The Boys

Some more pictures, because nothing is really going on here, just getting ready for Thanksgiving. We'll be going down to my sister's for the day, then going to MIL's on Friday for her leftovers. On Saturday my dad will be up visiting for the day, and staying overnight at a hotel just the one night. The boys are really excited about seeing him, because they haven't seen him in over 2 years.

Jacob getting up from a nap:


Jacob playing at his toybox; he's learned how to lean against the side on his tummy so he can use both hands to play


Levi


Micah


Caleb has spent several days creating log cabin scenes. This is one of his earlier buildings:


Troyer and Noah ready to head off to a Pathfinder event:


I don't have any pictures of Samuel, because he always tries to hide when I get the camera out. He says he doesn't hate having his picture taken, and yet he always runs when I try ... I'll catch him sooner or later!

Another View of Fall

Woo hoo! Levi is using the bathroom consistently now. He loves these pants!

Fall Colors

It's cold out today, but the clear air means some beautiful colors. Here are some right out my front door:



These are some mums that, despite my black thumb, bloom alongside my front steps each fall.



This is a red maple, more of a bush than a tree, so I guess it is a dwarf or something. The contrast between the red leaves and the blue sky is even better in person. The sky is bluer and the leaves are redder. I guess I don't have a good enough camera to capture it well.

How Cool Is This????

This is a small clip of my fife and drum corps, The Morris County Militia, marching at a muster in my hometown in 1977. I was only in the Little Corps then, so I am not in this video, but my sister is! It made me cry to watch it; our corps was National Champs, definitely something to be proud of, and we were! I miss it a lot.

A note about the video, it was converted from a Super 8 film with no sound, the sound was added from the Corps' album. (yes, we had a record!) My sister and I are still trying to find out who posted this clip on YouTube.

Feeling Blah

Not much going on here, I don't really have anything new to post, so I thought I'd just share a picture of Jacob enjoying a banana :-)

Happy Halloween!

We don't usually do much for Halloween; I buy a few pumpkins and put them out on the front steps, uncarved. This year the boys convinced me to carve them. I think they came out pretty good for my first try at pumpkin carving! The boys had fun passing out candy to trick-or-treaters, too.

Steamed

My experience over the last few days has me annoyed enough to earn a blog post. Let me share it with you....

Let's start on Sunday, when I had 3 of the boys out in our Escort for a quick trip to WalMart. Of course the local police have nothing better to do than harrass a mother with a car full of kids because she has a brake light out. Chris has known about this brake light for almost a month, but has chosen not to do anything about it because our car is junk and he doesn't want to put any more money into it. So I got pulled over and written up with a warning for the light. Luckily the 8 mo was in a good mood and so not screaming his head off while we sat at the side of the road.

I got a postcard from the officer to have filled out once the light is fixed. I could either take it to a garage, who would fill out their section, and then I would mail in the proof that it is fixed, or Chris could fix it himself and then I would drive the car to the police station myself where they would sign off on the card. Last night after work, Chris found a spare bulb in the glove compartment and replaces the light. It took him less than 20 minutes to fix the light. (please note that the reason Chris didn't want to fix the light is that he didnt' want to spend money, and in the end, he did not because the spare was already in the glove compartment!)

I was going out on an errand last night, so I figured I'd stop at a police station while I was out and take care of the card. I had to call around to find a station because I have no idea where any of them are around here. In the 2 1/2 years I've lived here, I haven't needed to find one. So is there a number on the card? Nope. I got out the phone book and tried to find police stations. Not as easy as it sounds. I called the station in the biggest town around here, figuring they could tell me where the closest one to me is. After being given a second number to call, then being put on hold and then being told they'd have an officer call me back (like duh, don't the Police themselves know where the durn station is????), I tried another station, who told me where the station is in my town (finally!). BUT they close at 5 or maybe even 4:30. Great, it was 6 pm. So that means I had to drive the car to the station during business hours, which is when, guess what?, while Chris is at work! DUH. How am I supposed to drive the 5 pass car to a police station to have it checked if I have 8 people to drive around????? Well, I arranged to have the baby napping so the 13 yo can be in charge of him and the 7 yo, and put the 11 and 9 yo on warning to behave themselves while I went out, and dragged out the 5 yo and the 3 yo. I am uncomfortable leaving so many home alone with the oldest being only 13, but there you go, what other choice did I have?

