Aren't they sweet? I took this of the lovebirds last night at school.

What you don't know, is that after this picture was taken, Zach wanted to tell me all about how he had a space shuttle toy and launcher at home, and of course, Lulu wanted my undivided attention, too. (You can't see it here, but Lulu has a space shuttle picture in her hand that she had colored earlier in the day.) All the while Zach is breathlessly telling me about his shuttle launcher, Lulu is doing frustrated "Arrgh!" because she can't get a word in edgewise.

I start ushering her out the door and say in passing to her teacher, Becca, that I'd better get her out to the car or else she and Zach are going to get divorced before they're married! Becca laughs and then tells me how earlier in the day, they both proceeded to get on each others nerves.

It seems that earlier in the day, as they sat at the same table playing or having snack or something, Lulu kept asking Zach if he was going to marry her, over and over and over again. Zach was like, "Yes, yes...YES, I already told you I was going to marry you, stop asking me!" So Lulu leaves him alone for like, ten minutes. And then she can't take it any more, and she starts up again, which has Zach about ready to tell her, 'No' from the constant badgering.

Are you familiar with the phenomenon that is the Philadelphia taste treat known as the TastyKake? Yeah, me neither.

But they are suddenly a huge hit in the Las Casa de Camarillo household, namely Lulu and Eddie. One of my colleagues, moved to Portland from Philadelphia a year ago. His mother just sent him a large care package of assorted TastyKakes which he decided to share with the office.

I grabbed a package of the Jelly Krimpets last Friday before heading off to pick up the girls from school, knowing I'd regret my choice of after school snack for them, before even giving it to them. (Mainly, I was worried about sticky fingers. That was the least of my problems...)

Bean wasn't terribly impressed with the whole TastyKake hoopla, and ended up discarding chunks of Kake in her car seat and on her coat in the car. Lulu on the other hand, had hers devoured in under 5 seconds and begging for more.

When we got home that night, Lulu found the piece of TastyKake Bean had dropped on her coat. She asked what she should do with it and I suggested she could save it for dad. She thought it was a better option to just eat it herself. No willpower, that one. When Eddie took Bean out of the car, he found the other missing piece of Kake and that was gone in his mouth faster than one can blink.

All I heard about from both, all weekend long was how great TastyKakes were and if I could get more.

When I got in to the office Monday morning, there were fortunately, TastyKakes still left to be claimed. I quickly grabbed a package of chocolate cupcakes and two packages of the Jelly Krimpets. Last night when I picked Lulu up at school, I made the grievous error of telling her that I had scored more treats and she could have some for dessert if she ate her dinner that night. She was totally cool with that until she got into the car. Major meltdown. She wanted a little taste of TastyKake and NOW!!! Tears and crying for TastyKake.

Unbelievable.

Lesson learned: Reveal coveted foodstuffs only after dinner and deny, deny, deny until that time.

This is Lulu's snazzy and recently new, meal time plate. She chose it herself at Target. Yes, she is crazy for Toy Story 1, 2 and 3!

On Sunday, I gave her some lunch and she made a point of letting me know that, "Buzz does not like food on his face!" This must be a recent development, as she's eaten plenty of meals, meals which entirely covered Buzz and his fellow aliens, until now.

We now take great care now when placing food on the plate, to leave his helmet (and view) unobstructed.

Some folks are dog, horse or baby-whisperers. Lulu evidently communicates with melamine plastic.

Anyone with a little girl under the age of probably 9 years old within the past several years, is more than familiar with the Polly Pocket dolls and their merchandising efforts. We had a Cinderella Polly, whom Lulu ended up taking her hair off of. Eddie and I found she bore a striking resemblance to Sinead O'Connor, controversial singer from the 1980's and 90's, who is stunningly beautiful and has an amazing voice. Eddie and I are both big fans of her music.

Above, Polly who is now referred to as Sinead at La Casa de Camarillo. It's not uncommon to hear us say, "Yeah, I put Bean in her playpen. She's playing with Sinead..." or "Have you seen Sinead? She was in Lulu's room on the floor yesterday and now I can't find her..."

Above, the real Sinead O'Conner, circa late 1980's-early 1990's.

This is another Polly, Lulu inherited from our neighbor across the street once she was too old to play with them. This particular doll has wires in her hair so you can crimp and style it. From the get go, she reminded me of a late 1980's one hit wonder singer whose name escaped me. Finally, I remembered her name: Jane Child.

Above, the real Jane Child circa 1988-1989 from her music video, "I Don't Wanna Fall In Love" which sounds very much like she lifted a lot of it from a Howard Jones song of the same era. Lulu and Eddie watched the video for the aforementioned song with me the other night, and a few days layer, Lulu asked me about it. "Mommy, why did that woman have those pointy shoes on that hurt her feet???" Well, it's still unclear if those pointy, high heeled ankle boots hurt Ms. Child's feet in the video, but her outfit sure left an impression on Lulu...

Above is a GORGEOUS music video for a song called (wait for it...) "Jane Child" by the group Modern Skirts. This is a fairly current release and very, very catchy (aka addictive) tune. If you watch the video, available to view here: http://www.myspace.com/video/vid/106320356 and I hope you will, try to listen to the words. Ms. Child's earlier decade penchant for her ear and nose rings is referenced in this love song to her by the band.

Eddie shared this saying with me that Lulu had told him recently. We figure most of you have probably already heard it and we are the last two people on earth who are hearing it, now. But it's terribly cute, nonetheless.

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"It's raining cat's and dog's...Be careful, don't step in a poodle!"

Yesterday we had a Lulu and Mommy and Daddy date. We went to see "Tangled" at the Academy Theater (Lulu's 3 time seeing it, mom's second - GREAT flick!) Lulu dressed up as a pirate earlier in the day and wanted to wear her outfit to the movie show. We encouraged it, but wouldn't allow her to bring her foam pirate sword into the movie house. Pirate swords have to be left in the car...Pirate rules, you know.

Eddie took these great pictures of her after the movie as we were walking back to the car. Eddie's iPhone has this fabulous feature that let's you take pictures with these filters so they look totally old-school. If you didn't know better, you'd think the pictures above and below were taken in either the 1960's or 1970's.

Ain't technology, grand?

Love, love, love our lil' Pirate grrrrr-l!

Lulu wanted to make sure that she and Jojo had their "matching" Dr. Seuss shirts on for school today. Don't you love the matching sneakers?!

Grandma Mary and Bumpa gave these shirts to the girls a while back and now they are both finally big enough to each wear them. Also, Lulu was very excited that I was taking a picture of them in their shirts for Grandma and Bumpa to see on the blog.