Juliet, our 4 year old Juliet

Juliet is 4

Last night we kissed our last 3 year old and it was so bittersweet I could taste her.  Juliet turned 4 today!  Whoa!  Her 4th birthday is something she has been talking about almost weekly since the day she turned 3.  And even though there could be some anxiety on my part that the day might not live up to all the expectation, I needn't worry.  she was cheerful and grateful all day long.  This is one of the many wonderful things I love about this kid...she is happy 80-90% of the time.  And she brings us up right along with her.  Juliet rights the world for our family so very often. Here are a few examples:

#1. We're in the airport hurrying toward the baggage area.  Juliet and I, as always, are bringing it up the rear. Playing on one of the columns is a video/movie advertisement for a women's clothing company showing a runway of beautiful women strutting down the catwalk.  I was only subconsciously aware of it and the fact that Juliet was watching it until I caught up with the rest of the family and plopped down on a bench.  Juliet was just a couple of yards behind me.  Only then did I notice Juliets face in full concentration mode, her hips beginning to sway and her shoulders falling back.  My first thought was "what on earth is Juliet doing and why is she walking so weirdly?" But that thought only lasted a millisecond because I quickly remembered the advertisement and her intensely staring at it. She was hilariously over exaggerating the hip swagger, strutting along the aisle of baggage claim and her "sexy" face looked a lot more Iike she was ticked off.  It was hilarious however, she wasn't doing it to be funny...she was really trying to look like one of those models. I tipped Isaac and Georgie off to the show and we all laughed and laughed as quietly as we could so she would keep it up.

#2.   We are eating dinner outside when we hear and see the goats from the cheese farm behind us grazing through the dirt road behind our house (mind you this road is probably 3/4 of a football field away from where we are eating).  We hear the owner of these goats in the woods begin shouting in a tone of either panic or frustrated anger, but we aren't sure which.  We all stop, listening intently to see if she actually needs help or not.  We are all perfectly silent.  She stops yelling.  We wait to hear if she'll say more.  We are all kind of on pins and needles.  Suddenly Juliet, who we're not sure speaks any Italian at all yells, at the top of her lungs, "COSA?" (I.e. What?).  We all bust up.  The timing was too perfect but none of us are quite sure why it was so freaking funny.  Regardless, we couldn't stop laughing!

#3.  We are at the beach in Barcelona.  The people beaching it next to us is a group of really hairy men. I'm talking really hairy, every last one of them...back hair, chest hair...all of it.  But none of us mention it to each other or out loud anything.  I wasn't sure anyone else even noticed.  When Juliet gets out of the water I dry her off with the towel I just bought from the beach shack about 20 minutes previous and the fuzz from the new black towel sticks to her skin.  "You're all hairy from this cheapo towel," I say, scrubbing her off even more.  A look of disgust washes over her face. "I think I just got hairy from those humans over there." Her eyes rolling as she says it.  ...Yea...We are still laughing about it... 

 

Today we did the usual breakfast in bed and took cute pictures of the birthday girl.  We had a pic nic after swim team and then took her swimming afterward despite the incredibly gloomy forecast.  Because of the forecast we had the entire place to ourselves.  It was pretty fun!  When it started pouring on us we wanted to stay but felt bad making the lifeguards sit in the down pour for only us so we packed up. Juliet and I went for  a run together, she in the stroller, and then we all watched a movie together. Dinner was tomato soup and grilled cheese and then of course, gelato from 2 different gelato shops;).  It wasn't until after we put her to bed that I realized we had failed to give her any of her 

gifts!  Sweet girl didn't even think of those!  I love that about her!  It's more about the celebration and I love that!!  She had a birthday party last weekend that turned out to be really fun but we are without a computer right now so I have no way to upload photos.  I will have to do that later.  After her party I made it a point to bring to her attention all the people that came and that love her.  She said, " yea but I wish everyone else was here."  "Like who?" I asked her.  She began listing off all of you....really...Gaga, Papa, Mimi, pop pop, uncle Bryant, uncle Adam, uncle jake, uncle Robbie, aunt Sara...on and on and on.  Cousins, everyone. It was pretty sweet!!

Juliet is adored by all of us quite a lot. She is bossy, knows what she wants, thinks she's 20 years older than she actually is and yet still can snuggle and kiss and be held with the best of the babies.  She LOVES books, movies, candy, cookies, baby dolls and playing with Georgie, Isaac and friends.  She rarely stops talking to the point of driving you batty but it's impossible to get too mad at her because she is so darn hilarious and cute.  Happy birthday Juliet...I am soooooooooooooooooo glad you were born and that you were born to US!

