What Day Is It? Is It Still August?

I am exhausted. Thursday through today is one looong blur of one thing after the other. If you are here only for a picture of my haircut, move along. I took the pictures and though I really wanted to get some pictures with me in them, somehow I ended up in exactly zero. I was busy. I made Big Family Dinners, drank craft beer, went to a local swimming hole I hadn't visited in forever, and there was perhaps a stop at the mall, where Grandma's Spoiling Prerogative card was played, and new storybooks and a stop at Build-A-Bear may or may not have occurred. Oh, and in and around this I got ready for a closing today, which went off without a hitch, and yay for a happy new homeowner!

But there are quite a few pictures of people who are not me.

The cousins met Friday evening. They studied each other seriously, but liked each other.

The dogs felt they were the obvious bonding experience - "Pet us together! We don't mind, we'll take one for the team!"

Supergirl is a trip and a half. Picture Shirley Temple as an attorney. At not even two-and-a-half yet she has the vocabulary and flair for the dramatic of a much older child, and it was hilarious to watch her fencing with her Daddy, trying to negotiate her way to her goal, whatever it might be. "Hey Dad! I've got an idea!" "Hey, how about...?" He'd patiently parry and block her manipulations, and she's a sweet kid at heart so there were no tantrums or meltdowns. Just a whole lotta negotiations.

There were so many priceless moments, but the one that I have to share was our drive to the mall. We were going to go to the springs to swim but there were passing showers and gray skies, so we regrouped and decided to go to the mall to go to the bookstore. On the way, my son called her mom, and asked her if she wanted to talk to Mommy. She did. He passed his phone to her. They held an animated conversation, entirely comprehensible and detailed, until it got quiet, and we weren't sure if her mom had been disconnected. This is when I nearly drove off the road.

My son: "Is mommy still on the phone?"
SG: "Yes."

More long silence, with occasional comments from SG.

Daddy asked again if Mommy was really on the phone, thinking maybe she'd been disconnected and this was a pretend conversation.

Supergirl: "Mommy, I'm going to put you on speaker. Daddy, which button is the speaker?"

He told her, she found it, and soon her mommy's voice was audible. Supergirl: "Mommy, you're on speaker." The conversation continued with Mommy on speaker.

This kid isn't 2 and a half yet. I'm enchanted, awed, full of love, and maybe just a little bit afraid of her. And hey, I have a tech support resource for the next few decades!

Onward to the mall.

This is where Girlmama and I share a brain - she asked me if Supergirl had ever been to Build-A-Bear. I checked with my son, and he said no, he wasn't sure how she'd like it. But at the bookstore she filled her arms with every stuffed toy she could find (and left them behind without a fuss in exchange for two classic Little Golden Books and Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type because I read it while we were browsing and liked it.) So we decided to try Building a Bear.

It was a qualified success - I don't think she was totally into it, but she came out with a smallish, cute and inexpensive bear she chose to dress in a bathing suit and sunglasses. When we got into the car she wanted to wear the sunglasses, then complained that they didn't fit. I pointed out that they were designed for her bear, not for her, and she conceded the issue. She is quite reasonable when facts are facts.

Saturday evening I made a huge vat of spaghetti and had both my kids, my son-in-law and both granddaughters crammed around my small table, and we had a lovely time. After my daughter's crew left and Supergirl finally called it a day, my son and I stayed up until 1 a.m. talking. It was wonderful. We talked like adults, about family stuff and his fascinating and unique career path, and the frustration of the homebuying process, and politics and whatever, and suddenly it was 1 a.m. and we had a suspicious number surprising quantity of empty beer bottles.

And that was Saturday.