daddy's litte helper

cam you tell we are in trouble with a climber? She climbed from the floor to the barstool height chairs right onto the dining room table at my sisters the other day (she watches J full time). I am signing her up for a tumbling class at the ymca after the first of the year. She is an acrobat already.

I promise a picture soon of her pierced ears. She already lost an earring in the tub at my sisters (they love play time in the tub there) and so she has just a simple gold stud in there right now, but I'll change them back to the daisy flowers like she had at the beginning. She is not really bothered by them at all now.

Need to get to wrapping some Christmas presents and finish up my shopping next week.

Speaking of next week. Monday the 15th is Dh's last day at his job. His end date of employment from the buyout/merger comes to an end after working for that company after 18 years of service. He did agree and is signing an extension to work for them for another 3-4 months as a contractor though so that helps with the income. He still gets his full severance too! So between the severance and the federal tax refund we will greatly benefit (adoption tax credit applies this year! YEAH). SWEET. Sacking away at least a years worth of house payments with his severance though.

Ok, off to bed.

T, if you are reading this, I promise I'll call you on my lunch tomorrow.

December is way too busy, but I love it

Do you ever find that the month of December is always packed full with things to do that you accidentally overbook yourself for the same time and date for something?

Well, I swear it has not happened yet this December, but I keep dreaming it will. I fear forgetting to write something down on the calendar and missing such action packed fun events. Such as Wild Light Nights at the St. Louis Zoo, or Santa's Magical Kingdom at Jellystone Park in Eureka MO, and visiting Santa of course at Crestwood Mall. We have 2 holiday parties to go to, one candle party, Parents as Teachers come over next Tuesday, the shame of that is that we will miss Julia's cousins school musical :( Oh and the SHARE group is having their candle light memorial service this Saturday at the Angel of Hope garden in Blanchette Park in St. CHarles. We plan on being there as we do have a memorial brick. We bring a candle and one white flower (they say rose, I like carnations). This is the first one we are going to attend in all the 8 years of miscarriages we went through. I plan on bringing lots of tissues.

I have my work calendar written out, but my palm is dead so I had to find a pocket calendar to keep up with things. This brings me to my palm issue. My co-worker got a new Palm Centro. Hummmm, Looks like I might have to buy myself a new one though, not refurbished. LOL See, I get to buy myself a gift because Dh decided to buy his own. I am up for contract and with rebates I think I can get this for very little money. My kind of deal. Anyone have one of these? Or can recommend a phone they really like that has pda capabilities? I am with AT&T wireless. You?

Julia's newest milestone... She heard the phone ring at the sitters house (her aunt's) and looked at the phone and said "who's it?" as my sister was answering it. LOL Who's it? Who is it is just amazing to hear. She put words together. WOOOHOOOO!

words: what's this, book

newest words and things you do to make you look 20 years old

Julia, my sweetie, you are growing up way too fast, but I won't complain about that since I waited for these moments for over 9 years.

You love the puzzle you got for your 1st birthday. It has a cow, cat, mouse, dog, bird, sheep and fish in a fish bowl puzzle slots. Tonight we were playing with this trying to get you to put the pieces of the puzzle back together and you took out the Mouse and I said "Oh that the Mouse" and you immediately looked at me and then Daddy and said the word Mouse! Loud and clear. So I pointed to the picture of the mouse as we put the puzzle piece back and asked you what this animal was and you looked up and said Mouse again. WOOOOHOOOO. I can't believe how quickly you are picking up the words and know their meanings now too. We played with this puzzle for about 20 minutes before you were distracted by the next toy. LOL

Newest words: Mouse, ouch, clearly saying Sadie now. Bath (which you start running to the bathroom and open the shower curtain to get to view the bathtub, the girl loves her baths), sit, down, (Ill think of some more later). I need to keep these words on a running list. Seems you develop new words every day or so now. Amazing.

You climbed up onto the computer chair and then proceeded to stand up on it too. I had to coax you down with a nice gentle, "Julia please sit" comment. You did sit, but immediately stood up and did this over and over while pushing the buttons on the keyboard. Do I need to find you your own desk and keyboard now too? It is hard enough to fight over the desktop with Daddy needing to do homework for college and our laptop being on the fritz right now. Yes, Santa is wonderful, but I just don't think he has a laptop for your use or a desktop computer either. Maybe in a few years, ok sweetie?

I called the mutual friend of your tummy mommy and left a message asking to have your birthmother H call us back. I did this on Wednesday. I hope they call tomorrow. I so want to hear from H and hope to invite her over for a holiday dinner here for just her immediate family and DH, you and I.

J, you turned 14 months old on the 27th. My gosh girl, you are growing so much. At home I weighed you and you were 23 lbs. I had a hard time getting you into your size 18 month gap pants the other day. I have a feeling you will be in 24month / 2T outfits sooner than I expected. Ugh, I didn't do shopping for that size for a winter season. I did get you some 24 months items for Spring/Summer. Dang. Gotta hit the shops soon for you then. Grow baby Grow. Thrive and Thrive some more. I love you.

p.s. FYI.......I use the term Tummy Mommy in agreement with J's birthmother. This is one of the things she said was comfortable hearing her being called when J gets old enough. I don't use it to be disrespected to J's birthmother.