Curly Straight

Giving Julia a bottle is a joy. It's so easy, as most things are with her.

She sucks it down as I hold it for her with her little soft hands balled up into fists up by her chest.

She breathes real hard as she's drinking it and when she is done she pushes it away. THWAP.

One of the happiest parts about being a mom for me is reaching into a pocket and finding some little random toy in there.

I wish I could bottle the way his ABC blankie and her little rainbow blankie smell.

Julia is so funny, she crawls, crabwalks, kneel-walks around the living room, checking out everything - she loves looking at books, and playing with whatever TJ has out.

One of my favorite things she does is disappear around the corner, where we keep a basket full of hats.

She goes into the little alcove, and appears, a minute or two later, wearing a hat.

The fun is seeing which one it will be - Mommy or Daddy's winter hat, a red plastic Fire Chief hat at a jaunty angle, an Air Force hat, TJ's Big Bird baseball cap on backwards.

It's always a surprise and it is always very cute.

She loves the hats.

Julia has that new-learning-how-to-walk walk.

She kind of stumbles around, but definitely gets where she needs to go, and is getting more stable on her feet.

Today is the first day I let her walk from car to the place of errand. In this case, it is the post office.

It is so cute. She holds onto my hand, and her little body walks beside me, clad in pink pants with red hearts and a pink tie dye shirt on top. The step up to the curb is too much for her the first time, but she masters it the second time trying.

She loves to try to open the door, but her little 23 pounds just isn't enough. She makes sure it is closed on the way out, by giving it an extra push with her tiny little hands.

The older gentleman in the car next to us wants to get involved in the fun and chats with us a little. Julia looks at me and says "who's that?"

She's practically asleep by the time we make the 5-minute drive home.

Big day.

I like it when Julia acts like she's surprised to see something that she sees everyday. Actually, now that I think about it, she may think she's explaining to us what it is.

"My bed!" she'll exclaim when we walk by her crib, or "Mommy's hair!" when she sees me or "Elmo!" or "TJ's book!" or "that's my baby doll."

It's very endearing.

Finding a little green plastic hulk who is wearing purple pants in my bathtub makes me giggle.

This is a cute moment.

Julia has TJ's electronic talking alphabet toy and keeps on hitting the button to play the ABC song.

She is sitting across the table from me.

She dances and I dance too.

She looks at me and giggles. I giggle too.

Julia is suddenly a little chatterbox.

She knows many things and is not afraid to share her opinions with you.

A couple of my favorite words right now:

checkers.

turkey.

strawberry. (this one is quite hard to decipher - she was asking me for strawberries on her belly the other day - it took me a while to figure it out, she wanted me to blow raspberries on her belly.)

purple. Which is probably my absolute favorite.

I never want to forget Thomas and Julia when I pick them up at school and they spot me and yell "MOMMMMMMMMYYYYYY" and run over with a huge smile and I get the best hugs.

Oh, if I could bottle those special moments.