It seems like since Claire’s surgery in May she has really turned a corner not only in terms of behavior, but in terms of language and understanding. She amazes me daily with all the insightful and hilarious things that come out of her mouth.
Take yesterday morning for example….in our usual morning rush to get out of the door, I did something I really don’t like to do in the mornings…turned on kids TV to keep the two small ones occupied. Claire asked for Dora (of course), but Diego was first in the program list on our Tivo and I was feeling lazy, so I turned on Diego instead. It happened to be one of the Diego episodes where Dora is a guest star. I walked into the kitchen to put together Madeline’s food for the day and Claire was calling me. I popped my head back into the living room and said “yes Claire”…she said, very matter of factly “Mommy, this is Diego, not Dora.”. I said “Yes Claire, but Dora is on this episode of Diego”. She looked at me like I was a total idiot and said “Mommy, there is more Diego than Dora on this show”. I giggled, and said “tough”, and walked into the kitchen.
She’s a total crack up.
Mads on the other hand is still in the throes of teething. I though she had only cut two teeth, but upon further inspection, she has cut all 4 teeth on the top and two more are threatening on the bottom. No wonder she’s been a cranky mess for the last couple of days. Every little thing sets her off and she’s been VERY clingy. She’s also doing the classic ear tugging move, so just in case, we’re going to go see Dr. Quinn today. Madeline has been so very healthy in her short life…unlike her sister. I’m really hoping she does not have an ear infection, but she’s really been digging in that ear (evidenced by all the scratches on the inside). Hopefully I’ll have good news to blog about later.
Last night we had a really great night. I was outside pulling some weeds by the deck and Kevin, our new neighbor, yelled at me from across the street. (I say new…they’ve lived there since just after Christmas) I went over to say hello and he invited us over for beers on their deck with his wife and her sister. Obviously we both couldn’t go since the girls were already in bed, so I sent Jonathan over for a while because I totally stink at new social situations like that. He went over at about 8 and was there until 10:30. 
Hooray for making friends with the neighbors. We’ve lived in that neighborhood for nearly 2 years and it has really been the most unfriendly place ever, with the exception of Kent next door. I think it’s because everyone is older and has older children. Kevin & Melanie have 4 kids — ages 4-11, so hopefully we’ll get to spend time with them more. We really like Kevin — he’s a sheriff in the county jail, and is good protection for the neighborhood. He yells at the teenage girls that speed down our street and I’m sure will have a few words for the delinquents across the street if they ever start fighting in the street again at 3am.
While Jonathan was drinking Chris Day sized margaritas at the neighbors, I was working on Operation Clean House….starting with the kitchen. Keith is coming next Monday and if our house isn’t perfectly clean, he’ll clean for us…which is a tad embarrassing. Our kitchen is now shiny! One room at a time and I won’t be in total panic mode this weekend!
On the HP note…I’m about 500 pages through. Ugh. I wish I had the time to sit down and finish it. It’s really getting good. Anyone else think there was a lot of fluff in the first say, 300 pages??