Monday, April 3, 9:00 PM. Garrett.

It was Claire’s birthday today. She turned eleven. We did most of the party in the office where Dad is so that he could be a part of it. He was asleep most of the time, or half asleep, but he knew what was going on and he would smile at Claire and hold her hand and things like that.

I gave her a ukulele and told her I would teach her how to play it so we could play together. Trevor gave her some candy that Mom helped him make. Mom and Dad gave her a colorful leather saddle that they found somewhere.

She seemed happy. She likes pumpkin pie, and Mom had made her one secretly back in the fall and kept it frozen all this time. So we had pumpkin pie for birthday cake. We sang happy birthday to her, and she laughed when Trevor and I sang it again with the words about “you look like a monkey and you smell like one too.” Mom and Dad laughed at that.