really well at school and seems well liked by her classmates, but is very possessive of mommy and daddy when we pick her up - "that's MY mommy," she'll say and will push the other kids away if they get too close to us.
Okay - I feel like I've covered alot (mostly since we missed most of last month's activities) and I know that mostly people want to see pictures. So, I'll post a few more if I can. Otherwise, this information will just be nice to keep on here so one day Julia can see what kinds of things she did when she was little.
Oh, the plus 3 years ago.....on Groundhog's Day, it was 3 years ago that we started the adoption process. (Waited 1.5 years and have been home for 1.5 years)...The current wait for China adoptions is approximately 3 years!!!!! I just can't imagine! And, many of the other countries have closed...Vietnam included (and most likely Guatamela). I keep those families and those children in my thoughts.
