This guy looks really shocked by the water coming at him. I guess I’m not used to a stick figure having a mouth, but I find something about this sign very funny. In my head I can hear his staccato squeal — à la Homer Simpson — saying, “Aah!”

While it looks as though she’s trying to levitate a piece of bread off the plate using only the power of her mind, Callie’s actually showing off her peanut-butter-covered fingers. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches have become a staple of toddler nourishment at our house since the toddler discovered that if she “helped” to make the sandwich then she’d probably end up covered in peanut butter and could lick it off of her fingers without getting into trouble. Licking peanut butter from your fingers when they’ve come straight from the peanut butter jar gets a fairly strong and negative reaction from bassdad. Helping to make your own sandwich — and getting messy in the meantime — well, who could blame you for that?

Tina is up late doing work on her computer. Callie is up late because she couldn’t sleep and wandered from her bedroom into the kitchen.

At our house if a kid hasn’t fallen asleep after giving it a good try then she is often allowed to get back up. She may not bother the adults or get wound up — we still want our kid-free adult time! — but is free to float about the house like a little ghost until she’s tired enough to try sleeping again.

I like this statue. It sets forth a good example: the wise and strong taking interest in the small and weak.

I titled this photo “Sand and Water” because it shows Callie both wet and dirty. Beth Nielsen Chapman used the same title for a song about a strong person worn down by a long illness. The payoff line is, “Solid stone is just sand and water…sand and water and a million years gone by.” Sad song, but it’s a good sad.

That makes me think of the sand clinging to Callie’s face. It was once a solid stone; maybe a mountain.