I found the local police station, which was not very far at all, and got the kids out to go inside. The 3 yo absolutely did NOT want to go inside. Sigh. It took over 5 min to convince him to go in. Luckily I didn't have to wait to talk to someone, and the officer there came out right away and checked my light. He stamped my card, and then handed it back! What? I still have to mail it in because it was issued from a different region. UGH.

Well, it is a postcard, so I figure I'll stop at the post office on the way home, and pay for a postcard stamp, because the 3 yo wants to go to the post office. So I get the kids out and walk up to the post office, and guess what? Yup, the 3 yo does not want to go inside. A very nice man was trying to hold the door for us and 3 yo was just lying on the ground refusing to go in. Finally I just picked him up by his shirt and dragged him across the doorway and dropped him on the mat inside the door. (I'd already had a rough morning with him) So up to the counter I go, and tell the postal worker that I'd like to buy a postcard stamp. He looks at the card and says Nope, it's an oversized card and takes full postage. ARRRRGGGHHHH I should have just gone home and stuck it in the mailbox! And why the heck doesn't it have prepaid postage on it anyway? And why can't I just turn it in to any department? And why did the original officer, who had nothing better to do on Sunday than harrass obviously threatening-looking, dangerously-driving moms-on-their-way-to-WalMart-with-cars-full-of-kids, not tell said mother which station to go to? In fact, he told me I could go to ANY station. Not true, it turns out. What a day. And of course, it's all Chris' fault ;-)

Just some ideas, Ty, for when our turn comes...

Sometimes I like to wonder, if Extreme Makeover Home Edition chose us for a new home, what themes would they pick for my children? I realize that the designers and producers probably have more to consider than just the likes and dislikes of the kids in each famliy. They have to think about what kinds of things they can get donated, and if there is a way to involve a celebrity who is willing to come on the show. I also know that with 7 kids, it is not going to happen that they would build me an 8 bedroom house; so some of the boys would be sharing rooms. But, if I could dream without restrictions, each room would become a peek into my sons' personalities.

Here is what I envision:

Jacob: Well, he's only 8 months old, so he'd just get a really cool nursery. Still too little to have any preferences.

Levi: All dogs. He LOVES puppies. At one year old, one of his first words was Voof, which is what he said when asked what his stuffed puppy's name was. However, since his older brother would also have a dog theme (see Samuel), maybe they would go with Thomas the Tank Engine. As boy #6, you can just imagine how much Thomas stuff this boy has. Toys, cups, clothes, even underwear. EMHE would probably go with this theme, since the merchandising angle would be easier.

Micah: A tough one, because at 5 he has a lot of interests, but no one true love. He likes Spiderman, and Legos, pirates, and puppies, and pretty much anything his older brothers like. I think though, that he would end up with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles room. All of the boys love the Turtles, but the merchandising aspect again would win this one for him.

Caleb: I guess he would end up sharing a room with Micah, because his interests are pretty much the same. Not that he wants to share with a younger brother, LOL. He would be in heaven to share with an older brother, but of course they are just as disinterested in sharing with him as he is in sharing with Micah or Levi. Caleb does like outside sports (though not organized team type sports) so maybe they would pick a bike theme or something.

Samuel: Not even a challenge to come up with this one. Dalmations. One white-with-black-spots room, with dogs everywhere. He already has a nice collection, and would love to have it expanded.

Noah: Another tough call here. They could go with Legos, Bionicles in particular, or maybe Alpha Team (though merchandising-wise that wouldn't work, as Lego is not currently producing any Alpha Team sets). He likes Star Wars, and also the Ninja Turtles. But he also loves computer games so maybe they would give him the ultimate game room, with a PSP and a Wii and an awesome computer set up. Of course, I would not want him to have this room, as we'd never see him ever again, he'd be sucked in to the games and never leave the room, LOL.

Troyer: This one was the toughest of all. Not because he doesn't like anything but because he likes so many things. They could do a Muppet room, to house his Kermit collection. They could do a Herbie/Volkswagen room to house his Herbie/VW collection. He has a collection of rabbits, and he loves cats. He loves Indiana Jones and Harrison Ford. But I think, since he is 13, they would try to focus on his future and what he may want to be when he grows up. I think he would get the ultimate cartoonist/animator room. He loves to sit and draw all day, coming up with new cartoon superheros and ideas for new movies. He spends more time watching the extras on DVDs than on the actual movie. He loves all things animated. When the tv is not on, he reads Calvin and Hobbes and Bloom County and Peanuts and any other comic strip books we have, and then he gets out his pad of paper and draws his ideas for new strips. So he should get a room based on that. Shelves of comic books, murals of super heros, a computer with software for creating animation. But it wouldn't hurt if the featured celebrity for our episode were Kermit the Frog. :-)

What rooms do you think EMHE should do for your kids?

