At the moment...

• I am eating red licorice nibs, sipping a diet coke with lime and wearing my PJs (still).
  
• Owen is watching Madagascar while wearing spider man underpants and sipping OJ.
• Waiting for PSE 6.0 to arrive. (I ordered it an hour ago. I'm sure it won't be here today.)
• Contemplating cleaning the house. I like the house clean. I just would prefer it stay clean longer.
  
• Wondering why I can't get on the WW bandwagon.
  
• Thinking about working on my photography and design business blog. Or maybe I don't want to do that for a business.
  
• Wondering if Owen will go down for a nap easily today.
  
• Wishing PSE 4 wasn't such a PITA to run lately.
  
• Craving a cheeseburger.
  
• Wanting to do some painting.
• Need to do some sewing.
• Dreaming about a bigger/faster computer, a new camera and a room for a studio and an office.
  
• Hoping to get out of this creative rut.
  

Here are some pictures from our trip to the north shore.





















This is just a sampling of the 500+ pictures we collectively took! It was a great trip.

And now it's time for...

Thursday Thunks!

1. Do you tend to have a guilty conscious? No, not really. But I don't tend to do things I should feel guilty about either.

2. Do you still have your wisdom teeth? No.

3. Peanut Butter - creamy or crunchy? It depends on the brand.

4. Get up off your butt. Take 5 steps. Which leg did you start out on? The right.

5. What color is your favorite kitchen utensil? Silver.

6. Did you watch the Michael Jackson memorial/funeral? No.

7. Do you know anyone who graduated from high school this year? Yes. My first class of third graders graduated this year!
Were you invited to their graduation party? Yes. Did you go? No.

8. White with black stripes or black with white stripes? Seriously? It comes out the same!

9. If we were to call your 6th grade teacher, what would they say about you? Probably not much. I ran into her at Wal-Mart a few years ago and I don't think she really remembered me.

10. Can you draw a perfect circle? Pretty close, yes.

11. What was your favorite scratch & sniff sticker scent? Popcorn!

12. What does your sibling do for a living? Right now she watches Owen 2 days a week. It's a tough gig but someone's got to do it.

13. How many light switches and electrical outlets are in the room that you are in right now? 1 light switch, 2 outlets.

14. Do you know sign language? I know a few popular signs but not actual American Sign Language!

15. Do you step on cracks in the sidewalk? Yes. Sidewalks have a lot of cracks sometimes.

16. And the sheets on your bed look like....? A crumpled mass in the laundry basket.

17. What is something that everyone else has, but you don't? Height. Most people are taller than I am.

Wordless Wednesday...

Things to be happy about...

I have been a lazy blogger lately. Partly due to facebook and partly due to being busy. But I wanted to write something today and for lack of a good subject to write at length about I thought I'd post a list of things that I am happy about right now.

1. Nikki received her bone marrow transplant today! It was actually a cord blood infusion, which I guess it a bit different than the BMT but it is no less monumental. It's a rather anticlimactic procedure for all of the importance that it carries. But it happened today, and today is day zero and now we count up. Please continue to keep her in your prayers and know that all your prayers are appreciated.
   
2. We have a working exhaust fan/light in our bathroom! We have wanted this for ages and finally got it taken care of yesterday.
   
3. In addition to the fan in the bathroom we also have outside water again! Our outside water was previously on a well. Which had a pump. Which went kaput last year. So we've been managing with some creativity. (Hooking the hose up the kitchen faucet! or hauling the watering can in and out!) Our fabulous handyman connected the pipe from the pump to the city pipe! He also replaced both our outside faucets which wouldn't actually shut off. That was controlled by the pump switch. So now we have working faucets and water that comes of out them! Pretty awesome.
   
4. One last fix-it item. A light in the laundry room. Morgan managed to pull the string out of the fixture sometime last fall. It's not difficult to replace but it involves turning off the electricity and getting the ladder into the basement. I'm just lazy about that. So I asked fabulous handyman to do it today while he was finishing up the faucet work and he did!
   
5. We had a nice 4th of July camping trip with The Johnsons. Owen loves camping. He was not happy to go home. He wanted "more camping".
   
6. A week from today we are going on the Holle Family vacation trip to celebrate Morgan's parents' 40th anniversary. We are spending 3 nights at Bluefin Bay in northern MN and 2 nights in Duluth. We haven't been to Bluefin before and it's supposed to be a beautiful resort.
   
