This is why I love spring...

Tulips!

My most favorite of flowers

Had lots of them in our wedding

I have planted lots of tulip bulbs at every house we have owned

This year was the first spring we had tulips at our new house

I just love the beautiful bright colors, the sweet, aromatic scent, the long stems and the smooth curvature of the flower petals

A mature palate?

She wouldn't eat pizza

Or crackers and cheese

But she gladly devoured both of these:

If you are a very neat and clean momma, I don't recommend giving your toddler tomato soup. It is very messy, but Julia just loved it! Of course, as you can see, it was the heart healthy kind (I am a cardiac CNS and have to set an example). We made the mistake of keeping her in a white shirt while she refused to put on a bib. Oh well, maybe the Spray-n-Wash will get it out. If not, there are lots of other things she can wear.

Yes, that second photo is 3-Bean Salad. I recently tried some at the salad bar at work and found it quite tasty. Julia wanted to try some, so I gave her a bite expecting her to spit it out in disgust, but no, she enjoyed it and said "more, more" all while signing "more" (we know she really wants something when she signs it AND says it).

She has weird tastes as a young child, but I hope it continues. We also enjoyed some tasty broccoli tonight with dinner. She enjoys that too.

A Shopper....or Not

On my days off (Fridays), Julia and I like to go to various stores to browse. The last place we went was Kowalski's. For those of you who don't live in Minnesota (or don't know what Kowalski's is), Kowaslski's is a grocery store. Not just any grocery store. It is a, what I call, "fancy" grocery store or "gourmet" grocery store. The store has some of your typical mega-store items, but it specializes mostly in top quality ingredients: a fabulous deli/delicatessen, a superb selection of high quality meats, breads and much more. Their produce section is beautiful: everything is well organized and facing one direction and looks fresh and delicious! I don't do my regular grocery shopping her because that would be pricey, but I love to go to get some good breads, meats and produce. They sell my absolute favorite hummus here (made by my friend Deena in St. Paul): Deena's Gourmet Hummus. It is super good and I think everyone needs to try it. She has a new flavor: black bean chipotle that is to die for! Kowalski's is a grocery store that I can tolerate being in for a long time; unlike this type of shopping trip.

At Kowalski's they have mini-shopping carts for the little ones. I decided to let Julia give these are try while I pushed a big cart. She enjoyed pushing the cart and it was hilarious to watch her go up to a shelve look at items as if she was really shopping and then say "no" and continue on with her cart pushing. We were only a quarter of the way through the store when she decided to park her little cart in the middle of an aisle and walk away saying "bye" as if she had enough. She must have the same tolerance for grocery shopping as I do.

Let's do the Mashed Potato!

Julia is going to start her own line of hair products called "Mock's Mashed Potato Mane". She seems to think it works well because she always puts it in her hair when we eat mashed potatoes. The most enjoyable part is trying to get her in the bath tub after these styling events without getting blobs of mashed potato all over the floor and bathroom!

This is just one hair-do that you can attempt with the mashed potato product

"It makes me happy" says creator Julia Mock

AND the products can also be used as hand cream and then eaten!

OR if you want to create a large zit on your face (don't know why you would want too), you can use the products for that too!

Oh wait, I don't want these on the family blog mom!

It Used to Be Fun...

Remember when you were a kid and you loved to go grocery shopping?

You got to either rid in the cart, push the cart or cause havoc in the store (depending on what kind of kid you were). I am sure I did all of the above.

I loved grocery shopping days as a kid

It was usually my mom, my sister and me (my dad would usually already be at the store because he was manager).

I would get all excited to see my dad at the store and visit him in his office in the back of the store. I thought it was so cool how he was manager and had his own office (though thinking back, it was just a small room near the freezer and loading dock). Hey, I was a kid and I was proud of my dad (and still am).

With her list and coupon box (yes, she had a large, VERY organized, coupon box), my mom, sister and me would stroll down each aisle.

Sometimes we would run into store employees and of course they treated us like royalty because we were the "manager's family".

I remember the butcher would always come out to greet us and there was also a lady behind the service counter that was so kind to us too.

Near the end of the store was the deli and bakery, which I loved because #1 there were cookies and it smelled great and #2 there was this awesome cauliflower Italian salad that I loved (I was a weird child and loved this stuff...probably wanted it more than the cookies!)

After our groceries were bagged (by a bag boy who took extra care of our groceries, because again, we were the "manger's family"...how I miss having someone bag groceries) and in the car, my sister and I got to decide where we wanted to eat dinner.

We always went to cool places like a McDonald's with a large play land or a local fast-food place with good burgers and ice cream. It was such a fun trip and I loved it.

Fast-forward to the present....

I went to Cub today without a toddler (this would be a much longer story if she was along). I did NOT want to be there and I despise grocery shopping now.

