*** Little Princesses***

















Just a typical day lately. Our neighbor has a little girl, E, just a little older than Julia. Good thing we have enough dress up clothes and thrones to go around. At this point they had decided to dress up and then watch the Princess movies that they were dressed as. So as E put it, "since Julia was dressed first, we should watch Enchanted first". LOL. Both girls are quite happy to have someone to play with.

***Some Beach***





























I know, I should stop rubbing it in or gloating that this is where we live. I promise I'm not trying to, sometimes I just still can't believe it. Daddy had the day off and the whole day seems a bit of a blur already. Started off with my dentist appointment (yep, they found a bit of work to do in there last week) but that was quick and I'm happy to say painless, weird having my cheek numb all day but hey..lol. Then we headed out to do a bit of shopping. We went to Kohls, and did you know that their family bathroom has two toilets?? Sorry but yes, I'm a Mom first and you sometimes have to hear the potty stories. I really didn't know they were set up this way but one of the older ladies that was working directed me to the Family Restroom instead of the Ladies room for Julia. We walked in and Julia's face was priceless... she was stunned. But next to the big potty there was a "Julia" potty just her size.(That's what she called it by the way) TOO CUTE! She loved that and trust me she remembered it too. We made two trips while we were there! ;)

So anyways, after shopping and lunch we were heading home and instead decided to take a drive out to one of the area beaches. One we hadn't had a chance to check out sooner. I think it was just what we needed and thankfully we had the camera in the car. Some nice lady even offered to take a picture of all three of us and you know how rare those are for us. Julia had fallen asleep in the van but of course was happy to wake up to go to the beach. However she was having nothing to do with walking in the soft sand, the wet sand she had no problem with, but she emphatically, as you can see pictured above, told us she did not WANT to stand or sit in the soft sand. I think she was afraid of sinking or something.. who knows. It was very funny though and you can see she was clinging to Daddy for all she was worth! LOL.

** The Dentist**

We attempted our first official dentist appointment the other day. Sad to say it was an absolute, no go. Julia was very good, the girls in the office all liked her, she was having fun, right up until the dentist came in and started talking to her. He opened his mouth and she clamped hers shut! No bribing in the world was going to get her to open it for him. :( So we gave up and I proceeded with my dental cleaning with the hygienist. At this point, Julia was sitting in a chair beside me and was very closely observing my appointment. There I was in the chair, mouth wide open with the hygienist looking in one side of my mouth and Julia as close as she could get looking in the other side. Not only was the hygienist cracking up, I was doing all I could to not laugh (unsuccessfully after awhile) and apparently everyone that walked by the door was chuckling too! This child certainly likes to observe the details of everything! So after my cleaning was done, she let the hygienist take a peek in her mouth. The dental hygienist decided to give the doc one more shot and went out to get him. He came back in the room and Julia clamped her jaw shut again! So after we talked a bit more, he was nice enough to refer me to a pediatric dentist in the general area, not as close as he is, but oh well, that also happens to be a woman. I have a feeling we'll have better luck there.

Her shyness around men seems to be getting worse instead of better. This is a new one for me to deal with. I was shy as a kid, heck, ask my classmates, I was shy all the way through school and still would likely be in that situation. But I grew up with many older brothers and one younger, so I have not really encountered the gender shyness before. I think I was more prepared for this when Julia was an infant and we were meeting her in China. We had somewhat prepared ourselves for the possibility that she wouldn't like men, but she didn't really have an issue with it at the time. It did and always has taken her a little longer to warm up to most men, Daddy, Uncle Joel and Uncle Dean being the exceptions. But she would warm up, now I'm not sure she would. It gets harder and harder. When we stayed at my friends house in SC, she wouldn't even speak to Mr. Mike. ALL WEEK. I'm just feeling very frustrated right now and at a loss.

***A New Look***

Thanks to "The Cutest Blog on the Block" (see link in the upper left;) we finally have a new look! And it was really easy to do, should have done it ages ago! The header I think may take me a bit longer to get brave enough to try. But at least the page is a bit brighter now and a bit more "us" :)

Leave a comment and let me know what you think!