"Do I want too much? ..."

And a Happy Friday to you.

Just so you'll know, I sent my phone number to our Charter friend, Eric a few minutes ago. I have little hope that he'll actually be able to lower our cable/Internet bill, and still allow me to watch "The Real Housewives (Hookers) Of Orange County" every week. But I'll let you know.

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This week my "check engine" light came on. Don't you love when that happens? I'll be taking the old car in to the dealership on Monday for some new oxygen sensors, whatever that means. Oh yeah, it means $500.

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I've had the sinus funk happening this week ... really felt quite lousy for most of the days since I was here last. But I lived to tell the tale, and every day I feel slightly better.

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FINALLY got my ring back from the repair shop. I took my emerald ring in right after the holidays to have a stone replaced ... I looked down at my hand on Christmas and it looked like a child who had lost a tooth. One of the emeralds was gone. The repair guy said it might take 2 weeks, but instead it took over a month. But really I suspect it's been sitting in the store, and they just neglected to call me and tell me it was in. Whatever ... they cleaned it, too and MAN it looked pretty when I picked it up.

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And that's about it for my week.

Today, Miss Squish was dancing when I peeked through the door at daycare. She's a really good dancer, too. She has music in her bones. Once here, she was sweet as sugar, and got reeeealy sleepy in the late afternoon. She sat in my lap and watched a Baby Einstein DVD, all cuddled up with her blanket. Cozy! She ate dinner, including some practice time with a spoon when she ate her applesauce. She took a bath, and sang "Itsy Bitsy Spider" a few times, complete with applause and a "Yay!" at the end.

The best part of today: When I asked her for a kiss during dinner, she leaned forward and actually gave me one! A first!

The first video from today will make her Papa smile. She's been working at this toy since we bought it months and months ago. And today she got two, all by herself!

(She actually got three in yesterday, just not on this video.)

She practiced her piano playing ...

And then told me some stuff during bath-time ...

And finally, around Christmas she found my Daddy's old pitchpipe that he used to use when he was singing in a Barbershop Quartet. When I was little, I used to want to play with that thing in a BAD way. He would always say no ... "It's NOT a toy!" Well, unless we let Miss Squish play with it now, there's not much use for it. Somehow, I think my Dad approves.

Last month she couldn't seem to figure out how to make the sound happen. I showed her over and over, and she'd just smile and hold it to her mouth. Then she'd give it back to me again. That all changed today. She'd hold it in her mouth and start to sing and hum ... and every time she got enough breath through the pitchpipe to make it sound, she was SO proud of herself. I bet her Grandpa Stark is proud too ...

Relaxin' with Nana ...