I'm too addlepated to come up with anything coherent today, so instead, a potpourri:
1. If three-year-olds are often especially lovey-dovey with their parents, Julia is going out of the way to prove it.
2. Today, Vivi said "uh-oh" a number of times, first imitating Julia and then using it correctly when, say, tossing unwanted peas or toast overboard.
3. Vivi spent a good fifteen minutes this afternoon taking crayons out of a tin, transferring them to the tray on the easel, and then putting them back in the tin. I was almost embarrassed to watch her working so intently and unselfconsciously to take two out of the tine and put them in the easel tray, choose three others to put back in the tin, then choose one on the ground to put in the tray, and so on for a long time. After a while I convinced myself she was intentionally varying the challenges: "Can I pick up three fat crayons with one hand and lift them all to the easel?"
4. Julia and I went for perhaps the shortest walk ever this morning, one she was excited to take despite the steady rain. Heading out of the garage with our umbrellas, we crossed the street. As we hit the sidewalk on the other side, there was a huge blast of lightning and peal of thunder. We turned right back around and headed inside, Julia saying the whole way, "Mama said we had to go inside if there was lightning." Daddy agrees.