Balloons and more balloons

When Julia came into my bedroom this morning at 7:03, I asked her to kindly let me stay in bed until 7:15.  After some initial resistance, she grudgingly accepted the idea and took to coloring in order to entertain herself.  As I lay in bed, slowly waking up, I heard a peep from Madeleine's room and commented to Julia that her sister was awake.  Always a rule-follower, however, Julia was unwilling to budge.

ME: Julia, I hear Madeleine.  Should we go get her up?
JULIA: I know, Mama, but the clock says 7:14, so I have to wait... OH!  IT JUST TURNED TO 7:15!!!  Okay, let's go!

As we exited my bedroom, Julia handed me the picture she had been working on, presenting it as a gift.  Later on, when we were all downstairs and I was getting breakfast for the girls, Julia sidled up to me in search of praise for her picture.  "Mama, do you LOVE the picture I drew for you?  Wasn't that such a good idea that I decided to COLOR while I waited for it to be 7:15?  But, Mama, did you even KNOW I know how to color a HOT-AIR BALLOON?"

I'm assuming the item all the way to the right is the hot air balloon.  I'm not entirely sure what the blue and purple circles are, and I'm guessing the object on the left is either a brown sun or a spider... any alternative opinions, readers??

After breakfast, we headed off to the pediatric dentist for Julia's cleaning. Julia was praised effusively by the dental hygienist for being so cooperative and exhibiting such great behavior; however, despite being such a stellar patient, sitting quietly throughout the whole procedure, Julia still felt the compulsion to let her unique spirit out from time to time.

HYGIENIST: You were so great during your cleaning, Julia!  You held so still and made it so easy for me.
ME: Great job, Jules!
JULIA: (top volume) Great job, QUEE-QUAW!
HYGIENIST: What did you say?!?

Since even I had no idea who or what Quee-Quaw is supposed to be, I was not able to enlighten the dental hygienist.

The best part of dental visits comes at the end, at which time both kids get to choose the color of the ginormous balloon they each get to take home.  Madeleine had balloon on the brain from the moment we headed out our door for the dentist's office, and had her heart set on a purple one.  Julia, unsurprisingly, chose pink.  The kids were out of their mind with excitement over their balloons, and we even managed to get all three of us into the dentist office bathroom to try the potty, then get through the parking lots holding balloons AND each others' hands.  As the girls got into their car seats, I began buckling Madeleine, who still insisted on wrapping both arms around her giant balloon.

POP!

Inconsolable sobbing.

So.... out of the car we all went, back into the dentist office, humbly begged for a new purple balloon, and set off once again through the parking lot to the car.  This time, the purple balloon hung out up from with me so nobody could squeeze it into an early death again.  We have managed to make it home with all balloons intact, although with the rough and tumble way the girls are playing with them, I'm not sure how long things will stay that way...