A call to arms

As Dad put it, "Everyone in the family who is flying to Chicago, take one step forward. Not so fast, Julia!" Looks like I'll be bunking with Grandma and Grandpa while Mom and Dad take a quick weekend getaway to the Windy City. Dad says he's looking forward to finally getting some sleep (I don't know what he's talking about), while Mom still looks a little unsure about being away from me for two whole days. Don't worry, Mom, I'll be in good hands!


As promised, I have one more video to share with you before we head out. Earlier this week, Mom was blowing on me and making silly sounds, so I decided to have myself a little evening snack.



By the way, if you're looking for an easy way to get to all the posts with videos, just click the "videos" link at the bottom of the post (or just go here). Have a good weekend, and I'll write again when we're all back home safe and sound. You know, it sure would be nice to come home to a letter or two!

This dish is bananas, b-a-n-a-n-a-s!

Mmm-mmm-mmm! Mom fed me fruit—specifically, bananas—today for the first time, and wow, was that ever good. I didn't have my usual shocked reaction that I often have when trying foods for the first time, I just dug right in. So yummy!

Dad passed along this Ask Julia question from a person named Aaron. All spelling and punctuation errors are his:

I am Mr Aaron Wolfson, A businesman.I have been diagnosed with Oesophageal cancer.It has defiled all forms of medical treatment, and right now I have only about a few months to live. I am very rich,but was never generous, I have given most of my assets to my immediate family members.I have decided to give alms to charity organizations. I cannot do this myself anymore because of my health. I once asked members of my family to give some money to charity organizations, they refused and kept the money.I have a huge cash deposit with a finance House abroad.I will want you to help me collect this deposit and dispatch it to charity organizations.You will take out 20% of this funds for your assistance.If intrested kindly reply as soon as possible
Regards and God Bless
Mr Aaron Wolfson

Well, I am incredibly moved, so I'm just going to take all the money that you guys have given me over the past five months and send it all to this guy. Sounds like a can't-miss proposition!

Seriously, though, how about sending me a real question?

To close, here are two videos from the vault, chronicling some of my early bouts with gravity. This first one was taken in late September, when I hadn't quite figured out how to sit up yet.


And this second one is from about a month ago, when I had just started to learn how to pull myself up to a standing position (with a little help from Dad).



Look for another new video before the weekend.

TV or not TV?

What do Desperate Housewives, Brothers and Sisters, Prison Break, The Unit, Ugly Betty, My Name is Earl and Dexter all have in common? Well, they are all shows that one or both of my parents have stopped watching this year, because yours truly is taking up so much of their time. And that doesn’t even count Chuck, Reaper, Back to You and Gossip Girls, which are new shows that they watched briefly before realizing that they didn’t have any time for them. There are still a few precious shows they still make time for – especially The Office and Friday Night Lights – but even finding time for those is often a struggle. Maybe this Hollywood writer's strike is a blessing in disguise for them (just don't tell Dad I said so!).



A quick question from my Aunt Paula:

I understand that you will be going to Grandma and Grandpa's for a mini-vacation. What type of activities do they have planned for you? And you for them? I am sure Grandma will take you shopping. What do you think she should buy you?

Hmmm, I haven't thought about it that much. As long as they feed me and let me do lots of jumping, we'll get along just fine.

Speaking of jumping, here's a new video of me doing just that. Even when I'm not in my Jumperoo, I like to have a little spring in my step!

So nice of you to join us!

On behalf of Dad, I want to apologize to those of you (including Grandma and Grandpa) who have been accessing my blog through jasonandvera.com and wondering why nothing had been updated for the last week. When we moved the blog over here, Dad redirected juliamadeline.com to the new location, but forgot to forward jasonandvera.com here as well. I've given him a good talking to ... and plan on giving him another good talking to around 2 a.m. or so tonight!

To help make it up to you guys, here's another video of mine, which showcases my foot-in-mouth expertise. Mom and Dad took this one in late September, when I finally discovered how tasty my toes could be.



So a much belated welcome, and what better way to get reacquainted than to send some new questions my way?

Having a ball

Mom, Dad and I survived last night's switch to Eastern Standard Time (aided in part by my stealth — and relatively odor-free — eleventh-hour poo, that kept me up a little longer than usual Saturday night, until my parents figured out what was going on). My late-night battle with Dad was brief, lasting only a half-hour until I threw in the towel and went back to bed. Then this morning I was up at about 6:20 a.m. (which, of course, was really 7:20 a.m.). In other words, it looks my transition to the time shift has been relatively smooth so far.

It's another bonding day for Mom and me, as Dad is still on weekend duty (he got off semi-easily last time around, but no such luck this weekend). Here's a new Ask Julia question from Jonah, who's about a year older than me and is the daughter of Dad's friend Jessica (not to be confused with my Aunt of the same name!). He read about my illness last week.

