They stood in line taking turns pushing Gertie. It’s been hard to find things where they can all interact together, so this in particular makes me happy. I was also able to read a chapter from a book so that’s a double jackpot.

One of Gertie’s beloved occupational therapists quit a few weeks ago to stay at home with her one year old. I of course am so happy for her decision, but she was one of our favorites. Her lasting legacy though is Gertie now swinging with glee. It took 18 months (gosh, maybe even longer) of twice weekly turns on the swing to get to this point. We’ll miss her so much.

But in my maturing as a person and a christian (and also in my exhaustion), I didn’t fret over it. We pray all the time that Gertie gets what she needs when she needs it. And maybe a pair of fresh eyes is just that.

In other news, Ruthie lost her first tooth over the weekend. Ryan and I high-fived that we got the gold dollar coin before our bank closed. She came in crying that she couldn’t find her tooth and thought she swallowed it while eating cherries. So we started writing a letter to put under the pillow: Dear Tooth Fairy, I lost my tooth. It might come out in my poop. In crisis mode, sneak in the word poop and you’re sure to get a laugh. But Ryan found it on the kitchen floor and we all cheered. As I tucked her in later, she asked Is the tooth fairy real or is it just you? I ignored her question and said I was excited to see what she got.

Annie was up and down all night, sick, so I was too and around 4am I saw the light next to Ruthie on. She was wide awake holding onto her coin.

It was just us two at church because everyone else was battling a stomach bug. Afterwards we got a soft pretzel with nacho cheese and sat at the high chairs at the counter, people watching. We walked around Sam’s just eating samples and drove home, passing by one of our favorite old homes that is about to be demolished. The Steele House on the edge of downtown. Every time we’d drive by, Ruthie would say she was gonna live there. It was so grand. And when she saw it, already set upon by vandals that took doors and who knows what else on the inside, she almost burst into tears and asked What can we do?! Can we get a lot of people to say we don’t want it to be taken down? A store can’t move there. If they build a store, I will take a bunch of stuff and not pay for it and say ‘Well you shouldn’t have taken down that house!’  Rally the troops, girl. I like listening to how you think.