Julia, it's week 39 and you're the size of a...well..it doesn't really matter what size fruit you are. You're the size of a human baby!
(for the record: it's watermelon!)
You'll be here in 3 days! And we're all so excited to meet you!
Aidan can't wait to meet you (and kiss you) in person:
He also helped me pick out a gift for you this weekend. He was a bit impartial between the two choices that I had selected (He kept saying 'either'). But in the end, we got you the purple blanket with the owls on it. It's nice and soft and the same brand as Aidan's beloved 'blankies,' so it's brother-tested and brother -approved. But, then again, your brother has also been putting snails in his mouth lately, so I verified that the blanket is soft and warm. And very cute!
Your Mommy is eagerly awaiting your arrival, and crocheting all sorts of hats and headbands that will look super cute on your cute little head.
Your Mommy is probably also relatively sick of me taking her photograph...but, what can you do? After all, how many times is a gal gonna be pregnant?
You're rocking and rolling, and clearly getting ready to make a big move:
Me? Well, I'm just hanging on for dear life, bracing for the impact of what is sure to be...AWESOME! I'm excited, honestly I am. I painted a wall last night. For no obvious reason. I meant to mow the lawn in anticipation of your arrival, but I honestly don't think you'll care if the grass is a little long when you arrive at home. I'm a lot less nervous than I was when we were anticipating Aidan; perhaps that's because I know what to expect. Or perhaps, and much more likely, because I've forgotten all the things that I should expect.
But, either way. We're ready: we're all SO ready to meet you, and hold you, and kiss you and hug you.
I'm excited to see you. What will you look like? Will you have dark hair? Or any hair at all?
Will your little fingers and toes be perfect or double perfect? Who will you look like- Mommy? Daddy? Aidan? What will you sound like and smell like (screaming and diapers aside)? What will I see when I look in your eyes?
In short, who will Julia Sekina be?
This family is ecstatic to find out...and after a marathon 39 weeks that took us from this...
...to this...
...the Weinstein Family is ready for one more! We're ready for you, Julia!
You have a magnificent Mom. I should know, she's my best friend. You're lucky to have her on your side, and lucky when she's not on your side that she still loves you and always will.
Things are about to change here for the both of you. Julia, you're going to be coming into the world and Aidan, Julia's about to be coming into the world. You'll both have to do something neither of you may like too much...you'll have to share your Mommy with each other.
I'm pretty sure it's going to go smoothly, though, because your Mommy has more than enough love to go around, and once we emerge from this whole last trimester of pregnancy and fourth trimester outside, you're Mommy is going to have a lot more energy than she has now.
Week 38, in a book store
That said, though, I'm amazed at the energy she does have this late in the game with a pregnancy. We're about a week out, and, Julia and Aidan, your Mom always has time and energy for "Mommy and me" time with and for the both of you:
She's a great hand-holder:
Her belly, aka Aidan's sister, is a great place to play with Buzz and Woody:
She's a fabulous art teacher:
She's great at making you laugh:
She's a pro crocheter, and has already made you three hats, Julia!:
She's outdoorsy, she's artsy, she's funny, she makes tasty foods and does silly voices. That's your Momma.
And, although you both will have to share her from now on, you also get something else: each other!
A Blurry Moment; Aidan "kissing" Julia
Soon enough, Julia, you'll be a sister. And Aidan, you'll be a brother.
But don't worry, your Mommy will ALWAYS be your Mommy, and will always always love both of you.
Last weekend I had the pleasrue of joining you for a rollicking romp 'round the 'rboretum. We love the Dallas Arboretum- that's why we're members- and we love just being to up and go to it whenever we want. So, last weekend, your Mom needed to illustrate, and you and I needed to get out of the house. So we went to the Arboretum! I had a blast with you. You only had one two-year-old tantrumic moment, but we worked through it and enjoyed the water features, the old west Frontier Village, the wildlife and, of course, a delicious ice cream sandwich.
This is a photo of our day together, just the two of us.
Complete with a gourd with a "face" on it, pumpkins with silly tongues-out painted on visages, a costume due to the soaking good time at the tadpoles and froggies, one deliberately drenched daddy hat, a delicious PB&J lunch by the Picasso house, and lots of fun and laughter this was one awesome morning...and cause for one heck of a nap afterwards.
