Avast, ye! Swab the poop deck! Et cetera!

That's right, it's International Talk Like A Pirate Day again! Yarr! In case you were wondering, my pirate name is Cap'n Gwyn Sharkchum. And if you ever wondered what kind of pirate I am, it's the kind that doesn't do anything. Well, either that or a space pirate. It's also International Wear A Dress Week, so I have on a skirt right now - since the work week is finally over. I need a pirate dress. That would be cool.



So, so much has been going on lately, and I haven't blogged about any of it. My little sister is a teenager now, my brother got engaged, and both of my baby nephews turned one. We finally got around to painting Porter's room this weekend. The paint chip described the color as apple green but it came out of the bucket highlighter-yellow, though it eventually dried to what Betsy describes as "sunny green." That's actually the phrase she uses for light colors: ie. sunny brown is tan. But in this case it actually works.



Amy is getting closer and closer, but she still hasn't mastered the whole crawling thing. She gets up on all fours and rocks, and then she throws up one fat leg behind her like she wants to sit up. She can actually sort of iinchworm-it across the floor but inevitably gets stuck in the corner, like those robot dogs always do. And then she goes "Arf! Arf!" until her batteries run down.

Porter started preschool this week. Here he is on his first day. Isn't he cute?


This week they learned about watermelons. And he gets to ride the bus every day, just like Betsy! He was pretty jealous when she started riding the bus in the spring so I'm glad it's his turn now.

And Betsy? Well, kindergarten is pretty much love for her. You remember that, right? Life doesn't get much better than kindergarten. Her teacher is really big on writing - for example, she tells the students if they want to ask her a question or remind her of something, they should write her a note, and she's sent home words we can post all over the house - and Betsy really seems to get it. Pretty much every scrap of paper - junk mail, receipts, I swear I caught her with the checkbook the other day but I got to it before she vandalized it - is covered with letters. Sometimes I can decipher it, sometimes not. They just got done with a unit on butterflies, and as everyone knows,


butterflies are wonderful.