A Goose and the Pawn that Roared

Today's favorite moments included . . .

. . . playing chess with Joy.

. . . cuddling Anna.

. . . singing "Irish Blues" to Daniel; it's the easiest way to get him to hold still when I'm changing his clothes.

. . . playing Duck, Duck, Goose! for our home evening activity.  We invited some neighbor boys to join us, and one kid got such a kick out of being "it" that he just went around and around without ever saying "goose."  After he "ducked" me for the seventh time I tapped his back and said, "Goose!"  He stopped in his tracks, trying to figure out what had just happened and whether he needed to start running.  When he realized I was just teasing him, we all had a good laugh.

And another thing . . .

. . . when Joy got up this morning, the very first thing she did was walk over to our chess set and start playing against herself.  She always makes the white team stomp the daylights out of the brown team.  This afternoon I played a few games with her and in our first match she checkmated me in about ten moves using a measly little pawn.  After that embarrassing debacle I paid more attention and won the next two games.  Phillip then played a match with her, and though he won he acknowledged that she has made a lot of progress.