7. Friday night I am scrappin' with Lisa! We haven't been scrappin' without children since we went on the retreat in March. Wait, that's not true. We've been to Dawn's house. I'm still looking forward to it! No kids around while we scrap and chat and drink diet coke! In a scrapbook store! To quote Lisa, "AWESOME!"
   
8. Our vegetable garden is growing very nicely. We've already had spinach and basil out of it. This is our first year of spinach. It's delicious. I can't describe how it's different but it is and it's just way better than what you buy in the store. Probably because it's just-picked fresh!
9. This photo makes me happy. I got the fly in focus!
10. Jessica Sprague's free photo class I'm taking! Which is why the above photo is jazzed up a bit!
    

Family photo shoot...

We had a busy weekend. Saturday Owen and Morgan went to watch my nephew's fencing matches. I got some crafting time in. Saturday night Owen and I went to the city celebration fire works. He did really well considering it was only the second time in his life he has seen them!

Sunday I did a photo session with my best friend, her husband and daughter. It was lots of fun and went really well! I am super happy with how the pictures turned out. Here is a little sampling of them.

I am about 1/2 way through editing them. If you are a facebook friend then you can see the rest of the ones I've posted there.

Sunday we went with some friends to the St. Paul Beerfest. That was a riot! I was the DD so I was in charge of keeping track of all of us and tracking where we had been and taking notes on the sampling. I did have a few tastes of anything that someone thought was particularly good but since I am not at all a beer connoiseur I was the best choice for DD! Although I got a bad headache while we were there (I hadn't eaten much before we left) and I also didn't have much for sunscreen on. As a result I have a pretty nasty sunburn. Although I've definitely had worse so this is manageable.

Father's Day...

Having a child makes you no more a parent than having a piano make you a pianist.

Michael Levine
Lessons at the Half way Point

I read this quote on Stacy Julian's website this morning and it got me thinking about fatherhood. There are lots of reasons why I've not be a celebrator of Father's Day until Owen came along. The biggest one is that I don't have one. Not because of immaculate conception or anything. But for the unstated reason in this quote. He was absent. Father's Day was about my grandpa until he passed away. And for a few years probably my step-dad but that ran amuck years ago too.

Not having a father wasn't as difficult for me as one might think. It certainly wasn't cake but there were men who filled in. My grandpa (mainly). My uncle. Friend's fathers who I looked up to. Boyfriends' fathers (who were harder to part with than the boyfriend!). I always knew my father was gone. Because he was always gone. There wasn't a time when he was around and then left. And I always knew (and I'm not sure how) that it was easier for us for him to be gone then to be around. (He was/is not a good person.) And later when my mom and step-dad divorced, I was relieved. Some men are not cut out to be a parent and therefore it is my belief that they should not father children. And I feel I am qualified to make that statement. From my own life experience and my experience as a teacher. The above quote says it all. If you can't do the job don't contribute to the equation.

Now Father's Day is about celebrating the men in my and Owen's life who are great role models. His father and grandfather. To say that I love and respect them as human beings is and understatement. And I am fortunate to have them in my life. And thankful that they are Owen's father and grandfather. Thankful that they are my husband and father-in-law. Because of the choices I could have made to fill these roles, I did pretty well. I didn't have much choice in the father-in-law department but I think I did pretty well in choosing a husband. Stacy Julian also wrote on her blog "It's an amazing thing to share life with an imperfect person that is perfect for you." So true. So absolutely true. Somedays there is nothing more comforting to me than knowing that they person I chose to spend my life with is the right one. A man who is honest and kind and good. Who does a good job loving and caring for us and enjoys his role sas husband and father. not everyday is cake and ice cream but we do it together and that makes it all that much better.

I love you Morgan. You are awesome!

For Today... (from The Simple Woman's Daybook)

Outside my window... the shades are all down because it's HOT HOT HOT!

I am thinking... of all the things I want to get done today.

I am thankful for... a nice weekend spent with Owen and Morgan.

I am wearing... still PJ's and my crocs.

I am reading... trying to start the Memory Keepers Daughter (again) for book club.

I am hoping... to start feeling better and getting better sleep.

I am creating... plans for new layouts and stuff for the etsy shop.

I am praying... for direction.

