I smile because they're my children. I laugh because there's nothing they can do about it!

To be honest, I love my children, even though I tend to sound more like a grumpy old bear whenever any two of them are in the room at the same time. Hey, they started it...right? Over the years I've endured loud music...if that screeching can be called music...clothes trickling down the hallway, and an endless stream of name calling, pushing and shoving, chasing each other around the house and other sinister forms of sibling rivalry too horrible to mention. And even though I've lost my sanity, thanks to my children, they've never ceased to amaze me or put a smile on my face...usually when I need it the most. I'm still paying them back for the gray hairs though.

And now a word about sibling rivalry. Wikipedia says that 82% of people in the western world have at least 1 sibling. I fall into the 18% who don't which is why I get excited and scream like a lunatic when 5 year old Skippy shoves 1 year old Dimples down and she retaliates by kicking him in the shins. Just before calling the nut farm to come get me, Goody Two Shoes takes me by the arm and tells me in a calm voice that this is normal. Normal...the very word started me on a colorful tirade...directed at her. When I was finished, she pointed out that I was an only child and therefore had no concept of sibling rivalry. She closed by restating that what had set me off in the first place was normal, and that I had better get used to it. I got my first gray hairs that day.


Skippy at age 1. He started wearing his mother's hats right after he took a nose-dive out of his crib. Go figure. We finally broke him of this habit last year...when he was 24.

Dimples at about 2 1/2. She's cute and she knows it. Look at her, she's already thinking about her first car, giving dad a few more gray hairs, boys, and all the hearts she's gonna break.

And last, but not least...the Wild Child. Need I say more? I took this photo on a second grade field trip to the Carnegie Science Center. I was trying to finish a roll of film and innocently said, 'hey, look at dad a minute.'
I wanted a puppy, but oh no, Goody Two Shoes felt the need to be fruitful and multiply...for a third time. Who am I to argue...besides it was...never mind.