The kids spent the day in Somerville, visiting Maria, their family care caregiver from January 2003 until July 2004, when we moved here. Noah thought he was being dropped off and had a panic attack when they arrived, but once he smelled the soup and realized Mom was staying, he settled in. Marcela's visit paid off, she made the most delicious vegetable soup for dinner. After Maria, Marcela went to Coralie's house on Conwell Street. The oak trees in our front and side yards are babies from that plot of land. Noah and Nico played, Marcela told me, and Maxim felt left out. Nico didn't want to play Maxim's games. She likes playing princess and fairy and house and farm and pet store now. He preferred jumping around and yelling. Maxim and Noah were worn out and fell asleep in the car on the way home. I helped Marcela carry them to their beds, but they didn't stay asleep. They cried for a while and then we started playing with them and they cheered up. Noah wanted to be carried around by me for a long time. He is still fussy even now. I stayed home and scraped more windows. The front ones are ready for sanding. I finished the lower part of one of the back windows. My arms were tired today, and it was much farther up in the air than in the front. As long as I didn't look down, I could scrape ok, but each time I did, the ground felt that much further away. I stopped looking down, but held on to the ladder tighter, which made me more tired. Tonight we sang songs and played guitar and waited for the heat of the day to lift.