M: Are you done cleaning your room?
J: Yes, it is very clean. I was able to dance around my room without stepping on anything.
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One evening while the kids were playing outside and I was taking pictures, Juliana decided to pose. After a few minutes she announced that we needed to wait for more wind to do a real commercial shoot.
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As we were driving to Art Camp Friday morning a commercial played on the radio about a blood donation drive. If you donate blood, you get a free ticket to Kennywood. That caught Juliana’s attention and she had lots of questions.
J: Mommy, I want to donate blood. Do I have to give them my blood? (a little bit concerned about where she was planning to get other blood to donate).
M: Yes.
J: How does that work? How do they get the blood out of my body?
M: high level explanation and I also explained why people donate blood
J: Does it hurt?
M: A little bit, similar to getting a shot
J: OK, I want to donate blood
M: I don’t think that kids are allowed to donate blood
J: That’s not fair. I want a Kennywood ticket…
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All week Juliana has been talking about the performance they would give at the end of art camp. There is music and dancing and costumes and sets that they designed…everything that she loves. The first day she found out that she will be a swan princess; as you can imagine that was very exciting!!
When I picked her up on Wednesday the dance teacher pulled me aside and mentioned that Juliana was sitting out for part of dance which seemed very odd to me. I asked Juliana and she said that she had a sore throat so she couldn’t dance.
Thursday she told me there were 4 sections in the performance and she has a part in two of them. At drop-off Friday morning one of the teachers mentioned that Juliana is not in the entire performance because she removed herself from part of it. She said that they were looking forward to seeing how Juliana would choose to participate and it is good that she knows what she wants. That has never been a problem for Juliana. Sure enough when it was time for the performance, she watched some and danced for part.
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Dress-up is a regular occurrence at our house. When Juliana quietly disappears to her room, she is usually transforming into a princess. Yesterday she wandered into the kitchen in Cinderella’s wedding dress – complete with shoes, jewelry and a bouquet. She was most pleased with her hairstyle and requested pictures. I quickly grabbed my camera (picture requests don’t come along every day) and took a few close-ups since we were in the kitchen. She looks so grown-up, the pictures caught me completely off-guard.
My favorite “Julianaism”, after suspending all week cleaning the room she stays in at my house and asking how she like her clean room: “well obviousely it’s not the way I prefer it”
Well this gal is certainly very colorful (like grama) BUT she is definitely an extravert & I never was. Grampa Ray always called me his sweet wallflower, I’d sit quietly no matter where we went & he’d do all of the talking, I was a very good listener. Of course, I did a drastic change when I met the Lord as my personal savior. He gave me a real sense of confidence in myself among a million other things. Jewel is so outgoing I can’t imagine what she’ll be when she grows up! By the way I never was a dancer either. I mean I can’t take credit for a lot of her accomplishments, although I’d sure like to. However, I can dance in the Spirit-that’s something great! Jen you were quite shy when you were little…more like Gram. Love ya.
oh my heart, those final photos are so grown up! i was totally all thrilled with the bird costume and then you hit me with her looking like an adult and i can’t take it!