When you're getting ready to hit the road, it's important to make sure your precious cargo is well secured.

I'm waiting on my husband to get home with our camera, so I can capture a picture of my little 7 1/2 month baby boy who is desperately trying to do everything all at once. He got 4 teeth in a span of 2 weeks. And he's been sitting up so sturdily for a few weeks now. Not moving himself into a seated position, but holding it very squarely once placed there. And he can lurch around and throw out a hand to catch his balance. He's very coordinated, it seems. And excellent hand-eye coordination. He sees it, he grabs it, to his mouth it goes.

And on top of everything, he is up on all fours, rocking back and forth. Scooching sort of backwards, but I have no doubt that he'll figure out forward motion very shortly. I give him a week. He's a smart little guy. And after all, he has a big sister to chase down! Alas, I am in NO hurry for these things to progress, but he seems to be developing at a faster pace than his big sister. And by that I mean, at his age, she wasn't close to crawling. Well, close, I guess. Her baby book says she crawled at 8 months. And her first tooth did pop through at 7 months, but in a different order than August's. How interesting.

I swear, he's also working on pulling himself up on things. Or maybe it's just pulling so hard on things to bring them down to his mouth level that he sort of lifts himself up. Sigh. How quickly babyhood flies by. Makes me start thinking about another....easy there, D.D. Nothing is in the works, so to speak...

The room in which I sit to compose these trivial lines has a set of French doors which open to the front of our house. Immediately beyond the doors is a concrete step leading out to the concrete patio. The concrete patio is fronted by a flowerbed.

There is supposed to be a set of screen doors which open out to the world, just outside our French doors. Almost a year ago, I had this handyman we know take them to fix them. Well, that's another story, but needless to say, he hasn't returned them. He hasn't sent me a bill yet, either. So that's good. And he claims he'll get them back to me...

For the past several days, as I come in here to clean up, vacuum, move toys, etc. (not blog, obviously...I'm so behind), I have found these squiggly earthworm carcasses. Gross, I know. And where on EARTH are they coming from? I think I've found 4 so far. In different locations on the floor, but definitely dead, sort of mummified and squiggly. And mysterious. As I picked up yet another one who died near August's little play gym (was the little worm aiming for it?), I started to really wonder where these are coming from. I assumed that they must have been wiggling their way under my French doors somehow. But then that really gave me pause. To do that, these worms would have to work their way up and OVER the concrete step outside. Is that even possible? Are these extreme worms, are they rockclimbers? I'm so puzzled. I may have to set up a hidden camera outside the door to see if my theory is correct.

I know you're sick to death of hearing about P90X. But I have to share this bit of hilarity that I witnessed tonite at the gym. Kyle and I have been members of our gym for so long that there are people there we know like family. We see them almost daily and we all sort of know the types of workouts that each other does. So, when our gym buddies saw Kyle and I doing all these crazy P90X moves over the past 3 months, they were naturally curious. We explained it to them, and pretty soon we'd soon see people carting in their own P9oX workbooks, holding it up and grinning at us - see, we're doing it too! Once again, wishing I got a commission...

Well, there is this one group of men who faithfully come in every evening about the same time. They are family men, friendly, chatting as much as they're lifting weights and doing pull-ups. They were particularly intrigued by the program, watched us do it over several weeks and apparently, bought it as a group. So imagine my surprise as Kyle and I are in there doing our own pull-ups and push-ups and crunches...and in walk these guys - 4 of them. And they pull out this little DVD player, plug it into the wall, prop it up on a bench, slide in the chest/back workout DVD and I hear the voice of Tony Horton broadcast across our little corner of the weight room. On top of it all, every one of the guys dressed in a blue shirt. Like they were this little team of P90Xers. There they were, all lined up together, watching the DVD screen, obediently doing their exercises together, scattering to find all available pull-up bars when it was time...Kyle and I just barely held it together watching them. But I also felt an odd sort of parental proudness. They were all doing this because of us! Not that they wouldn't have discovered it on their own, but they bought it because the two of us enjoyed it so much!

I would have KILLED to have a camera on hand to share the hilarious visual image of it all. You'll just have to use your imagination.

In addition to P90X, upright rows with August are always a good workout.

I bought this outfit for Brooklyn last year and she had few opportunities to wear it. But I pulled it out the other day just for fun. She just BARELY fit into it lengthwise, and watching her try to run was the funniest thing I'd ever seen. Sort of a scoochie shuffle. It killed me.

