The past couple of days have been interesting. Several months ago, my wife and I were caring for our grand-daughter. I am a pretty selfish kind of guy, and frankly, I resented that at my age, I had to be taking care of a baby, let alone someone else's baby. But, my wife is a good Christian, and I love her to pieces, so I reluctantly agreed; and then saw the originally agreed-to period balloon out to over six months. At two years old, Courtney was a real sweetheart, but she could be a handful.

Now, it's nearly six months on, and Courtney is more than three years old. At this age, it's amazing what a few months means to her development and maturity. My step daughter had to take a business trip out of town (to learn how to perform her new job), and my wife asked whether it was OK for Courtney to stay with us. I have to say that these two days have been very enjoyable. She is still as energetic as I remembered her to be, but much less whiny, and more willing to follow instruction.

I am not naive enough to expect a two year old (or even a three year old) to understand what I want (in terms of behaviour), but I can honestly say that she seems to be more "reasonable" now than she was a few months ago. While I wouldn't volunteer to be a parent again for any length of time, this "visit" with grandma and grandpa has been quite pleasant.

She's renewed her playful relationship with the dogs (and to a lesser extent the cat), and ensures that everyone expends a rather large quantity of energy keeping up with her antics. The dogs appreciate it, my wife is in heaven, and even I (the BLACK KING) am finding that her presense has been enjoyable.

The picture below, taken last summer while she was with us, is somewhat out of date, but you can see just how cute she is.