I apologize for not posting new pictures in a while, but December and January are probably the busiest time of year for me. In addition to all the travel for the holidays, I have to get my store ready for rush (for non-college store folks, that is the one week period when students buy most of their books for the semester). The fall rush in August is busier than the one in January, but I have the summer to prepare for fall and only 3-4 weeks during the holidays.

Anyway, I am crawling out of my hole and am posting some Christmas photos. On the news side, Dea found out that baby #3 will be arriving in mid-July. She & I have known she was pregnant since the end of October, but we have been in denial. For so long, we saw ourselves as single-child parents, but then Molly came along and that was fine. We had forgotten how cute babies were and she has certainly reminded us of that. On the other hand, babies are a lot of work and I'm not sure we have caught up on our sleep. I am hoping for a boy because I feel a little outnumbered -- Madeline helpfully points out that Jack is a boy, but I say he doesn't count because he's been neutered.

In other news, Molly started walking the week before Christmas. I had a hard enough time keeping up with her before, but now it's almost impossible. She has begun to really pay attention to what Madeline is doing and tries to do the same. The other night I was drying Molly off after her bath and we were running through the standard repertoire of animal sounds (cow, duck, cat, dog). I asked her what Madeline says and she hollered "Daddeee."