Keaton's birthday was this week. He is now officially double-digits. It started the night before, when we made cookies for his class at school. Apparently he had been preparing his classmates for "my mom's famous chocolate chip cookies... which are the best you've ever had," so we made them together, and I just hoped they would live up to his hype. The morning of his birthday, I sent him to school with 30 cookies to share, which everyone seemed to like (thank goodness). We had spaghetti and meatballs for his birthday dinner, then took our family picture, which is tradition whenever we celebrate someone's birthday—first normal, then crazy. After that I realized that I hadn't wrapped any of Keaton's birthday gifts, so I sent him on a scavenger hunt around the house to find his three gifts, which apparently was the best part of his birthday when I asked him later what his favorite was. He ended up with a basketball, a soccer ball, a birthstone necklace (which he's been asking for for months), and a pair of rollerblades so he can race Kolby around the block. Keaton is a very helpful and tender boy. He loves scouts, riding his bike, and helping others. He has developed an interest in reading lately, and thus he reads every night in his bed before he goes to sleep. He likes to watch "Dino Dan" on TV, rollerblade and ride his bike around the neighborhood, and is intent on making sure that everyone at school has a friend to play with. I love my sweet Keaton. Happy 10th birthday! Based on Kimble's latest obsession with coloring, I have another lefty on my hands. That makes four out of five children in our household lefties. Which one is the odd man out? Take your guesses. At yesterday's market outside a local elementary school, one boy bought one of my bowties; then all his friends bought bowties. I sold about 14 bowties, all to a group of fifth-grade boys who wore them proudly around their necks. It was a sight to see. Last week I had planned to take Mr. Kimble to the zoo. We were going to meet up with two friends and their mommies and have a fun morning before nap time. That morning the husband took the day off work and, after discovering our plans, joined us, since he had never been to our zoo before. I've never seen Mr. Moose do anything but sleep; that day was no exception. It was a perfect day, after all, to stroll around and see the sights. We may have to suggest this to Mr. Moose the next time we see him. I'm so glad Heath came with us. He doesn't often get to spend so much daytime with Kimble. I think they both had a great time. A few weeks ago we had a massive Wednesday night storm that didn't let up until the next day. It was such a forceful rainstorm that it caused flash floods throughout our area. Right about dinnertime, Kolby shouted in a panicked voice, "There is water coming into our basement through the window!" We went downstairs and noticed that water had accumulated in one of the basement window wells and was about one-third of the way up the window. My husband immediately took the boys outside in the torrential downpour and plopped them into the window well. Armed with pitchers, they started dumping the water out of the well as if their canoe were capsizing. Kennedy and I stayed inside, soaking up water with towels and trying to prevent more from coming in. We watched Keaton and Kolby valiantly try to dump out as much as they could. Keaton, a little taller than Kolby, could barely get his pitcher up and over the side. Kolby, on the other hand, would scoop up a pitcher full of water and fling it toward the edge; most of the time half of it fell back in because he couldn't quite get it over. Despite worrying about the basement flooding, I found myself laughing while watching the boys. As an interesting note, the first window well to overflow was the one that housed a black widow spider, which we morbidly watched day after day as it grew. The skeleton of her dead lover remained on display beside her web, a trophy of her power. After about a week, my husband torched her with our BBQ lighter, and she was finally free to join her beloved in the afterlife. As the boys were knee-deep in water, emptying the well, I was happy to remember that the black widow spider was no longer extending her death bites to anyone or anything that crossed her path.

Mr. Kimble loves to play with lightsabers now. He giggled and giggled when we were playing, and it was so fun to watch. Missing socks, missing pants, blurry photos because he was moving so much—it's all good. We had a fun time together today.

1. Kimble isn't such a little baby anymore. He is getting bigger seemingly every day. I keep trimming his hair regularly, but you wouldn't know it. With half of his hair curly and the other half straight, it's hard to keep him looking nicely kept, but we are trying. He has also matured so quickly that he is sporting a mustache now.
2. Kimble must be looking at the developmental papers that I have to fill out for his regular checkups. "Can your child make a stack of three blocks?" Check. Yes, he can, although he prefers to stack cans from my pantry.
3. Kimble's list of words is growing.