MIA

I have been so busy this week - between a very heavy docket, everyone in Fairfax County wanting their divorce done now now now, interviewing MIT kids, and trying to get sort of ready for Christmas - that I haven't had time to write anything!

I'll start with the trip back home from Gram's house. We left early - like 6:30am - so that we could make the trip home before lunch. Despite the crazy weekend of fun, neither girl slept on the 6 hour trip. And the DVD crack seems to be wearing off because Elisabeth would rather be a part of the conversation. She and Doug made up stories for the last two hours of the drive - tall tales involving Elspeth, Lula-lu, Maura and Elisabeth. At one point in the story, it was decided that each character needed super powers. Elisabeth has been heavily into the super hero thing, thanks to some of her friends at school. Elisabeth's super hero power was the ability to rescue people. Mine was the ability to fly. Charlotte is still unable to claim her own super power, so Elisabeth assigned her one... the ability to throw people in jail without having them see the judge first. The secret police super power!

See, on the way up, she wanted to know about criminal procedure... why people had to see a judge after they got thrown in jail. We gave a cursory explanation on fairness and that in America we don't just let the police throw people in jail forever without someone else saying that's ok.

So when time came to dole out super powers, she decided this secret police power ought to belong to Charlotte. Which, anyone who knows Charlotte should know that Charlotte is not the one you ought to give secret police powers to. Fairness isn't her strength.

Also this week, it seems that the sixteen-month old babe has decided that communicating with us might be beneficial to her. She has started nodding her head to say yes. And, we've heard a few recognizable words such as blanket, geese, and Willy (the cat). So hopefully soon we'll get some repeatable words.

OK - the little one is biting me and complaining that there is a laptop on my lap and not a biting toddler. I don't know why that is. Hopefully the next edition won't be a week in coming.