Ups and Downs

This past month has been pretty busy. I went out to visit Aimee for the weekend, and then 2 weeks later she came out to visit me. The cousins all had a great time getting together, and Aimee and I had fun too. We both agreed that the drive is a killer, though! We were really lucky with the weather, as well. It has been unseasonably warm up until this week. It was almost 80 last Monday! While that is fun to enjoy the warmth, and great not having to turn on the heat yet, I was starting to look forward to putting away the shorts. This week the temps have dropped to seasonable 60s, and I don't mind a bit. We might be able to get away with keeping the heat off until next Thurs, which is November! Woohoo.

Jacob turned 8 months old on Monday, and in honor of that, he decided to climb the stairs. You have to understand here, that he is never allowed near them, because they are unsafe for babies. There is no way to gate them, and there is a cast iron railing which has spaces perfectly fitted for babies to fall right through. We know this because the summer after we first moved here, Levi was only 8 mos old and he fell through. Luckily they are split with a landing half way down, so he really only fell the height of a half flight, or about 4 feet, but still. Yikes. He was fine, but it was scary. So, no playing near the stairs for children who can't walk them yet. Well, last week, Jacob was playing downstairs, and I was allowing him to explore a bit. He went right over to the stairs, but I was behind him so I let him go. Wouldn't you know it, he just took a look at them and went right up! He didn't falter or almost fall. Sheesh! So one more milestone crossed for him. I wish I had a picture to post, but I didn't have a camera at the time, and we haven't let him try again since.

Another big milestone this month is that Levi is potty training. He has been sort-of trying all summer, but really he wasn't interested. Just this week he has been successful at keeping his pants dry, and hasn't had any accidents. I've been rewarding him with candy for using the potty, because at first he was holding it all in until bedtime when we'd put a diaper on him, and then filling it. Ick. Now, he eagerly goes to the bathroom, so he can come back and beg for candy. Woohoo, finally a kid the food bribe works on! LOL

On the down side for this month, Chris has hardly been home. He has been playing Fall Ball, which is a 2 month extension of the softball season at work. He asked and I told him it would be ok as long as he could still take the boys to Pathfinders on Tuesday nights. Since the boys only have meetings 2x a month, he wouldn't really be missing very many games. It also worked out that he could either drop them off on the way to a game, or pick them up and bring them to a game most of the time. He has only missed one game. I am happy to let him play, as it is a chance for him to get out and not think about work for a bit; but it does keep him away from home more. This week he has also been told he has to start working mandatory unpaid overtime. Since he is salaried, it is kind of understood that he would have some work to do after hours that wouldn't officially get paid for. Luckily for him, he hands in a timesheet each week, for the purposes of billing clients, so most of the time, he gets the extra hours back in time off. Well, it seems the projects he's working on have run out of budget, but the managers have all promised the work would still get done anyway, so they are making him work LOTS of hours to get it done, and he can't charge any of that time to the clients. Ugh. So, all added up I just haven't seen much of him at all. He has been able to bring some work home with him, but I have to keep the kids away so he can actually do it. He has been going in really early in the morning, too. But between the work and the stress of the work, he is really tired, and so whenever he's not working, he's sleeping.

Meanwhile, the weather is getting colder and dreary with some rain and less sunlight, and the boys are getting tired of school. They have been stir crazy the last few days, stuck inside because of the rain. Their running and screaming and bickering and chasing and crying are driving me nuts. WHY can't they get along??? WHY are they always at each other's throats?

This week a lot of bloggers have been posting pictures of Fall, with foliage shots, and pictures of pumpkin patches, and pretty mums at their front doors. I am so jealous. I wish I were a better homemaker and decorator, though I admit I have no where to store seasonal decorations. This year I've been seeing such pretty dishes too. I am not one to care about switching out my dishes (again, where would I store the ones I wasn't using?) but I sure wish I had a house worth decorating. I wish I had kids who actually wanted to go to a pumpkin patch and enjoy a corn maze. No, my kids whine and complain so much it just isn't worth it trying to go. And it's not worth trying to decorate because Chris would just complain or make wisecracks about the clutter. It's just not worth making an effort for myself when those around me are going to ruin the pleasure of it.

