Christmas!

Julian had a wonderful Christmas! He spent a lot of time decorating the tree, and occasionally himself as well:


Grandma Paula, at his suggestion, made some excellent dinosaur ornaments which also double as earrings:



And of course, there were many presents, all of which are still being enjoyed.



(His bunny slippers have been named Giggle and Goo-goo.)

Party time

We went to many parties in December!

At Will and Ruth's awesome birthday party, they had all sorts of fun sports equipment at the rec center. Julian just wanted to be the goalie.


Some of the kids lined up to go from games to cake: left to right, Geoffrey, Gabi, Zander, Julian, Asher, Lyra.


Julian's classmate Oliver had his birthday party at the Little Gym. It was a spectacularly good time.

Catching up

Lots of pictures and movies to post! Starting off with some old ones, and one new:

Today at the Red Robin, he asked me to take his picture with the robin:


Hogwarts Castle was invaded by dinosaurs.


Julian at Thanksgiving: "I know you like lots of dinosaurs in your cake."


Testing out the whipped cream for the pumpkin pie.


Wearing his special hat from Mammoth & Mastodon Madness at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.



And an even more creative use of headgear and other dress-up stuff.


First snowfall!

Writing

Julian has started signing his name to his artworks, "so people know I did them!" These were both done at school yesterday.

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.