 

Juliet: First Day of School

This year, Juliet didn't want to get left out of all this school business!  She started Italian Preschool (Asilo!)at the tender young age of 3!! 

When the school day began she was all smiles!  She had been talking about and waiting for this moment all summer long!  But when I picked her up after 2 hours, she was in tears.  Ahh!!  Be still my heart!!  On our drive home she said to me, "Mom, I like Asilo, but I don't want to go anymore.  Nobody listens to me!"  (Ha!)  I dropped her off in tears ever since until, finally, after 6 days, she was dry eyed!! Yay! I feel quite a bit of mommy guilt sending her to school at the young age of 3, something I never would have considered doing with Isaac, and did only one day a week for Georgie.  But our situation is different here.  Juliet doesn't get much peer interaction otherwise and she has two years to pick up some of the language that her big brother and sister will know fluently.  So, even though the chances of her retaining any of it are somewhat slim, we'd like to at least give it a good old college try and hope that the studies are right, that learning another language at a young age develops that part of the brain in a way that is beneficial for future second language attainment.  It's a prayer and we feel right about it.  

More on our Ju-B:

Juliet still manages to maintain the total and complete adoration of everyone in the family.  I could use the "well, she's the baby of the family" excuse but, sorry folks, I really think it's because she's special;)  One of my favorite things in life is to see Isaac, Mr. Moody pants, get all annoyed with her (or someone else) and turn his back on her with the most extreme of grumpy faces and then, by contrast, watch her, completely unaware or unphased, attack him with the biggest, smiling fat kiss right on the lips or cheek (this happens often, folks).  For a millisecond he looks at her with the grumpy face unmoved but, immediately upon laying eyes on her big chubby smile and shining eyes, he so charmingly and entirely starts to giggle!  I feel all warm and fuzzy just thinking about it.  I love this scene...this total, sudden transformation made by a confident, loving smile.  I could watch it a million times!  Its a good life lesson for us, actually.  Something I hadn't contemplated until now...food for thought;)

xoxo

Ash 

I Know Perfect, And It Hurts

I have been feeling an intense amount of pain lately at the perfectness of my Juliet.  I love her so much that my heart literally hurts.  I believe I felt this before with Isaac and Georgie and I think I've heard others say it about their children but, now, right now and for several days in a row, I feel it.

A little about her:

Juliet has curly hair, and I'm talking ringlets, dozens of them.  In the back she has tight little ringlets that bounce when she runs.  On the top of her head she has big curls that rise up in big soft waves as much as 2 inches off the top of her head.  It's particularly poofy when she awakes from a nap or a good nights sleep.  I can't bring myself to wet them or matt them down so they usually stay that way all day long.  She reminds me of a miniature 1940's glam screen siren.  This hair adds so much to her charm and cuteness.

Maybe best of all is that Juliet will lay on my chest for as long as I let her before naptime or bedtime.  She just lays there, eyes open and blinking.  I can feel the brush of her long eyelashes on my chest from time to time, reminding me that she's awake and content to just be.  If only time could stand still and I had no other chores to do.  One of these days I will steal that luxury from time and I don't think I'll regret it later, no matter how chaotic the rest of the day becomes.  She also will lay on my shoulder for up to 5 minutes when she cries and when I ask her to "be a sweet baby" she obeys, lays her head on my shoulder and giggles.  I've tried several times to memorize the feeling of her curls pressed against my cheek or her warm breath directed toward my neck.  Only I can ever know how much I LOVE this.  Thank you, Juliet, Thank you.

Juliets speaks with such inflection.  Her voice rises and falls with every syllable showing immense expression of her excitement, anger, joy, anticipation or whatever it is that she is feeling.   Whenever she sees a puppy, a bird, or a kitty cat, her eyebrows instantly rise, her lips purse up, her finger points, her shoulders tighten and she screams outloud, "PU-ppy", usually while running to it...atleast 5 different tones being belted out in a two syllable word.  She was this way even before she could talk, so much inflection in her babbles.    She conveys so much when she says "Isit" (Isaac) and "Geogie" (Georgie) as well...you can hear how much she idolized them with her inflections and the excitement written all over her body.  She has a way of pursing her lips that makes you want to freeze her in just that way and frame it.  I tell Isaac that he needs to find me a stun gun so we can shoot her with it and freeze her at just this age.  He agrees that this is necessary.

