If I wrote every day, I still couldn't keep up with the excitement and insanity of this household. Here are the last few weeks' highlights.

L news - She is not yet seven months old is now crawling, pulling up to stand, cruising along furniture, able to go from laying on back to sitting up, eating many vegetables and grains, drinking from a sippy cup, still not sleeping well at night, and is now able to clap! I think this kid is a genius. Cuter than ever. Still has peach fuzz hair that sticks straight up like she stuck her finger in a light socket. Does NOT enjoy pureed green beans. She gagged so hard when they hit her tongue that she projectile vomited 6 ounces of milk onto the table. Says "da da da" and is getting a great belly laugh. Here are some of my favorite latest shots...






E news: Broke previously believed to be indestructible glasses at recess when other kid fell on his head, crushing his face into the ground. E's eye area was all cut up and frames busted in two, lenses scratched to hell. He now has a red neoprene "sport strap" which he wears at all times, except when he is playing soccer, at which time he "forgets" it. Made two exciting goals in his soccer game last week, under his fine coach's tutelage (me :). His indomitable spirit allowed him to continue to celebrate the second goal even after an irate opponent, incensed about being scored upon, deliberately kicked both legs out from under him and called him a "sucker." Ten year old referee looks away, fine coach (me) shouts, "Ummm, that's not OK!?!" while suppressing the desire to pick up said offender by his little blue t-shirt and say something to scare the pee out of him. Instead, I praised my son for turning the other cheek and letting his good sportsmanship and winning goal be the best revenge. Ate 17 treats, played video games, watched two movies, bought lots of plastic crap at a garage sale, bounced in a moonwalk, won an entire bundt cake in a cake walk and broke open two pinatas during celebration of Latin American holiday "Kids' Day" in which kids are ridiculously indulged. When it was all said and done, E declared "I enjoy Kids' Day."

D news: After ramping up repeated requests to attend church and "learn about Jesus" over the past two weeks, D got her wish last Sunday when we finally all attended church. I had promised to search for a Christian church that wouldn't teach her to believe that our friends would go to hell for loving each other or that Harry Potter is Satanic. Well, we found it and it went pretty well. The people were very nice, progressive in their politics, diverse and welcoming. I think it's the closest we are going to come to a compromise for her. D can't stop talking about it. She wants to pray at every meal, before bed, she wants to be baptized and get God parents who can teach her about Jesus. On Monday she went to school with a crucifix pin on her tank top that our elderly friend had given her before she died. It's really perplexing to try to grasp why she is so fixated on this now, but we want to honor it without necessarily encouraging her newfound identity as a religious zealot.
In other news, D got seven new fish for her fish tank. Freddy, the flourescent yellow one, promptly swam into the filter and died a couple of days later. She requested that his body be frozen pending a memorial up north where she will bury him next to Violet, her dead pet crayfish. D is also learning the value of money after a weekend of sidewalk sales, garage sales and events in our little downtown. Many purchases made, including a Tupperware orange peeler, cookies, more plastic dollhouses and a Build-A-Bear. I am not so good at refraining from the "do you really think that's a good usage of your money" speech and was literally shuddering each time she and her brother whipped out the cash. They don't get the difference between a penny and one hundred dollars or what either one can buy or how long it takes to make the money. I keep telling myself that allowing her to blow it one of the steps to the learning process. But it's oh so difficult for my tightwad soul. Jeff mused about asking his own mom how she handled it when he stood at some grocery store crap machine putting coin after coin all the way to twenty dollars to get a miniature plastic 49ers helmet. He still has the helmet and he believes that it is a symbol of a lesson learned young about frugality. The questions for J's mom is, how did you control yourself from freaking out while he did this? Do I have the willpower to happily watch these two blow their tiny fortunes on crap? I guess I used to save up all of my babysitting money to buy Smurf figurines -and hey, like the helmet I still have those 25 year old Smurfs.