little black journal

Alright, alright…I’m sane again and ready to wish our fun-loving, adorable little girl a proper HAPPY nineteen months!  She’s the best!  This week has been sleep-filled and tantrum-free, so herewith, toddlerhood in all it’s glory!  (Too many exclamation points?  !!!)

Juliette is chattier than ever – a couple of weeks ago we were reading one of her favorite books together when she pointed to a squirrel in a tree and proudly exclaimed “squirrel!” (errrr…”shquell!”), seemingly out of the blue, as that isn’t a word we’ve ever pointedly worked on with her.  Her pronunciation needs some fine tuning, but she’s surprising us all the time with her expanding vocabulary.  And we can see she’s thrilled with her gradual mastery of the English language – she loves to “take role” when we’re in the car or at the dinner table, pointing to me and shouting “that’s mama!”, pointing to Shane and shouting “that’s papa!”, and then pointing to herself and shouting some form of her own name, like “Ju-Ju” or “Jet” or “Jjjjjmmmmmsssshhhheeeeettttte!”.  Words on constant repeat these days are “ach-oo” (“hold you”, which actually means “hold me”), “up-ease” (“open please”, as in take the lid off of my sippy cup/shampoo bottle/jar of animal crackers), “hair-pay!” (“airplane”), and “El-mo?  El-mo?  El-mo?” (said in the car when she wants to hear the Elmo song, at home when she wants to watch Sesame Street, in the shower or in bed or at the park when she just wants to proclaim her love for that little red fur ball).

Speaking of which, she loves music but really isn’t interested in singing anything but Elmo’s Song or the Sesame Street theme.  Case in point:

She’s increasingly adventurous, climbing and running and jumping with reckless abandon.  This used to drive me crazy, as I felt like I was constantly chasing her around while she traveled from one fall hazard to another, but I’m trying to ease up, to embrace her boldness and let her take an occasional tumble.  She’s pretty sturdy, after all.

She loves being tossed around, getting thrown up in the air or or hung upside down by her feet.  Check out her sheer joy when her dance party with Dad got a little crazy (I could watch this video for daaaaays):

A new favorite pastime is blowing bubbles – she’s still getting the hang of it, often ending up with a mouthful of suds, but when she gets it right, her little gasp of wonder is priceless.

I took her to Target for a bubbles run a couple of weeks ago and told her she could pick out one bottle of bubbles.  This is what she grabbed, clever girl…  (Who knew they sell bubbles by the gallon?)

She is waaaaay into cups and mugs and glasses right now, refusing to drink out of her sippy cup or anything with a lid.  This makes for a lot of wet shirts, but whatever – at least she’s staying hydrated!

She’s (usually) a good sleeper, but has become quite insistent that Shane or I hold her or pat her back or hang out in her room until she’s sound asleep.  Last week I told her NO MORE – little missy was going to spend a few days in bedtime bootcamp, crying it out.  I put her down in her crib at naptime while she was still awake, and she wailed until my resolve completely shattered…  This was our compromise:

We’ll keep working on her crib independence.  And dang it, if I want to snuggle her until she falls asleep, I’ll snuggle her.  Because MAN, the way she looks at me and smiles when I start in on “You Are My Sunshine”.  And the way she gently touches and names the parts of my face, tapping my nose and ears and cheeks, pointing to my eye and proudly saying, “EYE!”.  I study and try to memorize every perfect feature of her sweet baby face, counting those three faint freckles on her nose, her light blond eyebrows, her still-chubby cheeks.

And then this.  There will come a time far too soon when this just doesn’t happen anymore:

More photos, you say?  You’re welcome.

Happy, happy nineteen months, Jules.  I think I forgot for a moment how much I love hanging out with you.  But I remember now.