Thursday, June 11, 2009

The Jubilant Juliana

{There are (many) video clips in this post. So if you get this as an email, you'll need to click here to go to the actuall blog to view the videos.}

Juliana really is a jubilant baby. She's happy 90% of the time, and usually when she is grumpy its for a good reason. She's so easy to just take along wherever we need to go, even when we have to drive into town. She's just starting to develop her own little sense of humor - and trust me, if she doesn't think it's funny she's not going to laugh.
Here are a few highlights of her emerging personality over the last few months.

Taking her first steps. She actually did this last month while Cameron was in Utah. By the time he got home she was toddling around everywhere. A fun surprise for him.



She purrs - she doesn't do this as much as she used to, but at night she does this when we play with her, after the other kids are in bed.



She does a pretty darn good Darth Vader impression (really this is hilarious in person, the video doesn't do it justice).



A fashionista revealed - she's very recently begun to bring me clothes from her room that she wants put on. Here is a sampling of one of her fashion creations.

And the view from behind - because it's just as cute.

She's super sensitive to mosquito bites. Seriously, they turn into enormous hives. And the of course she wants to scratch them and it just goes down hill from there. If we put a bandaid on them, she just picks that off, too. We did however find some tattoo bandaids that she hasn't been able to remove, so we use those as much as we can. Here's a picture of her last bite - it was a big one. Weeks later it has finally healed up, but you can still see the mark on her leg where the skin is still red.


And she loves to dance. Anytime she hears ANY music she starts dancing. Even without music sometimes! She's a dancing fool.

{Sorry, I can't seem to find my video of her bustin' a move. I'll have to take a new one and post it soon.}

She's a bit of a neat freak. Well, ok, we'll just say she's a good helper. She likes to pick things up, which is normally great, but can be a little discouraging when you're trying to fold laundry. But otherwise it comes in handy (as anyone who has seen our house on a daily basis can appreciate).

Her most recent obsession is drinking from regular cups. She would do this all day if someone would sit with her and help her out - doing it herself doesn't last too long, once she dumps all the water on herself she's pretty much done.

She sure talks a lot, but most of the time we have no idea what she is saying. Her English vocabulary is still very limited (as in "uh oh" and "maaa-maaa") but I have a feeling that one of these days she's just going to starting talking in full on sentences.

Juliana is an interesting mix of the whole family - and really she only got good traits of each of us. She's got a love of reading from Abby (ok, so she's really just into looking, pointing, babbling, and then turning the page). She's got a need to know how things work from Isaac. She's got a need to look good (and primp) from Danielle. She's got her beautiful dark eyes and hair, and her olive-ish skin from her dad. And she got her laid back attitude from her mom.

All in all, she's quite the package, and the perfect little addition to our family. She's always excited to see us - even if you just walk in the other room, she just lights up when you come back. She keeps us all smiling, and and she gives us lots of loves, from hugs and kisses to blowing kisses and waving goodbye.

4 comments:

Karen Lambarth said...

Now I miss seeing you all more!
What a good description of Juliana, you've made her alive and extended from the memories I have. Thanks.
I'll have to read up on M bites and see if there some after bite relief.
Richard has Mother Earth News Mag. . .. they had an article on getting rid of mosquitoes and ticks . . . . let your chickens run loose in your yard to eat them up!
Guess that won't work for you all!
I'll keep looking!

Anonymous said...

The boys loved the videos, especially the purring one. I really think what you're doing is a great idea. It's fun and exciting to learn more about the kids.

Hillary said...

Maddy has mosquito bite problems too. She swells up like crazy, and they HURT and itch something terrible. Your little is too young for this now, but Maddy takes a Zyrtec every night during the mosquito season. It helps a ton!

Gordon Peterson said...

We were able to see Juliana for the first time last December. It was immediately evident what a sweet spirit she has. She is such a fun person to be around. Tell her hi from her Utah grandparents.