I was folding laundry with my little Julia helper. She was pretty good about leaving the folded laundry piles together. After a while she started pulling out socks and informing me to whom they belonged. Then she tried on one of Robby’s. His ankle socks were knee-high socks on her. She was so proud to wear them around the house for about an hour. Cute stuff! They didn’t stay on for his homecoming.

Maybe one day these stories might be a little embarrassing, but they are so much fun now. Julia is quite capable of doing things for herself and some of those things have to do with diapers. First, she likes to go and fetch her own diapers from the diaper bin. The characters found on the brand of diaper we are getting are all Sesame Street characters. Julia has her favorite. She will take the diapers out of the bin and hunt for Ernie. Who knew that he would be her favorite character? If she can’t find one she will settle with a Cookie Monster or Big Bird. Her least favorite is Elmo, who is the most common character.

Julia is also able to take her diaper off by herself. She will “help” us in the morning by taking her jammies off and her diaper. She can reach the trash can from her crib and will deposit it for us. The other evening she decided she needed to “help” us after we put her to bed. The details aren’t necessary, but she required a jammie and bedding change because of her helpfulness. She is so sweet to help us!

There is nothing better than going out to play in unexpected places on beautiful days. Fall is a perfect time to find hidden corners of gardens to play in. The girls played with their friends Elena and Maeve at the Knoxville Botanical Garden for a morning play date. There were trails to follow, stone buildings to discover, bushes to hide between, and sweet faces to be photographed. I think Ashley and my favorite thing about the gardens were the stone walls that gave our girls a safe and fun place to run around in. The garden volunteers were planting bulbs for the spring flower beds and they offered for the girls to help them with the planting. Emily and Elena both volunteered to help. Next spring we will have to go back and see the Narcissa that they helped plant. We will return for more play dates on warm days. There are so many more places I want to go and see in the garden.

This is a classic pose for Julia these days. While she doesn’t have many words she choose to share with us, she does say our names. She loves to put her hands to the side of her mouth and yell a persons name to have them come and play. This time she was yelling for “Eeeeee” to come her way.

Greetings from the Edwards Trick-or-Treating Evening

Emily the Cowgirl

If Julia was a knight her name would have been “Julia the Sad”. She woke up from a late nap and was pretty disagreeable. We tried to talk her into a bumble bee costume and it was a no-go. Then we tried her Pumpkin Fairy costume and again it was a no. So we packed up her costume in case she changed her mind on the go. She did become a whole lot more agreeable as the trick or treating went on.

The never-worn costume.

Mommy decided she would be a Fairy Godmother if Julia wouldn’t be the fairy.

We made a loop around our street starting with a selection of neighbors including our babysitter and Grandparents. Then we visited a church Trunk ‘n Treat for dinner and more candy. And then finished by working our way back to our house visiting more neighbors. At home the girls got to eat a few pieces of candy and examine the contents of their buckets. They had so much fun getting all the candy out and sorting it. Julia picked raisins as one of her prizes to eat. She was so excited to sit by Robby and eat it.

Emily refused to smile, but this is just a selection from her candy bucket. She was happy with her loot! Despite our sad start we all had lots of fun and enjoyed visiting with neighbors and collecting candy.

We had been locked up in our house for several days this week because of sickness. We were ready to escape the house mid-week. It proved to be the perfect medicine for us.

The girls were so excited to go out. Julia was up first and ready to go before I started to get Emily ready. Emily was dragging her feet and Julia jumped in to help me motivate her. While I was contemplating turning off the TV to help the process along, I watched Julia go and get the remote to do just that. After the TV was off Julia pushed Emily to get dressed. It was so entertaining to watch their interaction. I think I learned a lot about Julia and her future role with her sister.

I had promised the girls a trip to Dollywood, but when we got there that it was the day for them to be closed that week. The girls were sad and we saw several tears from each. Luckily for us, we found an endless supply of other distractions. We filled our day with putt-putt, ice cream, shopping, and sunshine. Sunshine, laughter, and fun is the best medicine!

Happy Birthday Julia!

By far our favorite thing to do today was to sing Happy Birthday to you. Your face brightened and glowed with joy each time. You really understood that you were special and that we were singing about you. My other favorite thing from the day was our 1:30 am cuddle that we shared, just because we could.