Jacob David

Our apologies if this is the first you hear of this: Jacob David Dekker was born at 8:39am on Friday the 23rd. He came in at 6 lbs, 9 0z (Annika and Abby were 6-10 and 6-4, respectively) and 19 inches long. We reached the hospital around 5:30am that morning and he popped out in no time (yay!). Everyone's doing really well, and we wanted to get some pictures out for those that aren't near Grand Rapids. We look forward to talking to you if we haven't yet, and Jacob looks forward to meeting all of you too!

That's a yawn!

Change of Season

It's transition time, from...

Winter to spring (hallelujah): in the past few days the snow is melting away, unveiling daffodils, daylilies, and other perennials that are poking through the turf. I spent some time today cleaning up dead plants from last year, while new stuff comes up from underneath. The birds are back too: I have recently seen my first robin, red-wing blackbird, grackle, super-blue bluebird, and killdeer of the year. Also, the neighbors started their maple-sap boiling operation, so the neighborhood smells like roasted marshmallows.

Eastern Standard Time to Eastern Daylight Time: it's amazing how that little change can make the whole day feel different. The girls have gone to bed late each night so far.

Pre-Spring Break to Post-Spring Break (at least for me): now I'm thinking about the back half of the semester, which will involve more exams, a math competition, conferences, a baby, planning for the summer, selling the house (maybe?), tee-ball, etc.

The worst sports time of the year to the second best (behind October's baseball playoffs and football): no single sporting event appeals simultaneously to both my mathematical and sports interests like the NCAA Tournament does - 64 teams, each with a seed, in a single-elimination tournament, and all the history of 15-seeds beating 2-seeds, no 16-seed ever beating a 1-seed. I love filling out brackets for the ESPN competition (which I'll never win), and this year I put together a couple probabilistic methods using random number generators for determing possible outcomes of the tournament, which I'll use to fill out 4 of my 5 ESPN entries (for the 5th one I'll use my gut). I can explain it at length if you're interested.

Kindergarten Visit

Sorry about the lack of a haircut picture. Lisa says it's not as dramatic as you might think, and it's been growing back a bit already.

Mostly, we've been dealing with snow, schools, and illness here. We got positively piled upon by snow the last week or so, and that led to possibly the worst drive up to Ferris that I've ever had, getting the minivan stuck in our driveway, and thankfulness for a paved driveway and a snowblower. Just today Annika got over a wicked ear infection that perforated her eardrum and woke her up into weeping and screaming the past few nights. It was quite unpleasant, but today she's substantially better. Meanwhile, I'm on spring break.

Annika's kindergarten class is having a "Mystery Reader" each day this month, and the first one on Monday was me! As the mystery reader, even Annika didn't know I was coming. I read "Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon," got to participate in the "Tooty Ta" song and then watched them play the "Thumbs-up" game, where nearly everyone in the class puts their head down and a thumb up, while a select few go around and push a thumb down, and then those with thumbs down try to guess who did theirs. Abby got to hang out in kindergarten too, and more-or-less participated in the game - see below, she's in the crowd. She loved it, but also showed that she's only two and not ready for kindergarten yet.

That's the deal here. Less than four weeks until the due date.