The last couple of days have been daddy /daughter days because Marcie has some time off and I couldn't take any time off. Everyone has survived (maybe even thrived) and seemed to have a good time. Yesterday you all went to the playground and while Julie was playing in the sandbox, daddy was sitting with Lily on a bench watching. A little girl, probably around 4, came over and started talking with daddy and Lily before going over to play with Julie in the sandbox. She had a speech impediment and this was the first time that Julie had interacted with someone with that disability. In telling the story at dinner she told me how the girl came over and said "do you talk" and in her telling she said "do you talk, do you, do you, do you talk ... and, mom, she just kept saying it" I was really surprised how much of an impact this interaction had on Julie. Steve had talked with her after the other kids went back inside and it was obvious she had been thinking about the girl through the afternoon.

In other news, we are FINALLY starting to paint the "new" room and Julie has been super excited to step in and help with that. Tonight she and Steve did some priming while I took care of Lily and she seemed to have a good time. While they were painting Steve got to practice his patience as Julie didn't really understand the concept of applying thin coats of paint and was instead painting the same area with big globs of paint. Just as his frustration was peaking she said "daddy, I'm learning how to do this because you're teaching me" which was sweet enough for him to remember that at the end of the day it was just some paint on the wall. When Steve tucked her in he told her he hoped she'd had a good time today at the museum and she said "yeah, and painting!" Now I'm looking forward to being able to get in there to help paint and get this room finished!!!