Merry Christmas!

Well here we are in Pennsylvania for the holidays once again. On the drive up her on Wednesday night Miss Juliette didn't sleep a wink and when we made it to Nana and Popop's house at midnight, she wanted to play! I'll be posting some pictures from Christmas Eve and today in the next few entries.

Love that Chic Fil A cow!

Bubble wrap!

Juliette discovered bubble wrap with the move. She couldn't quite get the hang of popping it with her fingers so she tried putting Josh's pound puppy on it. Nope. Then she figured out that if she jumped and ran on it, she could make it pop. That afternoon it sounded like a firing range at the house. A good time was had by all.

Her new room

When she first saw her room Juliette put in the request that it be painted pink. Our friend painted it for us and it turned out great. She loves playing in there and really loves the stickers Nana put up on the wall. When I pick her up from Cindy's she'll tell me she wants to go to her new house.

Princess Tree

One of our few Christmas decorations in the new house--Juliette's pink princess tree. Every morning she asks to light it up and says it's awesome. She likes seeing Snow White and Ariel on the sides. Nana has been letting her hold the Snow White doll that is in the cabinet. She's pretty gentle with it and knows it's special. The house is coming along slowly but surely. There are two boxes at the top of the stairs that I just can't seem to get unpacked. I think I'll just leave them there until we move again.

Here we go again!

It's vacation time!!!! We are heading up to PA tonight in hopes that Miss Juliette will fall asleep. Haha yeah right. At least we won't have to stop for lunch or dinner. As long as she has a steady supply of movies and snacks it's all good. I figure we can watch The Little Mermaid--aka the tiny mermaid--Finding Nemo, Charlie Brown Christmas, Forsty, Frosty Returns, Rudolph, and Santa Claus is Coming to Town...that should get us through the night. Yippee.

Juliette was so excited to see the Christmas lights last night in neighborhoods around the new house. Some were pretty impressive, but not as great as Moosic Street up home. Pop Pop can't wait to take her to what everyone refers to as the Cop's House. We'll also head over to Nay Aug park and see their displays. I told Juliette Santa had left something at Pop Pop's house and what she thought it could be. first she said she didn't know, then she screamed It's Presents!!! She totally understands that is Santa's job.

It's Christmas time!

We have been very busy in the Long household recently with all the holidays rolling together into moving. We are officialy closed on the new house and the movers coming on Thursday. Juliette has kind of figured out something is going on because we've packed her tent in the living room and she is a little miffed about it. She had a great time over THanksgiving break playing with Pop Pop and Nana and NAna thankfully decided to stay and help with the move. This kid is so excited about Christmas and Santa it's not even funny. We took her to see Santa on Black Friday and she ran right up to him and loved on him and told him she loved him and all that stuff. I've got pictures to post from it. And yes my camera is still on the mend- still at Nikon with no end in sight. I;m seriously thinking about just going out and buying a cheap back up until this is done. We are doing so many fun holiday stuff and no camera is driving me nuts. Last Saturday we went to the Christmas parade in town and Juliette was waving to everyone screaming Merry Christmas! Too cute. She is in love with those old Christmas cartoons from the 60s, expecially Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Watching Rudolph as an adult is a little disturbing because I never noticed (Josh pointed it out) that Yukon Cornelius is packing a serious weapon on his belt on his way to the Island of Misfit Toys. What does he intend to do with the train with square wheels???

After the parade we went to our friend's house to take pictures and she had Santa there for the kids. When he came out and said Hello Juliette I thought she was going to pass out from happiness. She had her own private Santa time for about a half hour and flirted uncontrolably with the man in red. So with the parade and Santa what does she talk about all the way home? Watching our friend's dog pee on the bush outside as we were leaving. "Jake went potty outside! Jake pee on flowers!"

