An Unsung Heroine

At this juncture I'd like to take a moment to answer a question we get on a surprisingly often basis: How do the cats do with the girls? Not shockingly, Lincoln spends the better part of his day on or under our bed and comes downstairs only when the girls are asleep. He acts genuinely offended when the girls walk past our bed on their way to their nightly bath. Lucy (or Lulu as she is known by the knee-high set), on the other hand, is a hoot. She often goes in the girls' room in the morning when Till goes in to dress them and regularly accompanies me when I go to get them up from their nap. She spends her afternoons in the family room (in part because that is the corner of the house that gets the afternoon sun), lets the girls pet her, bumps against them ("kitty hugs"), and tolerates the occasional demonstration of their ability to remove her fur. Emily is on the left, Madeleine is on the right. They have the painters' tape because I use small pieces to tape paper to the table when they color....however, I had to make a phone call while they were awake - something I generally try to avoid - and bribed them with "big" pieces of tape to stay quiet while I was on the phone. Emily decided she had a "hurt" on her leg and was using the tape as a band-aid, Madeleine followed suit; Lucy miraculously escaped without tape!

Left to right....Emily, Lucy, Madeleine

This week brings the beginning of "school's" summer session. The girls go to "Mother's Day Out" Tuesday and Friday from 9-12. It is basically a playgroup with two "teachers" and parents volunteering on a rotating basis. I'm doing cartwheels because, by some fluke, I'm only on the volunteer calendar once - three hours with ten two-year olds is not a picnic (I have no idea how the "teachers" do it every day). The girls are happy to be with other kids and excited they get to go two days a week.

We have returned to Busch Gardens several times, and the small horses are still simply unacceptable - might try them again next year. We have collected a list of rides that are enjoyed and for the first time went to "Ireland" where there is a tree with a large face - very popular, along with a fountain into which you can pitch your sippy cup! On our most recent visit we also saw eagles in the wild animal section - they were acceptable until one of them lifted its wings, at which point we moved on (quickly). The girls also had their first taste of french fries on this visit to the park and "fa fies" are a hit!

Madeleine is on the left and Emily is on the right.

Emily and Madeleine continue to work on their ability to share and amazingly this stretches to such treasures as grapes and bites of cookie - who knew? Last night the girls had their first introduction to thunder and it didn't go over too well. We frequently have evening thunderstorms, but the girls usually sleep through them. This was a big one and felt like it was right over the house (frankly I thought Lincoln was on to something by hiding under the bed). Today I told the girls thunder is caused by two clouds hitting each other ... they have spent the day walking around clapping their hands together and exclaiming "hit, big boom, thunder".