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We arrived home yesterday around 2:30, but Amanda and Lily had to turnaround almost immediately for the birthday party. Lily had a great time looking at a lemur, a gibbon, a macaw, and an alligator. Wild Dan the Animal Man certainly captured her attention and she learned a lot about the various animals. On top of all this, she was supposed to go to a party at a horse stable with pony rides today, but it got postponed because of the threat of afternoon thunderstorms (more on that later). It's just as well because Amanda needed to get ready for the week ahead while I am in class every night.

Lily spent the day playing with Cooper. He came in for a quick snack and some drinks. Lily did a great job as a hostess in getting out cups for them to use. We have a ton of plastic cups. Cooper didn't express a color preference, but I suggested orange since that was on top. Lily went digging through to get blue. As I look back, it really is quite remarkable that she thought about that. I gave Cooper some Ritz crackers. He didn't thank me for them. Strike one, Coop.

Amanda tells me that Lily tried to take him up to her bedroom so that she could have her baby up there. Amanda stopped that one cold. That must have happened while I had Noah out for our hunting and gathering for the family's food.

I had committed to doing brats on the BBQ today. Overall, it was a beautiful day, but as the charcoal was getting hot it started to get dark. By the time I put the brats on it was pouring rain. I kept thinking of how crazy it was to be out there on the BBQ in a thunderstorm.

Lily decided that she wasn't going to eat her hot dog, so she got a time out. She never did finish it so she didn't get any treat. Funny how her "mark" always causes such agony for her when it is time to eat something she doesn't want. For the uninitiated, the "mark" is where the elastic on her panties digs into her skin a little bit. You would think someone had seared her skin with a hot iron the way she acts.

At least everyone got to bed at a decent hour. I need to get to bed in good order tonight. Let's hope we don't have to deal with Lily's contrived "fear" of the "sparkles" again like we did last night.

Wow, that was a long one today. I hope to be able to keep up during this week, but it may be tough with my nightly class.