The Ducote Family: Happy Birthday, Julia!

September begins the kickoff to birthday season in our home. With two in September and two in December, it calls for a very busy fall leading into the holiday season!! Julia was so excited about her birthday this year and we were so excited to celebrate her. Jules is such a special soul and we just love her to pieces. She is easy going, happy and just full of sunshine. Her most favorite song is "You Are My Sunshine" and her eyes just light up when she hears it and sings along. Her eyes are truly special and always seem to have such a twinkle to them...along with her curly, perfectly highlighted hair she makes for a pretty cute three year old!! I often tell her that I don't want her to grow up and she'll say to me in this quiet, concerning voice, "But, Mama, I have to grow up. Don't you want me to grow up?" Seriously, she is the sweetest. I always tell her, "I do, sweet girl, but I want to keep you little, too".

A few fun tidbits about Julia as she turns 3-

*She is obsessed with Doc Mc Stuffins! She is allowed to watch a show when I put Charlotte down for a nap and I don't think she has ever watched anything else. Whenever I mention that Charlotte is getting ready to take a nap she always asks, "We watch something?" She then clears off the coffee table and sits right up on it every.single.time. She loves singing along to it, loves all of the characters, loves playing Doc after. It's pretty cute and basically what's not to love about Doc...a female doctor whose mother is also a doctor and who is kind to everyone she meets. Pretty awesome stuff!

*She gave up her pacis on her 3rd birthday cold turkey!! This is an example of how easy going she is!! She only uses her pacis to sleep with (and occasionally when she would sneak them during the day) but she definitely was attached to them. Prior to her turning 3, we talked a lot about not using them once she was 3 and while she was hesitant she was open to the idea. She did so great on her birthday talking about not using it and was so brave about it-we didn't have any tears until bedtime came and then she said, "I miss my paci" which pretty much broke my heart but we both stayed strong and she did it. For about the first week I would lay down with her to get her to sleep and she would normally cry or at least tear up a little bit about missing it but I would either be able to distract her about something that we were going to do tomorrow or some nights she would just be kind of whining about missing it and then just fall to sleep and be fine all night long. She really only talked about it for a week but we did create a habit of me lying in bed with her now because now she wants that almost nightly. I don't mind most nights because she is normally asleep rather quickly-she is sleeping on the bottom bunk (Ella is still on the floor on the crib mattress!) and most nights Joseph is actually in the bottom bunk with her! Goodness! Just one big happy family in there-ha!

On her birthday we were talking bout giving her Paci to Charlotte (even though Charlotte doesn't use a Paci) and Julia handed the Paci to Charlotte and Charlotte took it and popped it right in her mouth with this big smile! Maybe she does want to use a Paci?!? Ha ha!

*She is also obsessed with her bedtime story being "Captain Hook's Shadow" which is a story in a Disney bedtime collection. It's probably been going on for at least 2 months now and she chooses it almost nightly. We all pretty much have it memorized and it isn't a short story either! For whatever reason, she just loves it!

*She loves, loves, loves, loves, loves to dance!!!! She will often ask me, "Dance with me, Mama?" and how do you say no to that?! If she is doing ballet by herself her eyes are almost always half closed and she really gets into it. It is hilarious!! She starts ballet and tap in a few weeks and is so excited about it!!

Dancing with me at the concert in the park in Coronado on Labor Day

This view never gets old!! Love walking behind her curly hair and her cute little booty!

*She loves playing with Ella and they normally play so well together and can be lost in play with one another for a long time. Their favorite things to play are either "family" or "doctor" and normally when they play family, Julia is the "honey" and Ella is the mom. Hilarious.

*She is totally independent in getting herself dressed, brushing her teeth, going to the bathroom (except for wiping when she poops, although lately she has been wiping herself and then finding me, bending over, holding her butt cheeks open and saying, "Do I have more poop?"). Ha. She often lines her shoes up in the garage and normally has a preference as to which she wears but she can be convinced if needed.

*Some mornings she has been fighting me on going to school because she doesn't want to ride in the stroller because "that's a baby seat" but again normally can be convinced to sit in it or will start off by walking with me and then about half way asks to ride.

At her 3 year well check she weighed 31.2 pounds (50-75th percentile) and was 37.25 inches tall (also between the 50-75th percentile.). She is in great physical health although we are still concerned about her speech. In May she began therapy through the 0-3 early intervention program and now that she is 3 her services will transfer over to Poway Unified. She will attend two times a week for thirty minutes each session and we were lucky enough that just she and Ella will be in a group by themselves. We aren't concerned with her receptive vocabulary or her comprehension-only her articulation-which all of the therapists say that is a good thing, but she is definitely hard to understand. I am able to understand about 90% of what she says, but I'd say that a stranger can probably only understand 30%. She often omits the final consonant so that is the first focus and then we'll move from there. I am hopeful that with the early intervention she will make good progress.

Her birthday was on a Friday so we actually pretended it wasn't that day and celebrated her entire birthday on Sunday, September 10th. My family was coming over for her party that day so we just decided to keep it simple and do it all on one day which worked out perfectly. She was so excited to wake up to her doorway and kitchen decorated and loved every minute of her party (except for the "pin the bandaid on Stuffy" game that she wanted no part in!!). We opened our family presents in the morning once Rich got home from his run and then just got ready for her party. Everyone came over a little after noon and we swam, ate and celebrated.