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YAY! Gabriel is out of his camera shy/anti-photo stage! We went to get family portraits taken with Tommy’s family tonight and he smiled like a little angel the whole time. Shawn wasn’t quite so smiley, but our pictures turned out really nice anyway.

My chunky monkey Shawn is sitting up all by himself and playing with his toys. All by himself!

• When you start saying “over yonder” is when you know you’re living in Kentucky. No, I haven’t picked that up. I don’t think I would. The other night, Tommy’s brother had a friend over (there were five guys here on Tuesday to alternate between playing the new Modern Warfare game and a D20 game) and he was most insistent he hear a real, true, Canadian “eh?” out of me. I’m not sure when I said it, but the next day he told me he was so happy to have heard it, lol! Now he could say he “hung out with a real Canadian!” Other than that, nobody comments on my accent, although Tommy’s mom says that she can tell I talk different. Just no one mentions it. Now, Tommy sets foot in Ontario, opens his mouth and everybody is going ”...where are you from?” lol.

• I’m still having a hard time believing how warm it is here! In November! There are still leaves on the trees. Of course all the locals are saying how cold it is…

• We’re pretty civilized here. No banjos, no coon skin caps. :P I understand there is a law that prohibits cousin marriage!!!! Children are named stuff like Kayla and Destiny, and Hunter and Connor, not Sally Mae or Bobby Joe, lol. Lots of pick up trucks, though! If it wasn’t for the Ontario plate, we’d blend right in. People do call each other “Bubba” though; generally it is a term for “brother”. Tommy’s family will say to Gabriel “take that toy to Bubba” and he just looks at them like they have two heads. I had to point out that he has no clue who, or what, a “Bubba” is. ::headdesk::

• Tommy’s poor mom has to sleep on the living room floor on couch cushions. Shawn didn’t like the pull out couch – it hurt his back – so I took over her bed. It’s not big enough for all of us, so Tommy takes the couch, Shawn and I in the bed, and Gabriel alternates between sleeping with me or with Tommy. I feel bad for my mother in law, sleeping basically on the floor, but the lack of beds was well known before we got here…

• Shawn still isn’t crawling, though he tries so hard. Ever seen a chameleon walk? It looks a lot like that. He really likes Tommy’s brother.

• My mom emails me about 2 dozen times a day. I think she misses me.

• Gabriel LOVES going to the park. My sister bought him a handknit sweater at a second hand store and it is known as the llama sweater because it has a llama decoration on the front. Gabriel insists, no matter how warm, that he wear his llama sweater to the park. It’s not far so we walk there each afternoon. The park also has a mile of wooded trails and I’ve been taking Shawn for walks each day I can get out. He used to fall asleep as soon as we’d start out, but now he stays wide awake and excited as the scenery passes by.

• Still no talking from Gabe. Everyone tells him to talk, but I’m more confident now that he doesn’t need speech therapy. He’s just going to bubble out in full sentences some day. I can certainly live with, and accept that.

• It was Tommy’s friend’s birthday yesterday, and he was sobbing over the Xbox message system because he though Tommy forgot. His microphone didn’t work, which is a good thing, because apparently he really was sobbing while singing happy birthday to himself. That is something I could definitely do without ever hearing.

• All of us, even me, are psyched for the new Assassin’s Creed II game. The guys are planning on going to the midnight release, and that is going to be NUTS.

• Tommy and I are the ONLY non-smokers in the house. When we are here, the deal is that everybody else smokes out doors. How pathetic is it that I’ve caught Tommy’s mom AND his brother and his friend all smoking in the house? The deal was. I was MAD.

• I really dislike cell phones!

• One bathroom for all of us – the bathroom battle rages on… Last night there were seven of us here. It was basically “take a number” lol.

• Does everything in this country have High Fructose Corn Syrup in it? Ugh! at this rate it wouldn’t surprise me to know the tomatoes and peppers have it injected into them somehow. YUCK!

• Still haven’t gone to Nashville, but we still intend to.

More later.

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Shawn has his first tooth!

And he’s biting.

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Here we are, safely arrived, in Kentucky! I’m kind of tired, but I’ll be back later to tell you of the wonderful visit I had with a lovely 43thinger along the way, and catch up with you all later. For now… must… give… out… cheers. Cheer monster will take ‘em…

And he likes it when I tickle him.

He’s also trying soooo hard to crawl. If I was as devoted with pole dancing as he is with trying to crawl, I think I’d be an expert by now.

Life Lesson #493 from a baby – you have to flop around on your tummy before you can crawl. :P

Shawn discovered his feet two weeks ago, which fascinated him. He was lying on his back, completely amazed by his toes. He can roll over now, and when he was playing on the floor yesterday, his toys were continually out of his reach. He can now scoot backwards. It won’t be long now, and he’ll be crawling!

At the head of the bed we have a mirror, and Shawn likes it when I pop him up on his tummy with the pillows so that he can stare at his reflection. I’ll hunker down beside him and go “Who is that cute baby in the mirror?” and he’ll laugh and squeal.

And he still has blue eyes. (:

Today my family was on the recipient end of a random act of kindness. My mom was going into a store and as she passed the newspaper boxes for the free papers and real estate booklets, she noticed that someone had placed some books into one of them. There was a card with the books that said “Free books for you! Hope this made your day!” (or something like that.)

It definitely did make her day, so random, sweet minded person who did that, thank you!