Julia is 2!

Hard to believe, but she is!

She is amazing, quite the toddler, running everywhere, talking ALL the time, tons of fun.

Actually according to Jai's developmental emails he receives each month, Julia is now a pre-schooler. That seems too early - she's not old enough! However, she needs some kind of school experience & structure in a year or so, definitely by 4, especially when we have another child. She's such a big girl!

It was so fun to see her in the morning & wish her "Happy Birthday." Her face broke into a HUGE smile. I think she understands it - or at least enjoys the attention which is normal.

Her birthday celebration was our typical laid back, nothing fancy, style. I made her favorite (& easy) applesauce cake, also we had some homemade ice cream which she loves. This year it included Grandma Bonnie & Uncle Joel, but still only family. Maybe in year 4 which should be a Saturday we'll have a small party with 3-4 friends.

Presents: You know how much I love gifts for my birthday, but we've really scaled back for monetary & environmental reasons for birthdays & Christmas. Lots of people say we have to give her something ... they really think it's wrong that we don't do anything for Christmas! That's not our value anymore - we try to be careful consumers - so we decided to be thoughtful about how to recognize this event.
We discussed some possible birthday traditions & decided that Jai & Julia's would involve music. They went to Grimey's Record Store today.

We decided that we want to get her a new book for her personal library (we don't buy her books, she gets 1 monthly from Imagination Library, at least until she's 5), since we'll borrow books for her from the public library (once she's beyond destroying them!). The plan is for Julia & I to go to Fairytales Bookstore on Saturday & choose a book. I'm thinking another Eric Carle book - I saw one about a spider (she loves the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" song) when we bought her big crayons there last weekend. Maybe another series book by the author of "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" - love that book! (we got "If You Give a Cat a Cupcake" - she LOVES my mom's many cats!)

She got 2 books from her great-aunt, Billie. Jai called his Auntie Dear that morning so she could wish Julia "happy birthday" - it's so cute when she calls her "Auntie Dear." It's so cute when she calls other people by their name too. Adorable, so proper & adult!

Julia also got a great card, from Anne Marie, Kevin & Sam, related to Eric Carle's book "Very Hungry Caterpillar," about being 2. So sweet! Niki gave her an apron with a big "J" embroidered on it. Matches our kitchen apron set - nice! She also got a board book, Tinkerbell socks, cute card & $10 cash from her cousins in Chicago. Julia made out like a bandit in the gift department - just right for a 2 year old.

Jai hopefully will put birthday photos on flickr soon. I added them on 12-11-10 - cool date! Another cool date this year - 8-9-10! :-)

Julia is a wonderful child, we are blessed to have her in our lives!