As many of you know, Julianna has been a challenging child for me. All of my kids have "strong personalities", but Julie is different. Strong-spirited doesn't even begin to cover it. I often feel like she's 5 kids worth of trouble and joy all wrapped up into one power-package.
The word my Mom uses for her is "INTENSE". Just as I've never had a kid who can scream like her, I've never had a child laugh like her either. The intensity runs both ways. She's like Anne of Green Gables...either she's in a euphoria of ecstatic joy, or she's down in the dumps, grumpy and fierce.
It's sad to say, but honestly, I never got to enjoy Julianna's Babyhood. It felt like one long screamfest. If she was ever happy or smiling, all my kids would say, "Look, Mom, Look! Julie is happy! Quick, get the camera!!!" It was such an unusual occurance. It's funny, I really assumed that because I had a gentle water birth, I was going to have this serene, calm child. Boy, was I disillusioned quickly!
I felt so bad for her, because all those days when she'd scream for 4 to 6 hours, I knew she was in pain...but there just didn't seem to be anything I could do about it. Nothing I tried brought much relief. I've had colicky babies before, but Julianna had true classic colic. From a few weeks old, till around 8 months , she'd often cry from 5 p.m. till 11 p.m. every night. (While Scott was at work and I had to put all the kids to bed by myself.) My life was a nightmare. I never got anything done. I never got to go anywhere. Our whole life revolved around trying to stay sane, and trying to keep Julianna as well as could be. I was blessed to have no church calling at this time. I needed a break! We were struggling to keep our heads above water and just take care of everyone's basic needs.
There was no rocking the baby peacefully. No putting her down in her crib or bassinet. She was never happy in the baby swing, jumper, or bouncy seat. She hated the bumbo seat so bad she would literally flop herself out it with violent screaming. She was only content if she was strapped to my body. She truly never slept once in her bassinet. I ended up using it to store clothes and diapers. She slept in my arms till she was 9 months old. She lived in a backpack, frontpack or sling. (Thanks, Amy!)
We had a huge celebration when we finally moved her to a crib. Julianna had some major developmental delays because of needing to be constantly held. I'm sure it was also because of her personality and being the youngest in the family. Julianna never crawled. She couldn't roll over until 1o months. She couldn't stand being put down or left alone. If she was ever left alone, (unless she was asleep) she cried till someone came to be right next to her. She didn't walk until almost 18 months. She was continually frustrated, and so were we! I came to accept that she was a very demanding child who NEEDED more from me than my other kids...and if your child truly needs something, you sacrifice anything to fulfill it! I figured if I could fill that need in her, perhaps she could grow up to be confident and happy instead of a needy adult who never got enough love and attention as a child.
This last year with Julianna has been SO SO wonderful! Once Julie could walk, a lot of her frustration and anger melted away. She loved her new-found independence. She was content to explore and master new skills. I felt my freedom coming back! People noticed her new joy in life, and often commented on her happiness to me. She's loved nursery. She's still very slow to warm up to strangers, and even close family members, but at least I'm seeing progress in that direction. *phew*!
Here is Julie throwing a fit when not getting her way on the Trampoline.But now, alas, we are entering the terrible two's! My sweet dimple-cheeked daughter has quite a temper! None of my other kids have perfected the art of throwing a fit so young. I was so shocked the first time Julianna did this, but now it is a regular occurance. The first time Julie was having a fit, I thought ignoring her might work. So I walked away from her to go chop vegetables for dinner. But she FOLLOWED ME, rolling on the floor till she was near enough to kick me. So, I just calmly walked away from her to work on dinner, and she followed me again, just so she could kick me! That's when I realized I was in trouble! I've tried holding her, singing to her, and trying to calm her when she has fits, but it doesn't do anything to reach her. So now when she has a meltdown, I always put her in her crib, and that has helped curb her fits a little. She feels like it's her "safe zone". But when she's having a bad day, sometimes I feel like she spends more time in her crib than out of it!
Julianna here was trying to hit me for taking her picture when she wanted OFF NOW!
When Julianna doesn't get her way, she might hit, kick, yell, bite, pinch, or pull your hair out from the roots. She will throw things at your head...hard. One time she slapped me right across my cheeks and left a mark. She may bang her head, or roll around on the floor. Now that we've changed our floors from rugs to laminate, she's discovered that hard floors don't feel good. Tody I saw her walk to the rug, and then collapse for her screaming party...hilarious.