We'll always have time together-- no Cats in the Cradle here-- but, our times will of course grow and evolve as we grow and evolve. But here's to that day, September whatever-it-was 2012- a fun little slice in time where no one was hurt, everyone had fun, everyone got really wet and a little sun-kissed and one ice cream sandwich was shared by father and son.
A lot of people have been posting their children's 'favorites' as part of the new school year. I think it's a great idea, as it's really cool to take a time-capsule-esque snapshot of a kiddo at that date and time.
Julia, as of now, your list is really quite easy:
Favorite Food: Placenta Favorite Band: The Darkness Favorite Song: The Sound of Silence; Heartbeat Favorite Movie: Dark City; Dark Crystal Favorite Book: The Heart of Darkness Favorite Activity: Growing, Bouncing on your Mommy's bladder. Favorite Place to hang out: the womb
But soon enough- yikes...in 2 weeks!- you will soon have a whole new experience, and we can beef up your musical and culinary tastes.
But Aidan, your favorites are a bit harder to pin down. You can be obessed with something for weeks on end, or minutes on end. Some favorites are evergreen, like Toy Story or the color Yellow; you never get tired of them. Others, like broccoli or sweet potatoes, you may have over-dosed on and now you aren't as fond of them as you used to be. I set out on a week's long quest to find out all of your favorites direct from the horse's mouth. This was foolish, because one cannot simply ask a 2 year old what their favorite movie if they have no intention of watching said movie and, as mentioned before, your favorites vacillate from day to day on some items. So, there is some parental editorializing in the lists. But, trust me, this is pretty accurate, and has been approved by your mother.
Favorite Color: Although you love many colors, this one's easy:Yellow. Always has been. 'Nuff Said.
Favorite Super Hero: Hulk. Unless Buzz Lightyear counts as a super hero.
I made your lunch for school yesterday and included a little hand-drawn Hulk that said "Hulk Love Aidan." Miss Jessica said when you saw it, you whispered "WOW!!!"
Favorite Book: This is a tough one. You LOVE to read. In fact, you fell asleep on a book over the weekend, napped on it, and spent the rest of the day with 'newsprint' on your face.
You've loved two pop-up books nearly to death: "The Wheels on the Bus" and "Charlie and Lola's I will not Ever Never Eat a Tomato." Those could clearly be candidates for favorite book. "Olivia" was a fan favorite for a long time, as were the old "Sesame Street" books Mimi and Pops brought over. You love "Mouse Cookie"(what you call "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie") and "Everyone Poops" ("Poops book!") "Gossie and Gertie" and REALLY love "Ice Mice" (what you call "I can Read with my Eyes Shut"); In fact, 1 of the 4 times I asked you what your favorite book was, you replied "Ice Mice." Time two, you said "Horton Hears," which is a very good book too. But, 2 out of four times you said the same book:
"Hippo, no Hippo"
and
"Hippo book"
So, you really like Sandra Boynton's "But not the Hippopotamus." And that's going down as your favorite!
Favorite Song: This is a tough one. You love you sing; you love to listen to songs; you love to request songs be sung to you; you love to do sing-a-longs with Mommy and Daddy.
Lately you've been singing "Happy Birthday" to yourself quite a bit (Happy toy ou/happy to you/happy to you). You've also been really into Muppet's Bohemian Rhapsody for the longest time. You used to call it "Mama," now you call it "Muppets." But the cool thing, is that now you are singing it! You know one whole verse, and sing it like this:
Easy Come/Easy Come
Little High/Little Low
Any rainbows
Dont Matters
To Me
to me!!!!!!!!!
So that's definitely a candidate for favorite song.
But, you also love 'classics' like the "Itsy Bitsy Spider," "Twinkle, Twinkle," "Old King Cole," "You are My Sunshine," "I'm Looking Over (A Four leaf Clover)."
Your favorite Lullabye right now is "Pooh Song" (aka "The House on Pooh Corner" by K-Log), which was one of your favorites as an infant and has recently made a comeback.
