Long time no blog

We have lots of photos and movies that haven't seen the light of day. Lately in November Julian has been starting to write his favorite words with a marker on paper, but back in the summer he was mostly typing them on the computer:


Julian and Julia went to the museum, piloted the Space Shuttle, had lunch in the Dino Cafe, and played with the hand puppets:






Finally they posed on the wolf statues outside:


Julian's favorite activity, day after day, is playing with his plastic animals and dinosaurs.


This diorama was constructed with his babysitter Priscilla. Note the herbivores eating plants, the carnivores eating meat (brown stuff), and other animals drinking from a pond:


His dinosaurs and animals also help out with the geography:



Julian went to the playground with Julia, Anjalie and Maisie, and they posed for their Moms and Dads:



Geoffrey, Julia and Julian do Noodles and Company:


Julian visited a toy store after going out to dinner, where he made a sauropod castle:


Last weekend, Julian had a Halloween party. Maisie was a fairy, Geoffrey was a birthday cake, Julia was pink Batgirl, and Julian was — well, you can probably guess:

Portland!

Last weekend Julian and Alex went to Portland to visit the family!

First we went to Milo's soccer game. He was a superstar and scored many goals, but ran too fast to be captured on camera. Julian also practiced his skills.


Steve and Jake cheered for Milo.


Then we went to OMSI, where Julian discovered the paleontology lab, and its toy dinosaurs.


Jake and Milo had a good time playing in the sand creating their own watersheds.


Julian found a new friend who came home with us.


Julian was very excited about trying out Milo's old bike, and did remarkably well.


He and Jake played with dinosaurs,


and had a great time in the sandbox.

Summer pictures

Here's a somewhat random selection of pictures I've been meaning to put up for a while!

We took Julian to his first baseball game! Red Sox vs. Rockies, and alas, not only did the Sox lose, but the tantrum when we had to leave was truly epic. Julian did, however, enjoy the tee-ball batting cages at the ballpark. In fact, he preferred playing baseball to watching it.



In June we went to San Francisco for the wedding of our old friends Kristin and Jim, and we took the opportunity to visit the Exploratorium.

Playing drums:


Exploring chaos (one of his favorite activities...)


Experimenting with gravity:


When Grandma Paula was here, we went to the zoo, and afterwards we stopped at Andre's in Denver for pastries. (Going to Andre's in Kansas City was a special treat for Alex when she was little!) Julian decided to try a strawberry-marzipan frog:


And the aftermath...


And last but by no means least, today was Julian's last day in the toddler classroom at his school. On Monday he moves up to the preschool class, where everything will be a little different. Here is his latest class picture:


Front row: Maisie, Anjalie, Desi. Middle row: Julia, Geoffrey, Julian. Back row: Karen, Sue, Phyllis.

Singing and dancing

Julian has been entertaining us lately!

Catching up

We've had a busy spring! Julian had a BIRTHDAY. He is now Three, as he will inform anyone who asks. He and Julia and Kelly all shared their party at the playground. They had crowns,


and cupcakes,


and eventually there was also tennis.



In other adventures, we wandered around campus and met Mr. and Mrs. Mallard:

We attended other people's parties too, including his great-aunt's wedding in San Jose:


and Maisie's birthday party:


at which he discovered Maisie's Mardi Gras necklaces and borrowed a few.


Right now, it's cold and wet, but Julian is all ready for when the weather warms up again.

Springtime

It's springtime. We like to pretend this blog is for friends and family, but really it's for the scouts.



Julian also likes basketball and walking around on all fours with boots on his hands, but his sport of choice is definitely baseball. Or sometimes, "roofball".



The pink hat and dinosaur boots are pretty much standard uniform. Sometimes he likes to get his gloves on too.



But he's not just all about sports. Julian also drove down to the zoo.



Okay, maybe he didn't drive. But he did go to the zoo. There were lots of cool animals, including an elephant, a hippo, and a cheetah:





He made his own zoo, as well, with his babysitter Jean:


Notice the dinosaurs are on the outside, since there are no dinosaurs inside a zoo.

Julian is a big fan of animals. His most favorites are giraffes these days.




He got a new one when his grandma Paula was here.



We had our spring renewal celebration too, with an Easter egg hunt:


Julian wears an eyepatch a couple hours a day (usually) to help strengthen his other eye, which he's now very good about.



A little gardening has gotten done as well.



And Julian can also demonstrate how you turn on the engine of your broomstick.



Finally, today we judged Julian has shown he's careful enough to be allowed to play with Daddy's robot dinosaurs. We're both so proud.

March fashion

Julian models the latest in fashionable headgear.