Audition tape

You've probably seen this commercial.



What I bet you didn't know what that Julie actually auditioned for one of the guinea pig roles. Here's her tape:

(Password is row.)


I think she's got a future in show biz.

A visit to the zoo

The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo is free to residents of Cuyahoga County on Mondays, year-round. You just show up, flash your drivers' license, and they let you in! Cleveland gets a bad rap, but it's a great city for families.

Last week, Julie's little preschool class went to the zoo on Monday. We packed the babies into strollers, lunches into coolers, and put on our walking shoes. I'd taken Julie to the zoo once before, but she was only a year and a half old, I think. I'm probably a bad mom.

Well, Julie loved the zoo. She was so excited. I got some pictures, but my camera battery died partway through our day. We had beautiful weather -- high 60s, I think. Then it snowed the next day.

Julie was super excited about the elephants.

She also liked the giraffes.

I love tigers, and she allowed me to take a picture of her there as well.

Julie's class with "the monkey." (Side note: we were a crazy little group. Preschool this year has been Julie and four other kids from church, and us moms all rotate teaching. So it was five parents, five students, five younger siblings, and one older sibling. Four moms and one dad -- that mom had had a baby four days earlier -- eleven kids, four double strollers, and one regular stroller. We were a zoo within a zoo.)

A video of the tiger. And the Julie. Password is stripes.

Rollin' rollin' rollin' (or not)

So, Robyn rolls over can roll over. She's done it a handful of times -- five or six maybe. Generally, she like being on her tummy -- it's a change from being propped in a chair/cling/whatever. But lately, when she's done with tummy time, instead of rolling onto her back, she just puts her head down, does a total faceplant, and just cries. She can't yet roll from her back to her front, but she can go the other way. She just won't. I'm not sure why.

Anyway, here's a fun little video of her playing and "trying" to roll over. It's five minutes long, so casual readers might not care so much -- it's grandparent material. :)

Password is rolling.

Her father's daughter

You know how sometimes you're just so tired, you think you might fall asleep on the spot, exactly where you are? Ben has done it. Standing up. On someone's doorstep.

Julie, it seems, is her father's daughter. She's an easy sleeper -- whenever, wherever, and she isn't easily disturbed. I caught her on video a couple weeks ago.

Password: dozer

Easter fun

I didn't take any pictures of the girls in their Easter dresses. Julie was being a little less than cooperative, and Robyn's diaper was quite uncooperative when it came to pictures (I had to change her clothes at church because she wet through). We'll try again during the week.

We did, however, get around to dying eggs, though not until Easter evening. I put the eggs on to boil on Saturday afternoon, but by the time they were cooled all the way through, it was too late to start the dying that evening still, so we waited. Last year, Julie and I went over toe a neighbor's house to dye eggs, but she and her friend got bored after about 30 seconds, so my friend and I ended up dying about 2 dozen eggs ourselves while the kids ran around outside. This year she was much more interested in it. She's been watching the movie Here Comes Peter Cottontail, and I told her that we were going to paint eggs just like Peter does in the movie, with special egg paint. She was really excited.

All the stuff together...

Excited to get started!

She liked dropping the tablets in and watching/listening to them fizz.

But the vinegar (for bright bold coloring) stank -- P. U.!!!

Daddy sure was happy this evening.

Look what we did!



This the current face she gives us if we ask her to smile.

My handsome husband.

She was super excited about her Phineas & Ferb toothbrush.


(Side note: For Christmas I had asked for a point & shoot camera. I take a lot fewer pictures of daily goings-on and also outings with having the bigger camera. It's just not as convenient. They serve two different functions. Ben and I did some research and settled on a P&S that we thought would be a good fit. For the most part I like it, but it seems to really like putting a glowy haze on every photo. I need to check the settings, but sorry if your eyes are funky now.)

Giggles

Robyn is starting to giggle a lot more lately. Here's a small sampling. These clips are from my iPod, so they're pretty low quality.

The password is giggle.

Outtakes

These are a few "outtakes" (or at least, less-than-professional) shots from a recent little photo shoot I did with Robyn. The rest of the pictures are here, along with the story of what's so special about this dress. (Please pardon the watermarks on these images.)

With my mom. (Mom, I have farther out shots that I'll edit to send to you.)

The dress with pretty stiff with age, so it felt coarse, and Robyn spent a lot of time fingering and exploring it.

Just some extraneous details.

I love love LOVE this shot, but unfortunately, her eyes are not in focus. Boooo. :( But I still wanted to share it here.