art works

I remember in one of my courses at GWU we had a segment on art & children. It was really interesting because it spoke about how a child views him or herself in a self-portrait. It starts with a scribble, then as the child gets older, it's pretty much just a head, and then slowly more and more body parts start to appear and slowly it all becomes proportional.

Ken, my wonderful brother-in-law (http://www.kenflett.com/)once suggested that I have Julius draw a picture of me (when I had dyed my hair and my camera wasn't working and therefore couldn't share my new look with anyone via online). So yesterday I took it a step further and asked Julius if he could draw a family picture.

The black is our house. The orange is Julius (which is so amusing because when he was an infant he had wisps of red hair and we would call him Orange Julius), the red is me, and the green is Josh.

I found it fascinating just to watch Julius scribble the house, and then make mostly a head for each of us and more scribbles around it for the rest of the body.

Anywho, I wanted to share the picture with everyone :)

night terrors

When I was a little girl, I used to have nightmares and night terrors. As I got older, they decreased, but I still get them from time to time.

Last night I had one. Since I remember it, I guess it would be a nightmare and not a terror,... it was awful! I don't remember all of it...but what I do remember was that there was a monster.

I had to spend the night somewhere...and there was someone with me, but I can't remember who... and I think we fell asleep... or were about to fall asleep... when someone runs by and announces that the number to keep the monster away is two.

And then it gets really dark and cold, and then I suddenly feel something sharp scraping against my neck. So I quickly put my hand on my neck and I'm gasping out the number two between breath because I suddenly can't breathe very well, and the person next to me is grabbing onto me for dear life and we're both screaming "two!" and trying to breath quickly before shouting out the number again, and the teeth are so sharp and I suddenly feel sharp nails on my back and I feel my skin being ripped open and suddenly...

I hear Josh shouting for me to wake up because I'm screaming and thrashing around in the bed.

I open my eyes and I don't remember much of what happened immediately afterwards, but I remember that Julius was sitting on the bed just staring at me, and then he asked, "Did you have a bad dream, Mommy?"

And I said, "Yes, I did."

And then Julius gave me hug and said, "It's okay now, Mommy."

And I don't think anything could have made me feel better than his sweet hug.

And thinking back, I just have to sit back and watch my little boy in awe. What an awesome kid.

August...wait, almost September...wha?

okay, this month has truly breezed by. Maybe it's because I'm still in vacation-mode, even though I returned to work this past Monday, or maybe it's just too much fresh air... but is it really nearing the end of August? Holy crap, how did that happen?!

In any case, things are going great. Julius is officially potty trained (yes, applauds are welcomed). He pretty much was ready for it. He started sitting on the potty before we left to Quebec, and continued using the portable potty I bought for the drive up to Canada, and again, continued when we were in Mont Tremblant!! Returning home: not a problem.

It's fabulous. No more diapers. It's a fantastic feeling.

My little boy is growing up!!!!

pascale picard

Picard Pascale was performing in Mont Tremblant this evening. They were great! Julius LOVED them. The singer has such a great voice and the music was really awesome.
Julius was dancing wildly and even made a new friend. The two little boys were dancing around and having a great time!!! One of the roadies gave Julius a paper coaster with the band name and singer's picture on it, and Julius ran around the area with it in his hand and dancing with it. After awhile, he came back to get another coaster for his friend.
The performance was great, the songs were great, and everyone had a super time!