It's been a minute since my last post. So much going on! Robert's in 5th grade & we're getting used to the workload. Math's certainly no joke. I've had to dust on certain portions of my brain to help him with his work. He's a safety patrol this year & extremely proud of it. He helps the students out of their parents' vehicles in the mornings as they drop them off & makes sure the kids aren't running in the halls. We hope to start him in soccer at the local YMCA. He has to show that he can do his school work with no trouble though. School comes first. That's our motto.

Riley turns 7 months old on Sept. 22nd. As of right now he's still not crawling. He's strong enough to get the job done, but he can't seem to get the bodily mechanics of it quite right yet. He gets to snack on rice cereal, turkey, & green beans before he gets his daily bottles. He LOVES to eat his baby food. I'd been abstaining because I was afraid that the baby food would 'clog up the plumbing'. That doesn't seem to be an issue & he is sure happy when he gets to eat his big boy food. He grunts & says, "mmmmm" the whole time! I can see the hint of one tiny lower left bottom tooth peeking up from his gumline. I've seen it for about 2 weeks now. It shows no signs as of late of breaking through. Before I know it, he'll be crawling around everywhere, be eating Gerber Graduates, & have a mouth full of chompers. Then I'll miss these times when these events hadn't happened yet.

Dave's also back in school action. He's been such a wonderful help, I was nervous that I'd lose out while he was doing his work. I forgot, momentarily, that I'd married Superman. =) He still is able to get his work done & help me out with the boys. I'm too too lucky. He's also trying to put together a new business idea where he offers his FSO (Field Security Officer) capacities to other companies. He does so much & still has time to cater to me when my tummy aches. What a guy!

We bought a van! Yep, that's right. A 2001 Dodge Grand Caravan. Van, to me, had been a four letter word - haha. But with all of these children we had to relent & get one. It's really nice, though & super sporty. An absolute DREAM to drive. Considering our other car is a 1965 Ford Falcon Futura. A classic beauty, but...it doesn't have air conditioning. We live in Florida. 'Nuff said. =)

As for the final Touchton touch...I had my first OB appointment last month & I'm in good health & the little one's heartbeat was strong. It looks like this child will have to be a c-section. With spacing pregnancies so close together & the last being a c-section - I was told that my chances of successfully delivering naturally were slim. There are also a few risks (worst case scenarios) involved with a c-section, too. First, there could be raw spots in my uterus that might not have healed yet & the placenta could have attached to one of these. If that happened near the incision, the new incision they'll make to deliver THIS baby might hemorrhage. The other situation is placenta previa. Where the placenta could have formed so that it lies right above my cervix. Same situation with hemorrhaging. The midwife said that if the bleeding couldn't be controlled, an emergency hysterectomy might have to be performed. I wasn't turned off by her being so frank with me. I appreciated being told up front. She also said that there was a great possibility that none of these things could happen & everything will turn out fine. I'm inclined to believe the latter. =)

That's all I have to report for now. Keep us in your thoughts! Take care!