Uncle Hugo's currently looks like the Bookstore at the End of the Universe. It's right by the old Sears, and massive construction is currently being done on and around that building. The result is that Uncle Hugo's currently sits at the end of this massive pit. There's the parking lot, the dentist's office, the bookstore, and -- the earth falls away.

You can still park in the dentist's parking lot, if you're there on a weekend or in the evening, but to get there, you have to ignore the big ROAD CLOSED sign at the Lake and Chicago intersection (it does say "open to local businesses") and drive up Chicago from Lake, and then drive on the wrong side of the road since the right side leads into the construction zone. Unless someone is pulling out of the parking lot, it's not like there's going to be any oncoming traffic from the Giant Pit of Doom that's threatening to swallow the bookstore.

My signing last weekend went fine. One person came and had me sign the book he was in the process of reading. I signed the books they had in stock. If anyone non-local (or local but busy) wants a personalized copy, I'll plan to go back over there in a couple of weeks: you can order one mail-order from Uncle Hugo's, tell them you want it personalized, and I will sign it however you want when I go in.

The weather here for the last month has been wretched: dreary every day, rainy most days, and so cold that dressing in layers (as opposed to just wearing long sleeves) is an act of defiant optimism. Today started out gray and chilly again, but this afternoon, the sun came out, and it got up into the seventies. Everyone on my block rushed outside and mowed their grass. I was planning to mow during Kiera's nap, but then she napped in my lap and woke up when I tried to move her to her crib. With Kiera napping, I can take the baby monitor, give Molly the toy mower, and let her "mow" half the yard while I work on the other half. With Kiera awake, I really can't mow; she requires too much supervision.

She napped early in the afternoon, at least, so after her nap we headed out to a playground; we arranged to rendezvous with one of Molly's friends, and her mother, and had a lovely time. I found out that one of the schools in the area was doing their carnival tonight, so when Ed got home, instead of cooking dinner (and mowing the lawn) we went out to the carnival and had dinner there. The school carnivals in our neighborhood are pretty low key: this one had a pair of moonwalk bouncer things plus a similarly styled obstacle course, plus a bunch of games. They also had food. For 75 cents you could get a hot dog. Or for $1.50 you could get a plate of Somali food (and for 75 cents, a samosa). We all ate Somali food; Molly really liked the somosa, despite the fact that it was a bit spicy. When we were done eating, Molly played games, went on the bouncer and did the obstacle course; Kiera got a balloon.

While we were waiting for Molly's second turn on the obstacle course, Ed and I discussed how to spend our remaining tickets. (Technically, the meal wasn't $1.50, it was six tickets, which cost a quarter apiece.) "You could go get Kiera an ice cream sandwich," Ed suggested.

"That's not a bad idea," I said. "I've been thinking we should do another dairy test, and it would be really nice to do it before our trip to Madison, so that we know if we need to worry about it while eating out..."

"Hmmm," Ed said. "Would this be a good time to mention that I've given her milk every night at snack for the last week?"

I initially thought he was joking.

Then he added, "You remember that night last weekend when she slept through the night? That was the first night I did it."

"Well, okay then," I said. "I guess she's over her issues, then, because I definitely haven't noticed any changes in behavior this week."

The one thing Ed hadn't tested was anything with milkfat: he's been giving her cow's milk mixed in with her soy milk, and our milk is skim. He tried feeding her cheese but despite begging for it, she then didn't eat any of it. I did try to get her an ice cream sandwich, but the food line had closed up by then.

We wound up going out to Dunn Brothers after the carnival was over, and I bought a mocha -- a real mocha, rather than a soy mocha, with whipped cream on top -- and gave Kiera a spoon of the whipped cream to lick off.

We'll see.

In the last of the daylight, after we came home, I mowed the lawn. Our next-door neighbor must have had to work today, because hers is un-mowed, and I could see one other lawn full of puffy white dandelions -- what Molly calls "wishflowers" -- down the block. Every other lawn was mowed today. It's supposed to rain again tomorrow.

I've been meaning for a while to add an update on the whole Language Acquisition Project.

Kiera has started using two-word and three-word phrases, at least some of the time. One of the first I heard: Molly had been pushing the toy shopping cart around and saying "excuse me, Mama," while narrowly missing me as she pushed it through the kitchen. Kiera took the doll stroller and copied Molly, except she simply rammed it into me while saying, "moof me, Mama. Moof me, Mama."

The new one tonight: I was bathing Kiera after Molly had been put to bed. Molly got up to get a drink of water and had tried to linger in the bathroom chatting; I sent her back to bed and said, "good night, Molly." Molly went back to her room and shut the door. Kiera watched her go, then said, "goo nigh, Molly." She articulates Molly's name remarkably well; the L is a hard sound to make for a toddler.

Kiera has also started saying "read dis" and "read you" when she wants me to read her a book.

The funniest is when she'll sing. There are two songs that she can sing almost recognizably. One is, "na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey, goodbye." The other sounds like this when Kiera sings it: "bad-yer bad-yer bad-yer bad-yer muh ROOM muh ROOM..."