Some news

I feel like i have to document what is going on for Juliette's future reference and embarassment :). My camera that my wonderful mother got me for my birthday last year is back at Nikon getting repaired so I am feeling very naked at home with nothing to document in still frames my adorably adorable kid. She is so aware of everything and when we tell her to wait for something, she'll wait....and then ask for it again immediately after the designated waiting period is--example--You can watch Charlie Brown after bath. As soon as we hop out of the tub she is running down the hall screaming Charlie Brown time!! I've discovered a way for her to give a perfect camera ready smile too. All we have to do is say Juliette show me happy. She gets a huge grin on her face.

This weekend was crazy busy so it has lent itself well to getting rid of that morning nap that everyone has been telling us will go away sooner or later. Mommy and Daddy miss is more than little miss sunshine, but without her taking that nap we are able to do a lot more during the day instead of waiting for her to wake up, running out, and running back home asap so she can take the afternoon nap. Anywho...back to the weekend. We went to a breakfast at our chiropractor's office...strange but true. Juliette was very entertaining to the little old ladies across from us. She was describing her cupcake, showing them her dress and bow, etc. She grabbed some ham and said "Look I have ham. It's good for me. I'll dip it in my cupcake." Then dipped the ham in the icing. yum. Then is was off to Chuck E Cheese h**l for a birthday party at 9:30. Until 11:30. Say it with me....two hours of CHuck E Cheese. Thankfully we were 30 minutes late. Juliette had a blast running around with her buddies and dancing with the giant rat guy. When he led the kids around in a congo line for free tickets, she ran after him shouting "Wait for me I coming, I want tickets!" She had no clue what the tickets were for, but she learned that they came out of games and they were fun to put in her cup. So a whole bunch of kids followed Chuck E and danced with him. THen he had them all sit down on the floor while he threw tickets at them....like throwing raw meat to lions. Thankfully he spread some out over by Juliette so she got to join in the mass ticket hysteria. Yesterday Juliette came with me on my first real attempt at matching coupons to sales and doubling stuff and oh my head hurt from thinking of everything. She was so good at the store while I went up and down the isles sometimes three or four times. She had her milk, snack cup, and jammy sammy--she was good. I saved over half my bill so yippee for me!! :) Hopefully my camera will get back soon so I can post some pictures. Videos will continue though :).

Ok so on to the new house. This weekend we really kicked it into moving gear and got about 20 boxes packed. Josh's office looks like a UPS truck stacked to the brim with boxes. Sure hope the floor doesn't give out! We close next Monday and then can start lining up workmen to paint and carpet the stairs. Josh went by himself to pick out carpeting....I hope it doesn't suck.

Funny

Juliette makes us laugh so much now that she is talking and having conversations. She really understands a lot and knows when she's doing something wrong...she doesn't like to be corrected. Gee wonder where she got that from. She also is beginning to understand emotion which is cool to see develop. When we were watching The GReat Pumpkin and Snoopy was crying she said He's sad. When he was laughing she said He happy. When Lucy was yelling at Linus she said Lucy mean. That last one has translated to Cindy's house when Amelia takes something. She will go over the Cindy and say Amelia being mean. But they still love each other as I saw yesterday when Juliette wouldn't leave until she got to give Amelia a big hug. She totally knows her pumpkin trick or treat basket has the good stuff in it. The other morning it was on top of the counter and she dragged her step stool across the kitchen floor, put it against the counter, grabbed her basket, chose a lollipop and sat on the floor to unwrap and enjoy it. I asked her what she was doing. She said I wanna kick it...it's grape! Hey it's not all the time so I let her sit and enjoy a morning treat. Then I took the basket and put it in the laundry room. She didn't appreciate that. She ran to Josh and said Daddy, Mommy took my pupmkin basket! Get it back!
I told her that wasn't how she talks to Mommy and Daddy. She pursed her lips, smiled and said Please? What a kid. Last night she was playing on the floor and Sadie walked in front of her and knocked down her blocks. She said No Sadie! Time out! Josh checked with Cindy this morning and it's not her who is getting the time outs so we breathed a sigh of relief.

