I could talk about the rain, but so what. It’s raining tonight. I could talk about work, but I’ve been doing a little too much moaning and groaning on that subject lately. Besides, it was about as good as it’s ever going to get today. Anyway, this was Thursday, and I had a chance to visit Tammy and David and their pack of flying monkeys. So let’s talk about that.

Let’s talk, in fact, about Kylie, who is not quite two months old and is still trying to come to terms with being in the world. It’s not easy when you live in a land of flying monkeys, and probably not any easier when you live in a house with three big brothers. She has a way to go before she’ll be keeping up with them, but she’s obviously adapting, because she let me talk to her for half an hour tonight.

And I swear, she smiled at me. I know, it’s hard to believe, especially since that’s the opposite of her usual reaction. But she looked at me and gurgled and cooed and squeaked, so I take that as a good sign that our relationship is moving on to the next level. Whatever the next level is.

She seemed quite content to have me stare at her and talk to her for all that time, while monkey-related activity swirled around behind me. It was hard to take my eyes off her, but for once she didn’t want me to. She fell asleep under my watch, which I also take as a good sign. I’ve spent many a happy hour in the company of sleeping children, just watching.

No, I didn’t hold her, but that’s okay. For now. And I didn’t pay a lot of attention to the other three, but I did have a conversation with D.J. about school, in which he told me a wild story about how he was good today. I took that with a grain of salt. I read the Cat book with Dakota, or rather he read it to me. He does know C-A-T cat, but he also knows D-I-N-O-S-A-U-R dinosaur and S-H-A-R-K shark, so his universe is expanding.

And Aiden? Aiden is a little windup toy, scurrying after his brothers at lightning speed. He did slow down enough to say “hi” to me three or four times, but he’s way too busy to stand in one spot for very long at a time. He was fascinated by the new dining room table, which is high enough that he can walk under it without bending over. And I did share him (and the other three) with Tammy’s mom, who is visiting from Southern California for a few days. All in all, it was a good night, despite the rain.