I feel bad for my other kids, because she really beats up on them. They've been taught not to fight back, but to tell her "No" or "Soft" While I put her in a time-out, but I get tempted sometimes to tell them to defend themselves, especially when Julie goes crazy in the car. She has pulled out so much of Angel's hair! One time Angel had had enough of the abuse Julie was giving her in the car on a long drive home, and she began hitting Julie back. Did Julie cry? No. Did she stop? No. She LAUGHED...she acted as if she liked it. She thought it was a game.
Now we're having some tough times again because she has re-entered the clingy phase. Some days, she can't stand to be more than 2 inches from me. She grabs my finger and pulls and yells, "Come On!" and takes me where she wants to go. I think I'm beginning to understand just how they youngest child of a family can get SO spoiled! The rest of the family will do anything...ANYTHING....just for some peace!
Julie use to like baby movies, and I loved that Baby Einstein could give me 3o minutes to work on a needed household project. But they've lost their charm! I think they bore her and she just wants to be up and DOING! It's wonderful that she's so engaged in her environment. She's always exploring, making messes, taking things apart. I love that she's talking in complete sentences now. She can express herself, and make her wishes on almost anything known. Her current biggest frustration is that she wants to be a BIG kid like her older siblings, but she can't do what they do yet. And they often don't want to play with her when they think she'll ruin their game. It's a difficult issue, but the older kids are being really good sports about taking turns with her and spending time playing with her.
Julianna loves to scream, loud and high! When she's around people with hearing aids, they often have to turn them off. I tell people all the time, "Julianna just loves to scream. It doesn't matter if she's happy or sad...she screams because she likes it." For example, if I'm blowing bubbles, she shrieks in delight. And when I stop blowing bubbles, she yells "more" in impatience. I'm sure you get the picture! I've been having ringing problems in my ears lately, and I've been wondering if part of it stems from her continual yelling close to my ears.
I've found the perfect rhyme that matches Julianna's personality:
There was a Little Girl
Who had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead.
And when she was good,
she was very, very good...
But when she was bad,
She was Horrid!
Here is Julianna doing one of her most favorite things: getting into Mommy's Jam. She sure had a good time! This time around I took some picture before cleaning up the mess.
mmmmm......tasty!
Julianna adores the bunnies in our yard. She holds and pets them, declaring in a solemn tone, "Soft, Soft!" In this picture, I had just moved the cage onto fresh clean grass. I put her in the cage, and its hilarious to see her sit there with the bunnies in her lap while she feeds them bits of greens. Julianna loves all animals, but cats are her favorite.
Just because Julianna has her difficult moments and days, doesn't mean that she's not a very happy, sweet, energetic, mischievous little girl! We do enjoy her very, very much. She has us all wrapped around her little fingers, that's for sure. She is the light of our lives. I think it naturally follows, that we value our relationships even more when they cost us a high price. Raising Julianna so far has been difficult, and it doesn't look like it will get any easier anytime soon, but all the work and sacrifice makes our children all the dearer to us.
Here we are enjoying a nice swing by the raspberries. Julie loves to swing in my lap while I sing to her the song from "A Child's Garden of Verses". It's one of her favorite songs. I have a video of me singing it to her in the swing, but I don't know how to load videos on the blog. Julianna, like our other kids, sings all the time. When she's happy, she's singing, laughing, and screaming in joy...and when she's not happy, well, she's just screaming.
| HOW do you like to go up in a swing, | |
| Up in the air so blue? | |
| Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing | |
| Ever a child can do! | |
| |
| Up in the air and over the wall, | 5 |
| Till I can see so wide, | |
| Rivers and trees and cattle and all | |
| Over the countryside— | |
| |
| Till I look down on the garden green, | |
| Down on the roof so brown— | 10 |
| Up in the air I go flying again, | |
| Up in the air and down! |
Even when Julianna is "helping out" she wants to do things her own way. Can you feel the angst?
Angel ate an apple, but Julianna ate sand! On our last day, we got to spend some time with my brother Joseph's family and their sweet 3 children. The cousins had lots of fun together.
