So awesome... I got the ultimate old-timey parental experience tonight. I got to open the front door and yell out my kid's name and then "Supper!"

School has brought with it a lot more independence, and so far it's all good. I notice that she is less bored when there is nothing concrete to do; she is a lot more likely to find something to do by herself without needing input from me. And she goes and gets the things she wants to do, and when she's done, she puts them all away without being asked. It's out of this world. I have heard from many people that kids become different people once they start school. I would definitely not say this is the case so far; L is still herself, just as sweet and smart and earnest as before. All the changes so far have been good ones. I really hope this continues.

We have tickets to the Wiggles next month, those money-grubbing a-holes, and we are looking forward to it so much.

I took our younger cat, Cricket, to the vet today. Cricket has some ongoing issues with allergic reactions, and needs a shot every once in a while to tell his immune system to calm the frak down already. We always know it's time for a shot since he starts licking the fur off his belly, getting red around the mouth, and scratching himself in random spots until he bleeds. This can come anywhere from two or three months to two or three weeks since the last shot - there doesn't seem to be any pattern at all. So I brought him in, and we had our usual epic battle to get him into the cat carrier. He's a pretty dumb creature, but he's smart enough to know what the cat carrier means, so I hid it in the hallway and went in to pick him up from his sleeping spot in our room. He started howling as soon as I picked him up, and when I actually tried to put him in the carrier, he was hanging on to everything around him with his claws like we were characters in a slapstick comedy. He howled in his usual ungodly fashion the entire time he was in there. He seems to have recovered now, though. Our older cat, Teddy, hasn't had to go to the vet for a couple of years, but now that I've said that, of course, I'm sure he'll develop something expensive by tomorrow afternoon.

And now I have to go do dishes again, because that shit just never ends.