And her button nose, oh that cute little nose.  I thought I was the only one that noticed its button-ness until her Uncle Robby said something to us about how cute it was.  And then in the last two days, 3 different people have commented to me in passing how cute her little nose is.

Juliet loves to be outside WITH her shoes on.  She waits desperately at the window much of the day saying, "ouside, ouside", running up to me saying "shoes on", "shoes on".  And if ever you take her shoes off, she cries, "shoes on, shoes on"!  Because she knows her outside moments are over.

She says "tank you" (thank you) always very softly, almost to herself whenever I hand her anything.  But for some reason, she rarely says it to strangers.

This age...oh this perfect little age...and this is where the pain comes in, I think.  Because I know that she's not always going to be like this.  I know that it's fleeting.  And that's has to be okay with me.  She grows up and I get to know more and more of who she really is but it doesn't change the fact that I know I'll always miss this time of her being content to just lay on my chest.  There's something sort of sickly wonderful about fully possessing a tiny little child.  Hopefully I outgrow that sickness at the same rate that she outgrows her adorableness;)  Much love to you my baby.  Because that you will always and forever be, my sweet baby Juliet.

Nicknames for Juliet:
#1. Ju-B   We almost never call her anything else
#2.  money, mini money, my money
#3. bunny

Ruth

Ruth:

 The last time Ruth came over for dinner I made grilled cheese.  She's that kind of guest;)  While I was cooking them off in my own little world I turned around to see she and the girls totally entertaining themselves.  Ruth was letting Georgie put her Barbie make-up all over her face.

 And Juliet did her part on Ruth's sweatshirt.  Ruth's a treasure.  How much we will miss her!!

And one cute photo of ratty hair and fistfuls of oatmeal for good measure;)

xoxo

Juliet: 13 and 14 months old

Juliet:

13 /14 months old

Juliet is getting bigger and 

it's about time for a report;)  Here it is:

Juliet is cute.

Juliet loves having her hair brushed.  I've made a habit of commenting, "Oh so pretty," the whole time I'm brushing her hair.  And she grins from ear to ear.  Every time that she hears the word 'pretty' she pats her chubby little hands over her curls, smiles and looks at me knowingly.  She's taken, lately to brushing her own hair.  She loves to wear shoes mainly, I think, because it makes her feel big like the rest of us. She smiles and waves at everyone that gives her any attention.  She likes people especially when they don't try to pick her up.  Then she gets fussy. 

 Juliet gets into everything.  

Wherever she goes, there's a trail of ransacked cabinets and drawers or empty bottles trailing behind her.  ANd the bad thing is, I encourage it.  If she's entertained than I can get my jobs done.  Empty drawer with contents scattered all over the kitchen?  I'll take it!  Because it beats an empty dinner table;)  In this particular picture I gave her the bowl lined with whipped cream that I had just finished icing a cake with.  She was lovin' that.  I never would have given something like that to Isaac...

 Juliet is LOUD. 

I've never heard a child's voice that carried the way that Ju-b's does.  She yells at us incessantly, particularly at the dinner hour and we don't know quite what to do about it because she's too little to reason with.  She'll squawk at you so loudly and her whole body will stiffen, her face as well, eyeing the goldfish, cookie or water bottle (she loves sport/water bottles...sippy cups get thrown to the floor after about two sips making for a frustrated mommy!!) and when she finally gets what she wants she'll look at you with her adorable little brown eyed face and say, "tank oo".

Juliet says:

"No" (her first word)

"Mam-eh" (mom)

"Dadde"

"Tank-oo" (thank you)...

strangely this was honestly her fourth words!!  So cute!!

"Na-na" (banana)

"Baby"

"Hi"

"Ni-Ni" (night night)

"bye bye"

Juliet loves her bed.

