Keeping in Teutsch: June 2011

Back in March 2010, I did a little Q&A with Juliette. Since it's been a while, I thought it would be a good time to ask those same questions again and see what her responses are now. I have to say, Juliette at 3 years old had some pretty funny answers, but Juliette at 4 years old is much more serious about her answers and thinking them through!

(Answers in italics are her exact words. I've added some comments to a few of them in parentheses behind her answers.)

So, Juliette, how are you doing?
Good.

What did you do today?
Umm...I went to go swimming.

What did you play today?
I played nothing...I practiced my cartwheels, and oh, I was playing with my Toy Story characters, but not my Tinkerbell characters.

What's your favorite food?
My favorite food is macaroni & cheese, and I like fish and chicken and chicken nuggets and french fries and goldfish. (She always says her favorite food is macaroni & cheese, yet she never asks for it, and she rarely eats all of it when I do give it to her!)

What's your favorite game?
PlayStation Toy Story.

What's your favorite thing to do?
My favorite thing is practicing cartwheels a lot. And, I love playing in my bedroom!

What makes you happy?
When you bring me a surprise, and when someone is being nice and letting me borrow something.

What makes you sad?
When I pitch a fit. (That makes me sad, too!!)

What's your favorite movie?
Toy Story 3, Tangled, and Alvin & the Chipmunks.

What's your favorite TV show?
I like Good Luck Charlie, Shake It Up, Charlie Shakes It Up... (pretty much anything on Disney Channel)

What's your favorite animal?
Butterflies, dogs, cats, mice, fish, worms. (This is the first I've heard of mice and worms!)

What's your favorite thing to do?
Playing outside.

What do you want to be when you grow up?
I want to be a teacher and a mommy, except I don't want a baby in my tummy. (I need to explain: I thought I was going to get the easy way out in explaining how babies get out of their mommies' tummies since I had a c-section, BUT that kinda backfired on me because now Juliette says she doesn't want to have a baby in her tummy because it will hurt to take it out. I tried to explain to her that they give you medicine and a Band-aid and it gets all better and that I'm fine, but she isn't so convinced. I know she won't think this way forever, but in the meantime, she wants to be a mommy but doesn't want a baby in her tummy, so I suppose she's a very young advocate for adoption!)

What's your favorite book?
Tangled.

What's your favorite color?
Pink.

What's your favorite toy?
BullsEye, Woody, Buzz, and Jessie (from Toy Story)

Where's your favorite place to eat?
Sonic (I'm pretty sure she said this just because we ate there the day before. Normally, she would say "McDonalds.")

Who's your best friend?
Allison and Anna Elise and Elias

What's your favorite thing to do outside?
Practice hula-hooping and swinging.

Where's your favorite place to shop?
Target

What's your favorite thing to say?
I love you!

What's your favorite candy?
Chocolate candy bar (mostly 3 Muskateers or a plain Hershey's bar).

What's your favorite flavor of ice cream?
Strawberry with sprinkles

What's your favorite cookie?
Oreos

What's your favorite fruit?
Bananas

What's your favorite vegetable?
Broccoli and hominy.

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I walked in the door from work the Wednesday before last to find Matt sitting on the couch with his feet propped up watching TV and Juliette lying across his chest asleep. At first I thought she was pretending to be asleep, but when I got closer, I realized she really had fallen asleep like that. I asked Matt why he didn't move her and he said something along the lines of "I just wanted to cuddle with her." He then proudly pointed out that he had put her earrings back in (I had removed them for her dance revue the night before) and I found my heart melting a little more for this guy who is clearly succeeding at being a girl daddy!

There is just something about seeing my sports-loving, deep-thinking, all-boy husband putting my little girl's hair in a ponytail or fixing her barrette when it's falling out, or even texting me pictures of what he dressed her in to ask if it looks okay, that just makes me grin inside and out. It just makes me love him even more!

It's no secret that we both were a little unsure of how Matt would be as a daddy, especially a girl daddy. Here is something I wrote back in 2007 two days before Juliette's first birthday:

I have to admit that I had my reservations about Matt's fathering skills. It's only fair I had these feelings, considering he refused to hold a baby or play with a child before Juliette was born. And I also have to admit that he didn't seem overly excited when I told him I was pregnant. In fact, he just made me take two more tests and then wouldn't agree that I was right until I took an idiot-proof test that had the words PREGNANT on it.

