Curly Straight

Julia's little voice is so cute.

Mama: do you want your cereal with milk or no milk, Julia?

Julia, in the teeniest, tiniest voice ever: with milk.

She makes us melt.

TJ requests that I guide his hand and have him write words in cursive.

He mandates which words we write.

Tonight it was these two sentences:

The goat is eating the underwear.

The bat is flying.

zoop.

That's how fast the days go by.

Julia is suddenly a little chatterbox.

She knows many things and is not afraid to share her opinions with you.

A couple of my favorite words right now:

checkers.

turkey.

strawberry. (this one is quite hard to decipher - she was asking me for strawberries on her belly the other day - it took me a while to figure it out, she wanted me to blow raspberries on her belly.)

purple. Which is probably my absolute favorite.

I don't know what's happening with Spike.

Suddenly, she's spry again. Jumping into our bed at night to purr and to let us "pat" her - that means I stick out my finger and she rubs her face against it.

For a while, she was sleeping all day and all night and limping around. We were pretty sure these were her last days.

TJ took to calling her "The Cat That is Going to Die Pretty Soon" (as opposed to other two - "The Cat That Bites" and "The Cat That Has Front Claws" - actually I am pretty sure he knows Taylor's name, just gets Spike and Toby confused.).

Even her bumps are going down. Except for a few of them. In particular, one on her mouth that makes her look like she's constantly sticking her tongue out.

Dustmop is one strong kitty.

TJ told me tonight he likes Texas Roadhouse because you get food without ordering. Like peanuts and bread.

Just wrote a note to ask the drycleaners to mend a hole in my sweater.

Had to write "in armpit area" and it made me realize that I don't like that word, it is kind of an embarrassing word.

I'm glad I don't have reason to say it too often, to be quite honest.

Report card rocked.

Perfect attendance so far. Oh yeah.

Go my sweet little 5-year-old!

I have three orders that I'm waiting for that I want to be here on my doorstep immediately.

Usually when I order things, I forget about them and get pleasantly surprised when they arrive.

This stuff - very important stuff (cute sweater from BodenUSA, cute - and necessary - work pants from Banana Republic and coffee k cups from Amazon) seems to be taking FOREVER.

Oh and speaking of Banana Republic, I am not impressed with the quality of their stuff anymore. I bought a sweater from there, not long ago, and I have had it dry cleaned once or twice and it's already not looking good.

Not cool, BR, not cool at all. A bad quality sweater and now making me wait. So not the way to get on my good side.

Why does a grapefruit that you peel like an orange taste so much different than when you eat it in a glass bowl with a spoon?

And why is a beer so much better in a pint glass than in a bottle?

Julia sings the words along to Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer.

She still LOVES Jingle Bells. Ever since she could walk, every time she hears that song, she spins in circles. Still.

Are you kidding me that I cannot find my Christmas card list (word document with all the addresses) and I busted my butt to get my Christmas cards made?

I'll figure it out, but sheesh.

Here's what it sounds like in my car with the two kids in the back seat:

Each time we see Christmas lights or a wreath, or a Santa or anything Christmas related, the kids yell out "Christmas!"

It's very cute.

In other winter news, my sister called TJ "TJ the snowman" and Julia said "TJ is no a noman, he's my brother."

Mama: Julia, what letter starts the word Tiger?

Julia: 11.

TJ has been so super sweet lately.

He calls me "beautiful beautiful Mama." Actually, he says beautiful 10 times while counting on his fingers.

Just now, I set him up with a blanket and a Backyardigans dvd (he's eating the cauliflower while Julia takes a nap). As I'm walking away, he calls me.

"Mama!"

Mama: Yes, TJ?

TJ: Thank you for everything you do for me.

Last year we didn't make any New Year's Resolutions...

This year, we are going to!

And we will stick them all, dammit.