Happy 2nd birthday! (in a week)

Apologies for the loooong radio silence. Between Robin switching jobs and grad school research picking up for me, we have not had time to update photos or the blog since.... well, more than half a year ago. Hopefully, this slideshow summarizing Julian's second year will make up for it!





We've actually been updating Julian's FB fan page on a regular basis: it was easy to throw a sentence or two on there every few days. We'll continue updating that, but will try to link large photos and videos over here.


Now for a few thoughts on Julian....

Every mother thinks their child is the cutest, the smartest, the most amazing little thing. Of course, I am that mother, so I'm not going to reel off a list of all his talents (of which there are many!). At any rate, the greatest thing of all is seeing his personality blossom, which has really happened this year. Not that I didn't detect it when he was less than a year old... I think, that by the time he was a week old, we had an idea of what he was like. As J has grown, though, and he interacts more and more with people and the world, it is really shining through.

In short, he is such a HAPPY boy. Julian is easy to please, easy to amuse, easy to make laugh. (Clearly, he takes after me in that regard.) He greets us in the morning with a huge smile, readily gives kisses and hugs, and ends his days by saying 'iwuvyou' to us before we turn on his musicbox and close his door.

He delights in talking to animals and bugs (both live and inanimate). He is obsessed with letters and numbers; specifically, the number 3. At any point during the day he either has a plastic animal (probably a horse) or a number 3 (magnet or puzzle piece) clutched in one of his hands. (no, we don't get it.) He always prefers things that are blue, and was probably over the moon when we decided to lease a second car.... that is blue. J also loves to point out every circle he sees. I think, if he were to see a blue number 3 inside a blue circle, his little head would explode.

He's definitely starting to test us. Several times a day, he doesn't want to stop doing whatever activity has him captivated at that moment, and one of us has to count to 3 and pick him up. But when all is said and done, the fuss usually only lasts 10 seconds or so, and then he moves on.


It certainly has been a fun ride, these past 2 years. When J was newborn, people would look at me funny when, in reply to the question 'how is motherhood', I would say 'HILARIOUS'. Oh, if I only knew. My mother-in-law told me that it would get better and better over time, and she was spot on.