This morning Alethea and I ran errands.  It took a bit longer than I had anticipated and it was getting close to nap time, but Alethea was a trooper and seemed to have a good time.  On the ride home she actually almost fell asleep… without a nuk… and without whining for one.  I don’t think that’s ever happened before, even in the car.  Maybe we’ll actually be able to take it away from her before she goes off to college.

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One of our errands this morning was to the Home Depot.  Alethea’s big girl room closet only has two shelves, so I took in the wire shelf that we removed from the mud room closet and had it cut to size for its new location.  Glad we threw it into storage instead of getting rid of it.  So nice to make an improvement without spending money!

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Speaking of cheap improvements, we did pick up a $30 chair on Craigslist for Alethea’s room, so now I just need to find a bookshelf and possibly a nightstand to complete my furniture hunt.  I’m feeling good about the deals we’ve gotten, but after putting together a spreadsheet with all my expenses thus far, I was disappointed to discover that I had spent more than I’d realized.  I’m beginning to think that on the TV design shows where they have a tight budget, they must not factor in things like paint brushes and roller covers into their proudly announced “Grand Totals”.  It’s crazy how those little things add up.

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Tomorrow Alethea and I are planning on going to our first Early Childhood Family Education class together.  I’m hoping some time away from the house playing with other kids will help improve her mood, which has been more miss than hit lately.

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As far as hits and misses go, it sure would be nice if the Twins could actually manage to get enough of the former to finally win a post-season game at home against the Yankees.  I guess there’s always tomorrow.