ONE!

Sorry it's been so long. It's been a very busy few days and I've been burned out from finishing clinicals and all that. I was also pretty darn sore right up until today. Now I should have a lot more time to write again. I still have class Mondays and Tuesdays and other assorted things that I need to do yet but otherwise I am definately in the home stretch for finishing nursing school (the LPN part). Yay!

The big news: Zacariah Jack is 1 today! You wouldn't guess it to look at him; he is tiny and not going to walk any time soon (why should he?). He does have some words, my favorite of which is "yaya" (Lijah). We had a very small party with just us and Joanie (Lynn stopped by just now with a gift). Joanie gave him one of those toys that you push on the top of it and things spin inside, and a shape sorter box. He was sooooo cute actually doing those things. We all clapped and cheered. I have lots of good pics that I will upload and send with a fair amount of time (note I did not say "in 5 minutes" or even "tomorrow"...I'll get to them when I get to them, and it might be tomorrow).

We had a nice Easter. We went absolutely nowhere, much like we do for Thanksgiving. If we were closer to my parents geographically, we'd be there in a heartbeat, but holidays are always Brian's busiest time and consequently our travel time is limited and 6 hours in one day is not realistic with 5 children.

Today at school I got an email from Brian saying "Guess what, your pants fit me!" I turned to my friend and said "What that necessary?". The good news is they were my fat pants and don't fit anymore anyway. When I got home he said "wow you tall, legs same mine". I told him that actually his legs are short, which they are. He thinks they are long but they're not, his body is; my legs are longish. So there.

Tonight Lij and I had a pack meeting for Cub Scouts and I always love that. He is such a sweet boy and has no embarrassment at all about being a mommy's boy--yet. He insists on sitting right on my lap the whole time. While sitting on my lap he is raising his hand to be called on and all that (I'm not kidding!). Tonight there was a magician/entertainer and I learned something interesting about Lij. Well, we know he is a detail guy and likes to figure out how things work. Anyway the magician started out with this trick where he would spin a plate on a stick (have you seen that one?). Lij turned to me and said "I know how he does that" (I'm thinking...yeah, right) and then he said "I wooked, see, there is a wittle hole in the plate". I looked, and sure enough, there was a tiny dent in the middle of the plate that kept the stick in there just so. He had theories and ideas about most of the tricks and I think he was probably right! My favorite though was when the guy did some wierd thing with a long rope and 4 volunteers. Lij turned to me and said "I don't fink I get that one".

Then on the way home he said he was really hungry and asked "Can we stop somewhere and get something to eat?" I looked over at him in the passenger seat and he was sitting in his usual position with his legs crossed at the knee like an old lady, bouncing his toe, and he added "But for a small price."

Big sister is sitting next to me pouting because her baby is one. They seem to get there faster every time. Ana's first year took about 10 years of my life; Zac's felt like 10 weeks.

I can't think of anything new about Ben and Wil. Oh, except Ben made made Zac a paper airplane for his birthday (Lij made him a really cool book). Ben is training for a 1k run in St. Cloud Earth Day weekend. He wanted to sign up, so I signed him up! When he says he wants to practice running I send him outside and give him drills. I can't wait :) :) :) Ana is doing the run too and I'm hopeful regular running will help her to grow a bit leaner as she grows taller (and THAT is happening fast). We have to manage her asthma for this but I have asthma (much more problematic than hers, actually) and running is very doable with the right preparation. I haven't run since I fell and I can feel my legs are soft. Yuck. I don't think there's been a 10 day stretch in my entire life that I haven't exercised.

By the way, I've been getting emails from cousins and etc. who heard the gossip from Luck. What the hell is up with those big mouths over there? Mom insists it's Dad and I believe her because he is the original Billy Bigmouth. I want to know what is so newsworthy about me having an incident in my garage.

This morning I saw something that made me laugh. Nobody I've told so far gets it, but hey, maybe you had to be there. The parking lot at SCTC was really slippery and from a distance I saw this girl get out of her car. It was obvious to even the casual observer that she considers herself pretty hot. You know, that look? So anyway...then I got to see her slip and fall in a sort of gliding (not high impact) way to end up laying flat on her back. Her feet went up in the air and kicked a bit. Then she was up in a flash and looking around to see if anybody saw her (she didnt see me) before she flounced off to school with an "I meant to do that" attitude. Haaaaaaaaaaaaa! So anybody can fall, I guess!

Wil is Wil. Right now that means three and a half, which historically is a difficult time. I'm getting close to sending him for the Wisconsin cure. The problem with that is he is so cute and funny he gets WORSE there. The meowing is still going on, popping up when a little respect is called for. He continues to blow me away with his vocabulary and language use. He is easily a close second to Ana in that respect. His older brothers were both still grunting quite a bit at his age. Interesting because there seems to be a connection between early fine motor skills and early language development. He and Ana both were interested in tiny things when they were very young, and liked to hold pens and pencils and do tiny things with their tiny hands.

The other day when it was snowing I came home in the dark after work (midnight at the VA) and there was a road construction crew in my driveway--all Tonka. It was so cute. He just loves to be outside with his trucks. He is going to love the sandbox so much this summer. He puts his coat and hat and "glubs" and boots on and tells me "I'm going outside, I'll be back in a little bit" (signing "outside" and "little bit").

I'm dying for a little couch-and-pug time so will sign off for now and plan to get the pictures uploaded tomorrow morning if I can. The little boys have missed me and we need some serious couch time too and that has to come first.