Games and a Meal Together

 Eating a hot dog.

 Hiding in the bathtub.

 Playing a game. Daisy is "Sweetie," says Sophia, as they speak their secret language moxed with French and English.

 Or "Sweetie" talks over the "computer" in her car.

 Luca swishes baskets nearby.

We also had ribs (Sophia's favorite), mashed potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, chips, salsa, juice, milk, water, and Oreos.

-30-

Garden Bounty

To be clear these veggies are from the grocery store, but my love of carrots and radishes in particular dates from a boyhood where my Dad grew them in our backyard garden in rich Saginaw Valley soil. I know we grew other crops as well, including rhubarb, but I don't remember which ones.

Lately I've been mixing lots of vegetables including the above plus brussel sprouts, artichokes, asparagus, corn, peas, beans and others into my diet.

***

Aidan is back! He drove Zaira and their cat, Mika, into San Francisco at around 7:30 last night. Planning to see him later today. So good to have him home.

-30-

Get Ready

I envision Donald Trump winning the presidency this November. The only way I see him losing is if the GOP establishment forms a third party ticket. That ticket would need to drain about 5 percent of the vote from Trump for Clinton to win the election.

There is no precedent over the past 8 election cycles, according to 538, for the two leading candidates to have such high negatives. Trump's in particular are amazingly high.

Yet negatives are not a bad thing for a candidate like Trump. That many hate and fear him will stoke his base, which is larger than many people realize.

-30-

Dinner With Grandpa

For the first time, Daisy is talking directly to me. She's been pretty shy until now but Laila's weekly visits are helping her become more comfortable with me. Luca read several books to Sophia and the girls continued their secret language talks. I think Luca may understand their language as well.

-30-

Secret Languages

Sophia (5) and Daisy (2) play a game that sometimes seems to be 'mother and daughter' and sometimes is just 'sisters', which of course they are. As part of these games, they have invented their own language. While it sounds like gibberish to the rest of us, they clearly understand the sounds and their meanings.

Watching them play, I couldn't help but wonder about the origins of language among humans. Maybe this is how it all started? With play? Both girls can speak English and understand French. Yet they still want to invent their own new language.

Fascinating.

-30-

Cover Baby

 Laila and I were looking at some binders last night and we discovered one with some 56 negatives from Dylan's photo shoot for Baby Talk magazine. There are many cute shots there -- they are large format negatives so you can clearly see them even though undeveloped.

Everyone seemed to like the spaghetti I cooked, plus broccoli, tic-tacs, ice cream, strawberries, cookies, biscuits, chips and hot salsa.

-30-

Grandchildren Visit Again

Laila and I have settled on Thursdays as the time she will bring Luca, Sophia and Daisy over for a visit and dinner. This week she brought chicken soup to stay within my dietary restrictions. we had a very nice afternoon and evening together.

Yesterday I drove downtown in the rain for my followup appointment. Everything is healing well and no sign of infection.

Today my friend Tomoko stopped by for tea.

Now I am settling in to watch some political news and baseball...

-30-