I have to compromise the big fancy camera a lot more theses days and just make do with the camera phone, but this one was so sweet I will take a poor photo over no photo. We had a playdate at the free summer movie today with Elena, Maeve, and their cousin Lincoln. Before the movie started, Ashley took the big girls to the bathroom and the little girls came to hang out with me and the popcorn. We didn’t have the booster seats yet, so I thought that maybe Julia and Maeve would weight enough to hold the seat down together. They loved sitting together on the seat chowing down on their popcorn. It was really sweet.

The other morning when I went in to get Julia up she was standing and waiting for me with one sleeve off of her jammies. I suddenly had a flashback of a little Emily excitedly waiting for me to get her up from a nap and having one arm pulled out of her shirt. Just another sign that Julia is growing up.

This morning when I went in to get Julia up she had thrown all of her blankets and animal friends from her bed and removed her pj bottoms. I guess she was bored. The game of undressing is a lot of fun and it makes me wonder what I will find tomorrow when I get her up from bed.

I would have loved a photo with the girls looking at camera, but that never is a guarantee these days. They were very facinated with all the little clover flowers hidden in the grass. It was sweet to watch their discovery of the blooming treasures.

This is a classic and wonderful story, enjoy! On our way home from Cades Cove, we stopped at Cracker Barrel for dinner. Our first stop inside was the restroom. On the way I gave Emily some verbal directions to the bathroom. I told her to find the flashing stoplight on the back wall and the bathroom door would be below it. Half way back to the bathroom, Emily stopped walking and I asked her why, after all, we were staring right at the entrance and she knew where she was going. She told me the stoplight was red and that meant we had to stop. Everyone standing around up had huge smiles! Because the light was never going to change to green, I gave her permission to continue on. I’m glad our first lesson on the rules of the road have taken so well.

The last day of Little Gym is a performance to show what each child has learned. This display is called the “Big Show”. For this class’s show Mommy, Daddy, and Julia came to watch. Daddy had brought Emily to most of the classes and it was a good opportunity for me to measure where Emily was at the beginning of the class to now. When she first started the class it was the first time she was on her own in a group setting with having to listen to instruction. Emily has grown a lot in this class. She has tried a lot of new moves, been on new equipment, and practiced the art of taking turns and listening to instruction from the teachers. I appreciate that this is a lot of new things to be introduced in just a couple month class. Despite all the changes in the class Emily loved it and was very pleased to be able to show off her new stuff for us all.

The kids did their warm-up and listening activities and then broke down into two groups to demonstrated on their skills at the different stations. Emily loves running in a circle at the warm-up activities. For the floor exercises she did her own variation on the moves and freely edited out the moves she didn’t want to do. I think her favorite move is the “Ta-Da” that completes each routine. Next her group went to the balance beam. On the beam she continued to exercise her freedom to edit the routine, but thoroughly enjoyed the beam. She was able to do her favorite move which is the Arabesque. At home she will arabesque on any elevated surface and announce herself. Lastly they performed their routine on the uneven bars. As usual she preformed her own version and really didn’t try much of this apparatus.

The biggest hit of the evening was the award presentation where each child got to take center stage and receive their medal. All the children seemed to love the applause and showing off. It was such a joy to watch Emily engage in an activity that was her own and receive such pleasure from it.

Wow! Time is really going by quickly now. One thing that has taken its time is Julia’s teeth. For months she has only had six and then one molar started to come in. In the last three weeks we have seen three new ones start to show themselves. One additional molar and the other two are front teeth. Yeah! She had done a great job of eating just about anything despite the few teeth.

Julia is not using many words yet and when she uses them she is only giving partial sounds. One unfortunate side effect is that she has started crying and screeching in place of words. The crying and screeching is a pretty effective means of communication with Emily, but it is a little tiresome. I have started teaching her more sign language so that she has the means of expressing herself in a more positive way. I hope she sees it that way. I can see a decent amount of frustration when we are not understanding her when she is trying to communicate the desire for something.

Her awareness of bodily functions is becoming more acute. She will point at her diaper when we talk about it, but also when she desires it to be changed. She has been asking to sit on the potty like her sister. That sister influence thing can have some good influences. Occasionally, she will fetch a diaper when she wants it changed.

Bad habits are formed lots of way – poor reinforcements to behaviors, distracted mommy, lazy ways of getting things done, and things learned directly from a sister. Some days I’m feel like I’m fighting a losing battle as I correct Julia only to have Emily demonstrate the improper behavior immediately. It is exhibited in lots of places like throwing food, touching curtains, kicking, standing on furniture, and disobeying mommy. The dynamic of sister influences and relations will be a topic of growth for the rest of the girls lives.

Two sweet girls sharing wild flowers and enjoying a sunny day! Happy Father’s Day!