Yeah! She's back! We survived the long weekend without Mom, thereby proving that you can keep a 4-year old alive and fairly happy for at least 4 days on chocolate chip cookies and vienna sausages. Tammy had a busy, exhausting weekend, but came back in good shape and high spirits. She had to climb over a wall into a locked storeroom at one point to get sugar- I'm so proud of her. I knew that survival training would come in handy sometime. It's amazing how quickly she got things back to normal in our house. I wish I could see inside her mind sometimes. I have a theory that the male and female brain are different (oops - now I'm going to get fired from my job as president of an ivy league school). Men are OK at pursuing things single-mindedly, but women seeme to be adept at multi-tasking. Is this a new observation? I don't think so. I do laundry, wash dishes, and the other household chores, but not really the same way. I operate in survival mode, sort of like triage. Girl stuff in pile A. Boy stuff in pile B. Dog stuff...um..fend for yourself. You're a dog, instinct should take over at some point. But Tammy, without even trying hard, has everything in order AND smelling good. That's impressive and amazing to me. But that's not why I love her so much. It's hard to put into words, but anyone who knows her understands. She has a way of drawing the best out of everyone around her, without putting on airs. She really is a lamp on a hill.