Julia is 21 months old

Julia turned 21 months, this last week (on the 4th). She gained 1 pound this month, so now she is 24.4 lbs. A pound seems like a lot for her, but I'm not worried since last month she didn't even gain a single ounce.

Her length was 33 inches (well actually just over that), so she grew 1/2 an inch. In her 20th month (March), Julia learned about 64 new words or phrases.

Here they are: after, ant, Aurora (her cousin-6 weeks younger), backwards (to go down the stairs), bat (animal), bracelet, brush, bus, Carrie (her aunt), chin, Chip & Dale, comb, corn, crying (kying), cupboard (from a book "Old Mother Hubbard"), cute, did, dot (polka dots on her pj's), farmer, five, flower, get out (wanting out of booster chair), giraffe, gray, I got it, ice, Jane (from Tarzan), Jasmine (our dog-pronounces it "stamin"), Jeff (her uncle), jungle, ladybug, leg, leopard, mac & cheese (her favorite meal), Makayla, Matthew (mamoo), mirror, pears, peas, picture, princess (from a Barbie movie), pumpkin, rock, Sarah (her aunt), scary, school, seal, sink, six, small, smile (smonel), snake, square, take, tongue, turkey, twinkle, uncle, what happened, where, world, Zoe

funny sayings she has: where'd it go?, where is it?, what happened/what's happening? (with her hands up in the air), take a picture, smile (also for taking a picture), for grandpa, she calls him "paw-kah."

sings: it's a small world after all (this is the longest phrase she knows so far)

loves: boxes (especially big ones). My parents got new appliances for their kitchen, so she spent hours playing in their double-oven box. She even made daddy hang out with her in the big box for an hour or so. However, she even likes empty diaper boxes. One of her favorite things (still) is watching videos of herself. She also loves bugs (little plastic toy ones, actually she's fascinated with the real thing too)- loves the movie "Bug's Life"

strength: I noticed this toward the end of March. She will have one of her hands on a coffee table and the other hand on the couch with her feet off the ground and balance/swing her body. She has a similar balancing act in the bath tub. She balances her body weight on her hands, with her belly & legs in the air (learning to float-somewhat).

Julia loves for us to play with her. She'll come up to me and grab both of my hands if I'm on the couch and make me get up to go play with her, especially if we have a fort set up for her in the living room. She says "come on." Or if I'm in bed at night and she wakes up, she'll always come to my side of the bed and grab my hand for me to come in her room with her. She likes us to stay by her bedside until she falls back asleep. Usually it's only a matter of a couple minutes, but sometimes it can take quite a while. Jeff often falls asleep next to her bed and I eventually go wake him up. This month, Julia started sleeping with a pillow, still on her belly, but occasionally on her back too.