Catch up part 4: Julia

Last in age, but not in spirit, is our girl Julia.  Never have so many personality types merged in one little body.  Sometimes I find myself thinking Julia is the sweetest little soul I've ever met.  If you do anything nice for her (even letting her taste a small bit of what you're cooking together counts), she is almost frantic to immediately return the favor.  A lady that works at the carpet store gave her some Halloween candy and on the way home she was very insistent that she make and mail her a picture.  She is always wanting to make pictures for people.  She hates to disappoint.  She will say something is "interesting" if she thinks it's weird.  I did my hair all crazy yesterday and asked her what she thought (jokingly).  She made a face and then corrected herself and said, "It's nice."  She loves to help around the house and is especially concerned with giving the boys their stuffed animals and making sure Joshua gets his medicine.  She loves to share any special thing she gets.

And then there's another side.  She can be the rudest thing you ever met as well.  She will absolutely do a teenage flip out on me if she is trying to explain something and I don't remember or understand what she's talking about.  "No!!  You don't UNDERSTAND me!!"  Boy am I tired of hearing that phrase.  She will completely reject our affection--especially Joshua's and Matt's.  She will scream at the boys and order them around.  She is feisty.

Her favorite thing is to play with other little girls.  She is in heaven when she gets friend time and when it comes to girls, she has never met a stranger.  She will grab the hand of a girl she barely knows and before you can blink your eyes they are best friends.  She likes to play anything pretend and loves to get giggly and silly.  We spent Halloween going trick-or-treating with our small group and she stayed in a pack of girls having the best time.  When I talked to her, she immediately dropped her smile and gave me the cold shoulder.  She hates when friend time is over and gets rude or sad.

And then there is the other side.  She will not look at/talk to/acknowledge anyone she doesn't know well who is not a little girl.  Everyone thinks she is so shy and she absolutely plays the part everywhere we go, even towards other moms that she sees often.

She has been going to preschool this fall twice a week.  It's a little class my friends and I are teaching for the KNO kids and she loves it.  She especially likes picking up Francisco and getting to play with him in the car.  She talks his ear off and he seems to like her company too.

When she doesn't have friends around and the boys are playing something together or are at school, she almost constantly asks/whines for me or Matt to play with her.  It's usually a pretend thing and she will wail that "the game" isn't over when we try to quit.  Her other favorite things are drawing and watching My Little Pony.  She likes being read to too and is getting pretty good at reading short vowel words.

My girl is a lot of fun and I love who she was made to be.  She has gotten to be babied for so long now--much longer than the boys who were the "little ones" for only a couple of years--but she is growing up and I know I can't hold onto the baby days for much longer.  I do look forward to watching her grow and learn and become more and more her own person.  She is quite a character!