Cute little girl.

Solioquy of a single dad

This one's for you, Spork.

Lately Julia - like all toddlers, so I'm told - insists upon playing with everything but her toys. This would not be a problem if she had no toys to speak of, but that simply is not the case. Consequently, every time I'm cleaning up her last mess, she's making me a new one by "playing" with something else. ("Papa's!" - "Yes, Julia, that's Papa's razor. Can I have it, please?" - "NOOOOOO!" - *razor is forcibly removed from iron grip; child moves on to electric socket with the single word "Finger..." while Papa rapidly attempts to find an out-of-reach place for the razor; the band plays on*)

Sarah received a nice tall ceramic mug as a Christmas package a few days back. Today it was sitting on the edge of the stove, near the step that J climbs to reach whatever hot thing happens to be sizzling on the stovetop at the moment. I'm happily and blissfully washing dishes at the sink when suddenly I hear "Coffee! Coffee!" Glancing back over my shoulder, I see Julia, in one fluid motion, snatch the mug off the stove and pitch off her little step with this huge mug clutched to her chest and land flat on her face. CRUNCH. Complete and utter silence follows for about three seconds (except in my head which is going "Ohcrap-ohcrap-ohcrap-ohcrap-oh...") and then she begins screaming bloody murder.

Suds flying, Papa to the rescue. I'm imagining lacerations and stitches on her already burn-scarred chest, but luckily the mug (and the linoleum) took the hit this time. Unfortunately, I think Sarah only managed to enjoy one cuppa out of this mug before the thing bit it.

I finally managed to calm the child down and I'm attempting to get her to sit down on the floor and not move so I can sweep the thing up, when I hear another crunching sound. This time the cat has selected a bite-sized chunk of the scattered china to enjoy. He sees me looking at him, and with a shout of "BUNG! Drop it!" I'm chasing him across the dining room and behind the couch. I managed to extract him quickly, but I'm not sure what happened to the china-snack. I imagine I'll find it with my foot tomorrow. But the fun didn't stop there...oh, no.

Upon my return to the kitchen, I find Simon and Julia dancing upon the remains of the mug. I lifted them both bodily off the mess and made them sit well away from the mess before finally sweeping it into the garbage. Whew.

What did you do today?

J with her mug, post-accident. Large crack on this side; the broken-away part is hidden on the other side.

Lutsen

A picture Mike took that I think should be put on a postcard.


Last weekend, the residency program sent us up the north shore to Lutsen for a little R&R. It snowed seventeen inches while we were there!!! Unfortunately, I left the camera in the car and didn't know that frozen batteries don't work very well. We did manage to snap a few pictures on the last day. Julia was a hit. The first night we were there, she perfected "table dancing," where she danced to Nintendo music upon the coffee table for all to see. Sorry all I can give you is a mental picture of that one. The next day, we took Julia and her little buddy, Asa, sledding. (Asa is the son of one of my fellow residents and he is two days younger than Julia.) Since there weren't any sledding hills, we took to the slopes with our sleds. Nobody seemed to mind, all we needed to do was try and stay away from the snowboarders and downhill skiers. With all the fresh snow, I must say that it was a very successful sledding adventure. Asa and I wiped out once, and Julia, upon witnessing the event, promptly melted down. She screamed bloody murder and cried hysterically until I came and proved to her that I wasn't broken. I swear, she is obsessed with people getting injured and worries about me and my clumsy state.

Here are a few photos for you:

Lutsen Mountain, the view from our condo:Julia, all ready to go outside. She reminds me of that kid from "A Christmas Story" after his mom bundled him all up. She did topple over a few times and needed assistance. I think she looks a bit alarmed that her hands have turned into little knobs....
Julia dances to some nintendo music. As I blog, I just happened to notice that she has something pointy and metallic in her left hand. How that child has not managed to end up in the E.R. again is beyond me.....

Pages in the album

This morning I was given the job of amusing you all with my creative witticisms. OK, Sarah actually said "Will you blog today, please?" and because I was half-asleep and not thinking clearly, I said yes. (Not that I think this is a chore - just not feeling particularly inspired this evening.)

Now it is ten to eleven (that's P.M.) and I'm just remembering this little task. And realizing, dear reader, that I do not have any new pictures to share with you, mostly because the camera is in the car that is parked in the physician lot at St Mary's.

And speaking of cars. Here's the lowdown on that one: the local Queen of Wheeling and Dealing (Sarah) managed to snag us an almost-new, four-wheel-drive Toyota Sienna minivan for under 20 grand. This is a big step for us, but one that had to happen before baby #2 arrives come end of May. The Concorde is sold, gone, out of the picture (it was very good to us, but had a limited future and utility in a two-child, one-dog, one-cat family). And this new vehicle is so huge and boatlike compared to our little CR-V that I have unofficially dubbed it the Enterprise (Sarah doesn't know this yet). The only thing I dislike about it is the color: it's that boring beige/sand/tan color that allows the eyes to slide right over it and leave it unnoticed in a row of more exciting vehicles.

Backing up. Since I have no new photos to share with you, here is a selection of my more favorite old ones, dredged up from the bottom of the file folder. Enjoy.

Halloween 2006: Vampire Julia, complete with red glowing eyes.

State Fair 2006. The look on J's face always gets me in this one!

Christmastime 2006: With Grandpa Noel and Grandma Deb.

January, 2007. Julia's first face-forward car ride. She was very pleased with us that day.

August, 2006. In our little apartment in Fridley (courtesy Aunt Norma) while Sarah was doing rotations at HCMC.

Sarah's gonna kill me for this one.

Back to the blogosphere

Thank you everyone who is checking our blog out today after I have been delinquent for over two weeks. Although I can't promise daily updates and constant witty remarks, I can probably commit to bi or even tri weekly updates and some witty or sarcastic remarks. Hope you are doing well.

January and February are the fastest months of the year. Just as soon as you get back into the swing of regular life after the holidays, it seems that Ash Wednesday is approaching. Well, enjoy the fast months. Maybe January and February go by quickly because there is nothing to see or do but work, eat, and try to lose the ten pounds you've gained. It's kind of like a long car trip. For some reason, driving across North Dakota always seems quick, too. It's not because North Dakota has an unlimited speed limit...it's because you kind of zone out into your own little place and pretty soon you're in Montana. Well, I think of the month of March as like getting to Montana after a long Dakota's drive.

With that thought, here are a few updates:
1. Pregnancy is more than half over. YAY.
2. Julia has learned the word, "levitate." Mike reads her this book about aliens called "Space Case," and the aliens levitate back to mars at the end. I was reading her a different book the other day and a dog was flying through the air. Out of the blue, Julia goes, "Levitating!" whoa.
3. Amongst all the call I had last week, we managed to negotiate a heckuva deal on a new item that is parked outside our house right at this moment. Wednesday's blog will give you the details.

And now for some random photosI found this mostly-eaten stick of delicious butter behind our couch. I tried to take a close-up of it...try and see that there are little ridges from somebody's front teeth in it. I wonder if she ate the wrapper, too.
silly girl. too much butter on the brain.
Why does Julia have a santa hat with an "A" on it? We were at the Mall of America a couple of weeks ago and were given these hats to participate in the world's Biggest Christmas Carol: the song from Alvin and the Chipmunks (Christmas Christmas time is near.......) Well, unfortunately, Mike and I have big heads. The hats would not fit us, no matter how hard we tried to squish our giant heads into the polyester. Alas, Julia inherited two of them and we went to Old Navy instead of singing because we felt stupid for not wearing hats....