Julia said her first three word sentance tonight while she was taking her bath.

"My pee'd bath"

Today was our family Father's Day celebration.
The Man is due to go back out to sea soon, and won't be home for the actual Father's Day.

The kids and I got busy, and quietly planned things on the sly.

Antonio and Julia made these pictures for him to take with him on the boat.
They also picked out, by themselves, a Spongebob Squarepants coffee mug.
Antonio's....um..Dad's favorite. (actually he's a family favorite)




It was rainy out, so we rented multi player playstation games and hung out and tried to conquer cartoon land.



Julia will definitely be a worthy opponent, you know, once we turn her controller on.

Last night was cards night.
Julia had a late nap and stayed up with us for a bit.
She's pretty good.

Today we had a barbecue with some of the guys that work with The Man and our neighbors.
Of all things we had to eat and out of all things offered to her, the favorite, by far, was watermelon. She quite possibly ate at least half of a cantaloupe sized watermelon by herself.





I had to be pretty diligent about swapping out the empties as she cruised by after wrestling this one from her.



Have I mentioned here that her middle name was almost Sandia, the Spanish word for watermelon?
I ate half of one of these little guys almost every day the last part of my pregnancy with her.

This afternoon visiting with neighbor girlfriend, Julia joined us, reluctantly.
She would much rather be down on the slip & slide with the big kids.
Really she just wanted to stand at the top and not slide down.
While the bigger kids didn't have a problem launching themselves around her, it's probably not the best place for little two foot tall children to hang out.

So, up on the deck with the moms she was.
After about 30 seconds of casing the area, she decided it was way more interesting to be up on my lap.
We're just chatting, and watching the kids play.
Julia's little arms reach out around my neck for a tight hug.
Sweet, she just started giving little aggressive hugs this past week.
There's really nothing like feeling her little arms squeeze with all their might around you.

Then she rests her cheek against mine, and gives me little kisses.
"Yes, Mwwah! I love you so much too!"

"Oh, more, okay", exchange more loves.

...try to carry on conversation with girlfriend and set Julia down to play.
She wasn't in the mood to be distracted, and after about 5 minutes, it felt like I had a little monkey wrapped around my head.
She just wanted to be there wrapped around and pressed onto my face.
No amount of prying could get her off without maximum screeching.
So, I could either carry on the conversation with a child on my head, or start dinner.
Making dinner was the winner, and I bribed her down with the expectations of Food.Now.

Then later on after bath time, Antonio was read to and tucked into bed.
Well, not into bed, it's still really hot.
We let him sleep in our room, with the fans blowing.
Julia wasn't able to settle down with him in there, so we brought her outside where The Man and I were enjoying iced tea and the cooler evening air.
Once again, she chirped to be picked up and scrambled her way up to my head and her arms found that familiar place to wrap around.

We were out there for a good twenty minutes, with her hugged onto me at various spots.
Why is it when it's the hottest out, kids need to be that much closer to you?
Do they feel heat differently that it's cooling to be stuck to another person?

Julia poolside this afternoon.

Do I need to mention how she squealed with joy at seeing her new bathing suite.
Or how when she put it on she took the edges of it's skirt in her fingers and looked up at me all happy and twisted herself back and forth almost in a twirl?




Noticing the familiar glare coming off her SPF 50,000 skin, I thought better than risk it and rely on sunscreen alone.
I remembered we had a pop up shade cover/tent thing which Daddy and I set it up with ease and created Julia's own pool retreat.
She put the hat on for added protection, should a ray of sun sneak through the canopy




Meanwhile, Antonio (equally as SPF'd) and his pals were playing on the slip and slide set up between our houses.

Today it was up into the 80's outside.
I was bummed about being at work, until I came home, to my super hot house.


After we'd been home a bit, I caught this wild little cherub on my chair sneaking drinks of sweet tea



The season of the water fights have started.
Antonio didn't have enough so after dinner he cooled down while I watered the garden.

The sweet man brought me coffee in bed this morning, my favorite.
The kids had made these gifts at school.
Antonio made a wreath and a list of special things he'd do for me today:

1. Help clean mwy room.
2. Give you u ahug
3. Give you a kiss
4. Helpyou with laUndry
5. Helpyou do dishes*

Julia had some help making this sweet little apron.




