Put Aurora down for her nap. She was wearing a diaper and a dress. The dress ties at the back of her neck. The dress was once a shirt that a young Holly wore. Put Aurora down for her nap about 90 minutes after her usual nap time.

Errands today, several, though she got a doughnut out of it (powdered sugar with a vanilla cream filling, only because Avery was eating a chocolate doughnut and Aurora knew I had grabbed a second doughnut and hadn’t given it to her) and several treats at Costco. Down for her nap with little fuss (she’s good like that; gets more sleep than any of us, and has always been a better sleeper than Avery was at her age or is now).

Heard Aurora, when she woke up, but she doesn’t cry anymore, usually. Instead, she babbles, turns on her mobile, and sits there, listening to Mozart or the baroque musician she happens to pick (even her mobile is an educational opportunity). Only when I come to get her does she stand, tilt her head one way, and smile, as if she is saying (without knowing the right words): What took so long, daddy; I’ve been waiting?

Smiling in her crib, when I opened the door to her room. And naked. The diaper on the floor next to her crib, the dress (which had been tied) untied, also on the floor. Aurora, there, in her crib, standing, only wearing the blue slipper shoes I put her in this morning before we ran our errands.