Juliet is still taking two naps.  And she needs every one.  When I tell Ju-B that it's time to go "Ni-Ni", she smiles and says "Ni-Ni" in this peaceful, soft, almost breathy voice.  As soon as I walk her into her room after telling her its time for ni-ni she insists on being given her paci.  If that doesn't happen she yells at me.  I tell her to talk quietly and she yells at me again.  I make her say please in sign language and then I give it to her.  What else should I do?  (that is not a rhetorical question.  If you have any advice, please give it to me.)  At bedtime (not nap time) we're trying to make a habit of having her give kisses to everyone before she goes to sleep.  She LOVES that and Isaac and Georgie love it too.  She says "ni-ni" to everyone and then opens her mouth just a tiny bit for a kiss. (I love that!!)  We go into her room, promptly give her the paci and then she chooses a book from her shelf.  She LOVES to be read a story at any time of day.  I would say books are her most used toy.  After a story, 9 times out of 10 the routine goes like this:  I try to rock her and she resists, arches her back, yells at me, or whatever so I put her in her bed, hand her her baby, tuck her blankey around her and she smiles from ear to ear.  Sometimes she giggles.  Once I saw her roll over on her tummy, giggle and stroke her sheets.  She was in pure heaven.  Then I walk out, close the door and she promptly starts yelling at me.  She wants to have her cake and eat it too;)  But I'm not falling for that business;)

We love you, Ju-B!! 

xoxo

Soccer Begins!

Isaac ♥'s Soccer

Soccer season began on Saturday.  Isaac was REALLY excited!  Every season, at every game I tell myself, "I'll bring the camera next time."  And then I never do.  So this may be the only shots we get all year...and that's cool too.  But I had to document Isaac doing his "thing".   This sport is really growing on him.

 Joey is his assistant coach this year which Isaac was pretty excited about.  He did a marvelous job the first game, if I don't say so myself;)  He was so patient and enthusiastic with all the kids.  I think  this coaching thing is going to take;)

 After many failed attempts at getting some "in action" shots, Ju-B quickly became the center of my cameras eye;)  Look at that face:

 How could she not!!

 She loves her big brother (sometimes more than others).

In this particular moment Isaac had just scored 2 goals and stopped by to visit us during a water brake.  He was feeling pretty confident and she was really loving him.  She looked so content, perched there on his shoulder!  Happy Soccer season, Isaac!  
We'll be cheering for you!

xoxo

mom

Juliet turns one...

juliet turns

mixed with a teensy "wittle" bit of regret for the tiny baby that is slipping away from us, we had a great day with our big girl 

JULIET!!

she was the perfect one year old!

smiles,smashed cake and all!

 we had a small party with a few friends on the night of her big day and she seemed to understand that all this singing and present business was about her.  

 i think we look complete, don't you?

 we're pretty sure she felt loved!

her friends:

samantha jones, georgie

isaac, our birthday girl, landon and peyton jones

we enjoyed having the jones' with us but that night I felt the pains of homesickness for our parents, Juliets' cousins and the familiarity of family, in general. xoxo to those of you that we missed.

the birthday cake that georgie decorated for her little (now big) sister:

here's a little bit about how we spent her first birthday.

firstly, of course, juliet enjoyed breakfast in bed...which she does every morning.  she received a few dozen kisses from all of us as well as the happy birthday song a few dozen times from her big brother and sister.  

we said farewell to midget, our favorite dog that we've been dog sitting for a couple of weeks...sniff, sniff!

 and then we dressed her for a trip out to visit mrs. leemaster, our friend in mangum that needed someone to sit with her for a few hours and just so happens to love JU-B!  

then we headed for the pool.

JU-B loves the water, particularly putting her face in, which I find funny, and constantly plunges her face into the water.  I wonder if she's taking drinks?

here she is all dressed and bathed in her birthday best...with tears.  somebody please get that baby some cake!!

 DADDY came home!!!  

here juliet is taking her Daddy out...being "sooooo big"

joey is, of course being overly dramatic but I think his face is hilarious

so sweet

 after birthday cake there were, of course, presents

and plenty of help opening them!

Juliet loved her first baby doll and

 two bottles that isaac and georgie gave her to feed her baby.  She was noticeably excited when she opened each one. "ooooooo@@" she said, with her trademark animated inflection!  she carries that baby around now like its her best friend saying over and over, "baby!, baby!"

happy birthday 

JULIET!!

love,kisses and all the good things in between to you in your life with us, baby girl!

xoxo

Juliet: Months 10, 11 an 12

Juliet:

10, 11 and 12 months

We've been so busy going here, there and back again these last couple of months that I think, at times, Juliet felt as if she were going to burst at the seams with all the excitement.  Exhibit A:

 (I love this photo)

and this one too...the expression kills me

One of my favorite things about this age is how sure of themselves they are.  I love how Juliet can be clinging to my ankles, screaming LOUDLY for me to pick her up (no wait...that part drives me crazy...but I'm getting to the good stuff) and then when she's finally in my arms she moves instantly to an expression of utter satisfaction with herself, as if how she's acted is the most normal, adult thing that one could do in such a situation.  She makes this expression a lot...acting like such a little baby while written all over her face is total unawareness of her being anything other than perfectly big.  I love it!

