They say what they mean, and they mean what they say.

For a few weeks now Julia and I have had a deal on the table. If she sleeps in her own bed all night, she gets lunch at the 99. As much as she loves the 99, she apparently likes sleeping at the foot of our bed with her head on my ankles even more because she has not cashed in on the deal until today. Last night she went to bed, in her bed, at 7pm and didn't emerge until 7:15 am. It was an amazing feat considering that Lucy (who shares her room) was up crying at least 8 times between 10pm and 5am so she really earned today's lunch. Of course there were other factors. Like the fact that she has been fighting a stomach bug all week that has wiped out all her energy which may have helped her reach this goal. I know it seems ridiculous to reward behavior that was brought on by a stomach bug with a hearty meal of grilled cheese, fries, and an ice cream sandwich but my parenting style is pretty much a study in ridiculousness so, well, there you go.
So it was off to the 99 after school today. She was so proud and excited, she announced to the greeter and our waiter that we were there because she sleeps in HER bed. Then we sat in our booth and she looked around and her face fell. She looked at me and said:

"There's no one here."
(It was lunch hour so the place wasn't packed but it wasn't exactly empty.)

"Babe, there are a lot of people here, see?"

"No one that I want is here."

"Oh, like who?"

"Grandma and Grandpa, I want to come back when we can meet them here"

See, even the awesomeness of the 99 is nothing when compared to being with her peeps.



Ace is doing so well at school but by Thursday after school he starts having trouble dealing with his emotions. He is overtired and rude and spends a good part of Thursday afternoon kicking his toys to express himself. At first I said it was okay for him to kick things as long as he wasn't near people but then it started to annoy me and ruin his toys so I'm working harder at getting him to express his feelings in words. Obviously we are making progress because today we had this conversation:

"Mommy, can you buy me a Thunderbird jet?"

"No."

"Mooommmm, I can't ever feel good at all when you say that to me! You make me so angry in my whole body when you say NO!"

It really doesn't get more clear or expressive than that.