Charm.

Whenever Julia walks up to me with a big smile on her face, grabs my hand, chirps "s'go Daddy!" ("let's go Daddy!") and walks me off to wherever she wants to play, I melt. Please don't tell her this.

Carpinteria Fourth.

Family members that have experienced July 4th camping in Carpinteria should appreciate this strip by Richard Thompson.

Julia the Cartoon.

Julia's recently begun doing something very amusing, although I don't have any idea as to where she picked it up from. When asked a question, she'll mutter "hmm" and tap her chin with her index finger. As far as I know, no one outside of a cartoon (it is a staple expression there) has genuinely done the finger-tapping-on-the-chin-while-thinking thing in over 50 years, so I have no idea where she got this from. And no, she didn't get it from me, because my kids have neither a clue nor the interest in what I do while I'm away all day at work.

Mickey and Minnie.

So we went back to the pet store to purchase a new fish for Wesley and brought home two (one for Julia). They settled on the names Mickey and Minnie (I know - Shannon is completely in their heads now). When we had to leave to go camping in Carpinteria a week or so later, I purchased a fish feeder "biscuit" that supposedly releases food over time. We returned a couple days later to find Minnie and a deceased Mickey. Note to self: no more feeder biscuits. I quickly removed Mickey, placed the fish bowl in a place to obscure Wesley's view and waited until nap time to rush back to the pet store and find the best match for Mickey I could find. I found one and Wesley was none the wiser when he visited the fish after his nap. Crisis averted.