Trying to avoid the ghosts!

Every other car and person handing out candy Juliette went right up to, said trick or treat, thank you, but these two...she was not a fan of their trunks.

Candy!!

Yes she wore a glow stick and glow bracelet. If they had made glow vests I would have put one on her!! :) I didn't think I would feel like that but I wanted to make sure even though she was holding my hand or Josh's no one else would miss her or run into her if she was glowing like a stop light. She thought it was great!

Happy Halloween!

Juliette was soooooo ready to go Trick or Treating tonight. As soon as I picked her up Cindy asked her what she was doing tonight. She said Trick or Treat! We went to Massaponax Baptist Church's trunk or treat since it was right down the road from the house. It was nice and quiet and not a lot of people so it was perfect. The only snag we hit was when one of the decorated trunks had a ghost that moved and made noise when you walked by. I have never seen her walk backwards so fast! There was one other trunk with ghosts and she was very cautious of it, but didn't run away. She liked the little barrel train ride--picture a can of soda on it's side with a hole cut in it.

Pumpkins

I just realized that I never put the pictures up from the pumpkin patch a few weeks ago. Here they are! I managed to switch out the pumpkin she picked so we didn't go home with a green one. She loved feeding the horse and hugging the cow.

Leaves!

It is very exciting to realize that this is the last fall we will be in the woods and have to deal with all these leaves. I think the new house has only one tree in the backyard. Juliette really wanted to help rake.

Just us

Fall Fest at the Mall

This afternoon we went to the Spotsylvania Fall Festival at the mall and Juliette couldn't have been more excited. As soon as she got up we told her we were going to the mall and she was ready to leave that instant. She got into her costume and away we went. She is totally in love with her silver sparkle shoes I bought her this morning at Target. They fit her despite not being a wide width so yippee. A lot of the games and activities were a little too much for her, but we found plenty for her to do. I tried getting her face painted...she wasn't having it.



I couldn't believe how crowded it was.




Josh wasn't a happy person. I don't think any of the parents were too thrilled to be there.




She loved digging into her treat bag.

Ready for Halloween

The other night Juliette asked for her Halloween basket, grabbed it, and headed to the door saying Come on, let's go Halloween. We told her it wasn't for a few more days. After some why questions, we told her if she wants to get candy she has to go up to people and say Trick or Treat. She didn't like that idea. Then I held up one of her lollipops and she started laughing and said Trick or Treat! well...tick or teet is what it sounded like--still adorable. Then she kept asking for another trick or treat. I can't wait to see what she does this weekend and Monday when it's for real. I wonder how I'm going to convince her that Halloween is over next week.

Where's Mari?

So cute reaction to not finding Mari at the house to thank her for the card.

FOUND IT!!!

Ok so I should have been packing....but I found a box of pictures and I HAD to go through them. When I did I finally found the picture I had been looking for- Josh and I in front of the lighthouse at Knoebel's. Damn I looked good.

Back to the Pumpkin Patch

The first time I took Juliette to the pumpkin patch, she was five months old so not really "into" the whole pick a pumpkin activity hehe. Last year she liked walking around in the hay and rubbing the pumpkins. This year was so much fun for her. We told her she would be seeing animals- she really wanted to see a cow and I couldn't remember if Sneads had a cow- they had a calf on a leash. She fed the horses hay she picked off the ground, pet the goats, and wanted to hug the claf which she did since it was laying down. She wanted to go through the tunnel into a kind of teepee hut, but she heard older kids scream and that was it, she wasn't going in there. When she saw the pumpkin patch, I think she wanted to take them all home! Her heart was set on a green one that she could lift, but I persuaded her to also love a huge orange one that looks nice on our porch. I think I'll wait until Papa gets here before we cut into it....I really don't want to touch the goo and I don't think Josh wants to either. It was a great weekend too- warm and sunny. Sunday we tried a new little playground we spotted by our house and Juliette had it all to herself for a little bit and liked running around and kicking up the mulch. When another little girl her age showed up, the fun really started. She saw the little girl climbing up to go down the highest slide and, well, she had to try it too! It was cute. Josh and I also caved in and bought her the four foot tall Minnie Mouse from Costco. We put it in the Jeep and called her over to the car. When she saw it (I got it on film) she was so excited. It was hard to get her to leave it at home this morning, but Nana promised to take care of it for her.