Around the house... toys. Always toys. So I'm trying to put things back in order today!

One of my favorite things... Word World. Such a cute show.

A few plans for the rest of the week... Work tomorrow. ECFE girls night out on Thursday.

Here is a picture thought I am sharing with you...

Hope you all have a great Monday!

This week's Thursday Thunks...

Here are this week's Thursday Thunks questions. Because my blog is nothing if it's not about me!

1. Are your ears dirty? No. I try to have clean ears all the time. Really. This is a weird obsession of mine. I tend to check Owen and Morgan's ears for cleanliness too!

2. Would you rather be stung by a scorpion or bit by a snake? (Don't say either...no one wants to be in pain, that's the point. Pick one.) Well, I don't very well know! I've never been bit by either so I don't know which would be more painful. And I guess it would depend on the snake too. I'd like the least painful option and the least deadly and most treatable. So, which one is that!?

3. Do loud noises make you snappish? (i.e. A loud restaurant, screaming child next to you, booming stereo from a neighbor's house?) Yes. Yes. And YES! I have a little bit of auditory sensory irritation. I was the kid in the class irritated by the pencil scratchings of the person next to me during test taking days. I can't STAND when people chew with their mouths open. (I've ended relationships over this). Any kind of repetitive sound, especially if it's very high pitched drives me batty!

4. PETA- thoughts on this org.? Well, I don't know much about the org. But I think we should be nice to animals. Except squirrels. But I won't run those over either.

5. Would you rather be the discoverer of the Loch Ness Monster or Bigfoot? (Imagination!) The Loch Ness Monster. Because I would probably just see if from the shore instead of coming upon it in the woods. Who am I kidding. I would not be wandering in the woods to find Bigfoot anyway! Unless Morgan made me go. Then I'd be complaining too loud for Bigfoot to stick around.
6. When in a public toilet and it's not flushed: do you flush & use or move on to a clean one? I flush (depending on how grossed out I am) AND move to a different one. Unless it's the only one available. I have an issue with public toilets too. Which I won't go into because it's long and complicated. Like most of my issues!

7. Neighbors are having a noisy, party bonfire, what do you do? Hopefully I am there. Then I enjoy the party.

8. Do you play Monopoly? If so which version of the game? Not since I played with BJ, Nathan and Craig until a rediculously late hour in the morning because Nathan will not give up a game until the bitter end. Even if he is clearly going to be the winner. It was the Star Wars edition. I tried to auction off my remaining aircraft to get more money to get back in the game. It didn't work. I've not played since.

9. Are you a remote hog? Not really.

10. Do you like the smell of paint? Not particularly. Now markers and ink pads are another story!

11. My questions obviously suck this week. {I've had a bad week.}
So do you think Kimber should have...
~smoked pot before doing these questions?
~drank liquid courage?
~begged Berleen to do them (she's better at them anyhow)?
~just piss off! I could have done better!

Pot. Definitely pot! I have this illusion that smoking pot would be wildly funny! But I didn't think the questions sucked either! I'm easily entertained!

A funny for Friday...

Overheard in the bathroom this morning...

Owen: "You have a penis too daddy?"

Morgan: "Yes, I have a penis too."

Owen: "That's your penis?"

Morgan: "Yes, that's my penis"

Owen: "Wow."

I told Morgan one of his manly dreams had come true. Someone said "wow" when they saw his penis! I suppose it's not part of the dream that it's a 3 year old!

I love to listen to the little conversations they have in the morning while I'm still in bed.

We are off to take care of Nikki & Michaela today. We are going to have lunch with Lori and Maggie later to celebrate Nikki's birthday, which was on Wednesday. She's the big 30!

Thursday Thunks...

I found this Thursday Thunks blog and thought it would be a fun post for today. So here it is!

1. What is your least favorite candy bar? That would have to be Whoppers. And Almond Joy.

2. If I were to call you, what would you say? Hello. (If I bothered to answer the phone!)

3. What is your favorite type of leaf? Maple. I love the shape of them.

4. When was the last time you....
- had sex? I'd have to ask Morgan. He keeps track of that.
- swam in a lake? Last summer when we went camping with The Johnsons.
- went barefoot outside? Last week at Kristine's house. She has nice grass! Our grass is dead. - -ate peas? Last week when we had stray and hay tortellini for dinner.

