Who says blocks are just for kids?

Cala got a set of blocks for Christmas. When we play with them with her, we get to stack about three blocks and then Cala knocks them over. I found myself getting a little impatient with that and thinking, "Why can't she just let me build my own block tower?" So Mark and I decided to have our own block building party after Cala went to bed one night. Hopefully, after getting that out, I will be more patient when Cala knocks my towers over :)

Insecure?

This is a letter to the editor out of BYU's newspaper, "The Daily Universe". My friend who is currently in the program sent me the link, and I just had to share it. It is true that in an all-girls major some girls become quite flirtatious with the only male in the class, but honestly, it's BYU and they all know he's married! Anyways, I can't believe this girl had the audacity to put this in the newspaper, and shouldn't she be talking to her husband about his behavior in response to the flirting (which probably isn't flirting at all, just girls being nice, and a jealous wife misinterpreting).

Anyway, here it is...

All-female major

To all of the scientifically inclined men out there: apply to the dietetics program — it’s an all-female major at our campus. Well, except for my husband. Because of this, I have an inside perspective on just how starved some of these women are for male attention, even married male attention. They will all know your name and they will make sure to say “hi” to you without fail every time they see you, no matter whose company you may be in. They will make cute (albeit discriminatory) jokes about you being the only one of your sex in the program (e.g. “okay girls ... and (insert male name here)!”), followed by, and precipitating, profuse giggling. They will even go so far as to feign their inability to do something simple, such as remembering the code for a door, (or even assistance in opening said door) just so they can take advantage of and bask in your glorious masculinity that they are so starved for.

Warning: do not apply for this major if you are married or engaged — all of the above will take place even if you are married, even in the presence of your wife. Granted, maybe she’d be tough enough to handle the above, along with countless other instances of blatant rudeness, but I’m afraid she’d have to be a woman on their level — raised with a complete absence of propriety, respect, manners and self-control. To all of the women currently sharing the dietetics program with my husband: Please show some understanding and consideration for us, and think about how you would feel if your husband was in an all-female major and about how you would want him and yourself to be treated.

Yeah for fish!

Since Cala is so good at her fish and dolphin noises, we thought that she would love to go to the aquarium in Baltimore, MD. Mark and I have lots of good memories from going there as kids, and we couldn't wait to take Cala. It was tons of fun!

This is Cala's pap entertaining her while we were riding the light rail into Baltimore.

Inner Harbor in Baltimore, the aquarium is the triangular building straight ahead.

Cala loved the fish right from the start!

Mark had the lovely idea of sitting in the "splash zone" for the dolphin show! Luckily, we didn't get too wet.

We also got to see a 4-D movie. Cala was one of the few kids who didn't have to get taken out crying in the middle of the movie. (the 4th D is theater effects to make you feel like you are in the movie like a water spritz in the face, a poke in the back, or something brushing against your ankles--I wasn't a fan of the water spritz, but eveything else was pretty fun)

Us in the Australian Outback section. We thought about only posting pictures of this section and telling everybody we went to Australia for Spring Break :)

Our sleepy baby. The day really wore her out!

Breakfast with Cala

Two of Cala's great loves are sampling whatever food Mark and I are eating and helping us with whatever we might be doing at the time. This video includes some of both -- helping Mark eat his breakfast while also sampling some herself.

Happy 28th Birthday Mark!

I love birthdays! It's such a great reason to have fun, do something different, and feed an 18 month old a piece of cake! For Mark's birthday, we asked some friends to babysit while Mark and I went out for Chinese at a place that gives you mini boxes of gum rather than fortune cookies...what fun!

Then we went iceskating and practically had the whole rink to ourselves.

And I got to relive my figure skating days...I was surprised that I could still do a "spin"....kind of....I even tried a couple of jumps (amidst much protesting from my husband that I should go out on top with my spin and not try to kill myself by jumping).

Then home to cake and presents!

After Mark blew out his candles we ended up relighting some them about 10 times for Cala to practice her blowing out skills.

Animal Sounds

Cala loves animals! And she knows how to make all kinds of animal sounds, check out the video!

Warning: Super glue bonds instantly with skin!

Super glue is my favorite glue. I honestly don't understand why anyone would use any other kind of glue when super glue sticks almost any two objects together and supposedly lasts forever. The forever stuck togetherness of super glue also comes with a warning that it bonds instantly to skin...I've totally had that happen before when some super glue dripped on my finger and it took days for it to wear off...annoying but not that big of a deal.

Anyway, on Friday Mark was having a game night with the boys, and I had all kinds of crafty projects planned for myself. But first I decided to fix one of the kitchen drawers, I'll skip the details, but I of course decided to use my favorite glue to remedy the problem, I even bought the gel super glue so it wouldn't drip. All was going smoothly as I held the pieces together waiting for them to dry UNTIL I tried to let go! Turns out that somehow I had stuck my thumb in a dime-size spot of super glue and it had instantly bonded to the 2-ft long metal track that the kitchen cabinet drawer slides on!

Luckily, the tool box was within reach so I could unscrew the track from the cabinet, but then came the problem of how to unstick the unstickable glue... I tried pulling but decided that I would end up pulling off a good bit of my thumb, I tried running warm water over it, I tried pouring nail polish remover over it, then I tried crying and wondering how I would ever get the thing off my thumb. In the end I had to soak my thumb in nail polish remover for about an hour and it finally came off! Blessed relief!