At World's End

Daddy had a birthday party to attend to today, and then work - so it was quite a busy time, but in the meantime Madison has been very helpful with Mommy, picking up the slack. Together, the two worked on peeling the paint on the back deck. Madison actually dragged Mommy out there when the weather got cool enough to return outside - talk about a serious worker.

Mommy and Madison have been working daily on workbooks that teach numbers, letters, sequences, shapes, sounds and more. Madison has been really into these books, which makes Mommy and Daddy obviously very pleased. It's great to see her so enthused to learn - we hope that's a condition that continues for the rest of her life!

Today's temperature was hot. Hot, hot, hot - just like the Buster Pointdexter song. It's as if someone pressed the "hot" button on us. There was no gradual warming trend. Only days ago it was "unseasonably cool," and now it is "unseasonably hot."

About one night per week, just around sunset, Daddy and Madison sit out on the deck - and watch for bats. This started when we saw one a few weeks ago. It was flittering two and fro, looking for some bugs to eat no doubt. Now it is one of those things: we go outside and watch for bats. It's really just an excuse to sit outside when it is cooling off, but still we look and wait for that moment when the bats start to flap about. It's just before the sun sets, right about that time you see the green flash on the horizon...