However, I'm not so great at salad eating. I'd rather eat a Twinkie. I love junk food. It's sort of an obsession of mine. I keep an eye out for new products, but I also like the classics such as Doritos and Snickers bars. My parents have outlawed junk food in the Kishi home, but that doesn't stop me. I just hide what I buy, along |[ with the Nancy Drew mysteries my mom thinks aren't "challenging" enough for me to be reading. (Wrong.) I glanced at Lynn, who had apparently just discovered the fact that she has toes. She was thrilled. (Babies are easily pleased.) I wondered when she'd be ready to forget the baby formula and move on to some real food, perhaps some Mallomars. Soon, I hope. And while she's eating them, I can read Nancy Drew mysteries to her. I can hardly wait.

    I'm not worried about corrupting her. Good genes run in our family. Look at me. I'm perfectly healthy, with clear skin and a decent figure. You'd never know I'm the Junk Food Queen of Stoneybrook.

   Lynnsmiled up at me and I grinned back. Then I picked her up and gave her a squeeze. "I am so happy you're here, you little pumpkin," I said, rolling over to let her lie on my belly. She gurgled. "I know, I know," I said. "You're happy to be here, aren't you?" She's such a calm, happy baby. Instead of being freaked out by a change of pace, she enjoys it.

    I guess I'm the same way. Things had been changing lately, and I thought it was exciting. The BSC had lost a pair of regular sitting charges: Corrie and Sean Addison. They'd moved away because Mrs. Addison was offered a better job inSeattle, and they'd sold their house to a new family, the Nichollses. The kids — two boys named Joey and Nate — seem nice. Joey's seven and Nate is just five. Their morn works at the library with my mom, and I'm not sure what their dad does. The time I met him, he seemed a little, I don't know, pushy or something. He kept bugging Joey and Nate about helping him organize the garage. I mean, they're just little kids, and they were doing their best, as far as I could see.