Baby in May

Some of you know, but many don't that we are expecting a baby on May 16th! We are thrilled to have a new little one join us this summer. Julia, we believe, will be even more thrilled when the baby becomes a playmate. The two will be just shy of two years apart. So that's what's happening around here! 

this morning...

I want to post about my Maryland trip, but I have a feeling I will only have a few minutes to write anything before Julia demands my attention. (She is jealous when I am on the computer. She wants to watch her Nick Jr. shows like she does while I shower. Either that, or she wants me to play with her. If she can't have the computer, no one can, I guess. It's a struggle!) So I will just post two of my favorite pictures from my relaxing, fun, eventful trip and put a link to Emily's blog where she detailed the week in full. Thanks, Em!

This photo was actually taken in Philly on our somewhat-spontaneous road trip. Don't worry, we not only ate Geno's famous cheese steaks and visited historical sites, but we also ran up the "Rocky Steps" - a dream come true! See Em's slide show for tons of pictures.
Meanwhile, I better get back to this little one, who is spending her morning with these two doll chairs. She squeezes her little bottom into one, struggles to get out, then squeezes into the other. Before I took this picture, she was insisting that I sit in the second chair. ("Siz," she demands!) Now she is mad that I won't. Oh, and she doesn't want pants on, but of course her favorite boots have been on since right after breakfast. (And she was upset I wouldn't put her white tennis shoes on over the boots.) So goes this morning!

Yee Haw!

This is Jonny.  Writing, that is... that's Julia riding.

My lovely wife is on the other side of the country right now, having a blast with 3 of her sisters.  Julia and are here at home and yesterday we were just twiddling our thumbs.  That's when Julia said, "Yo Daddio, why don't we go to that animal place?" (she has learned a lot while Melody is away).  I said, "Now we're talking." And off we went.

Ju loved the animals, and even fed them some corn.  Good times were had by all.

Having issues with moving the pictures around... Why does blogger only give you a tiny box to work in?

Anyway captions for the pictures:

This donkey came up behind Julia and freaked her out

The lambs were cool, but Julia wasn't so sure about the goats.

Ahhh... a cute little lamb and a cute little girl.

This is VERY incredible:

"Click, Clack, Moo"-ed Out

This has been Julia's favorite book for the past several weeks. It's probably because she loves cows (we don't quite know the origin of her obsession) and can say "Mmmmmm" (moo) on every page. She usually won't read anything else until we've read this one first. Last night Jonny was having an unusually difficult time getting her to follow him to her room to read before bed. He started quoting, "Farmer Brown has a problem. His cows like to type..." and she dropped what she was doing, clapped and ran to the rocking chair.

Ha! Just now she saw the book cover image on the screen and she clapped and mooed!

I think this is a clever, cute book and I've always liked it, I guess Jonny and I have just had enough of it for now. But not if Julia has anything to do with it!

P.S. She also likes Duck for President and Giggle, Giggle, Quack - just not as much as this one.

nice people

After Jonny ordered and payed for a sandwich at the Subway drive-up window last Friday, the cashier surprised us by saying, "Thank you for being nice people." Was he having a hard day? Were previous customers not nice and commonly courteous people? Hearing this through the window just before we drove away from this guy we will likely never see again made me hope that I am always a "nice person" as I go about my daily activities, often with strangers. I may never be thanked again for courtesy, but I will certainly remember the time I was.

enough time for pigtails

Okay, I guess it's not that exciting, but actually leaving the time to put up Julia's hair on a Sunday morning before 9:00 church is kind of a big deal around here. (Usually I just instruct Jonny to spray her hair with water, fluff it to encourage her natural curls, and clip a bow in - which, luckily, is simple and darling.) Her hair is growing quite a bit so I decided to try full-on pigtails. Success! They even made it through most of church. I know, a lot of pictures of the pigtails, but I liked her expressions as Jonny chased her around the house, snapping shots. And I especially love the aftermath photos.