Over the course of the pregnancy, though, his excitement started building, yet I was still unsure of how he would do with the whole baby thing. I didn't think Matt would be very vocal about the decisions in planning for the baby, but he was. He wanted a cherry crib, I wanted a white one. We got a white one. He didn't see ANY crib bedding he liked. I pretty much liked it all. I ended up choosing one I liked and ordering it while he was distracted with his video games. Hey, he said, "Yeah!" although he could have been talking to the video game! He wanted to name her Juliette. I wanted to name her Audrie. He won out...mainly because his reason was just too sweet to pass up. He wanted to call her Juliette because he wanted her to have an elegant and fanciful name, plus it was the name we had chosen a long time ago. Now, I'm glad he won that one, as I LOVE her name and there are no other Juliettes around. Plus its a beautiful name!

But, as I was saying, I was having my doubts and was prepared to sit back and laugh through this crazy adventure of Matt's coming to terms with fatherhood (because I figured there would be some funny times since he was taking little interest in learning much about babies)! I have to say that I was extremely proud of Matt in the operating room during the c-section. He was REALLY nervous about me having a c-section, but he acted so cool about it. He came in in his scrubs with the camera and sat by my head and just took it all in with a big grin on his face. After the doctor pulled her out and they had cleaned her up a little bit, they placed her in his arms and he looked like he'd been holding babies forever. He barely let me see her and then he rushed off with her to the nursery...Baby and Daddy with nurse in tow.

It took a while for Matt to find his fathering groove, though. He refused to change dirty diapers, he refused to bathe Juliette for the longest because he was afraid he'd drop her, and he was often reluctant to even give her a bottle since she liked to move her arms so much and was wiggly. But I guess he learned by trails of fire, as my weekly Bible study on Wednesday nights started back up shortly after she was born and he was left to feed, sometimes bathe, and put Juliette to sleep. I remember him calling me during one of the first Bible studies to tell me that Juliette had a poopie diaper, that he had changed it, and that he almost threw up. I just laughed! Since then, Matt still calls me to report on poopies and just recently called to tell me that Juliette would be waiting in the bathtub for me to get home, as she had had an explosion and had poop everywhere! I just laughed some more!

Matt was my sanity during the brief colic period Juliette went through. Nothing worked except for Matt to crank up the music and bounce her up and down in front of it. He was great at that and was great at getting her to go to sleep when she was younger too. Matt was pretty much the entertainment in the early days. When she was fussy and I needed to get things done around the house, or if I just simply wanted to take a bath, Matt would sit down with the guitar and play for her and she would be so content. (Juliette was even nice enough to not complain when Matt was taking violin lessons and "practicing" in her presence!) As she has gotten older, Matt has had more and more to do with her. He LOVES to take her to the store, although he has come back on more than one occasion with stuffed dogs that she doesn't need! Matt usually picks Juliette up in the afternoons from daycare and she is usually ready for a catnap, so they take the scenic route home listening to music with Juliette snoozing in the backseat.

For me, the intense love that I feel for Juliette was there almost instantly. For Matt, I think the idea of being a father and having a child had to grow on him, and I really think he is now in the primetime of realizing how much he REALLY loves her. A few nights ago, Matt started working on a video of pictures of Juliette through the first year set to music. Though not the final version, he came and got me out of bed to show me what he had done so far and said, "It'll make you cry!" I watched the video through blurry eyes--from being sleepy and not having my contacts in, though, not from crying--and toward the end heard sniffling from him. I looked to see that he had tears running down his cheeks and I was actually shocked. The video was sweet and definitely reminded me of the early days of Juliette's babyhood and it did make me long for her to be that size again, but I had come to terms with her growing process a while ago and didn't realize that Matt had been reluctant to see that she would never be those ages or in those stages again. I found it so very touching, though, to see the father of my child being moved to tears by the memories we've created with her so far. That memory will be etched in my mind forever. He was definitely showing the heart of a father that night.

True, I had my doubts and reservations about Matt's parenting skills, but I think he has progressed nicely into a wonderful fun-loving father who thinks the world of his little girl. I'm impressed and I shouldn't have doubted him for one minute. He definitely rose to the occasion and I am proud of him. That doesn't mean that I don't think there will be many more laughs, since he hasn't nearly seen or done it all. I'm looking forward to those, though, and can't wait to see what he does when she poops in the pool!!

