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!

Sometimes when my girls are doing things I wonder if their behavior is just random or a sign of a developmental change. God has granted me my own scientific experiment on this in Emily’s friend Elena. Often, Ashley and I will be sharing stories of our kids’ current antics and find out that the other one is exhibiting the same behavior.

One recent sweet thing they are both doing, independent of each other, is pretending to be babies after their baths. After we give Emily her towel from her bath, she stands wrapped up in it and asks if she can be carried back to the bedroom like a baby. She delights in the baby-like behavior and acting it out. I guess it is hard to grow up and she sometimes wants to be treated like a baby. Sometimes, I miss my Emily baby and am glad to pretend every once in a while to have her back.

Today was the day for Emily’s hair to be cut. We made an outing of the event and even took a favorite doll with us for the haircut. The new look is really cute, but quite different than the long wavy hair. Time will tell if the wavy hair will remain, but the ends still had some wave to them before they were straightened. It was fun for her to get her hair styled and straightened like a big girl. Actually, Emily’s favorite part was dancing around the big open floor the the salon. Julia got a little trim to keep her included in the event.

The Before

The After

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!