This weekend, my sister Rachel (and my brother Jeremiah) came into town for a visit. It had been way too long since I'd seen them both! Rache also brought a friend, Julia, down with her. So when I found out that Twilight was playing at the dollar movie, I called her up and said, wanna go with? She and Julia were game.

First, though, she burst out laughing that I even KNEW what Twilight was, much less had read the whole series in about a week. Yeah, yeah...laugh. She had actually read the first book herself. So the three of us (plus August) went to the Saturday matinee showing.

I confess I entered the cinema with low expectations. Movies are never as good as the books. And I had heard so much hype that it was BOUND to disappoint. Plus, one of my pet peeves is when the book covers depict pictures of the movie actors, thereby ruining the formation of the characters' faces by your imagination. And the copy of Twilight I had been loaned had the pictures of the actors on the cover, so I had issues with that from the start. First of all, Edward was depicted over and over as "beautiful"...otherwordly beautiful. Hm. I personally don't find Robert Pattinson all that beautiful. He did grow on me as the movie went along because he does seem rather Edwardish. But still. I had a different "beautiful" in my mind after reading all the books. Don't get me wrong, girls, he's no uggo. But...he wasn't the Edward in my mind. And Jasper...seriously, was his face made out of play-do? Alice was right on from my perspective as was Emmett. Carlisle and Esme, not so much. But you pay a buck and you can't expect TOO much!!!!!

All in all, casting differences aside, I really did enjoy the movie! I expected the soundtrack to contain way more Muse than it did, but it was a fantastic soundtrack nonetheless. Wow. And since I was perhaps the last woman on the face of America to SEE the movie, I found bits and pieces of the movie laugh out loud funny. And to my amusement (and that of my sister, Rachel), I was THE ONLY PERSON in the theatre laughing. Seriously, did no one else see the humor? Julia's theory was that everyone there had seen it multiple times...it was her third time. Could be. I did wonder though if I just have a weirder sense of humor than some.

But I was very satisfied with my (mostly) girl date and look forward to the next ones. Thanks for humoring me, Rachel and Julia!!!

On Wednesday, my little Brooklyn turned 3! I find it so hard to believe that 3 years have already passed. What joy my little girl has brought into our lives. Her hugs, kisses, smiles, mischievousness, sweet nature, zest for life, astounding vocabulary, cuddleability, unique style, short haircut and personality all make her absolutely indispensable to me and Kyle and August. In short, she's all I could ask for in a daughter.

To celebrate her birthday, we had birthday cake at DD & Randad's after our usual Wednesday night Bible study, and then today, her two best buddies, Lake and Hollis, came over with their mommies and little brothers. They decorated princess crowns, ate lunch and decorated their own desserts - sugar cookies in the shapes of high heels and crowns. It was a success as measured by the speediness with which she fell asleep for her nap. :) She was worn out. And she woke up in a good mood, talking about how much fun she had with her buddies.

At dinner, I asked Kyle how his day was. Well, Brooklyn had her head down, concentrating on her vegetable soup, so she didn't know to whom this question was directed and just assumed I was asking her! She replied with feeling, "It was a VERY good day!!!"

Brooklyn was supposed to be sleeping, but kept sneaking her library books and hiding them under the covers. I guess she's not so different from me. I well remember hiding library books under my desk in elementary school, reading about horses when I should have been learning about math. Probably explains why math is not my BEST subject to this day. I used to get in trouble all the time when my teachers caught me. It was always worth a few checks on the board to lose myself in a good book.

I'll tell you what!!!! It's February 7th and it was 71 degrees outside!!!!!! ABSURD! It was so balmy, we had a picnic in our backyard with our friends, Julia, Drew, Lake and Noah! And were all wearing short sleeves...sigh. We even spotted a few mosquitos. That is NOT a good sign. If we don't get some seriously cold temperatures, we'll be housebound due to bugs as soon as summer officially arrives. Which, at the rate it's going, may be next week. Grr. Global warming stinks.

The bright spot, other than the sun overhead, was how much fun it was to be with our friends! (Notice Bailey, our Golden, hanging around hoping for crusts).

August gets the biggest kick out of his big sister. She pops up from underneath his seat and he squeals with laughter. When she gets to giggling along with him, it's contagious. Pretty soon, Kyle and I are giggling too. I LOVE those moments.

August has been waking up lots in the nights lately...I think his rash gets itchy. And when he's awake, so am I. So this morning, when August woke up early, I handed him off to Kyle and burrowed deeper under the covers. I desperately needed a few hours of uninterrupted sleep. And my blessed husband gave them to me. AND made coffee and cinnamon rolls while I was sleeping. Man, do I love that guy. His helpers kept him entertained.