Happy Halloween

I made Julia's costume this year. I have two pieces of advice for people who decide to do something similar. Number one: have a backup plan like borrowing a costume from someone else. Number two: start early. Very early. It's really stressful trying to put a costume together all afternoon on the day of the party. Not that I did that or anything.She was totally not into dressing up (she missed her nap) until I drew the whiskers on her face. She was so excited to wear make up that she eagerly put up with the rest of the costume. Here's a shot of the full thing. I recommend waiting until your child is at least 4 if you decide to do this to them.

Poor Joel will most likely ask me someday why there is one picture of him and twenty of Julia. I will only be able to answer "Because you were born second." Poor child. He was a penguin and he hated it. It was a little better with the hood off. I assume you realize I didn't make this one. My sewing skills are not up to par.

Here's the annual picture of Hailey, Julia, and Addie. This is year number three and unfortunately the last one because fortunately I will be somewhere else this time next year. We waited until the end of the night to take this one. The kids were cranky. Jana and Corrine (the other moms) both have new babies too, but they didn't make it in the shot.As you can see, Julia and Addie were both black cats. They had fun with it.

Julia with her best buddy Jackson.

And here she is telling him not to eat her M&Ms.

It must have been a great party because both kids passed out in the car on the way home. Julia slept all night in her dress, tights, and tail with whiskers still painted on in the morning.

Julia quotes

Julia is starting to say some really funny things, so I figured I would share them periodically. Here's installment number one.

Sometime back in August or September while taking a walk Julia asked me to pick her up. I did and here's what followed.

Keri: Isn't it nice now that I can pick you up again since Baby Joel is out of my tummy and I don't have a big boo-boo [c-section incision] anymore?

Julia: And now you have boobs.

While watching Lady and the Tramp:

Julia: They're eating badetti...peediddie. They're eating dabeddi. [Short pause.] They're eating pasta.

Further elaboration

In the last post, I put up a picture of my three favorite people in the world playing together. There's more to the story than that one shot. I mentioned that it started off as JJ and Joel playing and Julia snuck in. That's when I pulled out the camera. As you can see, her intentions were not entirely benevolent. Later on she started to play with Joel. Can you see how much JJ is enjoying all this?

Then she noticed I had the camera and she said, "Can I see the beautiful girl?" meaning she wanted me to take pictures of her and show them to her.

I eventually resorted to taking pictures of JJ and Joel over her shoulder so she would think she was the only star of the show.

And now you know the rest of the story.

Big sister

This next scene started out as JJ playing with Joel. Julia had to join in.

Helping. And yes, that's a box of cereal under my couch. When you live in an itty-bitty apartment with no pantry, you have to get creative with storage space.

Ok, so this next one has nothing to do with being a big sister, but I thought it was funny. She cleared all the books off two shelves, stacked them into towers, then climbed in and called it her bed. She is not actually sleeping in the picture. The bottom shelf is now permanently empty and waiting for her.

3 months

11 lb 11 oz

23 3/4"

I think the above picture will be the official 3 month shot, but I thought I would share some outtakes too. I was going for him smiling and using his hands, but I didn't quite get the shot I wanted. Leave a comment and tell me which picture you like best.