All this to say, I am starting to get depressed. I hate being discontent and unhappy. I know I don't really have anything to truly complain about, and lots to be happy about. But there it is. I can feel it sucking me in, and all I want to do is sleep for a week. Of course, that is not possible and so I eat to stay awake, and so I grow bigger and bigger each week, which also depresses me. Sigh.

An Overdue Post

Last month was my dh's and my 15th anniversary. Woo hoo! Some days it seems much longer than that, and others it seems like much shorter. Over all we've made it through a lot of rough patches and right now we're in a good place. I've told him, there's no one else I can even imagine being married to, or who would want to be married to me! LOL

Our special day 15 years ago:



Happy Anniversary Chris!

More Pictures

After we got back from our trip, Troyer wanted to open his presents. We waited until Monday night so that Chris could watch him open them. Not sure why, because he usually isn't interested in what the boys get, but he said if he didn't watch them be opened, he'd never know what he got at all. Hmm, probably true! lol



here's a group shot, they are all in there! Not the best, but they are not usually all in a space close enough to be in one picture lol


Here's a shot of Jacob's toothy grin. You can see 6, but there are now 8 teeth in there!

I Am a Mother to a Teenager!

This weekend Troyer turned 13. Ack! When did I get so old??? Oh yeah, at the beginning of the month, when I turned 40, LOL. I went out to my sister's house for the weekend, and I took Troyer, Noah, Samuel, and Jacob. We brought the party with us LOL. We had a great time, and I think Troyer enjoyed doing something special for his birthday. His aunt got him a bakery cake and put cars on the top (toy cars from the movie Cars), plus she gave him a small volkswagen model, and a Muppets t-shirt. We went out to eat at a local pizza buffet. The restaurant had a small arcade room in back, and the boys had fun wasting some money in there :-).

We also spent a lot of time looking at books. Aimee and I have a sort of book obsession going on right now, so we spent several hours at her library, plus we went to two used-book stores. She bought more than I did, but I did pick up a few things. We also bought books for our kids. I am sorry to say that my boys were pretty bored in the book store. They enjoyed the library but that's because they all grabbed Calvin and Hobbes and Foxtrot off the shelves and found chairs to sit and read for an hour. Well, except for Samuel, who ended up just falling asleep. I wish I had my camera with me at the library! It was funny.

We didn't have time to do much more than that, since the drive is so long. Even with Chris taking off Friday for travel time, it still was less than 48 hours actually at her house. I sure wish we lived closer! Jacob was so good for the whole trip, and Noah and Samuel did a great job playing with him in the backseat, so he wouldn't get too bored. He didn't complain until the last hour in the car. Even so, though, it slowed things down to have to bring him with us. I forgot to pack the stroller, and he is heavy! At least, after an hour in my arms, he is ;-).


He's 13!


getting silly over cake


at the pizza buffet



These three spent almost the whole weekend playing Star Wars video games. They were in heaven!


Jacob took an instant liking to the stocked book shelves! Like mother like son!





Katie read to Jacob. They didn't get very far before he started to try to eat the pages LOL

Come And Get Me!

This is the sight that greets me each time I go to get Jacob from his crib. No more waiting around playing nicely, no! Notice his red eyes from screaming because I wasn't fast enough LOL. I'll be keeping the side up now; next thing you know he'll be throwing his leg over the side and climbing out on his own!

The Artist at Work

I have mentioned before that Troyer likes to draw and has quite a bit of talent. This summer he was inspired to make up some poster sized drawings. He has them hung up around the family room. Donatello has a place of honor above his bed.











I don't really know where he gets his inspiration from. The tree is one from our backyard. He took the paper out back and taped it to the picnic table while he sketched it, then brought it in to finish. I have no idea why he'd draw a rattlesnake LOL.

A New Crew Member on the Enterprise

Tonight, Noah decided that his shirt looked very much like Captain Kirk's. He drew up a Star Fleet insignia and cut it out. The helmet is one he came up with while at his grandma's house. Not very Star Trekkish, but whatever, LOL. He asked me to take this picture of him and print out a mini version so he could make up an ID card. The card came out really well.

I've Made a Few Changes...

to my sidebar --->

.

.

.

.

I added a list of authors I like. I was going to list books I'm reading, but that changes too quickly and often to keep updated. The list is the authors I'm currently reading. If you can think of others to add, just leave me a comment!

I also finally added a list of blogs I visit. Check them out!

