I kinda love Lily a little more tonight. Is that wrong?

Tonight we got home from Steve and Joy's, where we'd had a fantastic dinner with those folks and the Reichert clan. A lovely group of people. All the kids are savages - including ours - but the adults are top notch.

Abby was fine at first, but became progressively crankier as the night went on, then broke down into outright inconsolibility. The other kids eyed her warily. It was another one of those situations where we were diagnosing, and everything we tried just made her a little more irritated. It was shaping up for an early night for us, when we decided to do some teething gel. This on a kid who got two teeth halfway in almost 7 months ago and hasn't even hinted at getting more since.

I gooped up her lower gums (with great difficulty; she's decided now that she hates teething gel). Then I went to the upper gums and felt one, maybe two, definite teeth poking through. I was ecstatic. Our little monkey is finally getting some more choppers.

This paled in comparison to later on, when we were resting on the couch just prior to bringing the girls up for bed. It was after 8, they were tired, and that tends to be one of their more charming moments. I don't know how exactly it started, but Lily - kneeling on our laps between us - started giving us kisses. "Kisses" is really too weak a word. They were slow, deliberate, very wet, long sloppy smooches - I'm not overselling it when I say that this is probably the highest pinnacle of parenting so far. She would lean in to Jen, press her lips to hers for a bit, then sit up and laugh. Then she would do the same for me; probably my favorite was that it took no prompting, she would just lean in unrequested. I am beside myself.

Now for a more serious topic. My friend Nick recently sent the girls a gift of 5 toy tree frogs from Seattle. They melded well with the general toy populace at first, but recently we've noticed some "organization" happening. Worried about the welfare and safety of all those within the home, we set up a secret camera before leaving the house today, and returned to find these shocking images.

Day forty two.

Tree frogs love to watch soccer, so they forced other toys to play for their amusement.

A ruthless game of bloody knuckles rages across our coffee table.

Frog porn is now on our computer.

You hate to see something like this. An innocent cat, overrun by thug frogs.

They raided my beer supply. They got into the Surly. Those bastards.

Finally, we get a glimpse of who is behind it all. Lily, the bilingual master frog behind the proverbial curtain.