Brinley leans in to give me a kiss and ends up sneezing open-mouthed on the bridge of my nose.
“That was a achoo-kiss!“
Micah, Brin, and I are out on an evening drive when Brin notices that we’ve started to turn toward home.
“Aww…” she laments. “I didn’t want to go home yet.”
“Tell ya what,” I concede. “How about we take the long way home instead?”
“But dad! I want to take the fast way farther.”
Regan comes up from the basement. Congratulating her, Brinley says, “Good job going to the bathroom.” Then with a thumbs up and a grin, “Great!”
Micah and I have a morning routine making my coffee. I get all the water and beans ready, then he pushes the button that begins the brewing process, starting with the loud bean grinder.
When it starts with a jolt, he gets a wide grin on his face as he turns toward me and starts humming, his pitch rising to match the pitch of the whirling bean grinder. The biggest, most satisfied smile comes as the grinding sound stops.
I’m mowing the lawn out back when I see Brin start gesticulating at me to stop. I turn the mower off and ask her what’s up.
Pointing to the ground, she explains, “Daddy, you almost mowed those kind ants.”
In the morning we are greeted in bed to Brinley struggling with a full gallon of milk in her arms. Huffing she carries it into our room, puffing she carries it out. She just wanted to show us how strong she is.
“Stronger than ever!” she declares.
I’m pushing Brin in the little red car when she tells me to stop. She gets out and started examining a bug.
“What is it, dad?”
“It’s a box elder bug.”
“A box elder bug?”
“Yep, you got it.”
After a beat, “Does it box eld?”
Brin keeps making towers out of LEGOs. The higher they get, the more unstable they become. A particularly high tower falls, which a frustrated Brinley berates, “You are just a darnit tower.”
Micah tears down one of the vertical blinds in the living room. When Sarah sees it she sighs in exasperation, and Brinley says, “See? I told you he was a bad baby.”
Brin measures herself against the wall, then excitedly tells me, “I’m grown-er!”