no joke

I felt somewhat like a failure on Wednesday. It was April 1st and I didn't play one joke on a single person. Almost equally sad, not one was played on me! In years past I have planned and plotted several jokes that have been quite successful. (I don't believe in doing anything harmful or hurtful, although setting Em's clock three hours early so she was showered and nearly ready for school by 4 am may have upset her a bit...) I have always enjoyed April fooling friends and family, and taken pride in my reputation as someone to watch out for on that day. That's why I just don't know what went wrong this year. I guess I didn't take the time to plan ahead. And then when it came to Tuesday, I wasn't even in the mood! (The uncharacteristic party-pooper in me watied until the preschoolers were lined up to go home to even tell them about the fun day. I must admit though, it was nice not to have 4-year-olds yelling "There's a spider on your head!" all day, as they do if I introduce the festivities of April 1st at the beginning of class.)

Oh well, so an April Fools' Day has come and gone nearly unnoticed. But if I start thinking now, I bet I can make next year's April 1st one to remember. We'll just have to wait and see...

"Yeah, yeah, yeah!"

While listening to a Beatles mix in the car a few days ago, we discovered Julia loves the song "She Loves You." (I guess it's because she knows most of the words in the song!) She goes a little crazy when we sing and dance to it, as you can see:

Note: Jonny and Julia are dancing in the new nursery-in-progress. Jonny painted the room last weekend. It's so fun to have blue around here! Thanks again for all the lovely recent paint jobs, Jonny. One more room, and you've tackled every one in the house!

putting her to work

Julia's Friday afternoon just became so much more eventful. Jonny is home early from work and these two are already out there getting their weekend jobs done. He says she'll be washing the car on her own by the end of this summer. That's more like it.

Sunday Morning

Like most Sundays, Julia was not happy with me this morning. She often prefers her dad on the weekends anyway, but especially after I've done her hair. Check out the way she looked at me when I came over to take some pictures:
Jonny had a little more luck getting some Sunday morning shots.
P.S. Notice how Julia's toys are strewn about in the first picture. It's getting trickier for me to pick up after her as my tummy grows. But I am feeling great and getting really excited to meet this active little boy in less than two months. I keep wondering just how Julia will feel about the new addition...

Score of Love

Jonny and I both love to win. So when the points are tallied and we have a tie, I consider it the best of both worlds. And when this happens, there is never tie breaker. We call it the "Score of Love."

We have recently experienced several Scores of Love. One of the most exciting happened a few weeks ago at Trafalga. (Has anyone else been there lately? They have remodeled the indoor course with an ocean theme in neon paint and black lights. Slightly ghetto? Yes. But really fun and nostalgic nonetheless!) Jonny must have been having an off-day with his putting skills, and it looked like I was uncharacteristicly going to win at minigolf. As much as I do love to win, I was overjoyed when he tallied our points only to find a Score of Love! (I won't say what the score was, since it is really nothing to brag about.) This seemed very appropriate since we were out for Valentine's Weekend.

Two more Scores of Love happened just yesterday. My sister Lili and husband Jeff were over for dinner and fun. We played their awesome game Who? What? Where? and ended up with two ties. Lili and Jeff had a Score of Love just two points above Jonny's and mine! As if this wasn't coincidental enough, the final tally of our Taboo game was yet another Score of Love. Incredible. Just had to document it.

"Tuck"

Julia is often heard frustratedly saying, "Tuck, tuck!" when anything is stuck. This post actually isn't about her though. I was the one who was stuck this morning. I happened like this...

I grabbed a tube of superglue to make a quick, minor home repair. Last time I used the glue I had a really hard time squeezing it out. So I opened the cap and gave it a good squeeze. Yes, of course, the glue came gushing out all over my fingertips and hands. One finger on my right hand and two on my left were stuck to the tube. I acted quickly and ripped my right hand finger away before it was permenantly attached to the tube. Phew! But I was still left with two fingers stuck to the silly tube and hardened glue on every fingertip. At this point, Julia was scared and crying. She had heard me exclaim when the tube erupted, and she was more emotionally invested than me. She calmed down in front of the TV while I sought out the nail polish remover. I always buy the kind with acetone because it was so many purposes - I was hoping removing superglue was one of them. Calling Jonny and requesting a google search on the subject confirmed the nail polish remover remedy. So for the next 45 minutes I rubbed and soaked and scrubbed until my fingers were finally released from the tube. It took a little more time to get the rest of the stuff off my fingers and hands. But, as is obvious by my typing abilites, all is well once more. I think I'll pick up some latex gloves next time I feel brave enough to employ the super powers of super glue. Any other superglue stories out there?

"Shishy"

Julia loves fishes. My sister Cami made a small photo book of cousins for all the kids in the family. Julia loves each page, but her favorite part is the Snapfish logo on the back cover. "Shishy!"

On Saturday afternoon we decided to check out the ocean life at the aquarium in Sandy. (Julia and I went in the summer, but she'd appreciate it much more now.) We headed up there only to find a packed parking lot and a line filing out the door. Turns out there was a new exhibit or something that was attracting the crowds to the small aquarium. I insisted we come back another day, and get on with the rest of our errands. Jonny, however, was determined to keep his promise to Julia. (We'd been talking about seeing the fishes all afternoon.) Waiting in a long line with an antsy toddler was not an option so Jonny drove us to the next best place: Petsmart. They had a whole wall of fishes there and Julia was thrilled. Thanks for delivering, Daddy. Maybe next week we'll show this girl some real "shishies." Or maybe we'll just see how long she's happy with 10 cent goldfish.