about last night...

so i was chatting with joslyn {all the best stories begin like this}, when all hell busted out of its handbasket.

the doorbell rang. esmé ran for it. lillie was faster. because she is twelve. she should've known better. because she is twelve.

there may have been a buttface from my youngest girlie three, and a priceless from my joslyn.

then, after everyone was calmed, my grae girl initiated small talk. this is the natural progression in our home after tears; there's the initial ENOUGH!, then sniffles and hugs, about thirty-two seconds of silence, and then small talk to officially break the drama.

grae is the master of small talk. so is lillie. but do not - i repeat, do not - reply to esmé's small talk or you're stuck for hours talking about why god invented stuffy noses and whether he has a pony or a dog. or both. and do you think he's allergic to cats? does he have to brush his teeth every night? does he have a best friend?

for the record, uncle sugar told her he went to high school with god and santa and that guy from the allstate commercials. they were all in algebra together. they still keep in touch.

so grae's small talk? wouldn't it be horrible if we had a deaf grandpa?

umm. that's what we like to call, in the small-talk business, an ender.

there was more to this day that i hated, like my baby's banged-up head, a lost race, a cold, candy wrappers, bills, and a pressing deadline. yep...that was the sort of day i had. with my forehead all crinkled up. and it ended with esmé asking for help finding her giant farm puzzle.

i threw it away, remember?

why would you throw it away?

because it was broken, remember?

she looked at me as though i was insane. and wasteful. honestly? it was the wasteful that got to me most.

but that's the way with puzzles. they break, and then you put them back together.

oh. exactly.

it would be easy for me to throw away yesterday. just erase the day, as my mom likes to say. but, in the end, i kind of like how my girlies three know how to put it all back together.

can you tell i'm cuh-raving old-school quality today? all from apostrophe...9, found via cayenne kisses. how into picasso are you? me, very. and how into hot tumblrs are you? me, very. xoxo.