My husband is left handed and has longed for at least one left handed offspring to be the receptacle of his 35 years of left handed wisdom. He was hopeful that our red-headed, curly haired, blue-eyed bundle of recessive genetic material (also known as Gwyneth) would be left handed, but she clearly favors her right hand, just as our first two children and I do.

Andrea, our fourth and final child, is his last hope for a southpaw. It looks like he may have hit the jackpot this time. According to my Google search for "left hand baby", preference for the right or left hand can begin to be observed as early as 6-9 months of age. She is 10 1/2 months old now and grabbing everything that she can reach. (And I am constantly amazed at what she can reach! Sometimes I wonder if she's telekinetic and uses the power of her mind to draw her targeted item to with the reach of her tiny arms, but anyway...) I hadn't really stopped to notice her preference of hands until I was recently scrubbing her VERY grimy high chair. All the ick and goo that had once served as her finger food before it slipped out of her hand, down the legs of the chair and onto my wood floor were almost exclusively on one side -- her left. Since then I have been watching her choice of hands when she reaches for things and she almost always chooses to grab with her left hand.

For me, living with a lefty husband is kind of nice because I always know where to find him. Back when we took romantic hikes in the desert, and all we had to think about was each other, he would use his strong left hand to hold my right hand and keep me from slipping on the slick rock. Now our strolls usually include 4 busy kids and we both need both our hands to keep up with them. Sitting in a restaurant booth, he is always to the left so we don't bump elbows while we eat. If we are sharing popcorn in a movie theaters, he always sits to my left so we can both have a more comfortable angle to reach inside the bucket. I've heard that some newlywed couples take a while to settle in on which side of the bed belongs to whom, but not us. Right from the beginning, my husband slept on the left side of the bed and I took the right. It was just natural because we can both reach our night stands and reading lamps easier that way.

I don't pretend to know what it is like to live life as a lefty, but my husband seems to like it. It seems to me like it would be annoying at best, but maybe if you live your whole life that way, and never get a chance to know the convenience of life as a right-hander, you are just used to it and don't think much about it. On the "other hand" (hehe), I can see how it may give you kind of a cool sense of identity -- something special about you that helps you stand out from a crowd.

As for Andrea, don't worry because I know that babies can change their preferred hand, and what seems like an obvious dominance of her left hand now may change back and forth for another year or two. We aren't out to make her into something she is not, be it right or left. Still, I know what my husband is hoping for.

I love spring, but spring hates me. I love the crocuses, hyacinths, tulips, daffodils, flowering trees, new green grass, lilacs and all the other beauty of the season. Yet every year as I go out to bask in the warm spring sun, or walk in the grove of trees by the creek, I get slapped in the face by allergies. This year I was optimistic that I could have an enjoyable spring because I am no longer pregnant or nursing, which leaves me free to take allergy decongestants. But no, this is turning out to be maybe even worse than past years. The meds keep me from sneezing and waking up with sore throats, but now I have a whole list of other stuff going on. I am sick of hiding inside all spring and being forced to sleep with my window shut. I'm mad as #*^& and I'm not gonna take it any more!

Most of the time my symptoms aren't severe, although there are times when they spike. Lately the frequency of those spikes seems to be increasing. But more bothersome to me is that I persistently feel generally crumby. I feel like it is having a real impact on my life and on my daily productivity.

Maybe my doctor and I are both wrong and it's not allergies, but I am bound and determined to get to the bottom of my fatigue, headaches, dizziness and ringing ears. To that end I have started a health log. I am tracking environmental conditions such as barometric pressure, pollen counts, and other daily weather conditions. I am also tracking, hour by hour how I feel during the day, what I eat, my activities, and what medications I take. I am trying to get ready for a long haul before I get some real answers and maybe (dare I hope) a cure, but my thinking is that if I can gather as much info as possible over a period of time, then maybe my health care providers can better diagnose and treat my conditions. Maybe it's not allergies at all. Maybe it is allergies and tracking all this stuff will help to zero in on exactly what is causing most of my problems.

Wish me luck!  : )

This weekend we went with my in-laws and took their new 5th-wheel trailer out for it's maiden voyage. We stayed at a little camp ground by Baker Lake in the southern Utah desert near the tiny town of Veyo. We had a great time fishing (although no fish were biting), snuggling by the campfire (although it was too cold and windy for a camp fire the first night) and enjoying the luxury of an in-house toilet and hot shower (although the fresh water tank in the trailer ran out 3/4 of the way through the outing).

Still, you could hardly call our experience "roughing it" since their huge trailer was big enough to accommodate an impromptu Mexican polka dance fiesta during the day (we found a miraculously playable CD of Mexican music by the lake) and give all four adults and five million children a warm and comfy place to sleep at night. OK, so in truth there where only five kids sleeping in the trailer, and four of them were mine, but somehow it seemed like a lot more.