It has been a great long while.  I know…I’m a slacker.  I’m not sure what changed, but it seems like I can’t retain the things I want to blog about.  But there are a few things that have started happening….

Biggest news: Finn is mobile.  He started “crawling” a full 2 months earlier than either of the other two.  The reason it is in quotations is because he isn’t actually crawling.  Instead of being on all fours, Finn has opted to basically do the splits and pull himself around.  I can only imagine that the legs are being utilized as stabilizers so that he doesn’t fall forward or backwards while moving.  I also believe he is doing it this way (and the others didn’t) because of the hardwood floors.  Aiden always had to deal with mostly carpet on the main floor, and Paige started the standing/walking literally when we got the hardwoods installed.  We have a great picture of her standing in the emptied out living room just prior to leaving the house for a few days to have the floors installed…she is very unsure of her balance.  Anyway, Finn is now also pulling himself up on things and cruising around the coffee table.  We’ve rearranged the living room to maximize play space for the kids, and give Finn the most available space to roam.   However, you can usually find him: playing with the DirecTV receiver, playing with either Kim’s purse or his diaper bag in the dining room, or making a dash for my office door (if its open) so that he can get under my desk and play with the powerstrip….since it has the pretty red power light.  Touch on this in a minute.

Next big news?  Aiden is reading up a storm.  He started just a little while ago, but he is the one reading bedtime stories for the most part.  Tonight was the first night he had me read a book in a while.  He wasn’t comfortable reading a big book (although I know he could have read it easily), but filled in things and corrected me a couple times.  So I like to ad-lib occasionally… whoopee.  He is still doing well in school, and we should be getting his next report card on Monday.

Paige is baffling.  How we ended up with a girly-girl is beyond me.  She is in love with being a princess, and big poofy party dresses.  She now has 2, with Mama fixing up another one for her.  She requests to wear them almost daily.  She loves having “pretties” in her hair to go with the dresses too.  She is going to be trouble….I just know it…..

I had a pretty big day last week.  For the first time since before I graduated, I had a job interview.  This meant getting a haircut and shaving my face.  I had cut my hair and shaved my face for the wedding I performed back in late August.  It was untouched since then.  Yes, it was long.  So, I was able to talk Paige into going with me and getting a little trim, and ONLY a little trim.  She was having NO part in a drastic haircut.  She informed me on the way to the salon (yes, I went to a salon) that she has to have long hair so that others “would know she’s a girl!”  We then had the discussion that sometimes boys have long hair, too.  Then I started on the earrings.  I have six, and I wanted to make sure she knew that boys can have those too.  She was a little disappointed that Daddy and Mama both have six holes, and she only has two.  I told her when she was older she could get more holes in her ear.

Back to the job interview.  It was an entry level position with a market research company here.  One of two market research companies here.  These jobs do not open up often, and they are pretty competitive.  How competitive?  I was one of 121 (yes, one hundred and twenty one) applicants.  From that, 46 were instantly rejected due to lack of cover letter or typos in their resume.  So, that 75 of us.  From that group of 75 there about 10 chosen for interviews.  Yes, I was one of about ten to get an interview.  I’ll say it now, I don’t interview well.  I’ve been told by previous bosses and employers that I could sell ice to an Eskimo in the middle of winter.  Again, I admit, I can sell things….but I despise having to sell myself.  That may be part of the problem.  In any case, I’m still a stay at home Daddy.  I’m sad that I didn’t get the job, but thrilled I still get to be home with my kids.  I’d still love to find a way to stay at home AND earn an income.  For the record, I have started writing one book, and have ideas for a few children’s books.  Here’s hoping.

Next up, Kim.  You may recall that Kim had a less than stellar surgical procedure done last summer.  She is still getting bloodwork drawn for tests regularly, and things still aren’t back to normal.  However, she has been cleared for another pregnancy.  No, not for us.  I can’t do that.  When the doctor cleared her on Tuesday, he made the comment about how “one of us was planning on another one” since I had made contradicting statements.  Thankfully, Kim replied with “It wouldn’t be ours”.  Honey, thank you again for not saying “It won’t be his”.  I can only imagine the confusion for the doctor had THAT come out.  Yes, Kim may get to fulfill her desire to surrogate.  She may only get to surrogate once, if at all.  Yes, I am okay with this for a few reasons.  1) She is a happy pregnant woman.  She LOVES being pregnant and doesn’t get mean.  2) It is her body.  I have no right to tell her what she can and cannot do with her body.  I can voice my opinion, and let her know if I’m uncomfortable with something, but I refuse to be the bastard that tries to tell her outright that she cannot do anything.  3) Holy crap!  They pay you HOW MUCH???? 4) There will be no midnight feedings.  I love all three of my kids, but I do NOT miss getting up multiple times a night to feed them.  In fact, I am very much looking forward to not having diapers to change anymore either.

So there you have it.  I think I’ve caught you up to speed, but I know I’ve missed things in there.  Like I just remembered that Aiden has substituted Spanish words in for the English equivalent while reading (thankfully he lets me know that “its the Spanish word for [...]”

Oh yeah, was going to touch on Finn and the powerstrip again.  In my last blog in November I posted something about my router needing to be reset every couple days, and that D-Link needed to update it NOW!  Well, they haven’t officially done that yet.  I did find a beta of their updated firmware and installed it.  Since I installed it (about a month ago) it has never needed to be reset.  Thankfully, it is stable and performing pretty well (only a small reduction in my Wi-Fi reception area???).  I am happy.  One day, Finn decided it needed a reboot.  He scooted in here while I was working on something, and flipped the powerstrip’s “Master Power” switch.  Hmmmm…yeah, I guess that almost two weeks had gone by without a reboot.  Okay.  It has continued to work perfectly…..