*Antonio's spelling and word spacing


Note fabric softener sheet from laundry I didn't have to do today.

Antoino called after Cirque Du Soleil last night.
They were driving to dinner and we only had a few minutes, he's only six and still has a bit of trouble multi-tasking, city driving is rough when you're on the phone too. He's getting better with the clutch though.

Anyway, he said it was awesome and he loved it. Gramma sent me a some pictures this morning. They weren't allowed to take pictures inside. Something about aerial acrobatics and flashes don't jive so well




Now, this is just a great picture



He comes home this afternoon & we're excited to hear all about it.
Julia will be stoked to see him. When she woke up, after she greeted us with a cheerful "HiYA!"
she asked for her brother and looked around the house for him for a little bit.

Yesterday afternoon, the kids and I traveled to Grandpa's work, which is just about mid-way between my house and theirs.
Antonio is having a weekend with the Grandparents.
They, unbeknownst to him, got tickets for the Cirque Du Soleil.

As I drove, Antonio starting asking questions, real sly like.
"How long am I going to stay?"
I told him two nights, that we'd see him on Saturday.
"Where are you going to be?"
I said, at home with Julia and Daddy.
I almost didn't hear the whispered hiss of "Sweeeet!"
I asked him if he was okay with us not being there.
"No way! I'll be okay"

He gets 100% Grandparent focus for two days.
Things couldn't be better...well, until he finds out about the circus.

Julia was happy in the car on the way back, until the sucker someone at Grandpa's work gave her was finished. I think not having any sucker was only part of the reason she crabbed out.
I think she missed Antonio, her back seat partner in crime.

This morning, I thought things would go easier and quicker, since I only had one child to help get ready to go. I followed the same routine, omitting the 3 trips to Antonio's bedroom to make sure he's getting ready, and the cereal pouring. Someohow I ended up leaving the house 10 minutes later than I should have.

Julia was only semi-cooperative getting ready. While I finish up a few things in our room, she usually hangs out open the bed and jabbers at me.
This morning she was quiet, & when I peeked at her, she had taken her socks off, thrown them off the bed and snuggled up in my blankets.
She even had a scowl.
I don't blame her, I didn't want to get up and go either.

This morning when Antonio woke up he scurried into our bathroom where The Man was getting ready for the day.
He grabbed his dad's deodorant and said, "My armpits smell like garbage, I need this."

He had a wild night of playing with a bunch of kids and went to bed without a bath.

Over breakfast, The Man brought it up for conversation.
I asked Antonio if he thought he should have his own deodorant, and he said, with that shy cool guy look on his face "Yeah"
then added, "Sometimes I wake up and my armpits smell like tacos."

The past few mornings, Julia has woken up anywhere between 1:30 and 4:30.
She may be a bit chilly, since she kicks around her bed so much she looses the blanket.
As she squawks at me from her bed, I wake up enough to scoop her up and snuggle her in bed with me.
After a bit of kicking, turning over and getting herself comfey, she goes back to sleep, as do I.

This morning, she woke me up at 4:11.
Instead of squirming around to get settled, she sat up and clapped and sang a little baby song.
Then she kicked her feet, a lot, and chirped a bit.
Finally, after about 20 minutes she settled down to a slight twitch.
While she was going to sleep, I wasn't able to with the constant leg jab action from the wee one.
So, I laid her back in her bed, and she (and I) went back to sleep.

Then, at 5:30, Antonio comes in asking why I was still in bed.
This morning we didn't have to get up until 6 and I let him know.
He muttered something about me sleeping in as he walked back to his room.

So, at 6, I finally get up.
I guess Antonio had decided to nap until I got up, but he cheerfully sprang out of bed when I checked on him on my way to get morning coffee.
Julia was chipper too, and snuggled up in my bed and had her breakfast bar while I got ready.

It's so much easier to get up when it's light out these mornings.

This weekend my mom brought over a box of books that had been hiding in her garage since the dawn of time. Or maybe from when I was a little girl.
I was so excited to see these treasures.

Antonio has been picking out books from the box for bedtime stories.
Tonight we read Frosty The Snowman.
When we were finished, we noticed that it was dated from when she gave it to me.
Christmas 1978.
Antonio was in awe at how old the book was.

Then he says, "Man, I sure like old fashioned things"