My eldest son just called me 'dude'.

Ethan is seven and he just called me 'dude'. He apparently just found out that I throw away his math homework after he's done with it. (His teacher doesn't require it to be turned in. It's strictly homework to be used as an enrichment tool.) So I asked him to throw it away and told him that he had learned all that he could learn from it--that it had completed it's mission on this earth and was time to be disposed of. His response: "Sheez, dude! You know you're torturing my homework." (I think the personification of inanimate objects has truly been overdone in modern culture.)

Speaking of Ethan calling people 'dude'....This is a treasured mother moment which I hope to never forget because it still makes me laugh audibly every single time I think about it. Last Friday, we were at my mother's house with my grandmother, step-father, mother, and my immediate family. We were having a lovely baked spaghetti dinner. We are all seated at the table holding hands, preparing to pray before we ate and Seth, age 3, announced to all assembled in a very clear and audible voice, " The baby is going to come out of Mommy's [insert anatomically correct colloquialism here]!" That wasn't the funniest part, though. As we were all absorbing Seth's astute remark and smirking, giggling, what-have-you, I hear Ethan almost mutter to no one in particular, "Sheez, dude." And that was all he had to say on the matter.

[I'm laughing so hard I can barely type right now.]

So there you go...the highlight of my week. The highlight of my year so far, but it's still early.

You may have noticed that I haven't posted recently. That's because we haven't been well so far this year. Ethan had a sinus infection. Ten days of Amoxicillin and he's better. Seth had something that could have led to pneumonia. Five days of some antibiotic or other and he's still got a cough which I'll check into at some point if it doesn't go away. Eric had pink eye and a sinus infection--simultaneously--quite a trick! He's just about better now, but still hanging onto a cough. I now have a sinus infection and will ask my OB to write me a prescription when I go to see her on Thursday. Hopefully, I'll get better at some point.

As for the pregnancy, all is well, except I'm bigger than I've ever been in my entire life. I weigh more than 180 lbs. at present and will probably gain at least 10 more before all is said and done. I'm big enough that I can't sleep through the night because I can't get/stay comfortable. And the hot spells (not flashes--it lasts too long for that!) are really annoying. They happen during the day and at night and I'm really sick of it. It's a shame that I can go through menopause while carrying my last child. It would be good to get it all over with right now.