Back at the Sunset Homestead.

So, I walked in to the smell of dinner cooking and come giggles from upstairs. Soon, all five of us were in the kitchen - Samuel and Athena bouncing tennis balls against the cabinets while Diana wove her way between the children and the bounces and put together dinner, and jet-lagged Patrick told us about what was going on in the world.

A little while later, I happened to be alone in the kitchen and Athena was at the table in the sunroom behind me. She said something to me and I turned around and something about the expression on her face, the lighting from the window, and the angle at which she was seated - she looked like a teenager. I just had a flash of what she might look like ten years from now, and I was so struck by it and so curious that she had to say my name a few times to snap me out of it. She was smiling to herself and swirling a spoon in her bowl of yogurt, making a clinking noise and then telling me that someone was at the door (the clinking being the doorbell, you see?) and I laughed at her and told her no one was at the door, she giggled, and asked me to come over. I walked over to see her, and we were talking about the lack of a delivery man at the door and she said, "Want to know something?" I said, "Sure."

And she looked at me, tiny finger raised, and said, "You have no idea!" and poked her finger at my stomach. She then started to crack up and double over with laughter, and I looked down to see that she had dipped her finger in her yogurt before poking me, so I had a streak of vanilla yogurt around the belly-button area of my shirt. As I giggled with her and called her sneaky, she laughed and I started to walk to the sink to clean it off. When I was done, I heard "Hey Emily!" "Yes?" I said, turning around. She grinned. "Where'd you get that dirty shirt?"

She's going to be a force to be reckoned with.