5. Since Father's Day is right around the corner, tell us about the person that you are celebrating. We will be celebrating Morgan and his dad. Morgan has a list of things he wants to do. We will call grandpa on the phone since he is in MT.

6. Were you dropped on your head as a child? Not that I recall!

7. How often do you clean your toilet? At least once a week. Boys live here!

8. Have you ever been sunburned? Tell us about it. Have you seen me!? Yes, I've been sunburned. Two terrible times stand out in my mind. Once up north my milky white thighs saw far too much sun. And in Mexico I got stuck out on the ocean for an hour and my back fried! Both were incredibly painful. I try to stay covered up as much as I can.

9. On average, how many hours a sleep do you get a night? Anywhere from 3 to 7. I'd prefer 8-9.

10 How many hours did you get last night? 7, I think.

11. Take a picture of something. Post it. Not the best picture I've taken of O but man he makes me laugh!

12. Are the bottom of your feet dirty? Nope. I've got socks on and have all day.

13. Do you know the names of every member of the family who lives next door to you? To the south of us yes. And behind, and across and up and down most of the street. There are three guys who live on the north side of us and one of them I've never met. The other two I know.

Happy Thursday!!

Friday!

I'd like to say I love Fridays but really, it's not my favorite day. Mostly because Morgan can not get home at a reasonable time on Friday. So by 5:30pm I'm frequently dangling at the end of my very short rope. And trying to maintain the one frayed nerve I have left. I could totally do without Fridays.

Today hasn't been too bad though. It's nice out. That always helps. Owen had PT this morning. Which he wasn't too cooperative getting ready for. The appointment went well though. Then we had lunch with Mimi & Naunee. That is always nice. Mimi brought Owen a Buzz Light Year action figure. He is really cool! Owen LOVES him! I think the rest of us do too!

Yesterday we went to a nature center for a picnic lunch and a hike with my friend Lisa and her kids. I think it may be a bit weird in the fall when they start school. Owen loves spending time with them!

We hiked around the lake and then saw wild turkeys at the end of the trail! I had a terrible time getting a picture of them. They were not far away but they wouldn't hold still either and they were in the woods so I couldn't get a clear view of them.

Tomorrow I get to spend some scrappy time with some girlfriends and then Sunday we have a stamp & scrap sale we are doing. Hopefully I will make a little money off the stuff I've purged for the sale! I need to see what else I can clear out!

How many words can you think of for...

BATHROOM? This how many words game is something The Girls and I have been known to play. On occasion. Usually when we are all in the car. Maggie is the least willing participant. It's usually for something there are lots of "inappropriate" words for.

But I often think when I ask where the restroom is in a public place that lots of people ask where the "bathroom" is. Which is technically incorrect. Since a bathroom should have a bath. Or a means to wash ones body. So it got me thinking about how many different terms there are for the bathroom. Here's what I've come up with:

1. bathroom
2. restroom
3. water closet
4. loo
   
5. shitter
6. crapper
7. biffy (if it's outside)
8. ladies room
9. powder room

And now I'm stuck. I thought I had come up with more when I was pondering this the other night. But either I didn't come up with as many as I thought or I've forgotten them. So if you know of more leave a comment!!!

It's not all roses...

I used Owen's napping picture to create this layout. The prompt at Gutter Girlz for May 15th was "It's not all roses". And that made me think of being a mama. (If you click the images they will appear larger.)

The title words were created with diecuts from the cricut, foam stamps, and rub-ons. The "NOT" is stickled in brown.

Here you can read the journaling better. The heart is cut from a dark red felt with my old sizzix. I still LOVE that big red beast!

This is one of my favorite parts of the layout. The white dots are from a piece of bubble wrap that I pressed onto my white ink pad and then the paper.

When I showed Morgan the layout he said, "I think this is one of the best ones you've ever done." Wow! Quite the praise coming from my man!

Spring pictures...

I haven't posted very many pictures lately. And I haven't been taking all that many either until May came around. Then I felt like getting the camera out again. I don't seem to find as many things to take pictures of in the later part of winter.

Owen fell asleep last week after we came home from a day at Lisa's house. I asked him if he wanted to go and finish napping in his bed or watch some TV. He opted for the TV where he fell asleep in about 5 minutes!

This was taken last week when he was playing in the pool for the first time this year. There were also 3 other boys in the pool! They had a great time!

