Miss Personality

So I recently realized that not only is my little girl turning 18 months soon, but in a few days she'll be the same age that Jude was when he became a big brother.  Yikes!  Thank goodness we gave ourselves a few extra months in between babies this time (okay, like we totally planned that or something).  All I know is after this past week with Julia, I would be doing everything I could to keep a baby from coming for another week or two.  The GIRL has arrived, ladies and gentleman.  And I'm just not sure what to do with her at this point!

See that sock? She decided to take her boots off while outside.

I've been trying to nail down Julia's personality for a while now. Okay, so you can't quite nail down kids' personalities, or anyone's personality really, but I'm trying to at least get close to the target.

She's sensitive like Jude, but in some cases even more extreme.  I've stopped checking on her at night because just the click of the doorknob, the creak of the floorboards, and the motion of me adjusting her blanket not only wakes her up, but puts her in such a tizzy that I end up sitting up with her an extra hour just to get her back to bed.  Not worth it.  I settle for cracking the door and listening to her steady breathing. Because I'm a mom and I will forever check on my kids before I go to bed at night.

Oh you know, just tuning up the lawn mower.

And undoing all my laundry folding efforts.

So although some things about Lia remind me of our middle son, there's no doubt she has some of that same spirit her oldest brother inherited.  Have I mentioned the screaming phase yet?  I mean SCREAMING.  She uses the same scream when she can't get her chunky little thigh up on the table as she does when Jack is trying to pick her up.  So I'm never sure which occasion warrants an actual emergency appearance by Mama.  And I'm sure that's her intention.  Speaking of lifting those chunky thighs, she's a climber.  Not just, hey I'll take those steps or get up to the top of Jack's bunk bed.  But now it's "let me scale the couch to reach the window sill."

It's all fun and games until she realizes she's trapped behind the blinds.

Or climbing the chair, to get on top of the table.  Whenever I leave a room I always have to double check that no furniture is in a position that would be to her advantage.  But she's also started to figure out how to carry the stool around and use that to reach her goals.  And half the time I have no clue unless one of the brothers alerts me.  The other day I was downstairs with Jack, who was showing me yet another one of his Lego creations. I heard a thump and crying, ran upstairs to find Julia lying on the floor.  According to Jude she fell off Jack's bunk bed, but how am I supposed to know for sure?  Either way, there wasn't a mark on her and she recovered quickly enough.  That said, I have been using the gate more often, even if it's just to give me a few minutes in the shower.

And oddly enough, she doesn't mind a bit.  She hasn't cried once when I've gated her in her room.  Apparently she enjoys the quiet time.  Or maybe she feels safe from her brothers for once.

Last Thursday was one of our more challenging days.  I put on her coat to take Jack to preschool and when we got home she didn't want to take it off.  Okay, no problem.  When you run off screaming and throw yourself on the floor, feet kicking and fist waving, I get the idea that you don't want to take off your coat.  I'm totally okay with that.  We did get it off eventually when she found out it was bath time.  But when bath time was over she acted much the same way when I tried to change her clothes.  She simply refused to allow me to dress her.  So I decided to give her some naked time and hopefully get it out of her system.  And then she brought me the coat and squealed and grunted until I helped her put it on. So she ran around the better part of Thursday morning with just a coat and nothing else.

I am enjoying her girliness though.  We haven't arrived at the tea party stage yet, and she only likes to play with a doll for about 5 minutes.  But she does attempt to wear my shoes, and she loves scarves.  She likes to wrap mine around her.  She's constantly bringing me shoes to put on her feet, and apparently regularly changes her mind about which shoes to wear.

She loves my phone, it's the first thing she asks for in the morning. And I happily let her scroll through my emails while I try to wake up.

Although I can't keep a headband in her hair for more than 5 seconds, the concept must appeal to her because she's more than happy to put them on herself (usually right across her eyes, all Star Trek style) and walk around with her nose in the air.  And while she hasn't quite figured out my make-up yet (she's certainly tried on several occasions) she does love coconut oil.  I use it as a moisturizer and Girlfriend is always standing right next to me, cheek upturned for a little application herself.

One things for sure, I'm really looking forward to hearing Lia talk.  She will jibber-jabber for now, and we're still very much interpreting grunts and figure pointing.  She knows a little sign language.  But she understands so much!  And my very favorite part of right now?  Saying prayers.  She's the first to fold her hands at dinner each night and she'll even make the effort to lift her head off my shoulder at bedtime just so she can fold her hands again while I pray.  Oh heavens, it's such a sweet way to end the day!

Julia is such a mixture of sweet and spice.  There's so much more to learn about her, and I'm grateful we have a few extra months to get to know her before our next little distraction arrives!