Just Touching Base

There's not a lot of noteworthy happenings here at the Martin house lately. We're pretty much doing only what needs to be done...
Finishing up the last days of school: reports, field trips, concerts, picnics.
Fulfilling our church duties.
Trying to keep things clean and organized (a symptom of nesting).
Enjoying the outside world when the sun comes out.
Just generally doing all living that we can.

Soon enough summer will come and then a baby and then school again. There will be lots of pictures and stories but until that times please enjoy some Martin Quotes that I've collected over the month and this picture of Willa I took in December that I have titled:

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch

Martin Quotes:

Enoch [After watching me lumber past holding up my sore belly]:
Poor women but not poor men.
Mommy: Why is that?
Enoch: Because women have to pull out the babies.

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Mommy [Giving Taran very specific, verbal instructions]:
Put that away. It belongs downstairs, in the basement, in the box.
Taran [Returning from the accomplished task]:
You have good use of commas.

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Enoch [Outside on a rare gorgeously sunny day]:
I'm earth sick.
Mom: What does that mean?
Enoch: It means I don't want to be outside anymore!

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And one Martin Quote submitted by Emma...

To Willa: Does it bother you sometimes that you are so cute?
Willa: Um, nope.

Photos from the Martin past: MUD

These pictures taken in Davis, California January 2006 (that's right midwest friends January!) are proof of two constants in the Martin household:

1. The Martin Kidlins have always been adorable.
2. They have always loved mud.

Taran, Emma, and Enoch at Windmere Apartments.

Martin Quote

Calvin: Miss Tammy said that gum balls makes your teeth push [fall] out. But one day I ate a lot of gumballs and they stayed in.

[Which would explain the empty gumball jar I found hidden in the basement.]

It's a ...

We found out the gender of our baby a while ago and in true Martin form I am now documenting it a month later.

The night before the ultrasound we took a "Gender Wager."
Four pennies were on the line. Yep, we play it big!

Notice how the boys chose "boy" and the girl chose "girl."
Willa hadn't formed an opinion yet.

Because I had announced the pregnancy with balloons, I thought it'd be fun to do the same with the gender. I put the balloons in a box and told them blue for boy, pink for girl.

Just before the reveal. (David already knows in this picture.)

One last vote:

Who thinks it's a girl?

Boy?

Willa had the honors, as the one who is going to be displaced as baby, of opening the box.

BOY!

David and I, and Emma, were wrong! Taran, Enoch, and Calvin were right!
Emma was a good sport, but Willa was furious that everyone was holding her balloons.

In honor of our impending boy: Balloon Fight!

So, a fourth Martin boy. I am happy, but also wary. You see, even when I learned that Calvin was a boy I was nervous. I grew up with 3 brothers and the laundry that they make, the amounts of food they consume, and smell that emanates from them is amazing to say the least. My own sons are living up to their uncles' legacy and another boy, I'm assuming, is only going to add to the madness.
But his brothers are so excited. They keep finding new names: Mario, Diego, and Boots Beaveron. Taran imagines a little brother army he can control, Enoch wants something to snuggle (and control), and Calvin just wants a little brother (to control). This poor, poor lucky, lucky kid. We eagerly await his arrival sometime in late summer. We're all waiting for you Mario Boots Martin!

Martin Quote

While driving to school Emma and I were discussing the news about Osama Bin Laden. Enoch asked:

Is he going to hell?

Mom: That's not for us to judge...

Enoch: [Cutting me off and speaking very matter of factly.] The dinosaurs are going to hell. They're bad.

Note: I have no idea how he became so comfortable with the word hell. I'm sure that if he has heard us utter that word in our house, it wasn't in the accurate way he used it.