One of my favorite things of spring. Lilacs!

Now that the lilacs are done the iris are blooming.

And this is one of my gnomes hiding out between the hosta.

I get a little obsessed taking pictures of the dandelions in the spring. I love to get that perfect focus. And this was it! I was really happy with this one once I uploaded all of them to the computer.

Today I went to babysit Nikki and her daughter for a bit while her mom went to an appointment. She has been home since Thursday and is doing well. She is rather weak and tires easily and has to take an astounding variety of medications but so far she's doing well and her blood levels continue to improve. Thank you to all of you who are keeping her in your thoughts and prayers.

And a quote to share for Wednesday:

When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love. - Marcus Aurelius

Such a wonderful way to begin a day.

And the winner of the blog candy is...

Kelli!!! At Kelli Stamps 4 U...and U can 2! Thank you to everyone who stopped by the check out my card and leave a comment. I am still working my way through the blog hop! It's my goal to stop by all the blogs and leave a comment.

Hope you all have a great Tuesday!

In honor of...

all those who are serving our country and have served our country I am participating in a bloghop this Memorial Day weekend. The bloghop is sponsored by cardsforheroes.org. Their mission is To support our nation’s armed forces by sending blank greeting cards to write home on, as well as cards of gratitude to encourage them. To date they have sent 140, 875 cards. That is amazing! You can read more about it by going to the website. As for the bloghop you can just keep linking from one blog to the next to see all the cards created and all the wonderful people who are participating. The hop doesn't officially start until around 2pm (CST) so if you are here before then you may want to come back later too! If you start here at my blog but want to go back to the beginning of the hop then CLICK HERE. There are 130 bloggers participating in the hop!!! This is my first card for CFH, but I plan on creating a bunch more. And if you are one of my non-blogging friends stopping by and would like to create cards to send please let me know and I would be happy to send them!

Here is the card I created for the bloghop. The Freedom is from the Graphically Speaking Cricut cart. The stars are a punch. Pattern paper is by Reminisce and it has a nice shimmer to it which you can't see in the picture.

After the hop I plan to send it to cardsforheroes to send to someone as a thank you. I think it's important for our military to know how valuable and appreciated they are. If it weren't for them who knows what our lifestyles might be like.

Your next stop on the bloghop is Christy Sheffield's blog, Addicted to Creating. She created a beautiful card for the hop! And while you are there check out some of Christy's other creations. She does beautiful work!!

Please leave a comment about my card or your thoughts on Memorial Day or whatever you would like. As a gesture of my gratitude for you stopping by I will be randomly picking a name from the comments (Tuesday morning) for a little RAK . A Close to My Heart card making kit! You will receive everyting you need to make some cute cards! Which you can then send to CFH!

My little superhero...

One of my very favorite pictures of Owen right now. I used a cute frame in a set I got at 2P's. I downloaded 3 new sets today! Can't wait to start using them. I'm printing a few pictures to bring to my friend Nikki who's in the hospital right now battling leukemia. As some of you know she's one of The Girls (Maggie, Lori, and Nikki). Three of my dearest and bestest friends. Anyway, I thought she could use some happiness in her room so I'm brining some pictures of O and some lilacs and the 3 month pictures I did of her daughter (Baby Q).

A momentous day...

Today is a big day for me. Why you may ask? (And if you didn't or don't care this is not the place for you!) I MOWED THE LAWN!!!! Yes, I know it doesn't sound like a big accomplishment but the truth is I have never mowed the lawn before. I've pushed it a couple of times. Like a swipe across the yard. But I haven't actually done the task of mowing the entire lawn. No, not even as a kid. I was not allowed. My mom was afraid I would lose some toes. Yes, this sounds a little irrational. But it happened to her childhood friend and then for some reason she decided I wasn't going to use a lawn mower. And I didn't. And I've been totally fine with that. My sister mowed the lawn though. Perhaps my mom didn't care if she lost toes. Or maybe (and this is probably it) my sister bugged her enough times that my mom finally just said yes. Oh, and Miranda has a longer attention span than I do.