Time to Gush

I just have to write about how much I love this kid of ours. Even though dinners are no longer a quiet time of the evening, demands not met in an instant result in tears and tantrums, and the house is not exactly the cleanest that it has been in the past two years....it's been the time of our lives. Some of the things that Juliette says and does are sure signs of survival of the fittest and a parent's behvior of not eating their young. When she snuggles and cuddles and just looks up at us and smiles, when the greatest part of her day is when she gets to find the plastic egg with an M&M, when all she wants to have is to lead us by the hand to play "choo choos", when she crawls into my lap and says she's safe, when we do something with her and she hugs us and says "I so happy", that's when it's easy to forget the tantrums, blueberry poop blowouts, and being woken up at 5 am. She's also started to come up to us and say I love you which is pretty awesome. When we put her to bed at night lately, she looks up at Josh and says "Daddy?" Josh- "Yes?" Daddy? Yes? Daddy? We keep waiting for something profound and meaningful to come out of her mouth, but in reality she's probably just stalling bedtime and trying to keep us in the room--it works. Ok so that's all for now...very exciting that a publisher called me yesterday while I was out about the little good night story I threw together a few months ago-hope he calls back!

LOL

I had to laugh yesterday. I was changing a poopy diaper, opened it up, and Juliette's eyes got really big and she said "Woah baby!" I almost died laughing. I have to remember times like that during the fits of hysterical screaming because I took off her favorite pair of socks. I bought her Mickey Mouse character socks- Daisy, Donald, Mickey and Minnie. She loves them--hates to take them off. This morning we just ended up putting them back on her--how dirty could they get while she was sleeping?? We were so happy too last night at dinner. She finally tried macaroni and cheese again after refusing to eat it for about the past year. I think helping me pick it out of the cabinet, pour it into the pot, and watching it boil may have given her some motivation to eat it- I don't care though...she ate it! If I could get her to remember how yummy grilled cheese is, dinner choices for her would be so much easier!

Cold night

Juliette wanted to cuddle under the blanket tonight...our first really cool night.

Working with Daddy

Josh was doing work at the table while Juliette ate breakfast and she said she wanted to work. So I gave her paper and a pen and she went to work!

Playtime

Clear the roads!

She is having a lot of fun rediscovering her car from the summer. Thank goodness because that thing was a pain to haul back from PA!!

Helping Mommy

Juliette wanted to help me pull the sheets to make the bed. She got a little frustrated...and a little caught in the blankets!

Trains

Juliette got some early Christmas presents from Nana after a trip to Toys R Us. She loves trains so she got some Chuggington trains. It started out as one little wooden circle track. Then Josh and Nana went back and got more tracks....then I found a train table on Craigslist. She likes crawling under the table- she thinks it's her tunnel. She wakes up everyday and wants to play with her trains. I think Josh had more fun setting it up and making sure it was "safe" for her!

Juliette and Amelia

Ok so here are the pictures waaaaaaay back from Labor Day weekend of Juliette and Amelia making pizzas for Amelia's birthday. I didn't think Juliette would like it, but she saw Amelia eating so she tried some of the crust, pepperoni, and cheese--BEFORE we baked them. I think she liked standing on the stool more than anything else. They painted together, played together, sang together- Yes Juliette sang Happy Birthday to You...it was so cute. Just realized that I uploaded the pictures backwards in the whole pizza making adventure :)

































Drawing with sidewalk chalk on the deck before the rain.

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