Grateful Friday

- We get to pick up Sindri this evening. They kept him overnight for observation. I'm anxious to see him and even the girls have been talking today about how they miss him and want to go get him tonight. I thought they hadn't even noticed.

- I'm thankful that not all public toilets automatically flush. Josie had one flush while she was on it the other day and now refuses to use any restroom other than ours at home -- and even then only if we assure her that ours does not flush by itself. It's made for some difficult shopping trips. Three times already we've had to leave a store as soon as we got there because she had to go potty and we needed to take her home to do so. I'm not sure how to get her past this fear other than constantly reassuring her and showing her how toilets flush manually.

- The gigantic watermelon from my stepdad's garden. He always loads us up with fresh fruit and vegetables in the summer, most of which we have to give to friends because we can't eat them in time. This time he gave us the biggest watermelon I've seen in a long time. I used about 2/3 of it, and ended up giving the rest to some neighbors. The girls, who usually love melon, informed me that they didn't want any. They now only like "the orange kind" (ie. cantaloupe)

- How loving our two little girls are. Lately, they need to bring their stuffed animals (sometimes numbering in the double digits) with us in the car wherever we go. There's always a mother, father, big sister, little sister, grandma, grandpa, best friend, etc. Each of them has a name and a role. Maddie and Josie each have a collection. Yes, our car is so full you can barely see the kids in the backseat. It's sweet, though, to hear them talk to the animals and make them, in turn, talk to one another. The other day we were heading to the bookstore when Josie started putting two big rubber balls into her backpack. "No, Jo, we can't throw the balls in the store. We'll get in trouble." No, Mommy, this is the mama and the baby. I just holding them.