We have relatively few family pictures of us - formal and informal - but my parents snapped this one not long before Accalia's recital, so I though I'd share it. Hmm, it looks like Cory and I are somewhat coordinated. Not planned at all. I guess that's what nearly 10 years of marriage does to a couple.

Cory, Accalia and Cole left around 1 p.m. to see Spiderman 3. Those were three extremely excited people leaving the house. Ella just went down for a nap, so I have possibly two hours of ME time. Whoa (said in Joey from Blossom's voice)... Even if there's still one child in the house I need to care for once she's awake, I haven't had a quiet, empty house like this in such a long time. I don't even remember when that was, to be honest. So I'm going to force myself not to do one bit of work, even though it's very tempting to get a start on my semi-annual reports for LLL. I'm going to sit at the computer and surf to my heart's content. I'm going to sit and read my dirty-little-secret-of-a-magazine. I'm going to think only of me for now, okay?

Last evening Chloe and Alexia came over again, and we had to leave almost right away to get Chloe to the soccer tournament she was playing in. While Chloe played, Ella and I hung out on the sidelines, and Accalia, Cole and Alexia ran around nearby. They spent most of their time collecting pine cones, so I brought my backpack home filled with pine-scented goodness.

All of the kids were exhausted by the end of the evening, but Ella was the only one who fell asleep relatively quickly. Accalia, Cole and I didn't get to bed until around 11:30. Accalia and I have been reading Pippi Longstocking before bed, and last night Cole hung out with us while we did that. I haven't read that book since I was a little girl, but it's amazing how familiar all of it is to me. Accalia adores Pippi.



I tried to sneak out of bed at 7 this morning, but Ella and Cole were up with me (much too early for either of them. Cole was just a tired, emotional mess and spent around an hour crying on and off about me going to the LLL meeting and him missing me. We talked about him coming to the meeting with me, having Jadon at the meeting, too, but he was excited about having Jadon at our house. He just didn't want to be sad and miss me and cry. So we talked about what and who I miss and what we can do when we miss someone or something. Most important, I just let him know I knew he didn't want to miss me and that it might make him sad.

After a while, Cole just wiped his face, asked how long I would be gone and went about his business. When I returned from the meeting (me, my friend Michelle, a newcomer, and at the end a nearby Leader), Cole greeted me at the door with "I didn't miss you at all, Mom!" Ah, isn't that nice to hear? I think he conquered a bit of a fear he was having about being apart from me, so he was without a doubt ready to see Spiderman 3 this afternoon.

Now I shall go about my ME business and look forward to cuddling with this litle sweetie in the not too distant future.

There's my girl minutes after leaving the site of her dance recital. She was happy to be outside knowing our next stop was McDonalds.

Every parent talks about how much their children change, and often those changes seem so insignificant to others that they aren't even noticed.

Accalia, perhaps due in part to hanging out with the slightly-older-than-her neighborhood girls, seems to be developing more and more of an interest in primping. She's also started taking showers rather than baths. She has a particular interest in deodorant and asked me to buy her some deodorant that smells (which I did). That led to a short discussion about why people use deodorant, puberty, etc. Accalia was very excited about the prospect of all of these changes to her body.

Cole is one huge emotion most of the time. He very easily becomes upset (I wanted to get to the van first, Mom! Accalia got to the van first! I wasn't first) and spends a lot of time talking about things that have happened or asking me about things that have happened. He also doesn't want to be separated from me at all. I can't go anywhere - even a quick trip to the post office - without Cole insisting on accompanying me. Cole isn't sure he wants to see Spiderman 3 tomorrow with Cory and Accalia because he doesn't want me to be at home. He also isn't convinced that he'll be able to stay at home tomorrow while I'm at LLL even though his friends Jadon and Sarah are coming over.

Ella continues to develop quite the sense of humor. Earlier today I was trying to type something on the computer, and every time I would take my hand off of the mouse she would grab the mouse and start clicking around, hysterically laughing. She also appears to be a rightie, and at this age we knew both Accalia and Cole were going to be lefties.