I have six nieces and one niece soon to be adopted from China. So far I have no nephews. My son bears the burden of being the only grandson for my parents and for my husband's parents. So when my brother announced that his wife is having a baby, I figured the odds were definitely in favor of a boy. My son started sending some heavy "boy vibes" in his pregnant aunt's direction in the hope of getting his first boy cousin. (He has given up on getting a brother. )

My brother called yesterday to let us know that his wife had her ultrasound and it's another girl. My son let out a wail that lasted so long he almost fainted from lack of oxygen.

So after the adoption and the birth of the one on the way, the grand totals for me are: one son, three daughters, and 8 nieces. Poor Alex.  : )

Okay, so my friend has been on me to start a blog here on yahoo!360. I have been content to bide my time and see how many different ways she can drop subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) hints that I REALLY should set up a site, and how long I can hold out before I drive her completely insane. Unfortunately I discovered today that I couldn't post a comment on her site without having my own account. So, I guess the experiment is over. K Lou, you win!  : )

Still, it would seem that karma is against me. Let me explain. About 8 years ago I decided that I wanted to do some nice baby books for my 2 babies. (Now there are 4 of them, but I digress...) As I was sitting at my desk "scrapbooking", my oldest, then age 2, used the opportunity to run through every room of the apartment, except the one I was in, with a permanent marker. His artwork was EVERYWHERE. He even drew eyeglasses on our golden retriever.

Today, I was sitting at the computer setting up my site when I had the frightening realization that things were quiet. Too quiet. I found my third child, age 2, sitting on my bed in a large, thick pool of baby lotion. She was calmly moisturizing her hands, face, my pillows, and my bedspread. She even offered to share some lotion with me -- maybe my hands looked kind of dry.

Now I will admit that cleaning up baby lotion is not a tenth as bad as cleaning up the permanent marker, in fact my room smells really good now. But still, the similarities are undeniably there!