It was going to be something more, but in the end it's 'just' a family update :)

First things first: if anyone knows of a part-time job for a 15 year old boy or a 16 year old girl in the Milwaukee area, let me know.

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Oy. Long day. I worked until 11 Friday, then went back to work this morning. I missed the Badger game (we won), the Tea Party rallies (wouldn't have gone, but would have liked to see some of the news coverage), and Mass. I actually left work 15minutes early to get to church on time, but the baby was sound asleep when I got home and I nixed the trip. As a rule -as THE rule of parenthood, as a matter of fact - I do not wake a sleeping baby.

There I go again. "Baby". She's two years old for Pete's sake. When YaYa was two I was having her take out the garbage and resole my shoes. I guess parents really do coddle their youngest.

Speaking of YaYa, to answer a question in the comments: she'll be 8 in October. Lisa was pregnant with her when the towers fell. Because YaYa's birth date is after the 'cut off date' for the state she technically shouldn't be in her current grade; we pushed it through, in part by enrolling her in all day K3 at age two and a half. In short, she skipped a grade without skipping a grade.

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The kids are enamored by foam animals that grow when you put them in water. Oh, I know what you're thinking. You're imagining those foam capsules that expand to all of a few inches high in the end. I don't blame you; I thought that's what they were. Nuh-uh. These buggers GROW. They have a turtle as big as our actual, full grown Red Ear. They have an alligator that is still growing, and a starfish so big in diamter it barely fits inside one of our large kettles.

Technology has really advanced since we were kids, eh?

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As part of the back-to-school routine I took the kids to the dentist. Smiley was terrified but came out with a spotless record. YaYa not so much, and will have to have some cavities filled. LuLu will also return, for one cavity and to have several teeth extracted from the front of her lower jaw. Right now those teeth are fouling up her jaw by cramming everything together. The doc thinks removing them should allow the adult teeth to come in properly.

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We (well, I) caught a grasshopper the other day, a huge one a couple inches long. The dang thing was a scrapper too, pawing at my hand until I got him in the cage. He's still doing well, and we'll release him soon.

Meanwhile Smiley's two goldfish have finally made their way to the great Hereafter, following a vicious attack by Ginger. She dumped an entire container of goldfish flakes in the bowl, and I'm afraid the fish never recovered.

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Oh, to answer another comment about the history of my home: my house has been in my family for around seventy or more years of its 117 year history. In that time there are two recorded deaths here. Both my great-grandparents passed away on the first floor, one in this very room.