Drumsticks and Blue Sticks

I realized that I need to do a better job of recording the things that I want to remember about Julia. She is so full of personality, and she says and does the funniest things, and I just want to remember!

So, one of my favorite things about Julia right now is her taste in movies. She LOVES old musicals. They are seriously her favorite, and I promise it's not from me pushing it on her! It really must be in the genes! It all started with "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" that came in a box set of movie musicals from Linda. We put it on one day thinking she might like it, and it started a phenomenon!

"Singing in the Rain" is one of the favorites. We often "play" Kathy and Don. She sits in the "car" and screams because I apparently have just jumped in next to her and scared her. She gets her princess umbrella and dances along with Gene Kelly, or gets one of her pink dress-up skirts and pulls it up under her armpits and dances with Kathy and the girls to "All I Do is Dream of You." She also has a pair of little Mary Janes that she has decided are her tap shoes, and she "tap dances" while singing "Moses Supposes." Good thing I don't mind watching this movie over and over again!

I can never quite believe it when my 2 year old wakes up in the morning and asks to watch "Homa-Homa." (Although she's saying it correctly more often now, which is probably a good thing, but not quite as cute!) Devin is not sure how he feels about his daughter walking around the house singing, "I'm just a girl who can't say no," but we've decided we'll let it slide for a few years. The other day we tried on EVERY single dress in her closet (which thanks to her cousin Claire is a LOT of dresses) going through church dresses, play dresses, and even the princess dress-up dresses, trying to find a dress that "twirled" well enough for her to dance along with the girls in "the Farmer and the Cowman." Maybe this movie is causing more problems than it's worth! Also, you know the dream ballet that is really long and weird that almost everyone fast forwards through? She loves it. She always leaves or plays with something else during the boring (speaking) parts, but the dance sequences, she is glued to the television!

This is one of the other original "Julia Musicals." After I had watched this and "Chitty Chitty" one too many times we started branching out to some of the others, but this remains a favorite. Spoons now all contain either "Strawberry, mmm" or "Rum Punch." Daddy's tape measure tells us that everything measures "extremely stubborn and suspicious." Apparently she sings "Jolly Holiday" throughout the hours in nursery. Many days she asks me, "where did Michael go?" (apparently on those days I am Mary Poppins and she is Jane.) The other day we tried to watch "The Sound of Music" for a minute (she was totally bored) but don't you worry... "It's Mary Poppins!!"

This is one of my personal favorite Julia obsessions. It's a good thing too, because this is definitely frequently watched! Julia loves to pretend to be Giselle. She'll put a stool next to the wall and reach up and knock on the wall and say "Hello! I'm ready to go home now! Someone let me in!" (for those of you not familiar, she is knocking on the billboard trying to get into the fake castle.) She then of course has to hang off of things and pretend she is about to fall, and "the Daddy" needs to catch her. (Every leading man in every movie is "the Daddy" which is a whole other incredibly cute thing entirely!!) She also will often "fall asleep" after eating an apple and can only be awakened by "true love's kiss," (good thing mine usually work.) The other day I was the "old man" and had to take her crown from her several times (not my most flattering character assignment from my daughter.) The other favorite is re-enacting the scene where she asks, "where does the water come from?" complete with every single Giselle action, and all of the lines word for word. Hilarious.

Next, we have "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" aka "Drumsticks and Blue sticks." Ok, I grew up loving this movie. Watching it now, however... it is really weird! It's really dark and scary, and the whole "witchcraft" thing is kind of bizarre! I think it's hilarious that I liked this movie so much! Anyway... Julia only watches about 15 minutes of this movie. We start on scene 13, where they go to the Island of Naboombu, watch the parts where the cartoons are there, and then stop it as soon as they get back to the real world. Hey, she's the one who still wants to watch it, even knowing that it means only 15 minutes of a movie!

And last but not least, we have the one that started it all: "Chitt Chitty Bang Bang." I cannot tell you how often I get addressed as "Truly" in my home. At that point I am, of course, conversing with "Jemima." One night we got Julia to eat her entire plate of green beans (she is currently on a hunger strike) by pretending they were "Toot sweets." Many other toys, food items, pen lids, etc. also all become "toot sweets." We are a little worried because her favorite place to start in the movie is "the part with the bad guy." In this movie the "bad guy" is the freaky child snatcher who lures the kids out of the basement with candy, and then kidnaps them. We try to use it as a teaching tool not to take candy from strangers! Thankfully there are lots of other less weird parts she likes to re-enact also, such as singing "You two" to Devin and I (although she thinks it's allowable to wipe her hands on her shirt after we wash them, "like in You Two!"), crying out for help because she has just driven her car into the mud, calling Devin "papa" and like I said, me "Truly," and my personal favorite, the music box part, complete with Julia singing all the words and doing a pseudo-robot/doll dance just like the lady in the movie.

Ok, so now I'm realizing that this post makes it seem like we watch a TON of TV at our house. We really don't! I promise! These movies are just what she chooses to watch in stead of PBS or Disney, or whatever normal kids her age like to watch. Apparently she is genetically programmed to be a musical theater nerd! :) And the good thing is that the time we do spend watching these movies has led to many active hours of wanting me to do ballet and tap dances with her, and she always wants to "dance with my king" who is of course, Daddy.