Veronica was upstairs playing tonight and told me to go downstairs. I started checking my e-mail. Sometimes she just likes playing by herself.

Minutes later, she starts down the stairs and says "Mommy! I have a surprise for you!" So I close my eyes and tell her to let me know when I can open them - oh, and be careful going down those stairs. (I AM a mom, you know.)

When she said "you can open them", I see that she has brought some of her kitchen playset downstairs, a green pot with two yellow goblets, a green salt shaker, and pink utensils, all plastic. She set a goblet with a spoon before me on the computer desk and started carefully arranging all her items. "Oh, you brought your kitchen downstairs," I said. "No Mommy," she cheerfully replied, "I having you a party!"

I thought I was going to cry. It was the sweetest thing. It didn't get any less adorable a few minutes later when she went back upstairs for the rest of her kitchen items. She has a carrying case for snacks; she had me put the rubber egg in it - now dubbed "your cheese, Mommy!" - and told me it was my cheese box. She handed me her stuffed pink monkey. She handed me her new plush kitty cat. It was so touching.

I wanted it to last forever, but it was her bath time. She went upstairs without fuss. Now she's asleep, but the little kitchenette items remain on the computer desk, the monkey sitting by my feet, and I never want to move them again.

Now that Veronica and I are getting settled into our new apartment and new routinue, there are some things that she has taken to doing:

First off, our next-door neighbor has a very beat-up van with a huge dent in the front passenger-side grill. Veronica likes looking at the "broke truck" and asks why it's broke. "He probably hit another car or something else with it," I answer. To which she replies, "Miss Beth hit the car! She hit with her car!" This is her teacher at preschool, and I have no idea why she thinks Miss Beth wrecked this guy's van but it cracks me up nonetheless. If the van is gone, she wants to know where it is.

Secondly, we like to take walks in the evenings. One of her favorite landmarks: A coffee company's van, parked a few buildings away. "There the coffee truck!" she exclaims.

Third, sometimes when we're walking, or on the swings at the local playground, or just whenever, she'll get this wonderfully sweet little look on her face and say "You're my mommy." And I can't explain it, but she always looks so happy when she says it that I know it's her way of saying "I love you." (She says that too, but not with the same emotion behind it.) It just melts my heart every time I hear it.

That's it for now, but I know there will be more later. Always is. :-)

Well, Veronica and I have moved into our own apartment. So far, she's adjusting rather well - some issues with getting her to take her bath and go to bed, but I think she's just testing the waters in a new locale, trying to see what rules apply in the new house.

You know she's stalling bedtime, though, when this happens:

I am downstairs, her bedroom is upstairs. I have already come up there several times for numerous reasons.

Now I am hearing "Mommy! Mommmmm-mmmeeee!"

"What, Veronica?"

"Come in here!"

I jaunt up the steps and open her bedroom door. Her nighstand light is on. "What do you need, Veronica?"

"Come here."

I walk over to her. She holds up a hand. And says,

"I found a hair in my bed."

Criminy.

Think she was stalling just a bit?