Waiting and Talking

Sometimes I wish baby girl (shall I call her Lu'au?) would talk. I try to interpret her cries - "Mama, I am ti-red!", "I'm bored", "Can a girl get food around here?"... I try to fit my words into each one of her outbursts.

My neighbors joke that with their kids they could discern the cries to mean #4, #7, and #2... (Surely this cry means #3) unfortunately, they never received the manual to interpret what #4, #7, and #2 meant.

At times I wish Lu'au could tell me what she wanted, what's going on in her world. If she really thinks the cereal we've started to feed her tastes terrible. If she just wants to be held sometimes. If she's not frustrated with her tummy time, instead she feels the burn of the ab workout she's getting.

I'm so excited to know what she thinks... but then again, can you imagine what a baby would say if they could talk upon birth? That's where the fun really starts... "I hate this outfit", "Holy cow! Those are MY knees?", "I have a huge poop coming and this diaper doesn't stand a chance to contain it all"... the possibilities are endless when you add those to the basic needs of sleep, food, etc.

God must have had a plan in not letting babies speak until they are about one year old. Can you imagine all of the whining that could take place? All of the confusion... And what language would it have been?

I kind of wish that I would have a little more waiting involved when I speak. Sometimes I say really dumb, hurtful things. I say a lot of things just to not have silence. I've never been particularly eloquent - words don't come naturally for me. Perhaps I should take a cue from Lu'au and wait a while before I speak... but maybe not a whole year...

Picture time!

What's up with the weather?

So we've been having colder than normal weather here. And it has me all confused. Around Easter, we had some 90*+ days. That was unseasonably warm and left me scrambling for clothes in which to dress baby girl. I find that it's hard for me NOT to dress her in layer upon layer of clothes because that's exactly what I had to do for so long when she was born. Enter Easter weekend: It's hot Hot HOT. I'm still trying to put a onesie underneath everything. I teach myself to reject this desire.

Enter cold weather IN MAY. I no longer have those layers for baby girl. Most of the stuff she's in right now (3-6 months, 6 months, or 6-9 months) is summery. I have two longsleeved onesies that she wears every other day now, in a nice little rotation. I had to retrain myself how to layer her clothes... how to make sure she's warm at night. Everything. I look forward to taking her to Florida where I'll be able to dress her in warm clothes again!

Gosh, my life is boring. Sorry.

Military Spouse Bloghop (aka I'm totally Ellen's copycat)

The fabulous Ellen had this on her blog and I thought it'd be fun to try too... I've been trying to blog more, and hope that this will help motivate me to post more often.

Riding the Roller Coaster is hosting a Military Spouse Bloghop. What a fun way to find other military spouse blogs!

My name is JulieAnn. Julie'uli'uli is a play on my name (from my hula sister back in Hawai'i) but also an 'uli'uli is a hula implement. I started dancing hula when we were stationed in Hawai'i and have somehow managed to find a halau (hula school) each place we've been stationed since then.

My dear husband (Captain Obvious or CO) is active duty in the Coast Guard. He has been a ship captain, but these days is found at a desk staring at spreadsheets - you can guess which one he likes better. We've been married for almost 4 years, and he's been in the CG much longer than that.

Baby girl (baby 'uli'uli? I need to find a name for her!) was born Christmas Eve, and is an absolute delight! You'll find her and I strolling around our town or playing on our carpet most days. She's into rolling over and playing with her rattle recently.

I've been trying to write more lately - I think it helps me do something for myself and serves as a good way to document life as it happens (moving so often has a way of making me forget things!).

Some of my favorite things are (in no particular order):

• ice cream
• traveling
• quilting and learning to sew
• learning to cook and sharing recipes
• life with a newborn
• photography
  
• hula and Hawai'i
  
• the Coast Guard and the military spouse life
• parentheses and ellipses (obviously...)
  

Some of my favorite parts :)

shaka!

Tonight

Baby girl and her daddy walked to the store. I guess she laughed all of the way. Probably because she lost a sock and no one noticed until they got home and Mama asked where her sock was...

Banana Chocolate Bread Pudding

I made this the other day and it was delicious! I will definitely be making this again!

Chocolate Banana Bread Pudding -from allrecipes

Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 2 cups milk
• 1 cup white sugar (I used 2/3 cup and it was very sweet. Next time I'll try 1/2 cup.)
  
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 4 cups cubed French bread
• 2 bananas, sliced
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (next time I'll mix in 3/4 and then sprinkle 1/4 over the top)
  

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan. I used my casserole dish that is smaller than a 9 x 13.
   
2. In a large mixing bowl, mix eggs, milk, sugar, and vanilla until smooth. Stir in bread, bananas, and chocolate chips, and let rest 5 (to 10) minutes for bread to soak. Pour into prepared pan.
3. Line a roasting pan with a damp kitchen towel. Place loaf pan on towel inside roasting pan, and place roasting pan on oven rack. Fill roasting pan with boiling water to reach halfway up the sides of the loaf pan. Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. It took me 1-1/2 hours.

I served it warm with ice cream and it was delicious!!