Yesterday evening disappeared awfully quick.

On my way home from work, I stopped at the florist around the corner from us to pick up a couple of bouquets of flowers, and then after Matt got home, we set out.

The flowers were for Elizabeth and Kris, in thanks for all the effort they'd put into planning and organizing the baby shower for K.T. and I.

So Matt and I stopped first at Jeremy and Elizabeth's house, and we sat to chat with them for half an hour or so before we headed over to Braz and Kris'. When we called to let them know we were on our way over, Kris wondered if we had eaten dinner yet, and would we care to share their pasta?

Well, no and yes, so we stopped at the grocery store to pick up some garlic bread on our way. We spent most of the evening letting Emma entertain us by showing us her toys. She's very clever, too. At less than two years, she's got a good grip on the fundamental colors, is starting to potty-train, and has a rapidly-expanding vocabulary. Matt and I read a pop-up book with her about jungle animals, and she correctly identified all the animals in the book (though some of the longer names are still a bit fuzzy in pronunciation, like elephant and alligator).

After dinner, she got a little sleepy and curled up on Kris' lap with her pacifier. Kris was telling us how very upset Emma gets when Braz gets her "pow" away from her and puts it in his mouth, so Matt (always the troublemaker) reached out a hand and said, "Emma? Can I have the pow? Give Matt the pow?" (She's not quite got "I" and "me" and "you" down yet - everything is in the third person.)

And to the utter astonishment of the rest of us, she gave it to him.

Shortly after that, I asked what time it was and was shocked to hear that the answer was after 9. No wonder Emma was acting so sleepy. But neither was she likely to actually go to sleep as long as she had an audience, so Matt and I hied ourselves home.

When we got home, I found that I was pretty sleepy, too, so I went to bed before 10:30.

But I did manage to finish the Harry Potter book yesterday. (It was a slow day at work.) Yes, I liked it, though I don't think it was quite as strong as some of the earlier books. But I did appreciate that Harry has acquired a teenager's peculiar combination of arrogance and self-doubt. I had been wondering if he was going to simply leap from being a child to being an adult.

But things are going to be slow for the rest of the week, both at work and at home.

That's not a complaint.

--Liz