After all the sickness and exhaustion of the past week or so, today offered a welcome respite. Z seems to have completely kicked her stomach bug and regained her appetite (small though it may be). And Baby A has perked up; she's smiling, babbling and much more alert and awake even though she's still got some lingering congestion.
A few other things made the last day of 2007 noteworthy...
As I pulled into our driveway around noon I saw a golden retriever on the loose. I jumped out of the car and approached the dog to see if it had any identifying tags. Since he didn't, I sweet-talked him into our backyard, which is fenced together with our next door neighbors. Their boys played with the friendly dog as we called the Oak Park Police (animal control was off for the holiday). Fortunately they couldn't get the animal control van to start and in the interim I figured out whom the dog might belong to. My hunch was correct and Buddy was reunited with a very relieved neighbor down the block. I only hope they'll put their phone number on his collar ASAP!
Just a few minutes later I heard a knock on our side door. Another neighbor was stopping by to try to lure our contractors to her house and I ended up spending an hour with her walking through her home, which she is hoping to update before she puts it on the market in February. She's lived there for almost 30 years and it was last decorated in the early or mid-eighties, so I advised her to strip off all the wallpaper (it's in every room), pull down the curtains to expose her art glass windows and update her bathroom, which is currently a vision in dark brown tiles (even the ceiling is tiled!). I also got to meet her daughter, a woman my age who lives in Texas.
Continuing a tradition we began last year, we joined our playgroup families for a fabulous early New Year's celebration (I contributed bacon-wrapped dates and spinach-artichoke dip). And just like every year since Z was born, I think I'll be asleep long before the clock strikes midnight.
