Kiiii-iiiitt!

Liza's been out of school for the last week or so, having had her tonsils out. Mike's been telling me his childhood horror stories with his tonsils, all of which made me alternate between laughing and being mortified at his experiences. I have my tonsils, but not a third of my teeth. I wonder if there's a correlation to that tradeoff.

Mike came down the mountain to pick up the tiller, and, much to both my surprise and delight, brought Liza with him. Mike and I were going to head over to the frozen yogurt place that Katie introduced me to, and holy moly, is it awesome. My favorite is the original with graham cracker crust: tastes like a light, cold keylime pie. Mmmmmm.....

So, we went off to the yogurt place. I kept trying to get Liza to talk, because I thought her voice had changed. Kiii-iiiitt! Sure enough, Mike confirmed that her voice had changed because of the tonsils.

On the way back home, I noticed Liza's homework on her lap. She had just pulled it out of her backpack, when "Kathleen" caught my eye. I asked her, "Why did you put 'Kathleen' on your homework?"

She turned to me and, in a way I thought you had to be at least a teenager to perfect, rolled her eyes at me. "That's my name, Kitt."

Well, aren't I put in my place?

Mike explained that she's been waffling between her first and middle names, not quite sure which name she wanted to use. Nothing like defining yourself young. I would, however, like to honor her choice: if she's going to be Kathleen, I'll switch what I call her, just give me some time to do it right. So, I asked her, "What should I call you then?"

"You can call you whatever you want," she answered.

I reached over, grabbed her in the biggest bear hug I could manage, and asked, "Does that mean I can call you 'the Awesome Daughter of My Good Friend?'"

"NooooOOOoo, Kiiiiii-iiiiiiitt!"

Ah, that's the Liza voice I love.