Random Thoughts, These Days Edition

• Little Goldie is just about the sunniest little child I've ever met, which is saying something. She pops up out of bed early and happy, and when I go to bed at night I often peek into her room and see her bright little eyes still smiling out at me long after everyone else has fallen asleep.

• Every time I start going down stairs, Goldie drops whatever she's doing and comes racing toward me, calling "Don't go down yet! Don't go down yet! Can I hold your hand?" She doesn't even want to GO downstairs, particularly, but she just wants desperately to hold my hand. Sometimes if I go down without her (which I do when I'm intending to come right back up—hoping she won't notice) I will hear her just sobbing softly to herself upstairs. I have to go up again and come down holding her hand to make it right again.

• Often lately, I'll think at night when reviewing my day, "Well, it wasn't too great of a day and I was pretty impatient and frustrated at times, but tonight was better and I think I actually did pretty well for the…last few hours…when…no one except me was awake…"

• At the car place there was a poster with the following headings:

How's your timing?
Cooling problems have you steamed?
How are your curves?
Fuel costs got you down?
How's your brake fluid?

I felt bad for poor "How's your brake fluid," consigned to prosaic literality. Also, it seems like that would be one of the easier phrases to pun on. How about, "Need a break from your brake fluid?" Or maybe, "Breaking up from your brake fluid?" "Broken-hearted about break fluid?"

• "Why are you wearing those, Goldie?"

"So I will look PWETTY!"

• The faces of Teddy, which occur in about the proportion these images depict them (1/4 mad and snoofing, 1/4 offended and sobbing, 1/4 sober and thoughtful, 1/4 goonish).

• (Overheard):

Goldie: Do you have a fever?
Junie: No.
Goldie: Yes you do, you have YELLOW fever.

• We've been listening to a lot of P.G. Wodehouse on audiobook, and it's rubbing off on the children in the best way:

Abe: Why are Upper and Lower Falls so far apart? It makes things dashed inconvenient! 

Seb (Waving goodbye to me from the porch): Well, tinkety-tonk!

Malachi: What's this doing here? This is a rummy sort of branch!

(This cloud was so weird and pretty. Blue-on-blue!)

• Goldie's in the best picture-drawing stage right now. Here is a picture of Goldie and Teddy and Daisy and Junie.

• This picture (part of a larger work) is by Sebastian—it's a picture of a hot spring at Yellowstone, but THIS is the parking lot. He labored over it with great love. Note the special bus parking and so forth. Someone has to notice these things!