7 Months Old!

Jacob turned 7 months old yesterday. In honor of that milestone, he has gotten one more tooth (he's up to 7 now), learned to sit by himself (including getting to sitting and keeping his balance while sitting), AND pulls himself up on furniture. He has crawled into his carseat several times, and on Thursday (note that he was not even officially 7 months old yet) he pulled up on the couch and cruised down it! ACK! His face was priceless, he was sooo excited and proud of himself. But this kid is going to kill me. Where did my baby go? Only 7 months old and he's working on toddler already! Waaahhh!

Back Online!

Well, it's been a looong week! I lost my phone for over a week, so I couldn't call anyone, I couldn't get online and read email, I couldn't read my boards or blogs, or post here. I couldn't chat or IM. It was awful! The worst was, I couldn't even call the phone company and complain, because I had no phone! I had Chris call from work to tell them we had no dial tone and couldn't call out. They seemed to have a hard time understanding that we had no other phone we could use. I don't have a cell phone or a second line. In fact, I don't even have DSL or cable tv. We live in the dark ages here!

Anyway, it took them 9 days and 2 tries to get me reconnected. As it is, we have a temporary phone line running across the back yard (like a bright orange extension cord) until they schedule a crew to come in and dig up our old line and lay in a new one. I have no idea how long it will take them to do that, but I sure hope it's before someone accidentally mows our line!

Meanwhile, life goes on. Noah had his birthday last week. He didn't like any of the choices of cakes at the bakery, but he didn't want Troyer to bake his cake. He was not sure what he wanted to do when Chris suggested a Dairy Queen ice cream cake. He loved the idea, so Chris brought one home after work on his birthday. He got home a bit early with the cake, and hadn't thought about size when he picked it out, but we have a side-by-side refrigerator so of course, the cake didn't fit in the freezer. We ended up eating the cake first, and then everyone was so full we didn't have dinner.






That's Levi back there, hiding behind the school books, LOL

Noah knew a few of the presents he was getting, but some were a surprise. The best surprise was for me, that he loved everything! Last year he complained about most of his gifts.

Here is one present he didn't know he was getting:

He and Troyer are all about Transformers right now, and Noah already had a Bumblebee toy, so he was excited to get the shirt.


Jacob also had a birthday of sorts, he passed the 6 month mark! Wow, that first half a year went fast. He is getting better and better at crawling, he now has 5 teeth (!), has started eating Cheerios (and any other sort of cereal left on the floor by his brothers), and started drinking water from a sippy cup. I got the high chair out for him last week, and put away the bassinette and swing. He had his 6 mo check up, and did great, even through all the shots he got. Poor baby, I sure hate watching them all go through that. He is my smallest 6 mo yet. He was only 15 lb 6 oz, though length-wise his 26.5 inches was right on. I could swear he weighs more, so maybe the dr's scale was a bit off. I guess we'll see at his 9 mo visit if he suddenly gains a lot!



I have more to post, and more pictures, but I'll save it for later.

Levi is 3!

Levi turned 3 years old on Monday. We did the cake and presents thing, even though Noah is not here. He is over at Grandma's for the week. I asked him if he minded missing out, and he said no; I guess he figures a 3 yo can't get anything too super-cool and not-to-be-missed LOL.

It was hot here again this week, so Levi chose to revisit the clothing he was born in, that is to say, none. He is potty training, so his tendency is to neglect putting pants back on once they are off. He did get into a diaper finally, so at least I could take pictures ;-)

Troyer baked the cake, a red velvet cake, and frosted it, and I did the words and sprinkles.








This present has been a big hit with all the boys. It is a plug-and-play tv video game. It is challenging enough that they all enjoy playing it. Unfortunately that means they all fight over getting a turn, LOL.

The Good News and the Bad News

The good news: I found grapes on sale yesterday, for $.99/lb and bought 5 lbs. Not a single rotten or moldy one in the bunch!

The bad news: the boys wiped out 5 lbs of grapes in one afternoon. Ack! It's like raising locusts!

Swimming Lessons

The last two weeks of July were set aside for swimming lessons at the YMCA. This year I had 5 boys signed up. I was hoping Micah would be able to be in the Polliwog class with Caleb and Samuel, but since he is only 5 he had to be in the Preschool class. This made 3 different classes I had to schedule; Troyer and Noah are in Minnow this year. For the first day, I had to go in for two classes, because Minnow was only offered in one time slot, but Preschool for that slot was already full. I had Levi and Jacob with me as well, and it was not fun trying to keep them occupied through 2 classes. After all the boys were done that first day, I went to the instructor and asked if there was any way we could move all the boys into the same time slot. She was super nice and made up a new class for Micah and another girl whose grandmother had the same problem as we did, she had two girls swimming in two different time slots. It worked out really well for Micah, too, because he got better instruction since there were just the two swimmers for one instructor.