This is more of a tip than a question. I, too, love anything sweet that comes out of a plastic syringe, namely Tylenol. Something really fun to do is lunge for it in the aisle of the supermarket so everyone thinks Mom is shopping with a drug-addicted baby. Oh, and Julia, maybe I have missed something, but how many teeth do you have to show for all that chomping on things? What's your favorite thing to chew? I like my shoes. Mom says there are germs on shoes and I shouldn't eat them. Moms get upset when they almost crash the car trying to get a dirty shoe out of the baby's mouth. Try it sometime. Highly comical!

Thanks for the tips, Jonah. I thought I had gotten skilled at lunging for inappropriate objects to put in my mouth, but obviously I still have a lot to learn! As for your questions, I'm almost embarrassed to admit that after months of drooling, I still don't have a single tooth to show for my efforts. Mom and Dad have started checking my mouth every morning to see if anything has sprouted up. And my favorite thing to chew ... well, I'm an equal-opportunity muncher, but I'm partial to the old reliables, the 3 Fs: my fingers, fists and feet. They are so tasty and conveniently located, that I have to go with that trio.

You are probably wondering why this blog was titled "Having a ball." Because I finally got an Ask Julia question from someone other than Aunt Paula or Aunt Rebecca, I'm happy to share another of my videos for you, as promised. A couple weeks ago, Dad happened to be filming during the period of time each day when everything is hilarious to me. On this day, I cracked up everytime Dad threw my ball to (and at) me. Looking back, I'm not sure what was so funny, but at the time it was the funniest thing I had ever seen. Enjoy!

Hour of our discontent

Tonight is going to be veeeery interesting. And not just because of the latest round in my late-night battle with Dad. Mainly, it's because of the switch to Eastern Standard Time, and turning the clocks back an hour. Until this year, Mom and Dad were huge fans of this night, because they got an extra hour of sleep. But now that I'm on the scene, the time change is fraught with peril. For the past month or two, I've been getting up pretty consistently at 6:30 a.m. But move that time an hour back, and you're talking about a 5:30 a.m. wakeup time!

My parents tried to ease me into the time change by putting me down an hour later last night, but even with that switch — and my losing an hour's sleep last night during my 2 a.m. crying fit — I was up at my usual 6:30 a.m. time.

In other news, my Dad has pulled weekend duty again, so it's pretty much just me and Mom this weekend. So we had a girls day out to the mall with Babcia. I have a feeling that the three of us will be going shopping together alot!

So how will things turn out tonight? Tune in tomorrow....

The battle for late-night

So it only took one night of getting up sick to completely undo my months and months of sleeping through the night. For the past two nights — Thursday and now tonight — I've been getting up in the middle of the night, wide-eyed and ready to play. That has set up another late-night battle of wills between Dad and me: will he get me to learn to fall back to sleep on my own, or will I be able to cry loud enough to convince Mom to overrule him and come to my rescue? It hasn't been fun for either of us so far...

In between sobs, I'll tackle another batch of Ask Julia questions from my Aunt Rebecca:

How crushed were you to find out that Boston won the World Series?

Ugh, don't even get me started! However, I do have to give credit to my relatives in CT and MA, who resisted the urge to rub it in when I saw them last weekend (at which point, Boston had won their first two World Series games).

Are you looking forward to Thanksgiving? Do you think you'll get to play with a drumstick, even if it's not on the list of foods you're allowed to eat?

I actually am, now that I sampled a Thanksgiving food for the first time today: carrots. They were quite tasty! Though Mom and Dad are dreading the after effects tomorrow morning, when they expect that they'll be changing an orange-colored dirty diaper. But I don't think I'll be playing with anything edible like a drumstick, because everyone knows that everything I play with eventually ends up in my mouth!

Speaking of Shiloh Pitt, is there any possibility that you'll be able to meet her when she and her family come back to New York?

Ah yes, the little girl I portrayed at Dad's Halloween party. I don't expect to meet her because I can't stand the paparazzi. Being subjected to Mom and Dad's incessant picture-taking and flashbulbs is more than enough for me!

Any plans to go window-shopping in NYC when the stores are decorated for Christmas? Any plans to go sit on Santa's lap at Bloomingdales?

I've heard Mom and Dad talk about maybe taking me back into the city during the holidays, but I'm not sure what we'll do. I do think I'm a little too young for Santa—I'd probably end up just chewing on his beard.

I see that Ratatouille has come out on DVD. Have you thought about putting that on your list for Santa Claus? What else catches your eye as something you'd like to have for Christmas?

One of the perks of Dad's job is that he gets all the new DVDs sent to him, so we already have it. It's just too bad that my parents won't let me watch movies for at least another year, especially because I hear that Dad has set aside lots of kids DVDs for me, everything from Baby Einstein to Dora the Explorer.

For Christmas, all I really want is something to gnaw on!

How is your family going to spend Thanksgiving this year? Does your mom have to cook? Will you help her if she does?

It looks like we'll be at Grandma and Grandpa's for Thanksgiving, so neither my Mom nor I will be cooking. That's too bad, as I'm sure I could whip up something yummy for our feast, like drool soup.

Sorry, I've got to get back to my late-night faceoff with Dad.

WaaaaaaAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!.....