Mommy is catching up....

I apologize....I have been a delinquent blogger. Furthermore, I have no recent pictures of my child to upload to this thing. Before I start telling myself that I am a negligent parent, I must remember that I have hundreds of pictures of Juila plastered on this website...and a thousand more photos (some of them incriminating.....;) on the hard drive. So, here's what we've been up to in the Sprengeler household. I also must promise this: later this week, we'll be posting a picture that you will certainly get a kick out of. I promise!

FRIDAY
Friday was the day before my birthday, and since I was on call on the actual BirthDay, we celebrated the night before. We went to Red Lobster (YAY for cash back bonus gift cards!) and ate some seafood. I didn't know what to order, and I knew Julia was hungry, so we got the "all you can eat" shrimp special. Good thing I did! As soon as the food came, Julia's cute little brown eyes turned into little red daggers: "SHRIMPY SHRIMPY SHRIMPY SHRIMPY!!!!!"

What little toddler doesn't adore.....shrimp? By the time I got her plate loaded up with shrimp scampi, she was already helping herself to the fried shrimp on my plate. I gave up cutting them in half. It was good enough to pull off their tails before Juila-zilla gobbled them up. The waitress came back two minutes later to refill our drinks and noticed that my entire order of shrimp was gone. I think I had about two, which isn't much when you're eating "shrimp." The clincher: when the waitress said "hi" to Julia, all Julia could say (with a mouth full of shrimp, mind you) was "more." Needless to say, we got our money's worth that night.

After that, we went to this indoor arcade down the street to play some games. Julia discovered DDR. (Dance Dance revolution, a Nintendo game where you follow cues from the TV and dance to a songg...for those of you who haven't had the pleasure). She jumped right up on the stage and started Jammin. She was bobbing her whole body with the beat and occassionally would shake her little diapered butt for us. I have NO IDEA where she learned that. (Perhaps daycare? Miss Barb, her teacher, is not likely the guilty party....) At any rate, Julia had a crowd of teenagers watching her Jam! If you have ever been to an arcade and seen those little asian people doing amazing moves on DDR and there are a million people standing around gawking....you can get an idea for the audience this girl could generate.

SATURDAY
Well, we did manage to make it to Target even while I was on call. Julia picked out a pair of purple boots and refused to take them off for the remainder of the weekend. We also learned to avoid the toy section at all costs.....

SUNDAY
This morning was Sunday school and church. Julia was being "active" during the service, so I held her and started pointing things out at the altar like the big picture of Jesus, the candles, the pastor, etc. I thought I had done and OK job...she paid attention for five whole minutes. When we were done, she pointed up toward the front of church and said, "Jesus....love you!" (Mommy smiled).... Anyways, after this divine and beautiful moment, I took her up to communion. When we were sitting at the rail and pastor Franck came to give us the host, Julia pointed at him and said, "Jesus...Jesus...Jesus!" Oh dear. He took it in stride, blessed her, and went along his merry way. We have some work to do.

Today, after Juila's nap, we took a trip to the Menard's in west Duluth. Our Menards is notably the largest Menard's in the world! Wow! What a claim. Daddy was very excited. He had a whole list of things to get and it was my job to babysit. Julia noticed the "Christmas Land" display they had set up.....aisles and aisles of Christmas stuff. They had a kids play area with (I am serious) a kid-sized plastic roller coaster thing. Julia discovered it and fearlessly jumped into the car and off she went. It was all fine and dandy until she drove her roller coaster car into an unsuspecting eight year old boy. I'm sure he was fine, but I'll never know...he ran off screaming in terror. I feel kind of bad about that.

I threw Julia into a plastic demo wagon and we went looking for Christmas lights to put on the outside of our house. We don't have any outside outlets, so Mike was trying to figure out a way to rig up an extension cord from the lone outlet in the garage. Julia was trying to be helpful and was grabbing any lights she could find. I was putting away some of her discoveries when I saw it: solar-powered Christmas lights! No outlet needed! We were sold.

Sunday night at our house means pizza and TV (Veggie Tales; Rack, Shack, and Benny) and then bed. Well, that was for Julia...Mommy and Daddy uploaded a couple episodes of Desperate Housewives while she slept.....

Have a good day everybody. I'll get a picture or two up later this week!