Julia's 5th Birthday!

Julia Sekina,

Our dear, dear, silly, spunky, creative, dogged, determined, feisty, talented, clever, smart, goofy, capable, sensitive, loving, amazing, Julia...

Today you turned FIVE!

And...if you telling us you were excited and have been excited and are excited isn't enough of an indicator, you recently skyrocketing writing skills can give us some more clues!

 "Dear Mom and Dad and Aidan. I'm excited for my birthday. I like snow (?). I love you Mom and Aidan. By Julia." 

"Julia. Ever. I love Julia. We are the best family. Mom and Dad and Aidan"

Birthday Butterfly

5. Stars Cupcake!

I love Julia's Presents. I am excited for my birthday. 5. Five Birthday!"

Birthday Butterfly - part 2

You were willing and ready and excited to go to school on your birthday (as you are most days!). I asked you to do a "Birthday Girl Pose" and this is clearly IT, as you did it twice!

Hooray for birthdays!

You wanted to make your own cake, so you and Mama did!

And then, some presents from your family!

Face paint from Auntie Deborah!

Water Color Set 

Scooter!

Which you named "sparkles"

"I love you sparkles!" You cried. And quickly added "I love you too Lady Glitter Sparkles" (your bike)

Mommy made you this awesome Journal, which you've been coloring every day!

We didn't have to wait too long to find a nice day to try out Sparkles. You and Aidan scooted down the hill, you quickly got the hang of it, which you told your scooter many times ("We're getting the hang of it, girl!"

And of course, you two found froggies!

Insert pun: So, I guess you had a happy and a HOPPY birthday.

My dearest Julia, who always claims with a smile on her face to never get my jokes, I read the following to you on your birthday, and I'm putting it here for you now, so you can read it. It's very long, and a bit sentimental, but in short...it all means the following: 

And just like that she's FIVE...our Julia has taken to writing like a bird to flight, filling page after page with her notes, writing books, and comic books, and a diary. She loves wrestling, and reading, and her bike (which she has named "Lady Glitter Sparkles"). She loves animals, she loves her brother, and her family. She's afraid of Cicada shells (not cicadas), and adults in mascot-style costumes. She loves all things sparkly and or shiny. She has a collection of old keys, and a collection of sea shells, and a collection of business cards and 'important' papers. She's working on not tattling and table manners and not telling so many "bathroom" jokes. She has a hell of a "demon voice", and loves to play "baby" and "family." Today she asked me to help her build a clubhouse in our back yard, but told me she asked her gardening teacher to come help because, well, he's the gardening teacher. She hates getting caught doing something naughty and she can lie with a straight face a bit too easily sometimes. She loves pepperoni pizza (but not the crusts, which she feeds to her brother) and cheese, even of the stinky variety. She doesn't like ice cream or cake, but she likes the icing. She likes the hamburger, but not the bun (so she licks off the cheese and the mustard, and feeds the bread to her brother). She wants to be an archaeologist when she grows up...or a dancer. She is our Julia, and she's one of a kind, and she is amazing. We love her so much. So, if you see her, wish her a happy birthday!

WE LOVE YOU. You make the world a better place.

Happy Birthday! And THANK YOU for being you!

And don't just take my wishes alone! Check out this compilation video of all your birthday celebrations!

Month 10: Teeth, Talking and Walking!

Julia, "Da da da da da" was the call from your bedroom this morning. I was on my way out the door for work, but I dropped my briefcase (okay...my lunchbox) and went upstairs to bring you downstairs and change your diaper. What I found was a beautiful, smiling, standing little girl who was so happy to see her "Da da da."

You pointed at lots of different things and told me what they were, in your own way. And we chatted all the way down the stairs and into the bedroom. You were surprised to see your brother and mother still in bed (sometimes I'm surprised to wake up and see your brother in bed with us too!). Your sheer happiness at seeing your family is so refreshing and lovely.

I changed your diaper and gave you to your "Ma ma ma ma ma" so she could feed you breakfast.

You're well into your 10th month of life now, and it's been hard to keep up with you. You've been growing and changing so rapidly that it's hard to fathom.

It seems just like yesterday that you figured out how to crawl. You're now a master faster crawler.

But now, you've grown to be able to do and say so much!

Before we went on vacation to Galveston again at the beginning of this month, your 'vocabulary' really started to grow.

You say "ma ma ma ma ma" to your Mommy and "da da da da da" to your daddy.

You say "bmmf" to your baby dolls or other babies. (It's your word for 'baby'). If we pick you up in the morning and you don't have your baby doll in your hands (which is rare), you'll point and say "bmmf" until we grab it for you.

You also recently started to say "bah" for "ball." Every toy ball, super bouncy ball, marble, balloon, they're all "bah" to you!

Through the month you also learned to talk about "bir", aka "birds!" You see them on the beach, you see them in the tree, you see them on a t-shirt. It's all for the "birs" for you!

Of course, all this talking is accompanied now by lot more of pointing. You use your index finger as an extension of your voice, telling us what you want, and where you want to go and what you see. 

Just before your 10 month-I-versary, you also started developing an even more acute sense of humor, complete with a really awesome, hearty laugh: "Ha ha ha!"

 

This is sort of your "I'm mischievous" laugh, perfect for such occasions as messing with your mama.

But, you also have such an infections "I'm really cracking up, here!" laugh! Whenever you're laughing, we are all enthralled.



Much to our amazement, you also started communicating non-verbally using sign language too! We always use the four or five signs we know to talk to you (and to your brother at this age), and the other day, we were feeding you and you bounced your fingers together to say 'more!' Wow!



Now, you may have noticed in the first video that you're walking pretty well. Well, you aint seen nothing yet. You've been pulling to standing for quite some time, with tremendous levels of success.

Sometimes you have help.

You've been walking while holding onto a finger or two for a while now too. Back when we went to the beach the first time this summer, your Mom predicted that you'd be walking for real by the time we went back in early August.

And, low and behold, we get to the beach, and guess what you figured out, much to everyone's surprise!



Everyone was so thrilled, including yours truly. My biggest fear was that I would miss your first steps; but here we were, on family vacation, and you decide to take your first strolls!



You may have been the most excited of all!

You're walking on your two legs now! And you're also able to chew on your two front teeth! In Month 10 your two front chompers came in (and a third one up top too!) But they're very elusive and refused to have photographs take of them for the longest time. That is, until, your 10 month photo shoot!

So, we caught your teeth, and caught many sides of your personality too!

 

As we returned to normal life from the beach, you continued to  practice your new tricks, work on your old ones too and just enjoy life!

You continued reaching new heights...

And taking bigger steps...

With all these big new steps, and words, it's been very hard to keep up with you. But luckily, you still want to hold our hands (or our fingers) and make sure we keep up with you.

But every day, among all this excitement, you still love to cuddle and give kisses and climb all over us (and your brother (and your dogs)). Just yesterday afternoon, you woke up in the middle of your nap and couldn't go back to sleep. I rocked you back asleep and laid you down, and you woke back up. I tried again, and you woke up again. So, since your mother and brother were out together, and I had no where else I'd rather be, I laid down on your bedroom floor on a pile of pillows with you on my chest, and together we slept just like on the day you were born.


The faster you are growing up and taking these giant leaps, the more excited I get...but also the nicer it is when we can have some quiet father/daughter time together. No matter how big and awesome you get, you will always be my little girl. I'm so proud of you, and I can't wait to be here for your next amazing step!