On the last day of school of 2017, the two of you got all cleaned up, put on shiny, awesome new clothes, and headed off to join your classmates in a performance for family and friends!
You two clean up real good!
Yaya and Baba and Aunt Sham and Uncle Joe were there!
Mimi and Pops were there!
And then...the lights went down and the magic happened!
JAZZ HANDS! We are so proud of your energy and dedication and practice. You two have been singing those songs all semester and how sweet they were!
Mommy worked really hard with the Middle schoolers on their play!
Julia, as more and more words- and sentences- come out of your mouth the more apparent it becomes that you are whip-smart, super powerful, and amazingly funny too.
You know most of your body parts and don't hesitate to tell us. "Eye", "Eyebrow", "Elbow", "hair", "knee", "nose", "Behbuh" (belly button), "mouth", "eeah" (ear), "teef!" "eyelash" are among your favorites. I often have no shirt on (that's what Dads do)...so I've noticed that you - like your brother before you- seem very interested in "bibbles" (nipples). And you use these liberally: in your favorite book ("Nemo") you always have to find the "shaaa" (shark) and tell us all about his teeth.
You know when you want to play "Horsey" or "kikitty" or "dog."
When you go potty, you tell me to "sit!" So, I sit across from you on the edge of the tub.
You learn words left and right, and remember them too. Last night in the bath tub, you said "Grover Cup, Pease."
Last night while you were trying to avoid going to bed, you kept point and asking me to take you to the "chair." "Chair." "Chair."
When you are proud for going pee pee on the potty, or just looking for someone, you use your "Oh!" Such as "Oh, Mama!" "Oh, Daddy!" "Oh, Aidan!"
If you don't know someone's name, that never stops you: You called your cousin Jenny "That."
"Nah" means "yeah." "Neh" means again. "No no no no no no"- you can figure that one out.
We played "ring around the rosey" once before you fell in love with the game and request it every day a hundred times. "Robey robey robey neh!"
You sing songs too, including "clean up clean up" (often you'll make messes just for the joy of cleaning them up!)
You love to sing songs that your brother is teaching you too. "A, B, A, B, A, B, B" But once a few days ago I sang "ABCD" and you sang "EFG" unmistakably!
You also LOVE when a song from "Frozen" comes on and in a gruff voice you say "FROZEN! FROZEN! FROZEN!"
And of course, Old MacDonald remains one of your favorites.
In the car one day, Aidan was doing some improv and sang "E I E I Daddy." He thought it was hilarious! So did you...and you've been singing it ever since!
You are making sentences quite readily too. "Oolia bath" (you wanted to get back in the bath since Aidan and Kaelyn were still in there having fun).
"Ho me ho me" is of course "hold me hold me".
"Oolia go goo gleep shirt" (you were wearing your Go Goo Gleep shirt..duh!)
"Aidan shoes"
"Mine iPad! Mine iPad!"
"Aidan bite." (no, he didn't)
"Good gog"
"Aidan cry." (yes, he did)
"Mama book"
"Thank you!"
"Hi Nemo!"
"Bye bye, Nemo!"
"Bye bye, park"
"Mimi! Bop!" (Pops)
"Yaya! Baba!"
"NG NG" (it means "swing"...trust me on this)
"Asher! Asher! Asher!"
"Baby Bottle! Baby..."
"More wah wah Oolia!"
"Mama, Dada, there you are!"
Sometimes you just sit and babble stuff we haven't heard before and can't translate yet; occasionally it's over a book, so you're probably just reading. But, with the speed with which your vocabulary is growing and you're mastering language, we'll understand you soon enough. For now though, you are a little girl in a big world, and you have a lot to say about it. We're just happy to hear it!
It's hard to imagine, and hard to recall when exactly this happened, but we are well into the third trimester. That means you are almost here...a little over two months from being here, to be exact. '
Your Mom continues to grow bigger and bigger as you continue to grow larger in her belly.
We can feel you moving all the time, simply by placing a hand on the belly. And last night we even saw you rippling under your mother's skin. It sounds creepy, but it's not. It was actually quite amazing, to see you subtly moving just under the surface.
It seems just like yesterday that you were barely on your way....
and now look at you, your mother and brother a mere 13 weeks later.
But a lot truly has changed in 13 weeks. For the better. You've got some girly clothes hanging in the closet, and pink sheets on your crib waiting for you. And you've got a name. Actually, that's been settled for a long time, but now your brother fully knows it, and even has a song about it.
You are:Julia Sekina Weinstein!
We're still ironing out the spelling of your middle name. Julia means youthful, and Sekina means serenity. Both are blessings. The J in Julia is to honor your Mimi, Joy; and Sekina was the name of your Mom's Mama Bizorg (Baba's mother). I never got to meet her, but from all I've heard she was an incredible, gentle, kind woman. So that's another two blessings, to be named in the fashion of such strong women.
'Julia' itself is a really beautiful Beatles song (one which sparked our interest in your name); but Aidan developed an even more beautiful song for you. The song "Hallelujah" is one that Aunt Rebekka and I recorded for our CD for Mimi's 70th birthday. Aidan listens to it a lot. At first he called the song "looya"...then it evolved thusly:
Looya...loooah...loooiah....jooooya....julia
Aidan also knows that your Mom's name is Holly. So he put the two together: "Holly Julia."
So whenever I hear "Hallelujah" from now on, I will think of you, Julia, your big brother and what a blessing you all are in our lives already.
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