Housesitting in the Carolinas: DAYS FOUR-FIVE

I forgot to include this little treasure the other day. The following is an excerpt from the e-mail Estella sent Brendan on Father's Day:

Dear Dad,

Happy Fathers day Dad I love you because you are a great Dad your Funny and inteligent And you Make a Great Dad
I couldn't live without you Dad. I hope to see you somtime soon.

Yesterday was a long day, but an improvement on pool day. We did venture out to the library today for a special program they had going on, and we all managed to enjoy ourselves, sit through the entire program (it was a play about Jack [and the beanstalk] folktales) minus one trip to the bathroom, and even got books afterward. I was very impressed with myself. I mean them. I got to have my moment as that mom who looks smilingly on her shining children's faces and gives kisses and hugs like she is throwing candy from a float in the 4th of July parade, instead of grocery store mom with the bulging temples and possum eyes, ready to start grabbing jars from the shelves and throwing them at every person who even looks in her direction to notice the screaming little miscreants in the cart. It was a nice break.

I did a wonderful ab workout this morning, made all the more effective by the fact that Libi was trying to do crunches and leg pulls on top of me while I was doing them. Eva actually has an amazing knack for following workout videos of all kinds, as long as I am constantly affirming that she is awesome and really knows how to work it. Estella, who was also involved, said afterwards, "that was a really intense one," and I said, "That's because it's supposed to make your belly flat." After a monumental pause she looked at me and said very matter-of-factly, "Oh, well then you should probably do that one every day, huh?" Yes, I should.