I needed to give myself a reality check, like is Rose driving me crazy every minute of the day or are there some happy patches? So, I scrutinized today as it went along. Maybe today was not a good sample, but except for one really bad fifteen minutes, today was delightful and dandy.

Granted, we had a lot of time off from each other—jazzercise, having grandma read her books, swimming in the big pool with my sister. But, even so, the vibe felt better. She pleasantly told me what she wanted for lunch (cheese sandwich with pickles). I didn't get upset when I asked her to get David a cheese stick out of the food bag, and she dropped it and said it was too heavy to pick up. She said it in a reasonable voice, and I thought she was probably right. She didn't just whine that I should put the sunscreen on for her, she explained that that way her hands wouldn't be too slippery for the monkey bars. She didn't complain when I said we didn't have time to wade in the lake. She didn't get mad when I got us to swim class late. When I told her it was time to tidy, she said she didn't want to pick up toys; she wanted a different job. So, I invented jobs for her—take the fruit leather out of the box and put it in the bag, refill the water bottles—and she happily did them. She did not yell at David, hit him, or tell him he was a bad boy. She let me read a magazine while I was her audience for statues.