I had my list and coupon holder (not a box, a small coupon organizer) and tried to get through that store as fast as I could.

I got mad at myself when I would get off track and miss something in an aisle I had already been to. I got mad when they were out of a big sale item. To make matters worse, it didn't seem like any of the other patrons shopping wanted to be there either because people were not polite nor courteous when squeezing through the aisles.

I made it through the store and my whole list only to find 3 checkout lanes open at 4:30pm (peak grocery time I would think). Had to stand in line for about 10 minutes.

Read some gossip magazines...nothing interesting...same old stories....Tiger Woods, Sandra Bullock, blah, blah, blah.

Reached the candy area, picked up some Gummie Savers

Finally got to check out only to be held back by a little old lady taking her time, organizing and packing her groceries (my groceries were on the same divider belt as hers).

So, I had to grab a bag from another checkout and start bagging my stuff by putting the bag in the cart and throwing stuff in....no nice bagging area to bag stuff and of course, no nice, friendly bag boy.

Halfway through my frantic bagging (I really wanted to get out of there), the cashier tells me the total, 'UGH', I think, 'Food is expensive. What did I buy that added up to THAT total?'

FINALLY the little old gal finished bagging when I was about 75% done bagging my stuff

Needless to say, I got out of there fast!

Oh, how I miss those days of grocery shopping that used to be fun...(and I didn't have to pay). :)

Thanks mom for always making the trip so enjoyable (and teaching me how to save money with lots of coupons)!!! Love you!

First Zoo Trip of the Year

Love, love, love this weather! Julia and I went to the Zoo this morning for a couple of hours. There was a Farm Babies exhibit there that would only last until the end of the month, so I really wanted to go. Julia is perfecting her recognition of farm animals and sounds, so I knew she would love going to see the real thing. She thought anything that had four legs (including the moose, caribou and camels) was either a "dog" or "horse", and anything that flew or floated in the water was a "duck".

Julia is growing up in a totally different environment than I did. I grew up in the countryside, farmland of Wisconsin and saw farms, cows, sheep, and horses everyday. Here in the suburbs/cities, you just don't see that at all (except at the zoo). Julia liked seeing the baby sheep (lambs), goats (kids), cows (calves) and chickens (chicks), but wasn't ready to get out of the stroller and pet them. I fed a few goats with the alfalfa you could get out of a gumball machine, but Julia whined when she saw me do it. She just watched from a distance. Ah, my little city girl.

The little piglets...SO cute!

Julia was a little stunned by the full-sized cow

A beautiful trumpet swan...or as Julia said "duck!"

Cute kid!

Julia watching the little lamb...or "baby" as she so correctly identified it

No, they don't have these on the farms in Wisconsin, but the dolphins are Julia's favorite exhibit, so we had to see them. This one was dribbling a ball...seriously, it was bouncing it up and down in the water with its nose. Another one was playing with a football. It was awesome!

Julia pointing at the dolphins.

My first shiner

Couldn't find a place in the baby photo book for this milestone (if I should even call it that). I would like to say there is a cool, exciting story behind this little gal's discolored eye. No dramatic tumble down the stairs, no acrobatic fall off a tricycle, no hilarious walked-into-a-wall oops. Nope, she was playing with the toy vacuum at daycare and the second I walked into the room to pick her up and go home, she tripped and hit her eye smack-dab on the corner of the pretend cleaning machine. Of course, there were tears, but the accident didn't look dramatic or traumatizing until I got home and noticed her eye had swelled and was very red. Of course, a toddler won't sit still for two seconds and definitely won't sit still to let you put ice on the injured eye. So, she toughed it out. She is perfectly fine and doesn't seem to notice it. It will be interesting to see what the doctor says about it at her 18 months well-baby check tomorrow. Wonder if I should make up a more exciting story? Naaa, that would probably look bad. :)

"A"

Julia just loves her cousin Ainsley. Whenever she sees a picture of her, which is a lot because there are pictures all over our house, she says "A?". She can't say Ainsley's full name yet, which is understandable since it is a tough 2-syllable name, but she always seems to be asking "where is A?" "Can we see A again?" She also loves to watch videos of her and Ainsley playing together. No matter how old they are in the video, she always knows when Ainsley is the other baby in the video. She just giggles with delight when watching the funny scenes:

Easter, 2010

This year we spent Easter with my family. It was great to see everyone from both my mom's side and my dad's since we missed Christmas this past year due to a wicked snow storm. Here are some pictures of the day...

Julia playing with 2nd cousin Brody (~2 months younger than Julia) and 2nd cousin Calli

A lovely picture with 1st cousin once-removed, Anna.

Going through a basket of plastic eggs with Grandpa after an easter egg hunt

Playing with her new, pretty Easter shoes

So lady-like in her dress

Isn't this such a precious picture! Daddy and Julia strolling down to the lakeside