It was still hard keeping Levi happy for the 45 minutes while we sat at pool-side. For preschool classes, the parents are expected to sit on benches right on the pool deck. Last year I sat up in the bleachers, so it was a bit easier to keep the little ones out of the way. Levi was not exhibiting quite enough fear of the water as I might have liked, lol



Jacob, on the other hand, was great. He sat in the stroller for half the class, then had a snack and fell asleep for the other half.

Samuel is the only one who passed up out of his class, he is now in Guppy all by himself. Caleb has another year of Polliwog to go. His review sheet says he needs more practice on his back.



This was the only picture I could get of Samuel, he's taken to not wanting pictures taken lately:


Noah and Troyer are at the point in their lessons where they are really just refining technique and learning new strokes. Noah tried hard to learn them well, but he still has some work to do on his sidestroke.

Samuel's Birthday

Samuel's birthday was last month, but it was while Troyer was away at camp, so he decided to wait until the next week to celebrate so Troyer wouldn't miss it. Samuel doesn't like bakery cakes, so he chose a flavor of cake mix and he made his own. He really wanted orange cake, but I couldn't find it. He settled for a confetti cake with sprinkles on the icing. He made the cake, and I decorated it. He was very happy with how it came out.





He was very happy with all his presents, mostly TMNT and Legos. He also got a book on Dalmations, which he loves. It is a book on how to care for them, and as he is not a big reader, I thought he'd just like to look at the pictures; but he is actually reading it at night before bed!

I thought it was funny when he opened this gift from his dad and got so excited:



Woohoo! Candy! LOL

Ponderings

Did you ever thing to yourself "What if" or "If only"? In the process of house-hunting, Chris and I have often thought "If only we could have afforded that house we really liked..." or "What if the perfect house would finally come along and we could actually afford it!" Do you ever wish there were times in your life you could live over again, or do differently? I often wonder what life would be like if only I had had a girl or two.

But, being the overly analytical person that I am, I took that thought further. What if, THIS is the what-if life I had imagined in a different life? What if we had been able to buy that house we really wished we hadn't missed out on, but then that house flooded, or burnt down, or we had a child die from an accident on that property. And after such calamity, we had thought to ourselves, "If only we hadn't bought this house!" And *this* is the life we were given instead? What if I had had a few girl babies, but in 20 years they'd have grown up to suffer horrible tragedy, or at least difficulty, because they were girls?

What if you could live your life over, and this is already the second time around? This is the chance to make better choices? This is the life with better opportunities offered? What if I had once been born as a single birth, with no twin sister, and I had always wondered what it was like to have a twin, and always wished I had one, and Poof! My life became one where I had a twin sister! Now I know what it's like! My wish was granted!

Ok, I know that was weird and a bit circular, and probably hard to follow, but I like to think that the life I live now is the best one I could have hoped for. Instead of wishing for something different, I like to think that this is the life I was given when I DID wish for something different. This is the best I could have gotten. Maybe that's a little bit like It's a Wonderful Life? It doesn't stop me from dreaming of a beautiful farmhouse on many acres with a house full of boys (and girls!) but it helps me to not be bitter that I don't have what (I think) I want. Maybe if I had what I thought I wanted, I wouldn't like it at all! I know my life is full of blessings I can see and appreciate, but I bet it is full of blessings I didn't even know I was given, and I'm sure there are many sufferings and tragedies I was spared. THIS life is the good one!

Und der Haifisch, er hat Zaehne, und er traegt sie im Gesicht!

My apologies for not knowing how to get the umlauts in there. I'm sure probably only Michelle knows what that means either, but it's one of my favorite phrases I remember from high school German.

Anyway, the operative word above is Zaehne, which means ..... teeth! Jacob has officially, at one day less than 20 weeks old, gotten his first tooth! It broke through this morning, after a week of grumpiness and discomfort. It is funny to watch him now, because he can't help playing with it with his tongue. Each time I look over at him, he is sticking his tongue out and grinning widely. We are both glad it has finally popped out! It is a bottom front tooth, and its partner is close behind, I bet it will be out by this weekend.

Troyer used to have the record for earliest tooth, but if I remember correctly, it was 5 days before he turned 5 mos, so Jacob has him beat!