But, executive decision here, I'd have to say that your favorite song is "Let it Be." This is one of your favorite tunes, whether it's "Letter B" (the Sesame Street cover) or the actual "Let it Be," this tune rocks your socks off for some reason. You sing it with us, you sing it on your own, we can us it as 'bait' to get you into the car when you don't want to go ("Want to listen to "Let it Be?"). The answer is always "YES!" to Let it Be.
Favorite Food: You are a pretty dang good eater. The problem comes when we find something that you really like, and then make a lot of it, and then you burn out on it...like mashed sweet potatoes, rice, etc.
But, some foods are always golden, and you could probably eat them every day if we let you. But we're not going to risk letting you burn out on them!
So, your favorites are: sausage, edamame, mango, oranges and avocado. Oh yeah, and pizza!
Favorite Movie: Toy Story. You love Toy Story. Toy Story 1, Toy Story 2, Toy Story 3. You've loved Toy Story since before you could talk. You called it "Ha ha" because of the scene where Woody and the Shark have that little conversation about Woody's hat in the first movie (yes, we've seen it a million times). You love Toy Story so much that you had a "Two Story" themed second birthday party. Thanks to some very kind Uncles and Aunts and Grandparents you have a whole "Andy's Toys" set. You carry them around and play with them daily. Buzz is your favorite. You cheer "Finity and BEYON!" at home...and on the swings...You know the words to "Fren in me" ("You've got a friend in me"). So, yeah, Toy Story is the bomb.
You've been branching out lately, though and enjoy "Horton Hears a Who," "Bug's Life," "Madagascar," "Finding Nemo" and "Monster's Inc."
But, when you ask to watch "Woody Moozy" we know that you're a Toy Story guy at heart.
Favorite Toy/Posession: "Blankies." That's your blanket. We don't know how it happened; you've slept with many stuffed animals and toys and even books. But you grew attached to your Blankies. It's great to sleep on, makes a great monster maxsxsk (as you showed your mother and I last night), and even is sometimes a lion's mane! It's great to hide under, and to wear as a cape, or to tuck your toys in to bed with.
Where you go to sleep, blankies goes too.
Favorite Activity: You love to play outside. Running around, picking up rocks, making rock soup, looking for rolley polies, blowing bubbles, doing 'airplanes' and kicking the ball...you're an outside kinda guy. You have been for a long time.
But, you're also a water guy. If there's splashing or dripping water around, you're gonna find it, you're gonna splash in it, and you're gonna love it!
Favorite TV Show: Wonder Pets/ Timmy Time/ Blue's Clues/Sesame Street
You don't watch many shows, but when you do, you've got an opinion on what 'epsodes' are the best. You do love Sesame Street, and were asking for it yesterday ('sesame street moozy plesase'), but as of today, I think that if you had to choose any show to watch, it'd be Timmy Time, the spinoff of Shaun the Sheep (which you also love, and like to sing the theme song to "Shoppa Sheep, Shoopa Sheep...Bleet!), the spinoff of Wallace and Gromit.
Favorite Animal: Tough one. You've been liking horses, dogs, koalas, kangaroos, grasshoppers, butterflies, cats, and pandas. But, here's another executive decision, your favorite is the "elephant." You love making the elephant noise, singin the elephant song (from the "Jungle Book"), reading "Stomp the Swamp" (an elephant romp), and "Horton Hears a Who" (a Seussian Elephant of great esteem).
Favorite Phrase: Normally only sitcom characters have catch-phrases. But, here are a few of my favorite 'catch-phrases' that you love to use as you're learning this language.
"Bye-bye, See ya!" (useful to say bye-bye, see ya to inanimate objects, animals, toys and nature as you're leaving a room, building or park. Such as "Bye-bye park, see ya!" Or "Bye-bye bed, bye-bye diaper, bye-bye Buzz. See ya!")
"Have it" (like "Strawberry. Have it!" or "Have it, Daddy!")
Alright, so it's taken me a week to put this post together, and thus, your favorites have probably all already changed and changed back. But, consider this a 'snapshot' of a young man, with a lot of opinions, and a lot of love...and a lot of favorites. Your favorties may change as you grow up, but one thing won't: you're one of your mother's and my favorite boys in the entire world (and our favorite first-born son). So put that on OUR lists. It won't be changing.
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