I'm patching Grace's pants with hearts or balloons. She is not as rough on her knees as Noah is.

The best pants for Noah are the lands end reinforced knees but I can never find the jeans in his size.

Sometimes I think Toughskins really must have been a godsend.

Yikes, Theo! May you knit swiftly.

I bought my cats some crinkly aluminum and feather toys to discourage Molly from batting their water dish all over the apartment, and she is now busily chasing one and growling to herself. I think she's freaked Jackson out; he opted for hiding rather than playing with his own toy.

Dave still wears out the knees in his jeans. Admittedly, this is because he spends a lot of time on the same level as people of Noah & Grace & Sara's ages.

Matilda doesn't always wear through her knees, but she grubs them up spectacularly. Any legwear she outgrows without putting holes in is only good for hand-me-down playwear, not kid consignment and certainly not for wearing into the world beyond the front yard. She loves pastel sweatpants and yoga pants, but the knees are all dingey grey-brown by midway into the first wearing, and nothing ever gets the grub out.

Since I have gobs to do today, I decided to take Walter for an extra-long walk. Now we both need to rest up before I get with the box-breaking-down or blackberry pruning, but it was very pleasant!

I totally grew up in Toughskins, even though I really hated the stiffness in them.

Today we ran up a mountainside and then down another. Or that's what it felt like, even though it was only 4 miles total. I'm faster than my sister on the downhills, anyway. And then we had excellent sweet-potato pancakes with my adorable nephews.

And now I'm home and beyond cleaning the house a bit, I don't have much to do. Well, I could edit my niece's application essay again. (Don't family members know that when you do an editing job for them, they're not supposed to send it back for another look? Oy.)

Well, I tried to go outside, but I didn't get very far. I think we got some freezing rain and now everything is covered in a thin layer of ice, so everyone outside is walking very slowly and doing the Scooby-Doo pratfall legs. I decided that walking any distance was going to result in injury.

This means I get to run my errands tomorrow when it is in the single digits. I also have a dentist appointment tomorrow. Woo?

I guess I'll catch up on some TV and do a toss/donate/keep with the closet.

[link] One of Noah's knees and the other: [link]

So cute!