The family

Really there isn't much new here. The Mugwump is nearly potty trained, which is a wonderful thing. He consistently asks to go to the bathroom and insists on doing it himself.... I just wish I knew a little more specifically what he was doing in the bathroom because I know that he doesn't know how to wipe by himself. We're moving right along though. It's often surprising what this kid hears. I swear that whenever I talk he ignores me, but today at church the guy speaking mentioned the city of Moab and the Mugwump starts yelling, "hey, I've been to Moab, Moab was fun, can we go to Moab again." Trust me, he hadn't been sitting listening to the talk, he was playing and just happened to pick that up... I wonder what else that kid hears. Oh, and the Mugwump can spell. Today during church he wrote his name on the magnadoodle that was keeping him busy and it looked like his name. Then after church he wrote his brother's name on a chalk board... he missed a couple of letters, but 5/7 isn't bad... and they were in the right order. After church we watched the birds eating from the new bird feeder that the Mugwump got for Christmas and then painted.

Six-pence is walking well. His favorite thing to do is to get on the bottom stair and make lots of noise. As soon as he knows that he has your attention, he's off to the races climbing the stairs. He knows that he's not supposed to, and therefore he knows that you will chase him up the stairs and it's a really fun game.

(Parenthetical comments are my thoughts added to Icky's story)
Icky went on a date the other day... I love how oblivious girls can be. OK, so I set her up with a guy from school so that it would be a blind date. They played phone tag for awhile and then talked on Saturday morning. The guy wanted to do a double date with his guy friend and Icky and one of her friends. Saturday Icky already had plans with a girlfriend who already had a date, so they only needed one more guy. The guy said he would get back to her (that's an odd thing to say). That was OK because Icky told him that she was late for work and told him where she worked. So apparently later that day the above mentioned guy gives Icky a call and says I think I almost ran into you at your work. Icky is surprised (come on, given the opportunity you don't think this guy would come check you out?). The guy asks, were you the one with the dark hair in the white shirt with a blue thing in your hair? Icky, again seems surprised (So, Icky, you "ran into" this guy and you haven't got the foggiest idea who he is or what he looks like, but he remembers the color of the thing in your hair? and you think it was an accident?) Anyway, the guy says that he was free that night and something "suddenly came up" with his friend who no longer was going to be in attendance. (This is a good sign Icky, this means that you passed the "check out" test. Evidently you aren't ugly or have any overly obvious personality defects because the guy will go on a "blind" date with you and will do it without his friend). Anyway they had a fun evening and Icky remains clueless about being checked out. Actually I thought it was a creative and good idea for a "check out" Since I did the setting up, this poor sap didn't have any idea how freaky or weird my sister-in-law could be. Boy I wish I had a little sister to tease mercilessly.

My wife and I are doing great... I sort of have a little time off work and have enjoyed it with the family. My wife is amazing. She teaches those boys at every opportunity and has the patients to walk a 3 year old through complex processes that I try to avoid like baking bread and cleaning up after himself. She's a saint and I don't have any idea how she ended up with a slacker like myself.