So fast forward a lot of years to today. We have a new lawn mower. As of last summer. The previous one finally got to a point where it was just not working and we invested in a new one. It's not a fancy one. It's a push mower and it mows the lawn. The fanciest thing about it is that it bags the mulch stuff. Now, Morgan usually mows the lawn. But it difficult for him to get to this during the week because he generally doesn't get home until after 6pm. (Despite the fits I throw about him considering coming home earlier.) By the time we've had dinner and he's had some time with Owen and we've put Owen to bed it's too late to mow the lawn. So this week the lawn was getting to the point where it needed to be mowed. Well, not the grass but the MF weeds in the MF sodded part of the lawn that the city put in when the road was redone several years ago. The city picked the cheapest, shitiest, weed infested sod they could find and put it in everyone's yard on our road. The people who have a lawn service or get their yard treated or water like mad don't have weeds. Us regular folks who don't give a rats ass about grass have a crap-ton of MF weeds. (MF stands for an expletive that I can't type out or I will feel bad about offending you.) AND when the weeds get too long the city will sometimes notice and send us a letter about noxious weeds and how long they are. Which makes Morgan mad. And me too. Since it's the city's fault the MF weeds are there in the first place. I'm working on forgiving the city for this err in judgement. But it's hard since we were assed almost $4K for the new road. The least they could have done is picked some decent sod. ANYWAY... the weeds were getting long. We don't like to get the letter. So I volunteered to mow the lawn. Even though I'd never done it before and I was a little nervous about being able to start the lawn mower. But since it's a new one it started just fine. (Yes, I remembered to check if it had gas and oil. It needed gas so I put some in.) I may not have done as fine a job as Morgan does but I got the job done and now the city can't send us one of their nasty letters. Unless it's already in the mail. In that case when I get it I think I will scan the photo they always send along (of the long weeds) and photoshop me into the picture giving them the finger and send it back! Or send a picture of the mowed lawn AND me with my friendly gesture. I know, real mature, but it's a sore spot!!! And I'll end there. Because I could go on and on about my beef with the city and their many errs in judgement!

A few thoughts for Thursday...

The boys are outside and I've had a bit of time to work on a new banner for the blog. It was time for a change. Then I decided to post a few thoughts. Nothing all that deep or revelationary.

• I don't like soap operas. I used to watch them but I don't anymore. They irritate me. And for the longest time I couldn't figure out why. Then I realized it's because no one is happy on them. I like happiness. I like the happy ending. I would love a soap opera where people got to be happy a lot.
  
• I am really thankful and appreciative for all the moms I've made friends with since Owen was born. They are a real blessing. It's great to be able to spend a day hanging out with Lisa or Liz while our kids play together and we chat and scrap and just enjoy each others company.
  
• I am so happy it's spring!
• I'm glad Owen's getting the potty training thing!
• Owen is a little bit more fun everyday. Even if he is challenging too.
  
• I've got a great husband. He is a blessing.
• I've got to get my butt in gear and lose some weight and get in shape. I need to get my head around that.
  

And that's about it. Happy Thursday. All most Friday. (Which I'm also thankful for!)

Super Owen... to the rescue!!!

This is Super Owen. He is three years old today! (At 3:50am to be exact).

For Super Owen's birthday we had a Super Hero party on Saturday. He was Super Owen. The only Super Heroes Owen knows are Buzz Light Year and The Incredibles. So we went with a general theme and the kids all got to be super heroes. I made them each a little mask and Owen his own special Super Owen cape. I took the pattern from a cape that one of my friends had, which is her husband's cape from when he was a child. Their son now wears it. He's the red streak in the photo below.

I also made Owen a shirt with a three on it. It went well with his Super cape. As you can see from the two photos below, he loved the cake! He requested chocolate.

We also had burgers and brats and other food fit for little Super Heroes. Then there was some sandbox play and some super hero fun in the front yard. A fun time was had by all. And then the Birthday Hero took a nap.

To celebrate Owen's actual birthday day we are having cake again. And giving him the presents we got for him. He will be super happy about this. Naunee will also be coming over tomorrow while I work and Mimi will be coming for a visit too. And we have the rest of a movie to watch together.

Mostly, I just can't believe he's three already. There are parts of his birth that I've forgotten (the exact timeline of events) and parts that are still crystal clear (throwing up blue popsicle). And the first three months were really tough. But then we turned a corner and whoosh, here we are! Three years later! He is a joy and a delight and a challenge all at the same time. Everything a child should be. And for that I am grateful and thankful everyday.