And don't think I forgot this picture!!

All of these photos I took on one of the first days that she realized that Isaac and Georgies room was the place to be.  I'd put her down in the living room and she would b-line it to their bedroom (sometimes to be met with an "oh-no-juliet's coming, shut the door!"), climb onto the trundle bed which gave her enough height to get onto their big bed which gave her access to the top of the bookshelf where most of the kids toys are kept.  She loved it up there and made messes enough to drive her big brother and sister crazy.  She also fell off a number of times and gave herself quite a few bonks on the head.  

By 11 months, Juliet was taking her first steps and by 11 1/4 months she was a walker.  She's too cool for crawling...never does it...we're both :) and :( about it!!  Her first word was "No" and it seems to me that  she knows what it means, too.  She can wave bye bye and just a couple of days ago Joey taught her to wave her finger back and forth when she says it.  It's pretty cute.  Sometimes if you ask her "What does a dog say?" she'll say "ba-ba-ba" and her little body will jump/thrust with each syllable.  It's also pretty cute. She loves water, especially puddles, loves to chase and be chased, still loves to nurse, has 8 teeth, 4 of them just within the last month, and loves to empty drawers and un-shelve books.  She's pretty good in the car (good thing because she's crossed the state of texas 6 times in the last 2 months) and I would say she's a very happy, low maintenance child, especially on the go when I can give her most of my attention.  At home she fusses to be held a lot because I'm busy not paying attention to her.  One of her distinctive features are her loud piercing shrieks/grunts.  They are obnoxiously loud.  

Here are a few more shots of Juliet over the last few months:

 In the pool with Gaga and Papa at Isaac's family party.

In the cupboard!

Ransacking Isaac and Georgie's room first thing in the morning!

There are more...but we'll save those for her birthday which is TOMORROW!  Prepare yourself for some serious sentimental, mushy, gushy loviness going on on this blog tomorrow!!

Juliet: 9 months

Juliet:

9 months

In her 9th month we celebrated Easter,

and received a cute little sun bonnet from The Easter Bunny.

Mimi, Tanner, Lukey and 

Pop pop came for a visit from Las Vegas!

 and Juliet became a rockstar crawler!

She claps, raises her arms up high when you say "SOOOO big", she still LOVES to nurse, talks all day long and is a super smiley baby.  She is definitely attached to Mommy but loves everybody from a distance!  She spent much of her time this month attending soccer games in the Oklahoma wind, slung on mommy or Daddy's hip and riding around in her car seat while shuttling her big brother and sister to school and other activites.  She is most easily pacified by being held by Mom but second to that comes being held by Dad, read a story, being chased around by or chasing Isaac and Georgie (she laughs EVER time ate this one) or munching on a graham cracker.  She has been deemed Isaacs first grade classes mascot.  His classmates love and kiss on her every time she shows her cute little face up at the school.  She continues to be our easiest baby.

Happy 9th Juliet!!

xoxo

Mom

Juliet: 8 months old

Juliet:

8 Months Old

Wow...this baby...is...growing up toooo fast!!

Ya know 6 months is still little.  And 7 months is basically still 6 months.  

But 8 months might as well be 1 year.  What's up with that?  I swear to you that I was JUST pregnant!!

Juliet, to me, is the softest, squishiest, loudest, loviest, nursing-est (i know that's not a word) snuggliest baby in the world.  All of us our mourning her growing up and enjoying it all at the same time.  She has a crowd of cheerleaders every time she rolls over or attempts to clap.  Georgie loves to help me feed her and Joey wants to hold her all doing dinner.  Isaac and Georgie always begrudge nap time.  They never want me to put her down.  I wish there was a way to multiply her!  

She rolls ALL over the place, scoots, is beginning to pick up food and put it in her mouth, give kisses when we say the words, "Juliet, kiss!" and sometimes claps her hands.  Within the last couple of days she's been getting up on her hands and knees so, we think, crawling is just around the corner.

Juliet has been having some stranger anxiety ever since our trip to SE Asia so when my Mom came for a visit last week Juliet kind of broke her heart by crying whenever she came around.  BUT! within a few days Juliet could not withstand the allure of Gaga!  

She bounced on Gaga's lap for almost 45 minutes, jumping and jumping and jumping while we watched Tangled for the first time (love that movie!)  9 months, here we come...but don't come too fast!