Hello? Remember me? Anyone still out there? I know.... It's been over a month (!) since I last posted, and I'm trying to recall everything that happened that has kept me from posting. And all I'm coming up with is housework, chasing Juliana and hmm... I don't know what else.
Oooo... what has happened... Let's start with Jessica. Her life here is starting to read like a teen novel or maybe an episode of Dawson's Creek. Not that I ever watched that show myself. Since the last post I made about her, she's had two other boyfriends (not simultaneously) - and had break-ups with both of them. Long story short, the girl that dated Richard before Jessica has apparently taken it upon herself to make Jessica her nemesis. Having grown up in this area, she has known a lot of the kids in Jessica's new circle of friends for years and years. So, when Jessica started dating someone else, this other girl started to feed him a bunch of false rumors to get him to break up with her. It didn't help that the new boyfriend was going through a lot of other stressful transitions (moving, increased work load) that he was feeling like he didn't have time to have a girlfriend/be a good boyfriend. Anyhow, the rumors helped feed his need to break up, and he did. It wasn't until 2 weeks after, that he learned the truth of the rumors and things were once again amiable with the boy.
The next boy was fed other rumors, but wasn't as gentlemanly about the split. He texted her something along the lines of not wanting her near and that he had another girlfriend the whole time they were dating. Nice, huh?
These days, Jessica is hanging out with other friends (not in that same circle) and trying to not focusing on having a boyfriend, which we think is much healthier. But, man, am I exhausted just recalling all that.
On the other end of the child age spectrum, Juliana has turned into quite the little monkey. She is unafraid to try to climb anything to reach an object that catches her interest... chairs, the dresser, the changing table, the bookcase, the cat tree, the sofa back --- and the list goes on. Luckily, no major injuries so far.
Also, during the last month, her vocal skills have starting really taking off. She's pointing at everything and wanting to know what it is. Sometimes she tries to repeat the word, other times she grins and nods, just happy to know what it is. Some of the words she uses most often are Mine, Book, Cookie, Please ("eeez"), Thank you ("ang oo"), broken ("bro-kay"), green ("geen"), red ("wed") and her current favorite "Puppy!", which she uses interchangeably for puppy, powder, and most any other word that happens to start with P.
Now that I think about it, I think someone might be brainwashing her to want a puppy. I think I'll have to investigate it further, because we really don't have room for another pet in here.
Over the past month, she has also figured out how to use a zipper, undo snaps and the fact that she likes to run around without any clothes on. I think we've nipped the "running-around-without-a-diaper" bit in the bud, but she manages to wriggle out of most every outfit we put on her. She'll keep it on when we go out, but as soon as we get home... off it all comes, until she just has a diaper on. Now the only time she wants to take the diaper off is when she wants a change or is headed to the potty. Mostly, she tells me "poopy" or "pee pee" after the diaper is soiled, but if she says it while it is still clean, I'll ask her if she wants to use the potty. And when that happens, she repeats "Potty!", tears off the diaper and runs to the bathroom. More often than not, for now, nothing happens in the bathroom, but at least she's trying. right?
I have a couple of pictures of Juliana that I took at Easter dinner, but haven't uploaded them to the computer yet. I'll get that done this week, though, and posted up here for you.
Here she is running down the hall at Uncle Wes' place. This is the dress I made for one of her Christmas gifts and it fits her great right now (luckily). You never know how fast kids are going to grow from month to month.
For Easter, Sahm-Yi gave Juliana this magnetic doodle toy, which she just loves. And it saves our furniture and appliances from more crayon graffiti than they would otherwise see.
