Julia's Spanglish

Julia and I were counting in Spanish today and when she got to 20 she flipped to 

venti-one, venti-two, venti-three, etc... With a little nudge every 10 we counted to fifty. 

Fun with Julia, fun with numbers. 

Wonder & joy

Who says you need a physics class when you're a toddler? OK, nobody is advocating toddler physics classes but watch a toddler observe gravity and you'll wonder if it isn't necessary.

This morning Jacqueline squealed with joy when she repeatedly picked up a piece of cotton, held it up, and let it fall to ground. BOOM! Gravity. During this little experiment she would drop it a couple of times and then she would throw it a couple of times and watch. BOOM! Force. Two self-directed physics lessons in the 3 minutes. All of this was accompanied by a look of joy and squeals of excitement and wonder.

I am continually amused and awed by what kids know and how they learn and how both of those vary from kid to kid. Jacqueline and Julia are so different in many ways but they are also very much sisters. Jacqueline is starting to come into her own although she is definitely watching and learning from Julia. Also, I am fascinated in their ability to use associative skills to make sense of the world. Of course, I can't think of any examples but Julia pieces abstract concepts together all the time and I recently saw Jacqueline do it... we were outside and she saw a bird walking on the ground and watched. She pointed to the bird and made sure I saw it, then she went over to the bird feeder and did the same. She does it with other patterns (Johnders needs his collar before he goes outside) and it is quite often astonishing or maybe because I am not giving a 16 month old enough credit or maybe because she, like her sister, is special or maybe because both.

Trapped by grapes

On the way to her last ballet class at Y today, Julia is walking along the curb.
I am pushing Jacqueline in the stroller so we pass a car on the street & get ahead of her.
This is unusual as Julia really likes to be the line leader.
I turn to look behind as I realize that Julia is not with us.
She is stopped & looks up & says "I'm trapped by grapes" ...
There is a pile of grapes on the ground, including part of the curb where she is standing.
She looks quite serious so I encourage her to find an alternative like a quick jump over the grapes.
Julia does & we continue on our way to the Y.
Hilarious!

on the day you were born

This was last night's bedtime reading material with Julia.
There is a picture at end of story of a circle of people around the woman and baby.
Julia says the following for the people on the page:
mommy
daddy
LJ (her cousin, my brother's oldest child, now 18 years old!)
Anne Marie
Grandma Bonnie
Aunt Susie - even though she wasn't there for 2 weeks
All of these people other than Susie actually saw Julia on the day she was born.

Today was LJ's graduation from Glencliff HS.
He was there hours after Julia was born, 1 of the first people to hold her.
He's loves her so much, they are so sweet together = mutual admiration society going on! : )
LJ is finishing last year in MNPS, Julia is about to start her first in August.
Such is the circle of life.

Happy Wednesday!

"Daddy, it's Happy Wednesday."

"Why do you call it that Julia?"

"Well, last night Aunt Susie typed 'Happy Wednesday' when we were Skyping!"

Are you losing your mind?

Yes!

That is what Julia says to me at bedtime last night as we're reading one of our favorite books, Mice and Beans. Apparently I was saying words not on the page as I dosed between paragraphs. Now that Julia reads, she catches me more often with my sleepy mistakes.

Later Jai asked me what happened because he heard that question. We laughed & laughed in our hysterical empathy of sleepy reading bedtime routine.

CRAZY!