Fun is in the eye of the beholder

Today I was in the kitchen making soup and homemade bread. Julia loves to help out, and since the bread was now in the oven, she wanted to do something else. I was about to ask her to stir the soup when the phone rang. It was the electrician, with a follow-up call. (He came over yesterday to replace a bad outlet upstairs....one day it was fine, the next day it was black and stinky.....) Anyways the electrician told me I needed to unplug any and all of my space heaters for fear that our house would burn down. I must have sounded rather distraught at the mere thought of losing my beloved Heat Machine, because both the electrician and Julia caught on to the note of helplessness in my voice. The electrician told me he wanted to rewire our house and put a special circuit in just for space heaters. While he was waiting to hear my response, Julia, who was still in "help mommy" mode, shouts proudly:

"MAMA! I PUT THE BOOZE ON THE DINING ROOM TABLE FOR SUPPER TONIGHT!"

oh dear.

The electrician laughs. "Been a long day, honey?" He says. I turned beet-red. Not only does he know that I am an idiot when it comes to anything with current, he now thinks that I am PREGNANT booze hound! I got him off the phone by telling him there was someone at the door. Oh dear. I should have said that the liquor store was closing soon and I needed to make a Beer Run before six o'clock rolls around. I might need to find a new electrician.

And I need to tell Mike to stop leaving the Captain Morgan out in plain sight. Miss Julia knows what it is, and she also thinks that it goes right between the 1% and the butter on the dining room table.

...it smells like Papa in here....

I need to start writing down all of the funny things that Julia says in a day. That girl is sharp as a tack. Most of the things she notices I never would. Like this morning, when I had her at the hospital with me for a few minutes....we walked into the call room, and she says,
"It smells like Papa in here."
"Julia, why do you say that?"
"Because it stinks in here and he's a boy."

O...kay... I guess I can't blame her for her astute sense of smell. Sorry, Mike. Instead of telling you this, you are probably reading it on the web.

Another one:
I asked her what she wanted from Santa this year. Her response?
"I want Marge."
"Marge?"
"She gives me french fries."
(Marge is the cafeteria lady at St. Luke's hospital. I will have to share this one with her.)
I guess Santa is going to have to figure out how to fit Marge the cafeteria lady into his red sack on Christmas Eve. Why can't Julia just ask for a dolly or a train set?
Tonight when Mike was singing Julia her bedtime song, I walked by the bedroom door and heard a familiar tune. I couldn't place it: was it a hymn? no.... Some Christmas song??? No..... Some classical tune off of public radio? no..... I knew I had heard it before, so I strained my ears to figure it out. All of a sudden, I had flashbacks to seventh grade ballroom dancing: My husband was singing "Moon River" to our kids for a bedtime song. Whoa. What ever happened to a good old fashioned lullaby? Oh well, at least he was willing to put the kids to bed after I had them alone all evening....
Why is it that the toddler ALWAYS knows what items are most important to you? Case in point: my chapstick. Julia likes to hunt for chapstick. Before she was mobile, I swear we had twenty sticks of the stuff. - one in every room, a few in storage for later, one in every coat pocket, etc. Well, Julia thinks it's just delicious. Doesn't matter if it's menthol or sparkly or *expensive Bath and Body works chapstick that was a gift to mommy from a patient*

....!

I will let you guess which tube The Toddler decided to eat today. Above, you can see that Julia found my favorite chapstick in my jewelry box and, while I was at work, schmeared it all over her face. She did tell her papa that it was delicious.