Less Than Perfect

It is officially Fall.  August and its sultry weather stayed with us well into September, and Indiana days are just giving way to the cool sunset evenings that call the entire family out of doors.  Tonight I marveled as I watched my daughters play together, both pretending to be super heroes who could fly (on our swings) and then chase criminals as they giggled their way through the yard.  The dog chased the cat through the too-tall grass and I looked at the Mister. "I don't know if you've noticed," I said, "but our family is just about perfect right now." "I have," he replied, smiling. All of this comes on the heels of one of the deepest depressions I have ever experienced.  It is one that frightened me with its insidious nature.  Even now, I cannot look back and say when it began.  Was it three years ago, after our miscarriage?  I admit that I did all I could to avoid the feelings surrounding that time, choosing instead to stay busy.  

This two and a half year old munchkin of ours, she provides lots of laughs (along with some headaches).  Here are a few of her phrases these days: 1.  Any time the sky gets dim, she runs to us yelling, "Ih's fwainee!!"  In Munchkin speak, this means, "It's raining!!"  This is the first weather phenomenon that she has recognized, and it's fair to say that she is fully obsessed.  Days are getting shorter,  so when she goes to bed and the light is dim, "Ih's fwainee!!"  When she wakes up to more dim light, "Ih's fwainee!!"  Along with her obsession with the rain, she worries constantly about the cars getting wet.  Often, "Car wet!" are the first words she says to me when I see her in the morning.  No amount of persuasion can convince her that it is not, in fact, raining and that the car is dry.  When it actually IS raining, watch out.  These topics are on a constant state of repeat for hours on end. 2.  When she has

Oh, my little girl, you are two! You, my love, have got such a personality!! I joke that someday you will have a very social job like cruise director!  Certainly, the life of the party, which you already are.  You have absolutely got joie de vivre, your smile can light up any room and you have a knack for drawing people in. You are still working hard on your language skills, so communication can be a big area of frustration for you.  Smiling and screaming are two of your current extremes.  You do have lots of words though.  You love animals and can name several animals and their sounds. This year we had a "Bobo" party (or Elmo to those who don't understand the translation).  You love Bobo, you love baby Einstein videos.  One of your favorite activities right now is to hold hand with Mom, Dad and The Nugget around the dinner table and sway back and forth to whatever music is playing.  You LOVE music and dancing and I have already seen your future as