Never complete without a photo

 There really hasn't been much of Jacob on here lately.  He is still up to the same activities:  reading, eating and growing like a weed.  He is such a gentle soul; an old soul, some might say.  His body language in this photo says it all.  I imagine that this will be him in another forty years, except that he might have a glass of scotch close at hand.

 And the above?  He is a boy, after all.  And no boy is complete without a dog.

 One of the most handy aspects of twinhood is a built-in duet partner.  I remember being dropped off at the house of one of my piano teacher's students in order to practise a duet.  I had never met the student nor the parents and the experience was slightly terrifying.  I think that Jacob and Hannah have a far better deal.

 I don't know about this one.  Return of the 1990s grunge look.  Kurt Cobain, anyone?  I'm surprised that my in-laws never asked me to cut his hair.  Perhaps he was still too fresh from the trauma of his hospital stay.

 Ah, yes, the backyard garden.  Dave promised that this would be the year of the backyard garden.  Despite Hannah's disbelief (based upon the last two years' failed attempts at a garden), Dave came through.  Along with Benjamin, Joseph and Isaac.  They spent a hot afternoon digging up the sandy soil and planting potatoes, beans, peas, carrots and a few other vegetables.  I sat in a chair and watched.  At one point Dave looked over at me and, pointing first at his shovel and second at my lawn chair, said, "My childhood.  Your childhood."  I smiled and responded, "There are plenty of years to come in which we can meet in the middle.  For now, I will cook your produce when it grows."

 Oh my, did he ever need a haircut.  And that soother!  If we're not careful he'll be packing it for healthy snack in kindergarten.

 Benjamin is our great worker.  (Well, other than Hannah who could run the house quite easily.  Think Little House on the Prairie in 2013.)  Benjamin loves any sort of hard work:  dishes, sorting, shovelling, gardening etc.  He is embarrassed by a messy house and honoured beyond words to find that I ordered the basement while he was away at school.  He really is a doer and a man of few words.  Much like his father.

 And Joseph.  Joseph loves to work until the work is no longer fun.  Then he likes to pose for pictures.  His aversion to work is so great that he has fashioned it into a virtue.  Dave was away for two days and a night last week.  Each morning I would awake to find a kitchen completely ordered by Hannah.  In Joe's words, "Mommy, Hannah made my bed, she made my breakfast, she packed my lunch and cleaned the kitchen.  She is going to be a great mother one day."  With a big smile, he added, "And I helped her by letting her do all that stuff for me."

 It struck me today that we have quite a variety of ages at the moment.  One is nursing, two are napping, two are beginning to read and two are being assigned projects that make more work for their mother.  I think that I heard about the medieval-castle project for two months solid before I drove to the dollar store in a huff and arrived home with moss, paint, glue sticks and brushes.  And then I discovered  how easily I could throw myself into such a project.  It was difficult to relinquish the glue gun to Hannah who quickly learned how to apply moss so as to mimic ivy growing up the walls.  We relegated Jacob to providing the first coats of paint as his ivy skills left something to be desired.  I, however, could not hand over the drawbridge to anyone other than me.  For the next week, each time that I passed the castle, I pulled the string on the working drawbridge to relish the up and down motion of my own expertise.

 The final product included the back garden filled with actual trees (small branches stuck into modelling clay) and even a real poacher.  Hannah also created a coat of arms and archers perched between the two towers.  Jacob found a drawing of the Magna Carta being signed and we cut out windows and placed the drawing behind so as to create a truly historic perspective.  Amazing what can become of a diaper box.

 Oh my, this baby.  She is just so absolutely lovable.  And curly, she has curly hair!

 This is not posed.  I was cooking and wondered where Isaac had disappeared to.  I found him in Dave's office where he had rooted through Dave's out-of-bounds box and set up the tutoring station.  When I found him, I raised my eyebrows in question and he responded matter-of-factly, "Work."  I see that he dressed for the occasion.  Thankfully, he also cut his hair.

 She is both lovable and very hungry. Or perhaps she just likes food.  We are absolutely terrible because we love to taunt her with food just to watch the reactions.  She can be quite mild-mannered but, when it comes to food, the gloves come off.

 Only a matter of time.

 And it's hers.

 Thank you.

She also insists on feeding herself at every meal.  This amounts to holding the spoon in one hand and shovelling the food in with the other.  On Monday night we had our marriage prep dinner with the bishop.  Supper started at 6pm and Sarah sat in the restaurant's high chair for a solid hour and a half.  Eating.  The entire time.  At the end of supper one of the men on the team, a father to many, remarked that he had never before seen a baby so utterly focused on food.  The apple doesn't fall far from the maternal tree.