Julia has a new game. She sits on the potty chair, which she's been doing a lot but completely successfully lately, and she reads a book.

Her favorite book is "Everybody Poops," which actually belongs to her daddy, for reasons I won't go into. Great book.

She likes to have company, so she'll often insist I sit on the rug at her feet.

This weekend, she finished her book and kept one hand inside the pages. With a sly grin, she said, "Mommy, where's my hand?" Actually, it came out more like "where my han," but that's just cute, so we don't correct her.

I played along and told her, "I don't know, Julia, where did it go?"

She got a huge smile on her face and said, "Here it is," as she revealed her missing hand (once thought lost forever but now miraculously found).

I smiled the first time, then started laughing when she did it another six times.

Greg thinks I'm weird when I laugh at this stuff. I don't care.

Another one of her favorites is to take her booster seat off her dining room chair. She puts in on the floor and stands on the seat, about four inches off the ground.

Then she calls your name until you look at her. She says, "Are you ready?" and then she STEPS OFF THE SEAT AND WAITS FOR THE APPLAUSE.

I never fail to give it, so needless to say, she does it over and over again.

I was almost sorry last Friday night when she started hopping off the seat, which is actually pretty good. I miss the old ways, and my little baby. She's a big girl, and getting bigger every day.