Home in TX: Day 3 of the 28.5 day stay.

So I'm at home in TX for several days -- OK, a full month. Anyway life is really busy. Here's a excerpt from an e-mail that I typed up describing the kids here. Maybe it'll be funny in a few years.

You may think I'm counting down the days. In a sense, yes. But in a sense, no. This is a good experience for me. Spending a month dealing with 5 kids all under 8 and all related to me is a good experience. It's not the most fun I've ever had, but it looks like it will become a lot more fun.

If I had to predict what these kids will be when they are grown up, here's what I'd say:

AJ will be some form of show off. Whether that means an actor, entertainer, lawyer, salesman, or some form of public speaker, I'm still trying to figure it out. He's very melodramatic and tells all sorts of stories with greeeeeeat big loooooooooooooooooooooong vowels and opennnnnnnnnnnnn connnnnnnnnnnsonents to reeeeeeeeally enhaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnce the story, all the while being JUST so exCITed (using the wrong inflection at times) AAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnd being soooooooooo so so so soooooooooooooooo eager to tell you EVerythinggggggggggggg. Oh, and he's glad to be the oldest, too. He's in charge.

Anya will be the real leader. She's strong and determined, and she knows what she wants. AJ has asserted his authority so much that she's becoming a little bit of a follower, but she knows her place in the chain of command. She's not as dramatic as AJ (but she can be), but she can also be every bit as stubborn. She is a fantastic reader (better than AJ, I think), and she could very easily be the genius in the family. She will be the intellectual who will probably invent new methods of learning, all the while maintaining a business as an artist on the side.

Mary is little Miss Independence, now that she's got her braces on and she can walk flat-footed. She tried to run but it's more of a plod, but it's OK, because she's cute as anything. When she falls down (which she does often enough), she will cry and scream and demand attention (very much unlike Michael), and when you pick her up again, she usually runs off again. She is very protective of her things and if she thinks that someone shouldn't be playing with something, she'll take it away from them and hide it, much to their dismay. But she also expects no retaliation, so when they take away her toys, the hurricane of tears and the mother of all fits breaks loose upon the world. If you've heard random screams in VA, that's Mary. She's cute and she knows it and she's a flirt and she's spoiled rotten (or really tries to be, and thus only pulls of "brat" pretty well, and I don't mean the ind you throw on the grill that's made of piggy). She'll grow up to be a heartbreaker, and possibly a model as well.

Michael will be the powerhouse. He'll go for the sports. He bulls through everything and everyone -- unintentionally for now, because he's just so happy to see them that he runs right at them. He's also quite the chunk, so when he runs at you, he could probably knock you over. He's at least a solid 25 pounds and he's faster (and heavier) than Mary -- I think he's as heavy as Kenny, and would give him a run for his money for strength. Jimmy, Liz's husband and these kids' father, plays really rough with him, and Mikey loves every second of it and comes back for more. He loves being outside. He's a Daddy's boy bar-none. He's also a flirt, bar-none. He makes eyes at all the girls, and not just the pretty girls: all of them. They, in turn, eat it up, and flirt right back with him. Then when he sees that his charms have taken hold of them, he giggles and runs away, thus instituting a game of tag. Mom (and Liz and AJ) all refer to him as the Energizer Bunny on steriods (or the Energize Bunny times 10 or some form of extreme Energizer Bunny), and it's true. He just keeps going and going and going...

Timothy is the stoic one of the group. Granted, he's only 2 months old. But when I mean stoic, I really do mean stoic. He just looks at you with this face (well, there is no stoic google face expression, so this will have to do ), except he is trying to look down his nose at you. Again, though, he's only 2 months old, so he's still working on the whole neck-muscle/head-control thing, so it could be due to the fact that his head just kinda flops backwards, like Anthony Scrivener's did when he was a baby. He has a rather large double chin and looks like the kind of face you'd expect to see in the role of, "This court is now in session: Honorable Timothy Freiberg presiding". Well, he's stoic until he feels neglected. Then he has this mournful, "I'm so alone, and no one loves me..." kind of pitiful, pathetic cry. He usually breaks this out just to keep poor Mom (my Mom, his Grandmother) up until all hours of the night patting his bottom and holding him and telling him it's all right, etc.

Any questions class?