found on my camera

 Yeah, some kids were taking pictures.

 She's been wearing these glasses for several days.  Sometimes she drives me nuts with her chattering, but she's like sunshine, has one of those sunny personalities with all kinds of observations and ideas.

And lots of wild, giddy laughter--always the loud, squealy laughing.

When I get to living too much all up in my own head, tired, distracted, this kid cheers me up.  Every day there she is chipper chatter and happiness.

Tim just told me that today they tied their bikes together and rode in opposite directions.   When I asked how that went, he snickered, "Pretty terrible."

Julia laughed, "He's stronger, so I was just getting dragged backward!"

More evidence kids are nuts.

Julia told us yesterday in the car that when she was little, she thought that how the radio worked was that when it was time for a certain song to play, a buzzer would go off, or a light would go on at the singer's desk, prompting them to sing.

Wow, that would be elaborate, and tiresome for the singer!

She said, "True.  Now I know they just play CDs."

Yes, they do.

We went to the library today and that was very fun.   The baby took out many books, so I put away many books.   She ran all over--she likes the library.  I do too, actually, the big windows and helpful ladies, very laid back place to spend an hour.

When we left though, we could not find the car.  That stupid Toyota blends into the crowd, very incognito. (Notice I blame the poor, innocent CAR. Shameless.)

 That I was baffled was one thing, but Lydia too??    We walked up and down to the extent I wondered if it had been towed away?   The kids had stacks of books and those got heavy.  p.j. was walking and didn't really want to hold hands very much.

(Back in the day Julia didn't like to hold hands in traffic either.  She used to clasp her hands together in front of her chest in the parking lot and holler at me, "I am holding MY OWN hand!")   Pssht. That's not how it works, Child.

Then we went to the park.

Ours was the only car in the parking lot, so we had no trouble when we left there.

And this--some wild, seven acres of undeveloped land that's going on the market next week, only thirty minutes from downtown.  A long walk in the woods this afternoon, after spending the afternoon with funny kids, made it a quite perfect Thursday.

love, Val