Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2014 - 4:16 p.m.

Still seems like my brother should be out there somewhere, being annoying from afar. I keep expecting mom to have talked to him or something.

Turns out his girlfriend actually believed everything he told her about being a ranger in the army, all his dangerous and exciting missions. (He was a medic and never saw action). I guess he must have been convincing? I will not further disparage her.

I read a meme recently that said, "the first step toward forgiveness is realizing the person was born an idiot." Seems harsh, but is actually rather helpful. Yes, yes he was. Other things as well, but the idiot part turned out to be pivotal.

Finally got Q to do a teeny tiny bit of writing-- she is a bit of a perfectionist and usually says "but I don't know how!" as a reason not to try. Pep talks about the value of practice fall on 4 year old ears. Today I was trying to get her to write her initial in a birthday card. I told her, "But you're so good at it! You write it really well!" And that did the trick. Lured by flattery, she produced her initial, and U's, as well as an airplane and train. Progress! I'll take it.

