photo phlurry

We got back from Hawaii in time for Blake's spring music program (two days later). He wasn't really prepared after missing nearly two weeks of school, but it's hard not to love a passel of singing kiddos. I have video that I'm hoping Rob can edit a bit into one short "best of" rather than five longish examples of what not to do when shooting video.

He was so cutely awkward about the actual singing alone, but shone like a star afterward.

The rhubarb we pulled out of the garage in early May. It's like it had said, "Forget this 'no sun' crap, I'm growing anyway, dammit!" Within a few days it had green (not neon yellow) leaves and red stalks.

The massive fort Blake and Rob made. The wall on the right is being scaled by invaders and lots of them. There's a table for a game of Go Fish!, a kitchen in the foreground, a jail you cannot see behind the wall, a lightning tower with a balancing Storm Trooper, and a Storm Trooper in a barrel. I let him keep in intact for over two weeks, the lucky dog!

Rob's "We're pregnant!" shirt. Two of his closest friends had children within days/weeks of each other. I happened to come across both families' photos within minutes of each other. Each father (the dear friend) was wearing this shirt during labor and delivery of their sons. One was in Chicago. One was in Spokane. It became Rob's "That's how I'm going to announce we're pregnant!" shirt. So I talked his sisters into giving it to him for Christmas and told him no one would get it until I explained it.

He was cool with that.

It's from the sadly short-lived television show, Firefly. And if you don't get the reference WATCH THE SHOW. It's excellent, but not so excellent that I have agreed to name any daughter we have "River."

"Hold it like this? With a face like this?" Rob wanted to buy a onesie in Hawaii that read "Made in Maui," but I foolishly pooh-poohed the idea, because I sincerely doubted we'd get pregnant that quickly, and it wouldn't make sense otherwise, and it was just wishful thinking on his part.

I finally took the pregnancy test after we'd been home a few weeks, just to shut him up because he kept insisting I was, and I kept insisting otherwise, and I was going to pee on that stick and show him! Humph! The first test was so faint I was sure it was just a trick of the lighting. The second test was equally faint. The third test the next morning was still really faint.

The fourth test, six days later, was a bit more pronounced. Bethany now thinks we'll have as many babies as pregnancy tests. I'd argue with her, but I decisively lost the last battle I had with a Bedford, so I'm keeping my big trap shut. (We got a hold of the cute little onesie - and only ONE OF THEM - by telling friends who visited Maui a few weeks after we left that we had made a big mistake by leaving without one, and other than family, they knew about our little bun in the oven first. By necessity, you understand.)