The last few days have been wonderful with Leta, due to a few things that I will delve further into when I write her monthly newsletter in the next couple of days, things like LETTING HER PARENTS SLEEP and INFANT VICODIN. Tonight Jon and I were sitting on the couch watching Old People's News, programming with REPORTS! and NEW STUDIES! and YOU'RE GOING TO DIE OF CANCER, HERE ARE TWO EXPERTS TO TELL YOU WHY, when I told Leta, no, I will not go downstairs to get your microphone, you're a big girl and can do it yourself, besides, Brian Williams is about to tell me about yet another drug approved by the FDA that has recently been linked to people's teeth falling out, and I'd like to schedule my hair stylist for my funeral.

Not two minutes after she went downstairs I heard her conducting her own "American Idol" in her bedroom. The following video is only 42 seconds of over 15 minutes of singing I taped:

Compare that to this video we shot of her just a few days after her first birthday:

The first video just makes me giggle, because do you see how she really drives that one point home, about how it broked on the last day after school? But I know that in three years I'm going to watch that first video and sob, because when I watched that second video I sat here at my computer and chewed my left hand like a pretzel so that my crying wouldn't wake up the three dogs lying calmly (finally!) at my feet. That sweet little baby has turned into a sweet little girl, and believe me, there are days when I want to glue a bucket to her head just to muffle the whining, and then position her so that she'll walk blindly into a wall, but on days like today, I understand that she is and always will be the best thing that has ever happened to me.