Written August 22, 2007

Well, Matt never had any poop-in-the-kiddie-pool experiences (maybe with the next kid!), but he had his fair share of diaper explosions while I was at work and he even had to deal with car sickness one time! Of course, not all his fathering experiences were gross ones (although, the gross ones make me laugh, because really and truly, he's a pansy when it comes to that kind of stuff). Matt and Juliette have a special bond, which has grown stronger since Juliette spends all summer at home with him (and this past semester, she was home in the afternoons with him as well). Matt is a very hands-on dad, which I love, and is always planning things for him and Juliette to do. He has definitely "blossomed" in his role as a father, and I'm so proud of him for that.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY, MATT! WE LOVE YOU!

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This weekend we had to say "goodbye" to our next door neighbors, Ben and Jessica, who have become good friends of ours (and really and truly, the first set of friends we've made here). We're really sad to see them go, especially Juliette who ADORES "Mr. Ben," although adore doesn't really convey how much she likes him...possibly obsessed is the better word!

We went to dinner with them Friday night at our favorite Mexican place (or my favorite one...I think they like it too!) and Juliette HAD to sit by Ben. Some of Ben and Jessica's other friends came too and I was thrilled to meet someone who lives across the parking lot from us that I'm hoping will become a new friend! After dinner (which included a rousing game of "name all the animals you can think of that start with each letter as I call them out alphabetically" that was lead by Juliette), Ben and Jessica, and Christine (the new friend) came over to our apartment. Ben, Matt, and Juliette played Rock Band while Jessica, Christine, and I took turns showing each other our wedding albums. (Jessica and Ben just celebrated their first anniversary and had just gotten their completed wedding album in.) I felt like my wedding was ancient compared to theirs, or more like my album was, as their albums were done digitally, whereas mine is actual prints. It's crazy how much the wedding industry has changed since we got married 10 1/2 years ago!

Saturday morning we met Ben and Jessica at the movie theater to watch Kung Fu Panda 2. Once again, Juliette HAD to sit by Ben. I think Matt was feeling a little jealous when she kept offering Ben some of her popcorn and wouldn't give him any! :)

Ben and Jessica are originally from the San Francisco area and moved in to the apartments at the same time we did last summer, just a few weeks after getting married. They are moving to Richmond, Virginia. Ben is getting his Ph.D. in Biology and his main professor took a position at VCU and was able to get Ben a better offer than he had here at UL, so Ben took it. We hate to see them go, but we know that this is a great opportunity for Ben and we're certain living in Richmond will allow Jessica to get back into her career field. (I believe her degree is in graphic packaging or printing or something like that...I'm probably totally butchering the name of it!) Ben and Jessica, if you guys are reading this, we'll miss you!!

Moving on to "other things," we've had a somewhat busy week and weekend. Juliette had her dance revue this past Tuesday night and was adorable! My parents came in and brought my nephew Austin with them and Matt's parents came in as well. Thankfully, we were able to leave after Juliette's last dance (she had three of them), as it wasn't over until around 9:30 that night.

Juliette had to have a cover-up because they didn't want people to see their costumes when they arrived nor when they were out in the audience (she had to come sit with us for a little bit). Something similar to this t-shirt cover-up above was being sold at the studio for $30, but I knew I could make it myself. I just took an oversized t-shirt, cut it down the middle, hemmed it, monogrammed it, added belt loops, ribbon, and a little piece of Velcro at the top. I made this last Saturday and it didn't take very long. I thought it turned out pretty cute and it is plenty big enough to cover up a tutu and will still be large enough for her to wear next year.

I know I've posted make-up pictures from dance pictures on here before, but this pic isn't really about the make-up...just wanted to show how her hair looked for the revue. I was being cheap and didn't want to pay for someone to put it up and we could fix it however we wanted, as long as it was out of her face, so I thought the corkscrew curls would be cute. I had a ton of hairspray in her hair, but it did fall some by intermission, so I suppose next year we'll pay for someone to do something different, but it didn't look bad and it worked fine for this year. (By the way, the place where her revue was held didn't allow cameras--I know, ridiculous--so I don't have any "action" shots to post. We will get a DVD of the entire revue, though, so I'll post her dances when we get it!)

Matt's parents were in New Orleans this week on vacation, and they came back through here yesterday and stayed the night. Juliette went back home with them today, so it will be super quiet around here the next few days.

Hope you have a great week! I'm looking forward to no plans for the next week!

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