Brithday News

Indeed, yesterday was my birthday (or, as us Dekker boys know it, "brithday" (thank you, Chris Buchholz)). It's good to be prime again (31). As birthdays go, it was ridiculously full: wake up; open a couple presents from my wife and girls; put everyone in the van; bring Abby to Diane's; go with Lisa and Annika to Lisa's ultrasound, where the gender of our third child is determined (more on that later); meet Diane at her Mom's house to pick up Abby; rush home; eat lunch; head up to Ferris; attend 2 meetings and finish preparing a calculus exam; proctor said exam to 145 students; create a grading rubric with the other calculus profs; get home right before 10pm; hug Mom, who is watching the girls since Lisa had conferences; eat chocolate angel strata; read a few pages in a book; go to sleep.

For the biggest news of the day: if you don't want to know the gender of our next child, do not read the rest of this post below. We only told a few people yesterday, and if this is the first you're hearing of it, I'm sorry, but I wanted to post this before I go away this weekend (and more on that later). So, here goes (SPOILER ALERT):

Our

next

child

will

be

a

um....

(last chance not to look!)



BOYBOYBOYBOYBOYBOYBOYBOYBOYBOYBOY!!!!!!!!!

It was quite obvious on the ultrasound, and I identified the appropriate part before the technician said anything. Annika was hoping for a boy and thus was quite pleased, as was everyone else that we told. And more importantly, HE looks completely healthy and well-nourished, so it was a great day babywise.

And tomorrow morning we leave for one of the biggest college football games ever: Michigan vs. Ohio State, #1 vs. #2 (that's a little bold, but maybe not - it's certainly one of the most-hyped regular season games of all time). I hope the game lives up to the hype. I'm not sure who I want to win, but it would be fun to run on the field if OSU prevails.

Go Bucks/Wolverines! (and go Irish, but they better just pound Army)

Halloween Postgame Show

Here are the girls, decked out for trick-or-treating. They were "ballerina ladybugs." Abby was unwilling to wear her pair of antenna. They had a good time at Calvin going through the apartments, and then we stopped by all the grandparents to get more candy. It was freezing cold - of course, it was 61 degrees at 10pm on October 30, and then a cold front came through the following day before we put them in tights and tutus. I think I've eaten more of their candy since that night, too.

Below is an old picture of them I found while going though some stuff on the computer today. Believe it or not, it was taken in June, when it was about 85 or 90 degrees out. They found the winter clothing and Annika even went so far as to change out of her shorts and T-shirt into long sleeves and pants. Then they went outside on the swingset. It didn't last too long, as Annika got plenty sweaty in no time.

Halloween's on the docket, baseball's not

What does a trick-or-treater and the skin of a hot dog have in common?

They're both hollow weiners.

Ha! I made that up myself back in college. I swear I've read it in print since then.

Tonight is a much-anticipated night (at least for Annika). The girls have matching lady-bug costumes. I'll try to put up a picture soon.

Well, the World Series ended sourly last Friday. It was pretty disappointing to watch the Tigers essentially give it away - 5 errors in 5 games by the pitchers. One of my colleagues mentioned that his TV was lucky that he wasn't wearing shoes when the 4th error occurred in game 4. Last year, when the Tigers were finishing up another losing season, I wondered whether I would get all wrapped up in a successful season or not, like I have recently with Notre Dame football and in hoping the Yankees would lose. Heck, the Tigers hadn't played a postseason game since I was in 6th grade. Despite the miserable conclusion to this season, I was glad that it hurt - I was disappointed and mad and somewhat crabby (just ask Lisa) when they just tanked in the last few games. Baseball is my favorite of the major sports, as it has been since 1st grade or so - I like the uniqueness of the ballparks, the history of the game, and the glut of statistics. I've always enjoyed chasing down a pop fly. That said, it bothers me (playing the Tigers or not) that the World Series champion barely won more than half of their regular season games. The Cardinals had the13th best record in baseball, but they made it to the playoffs and won the World Series. I know there are more important things to care about in the world, but...there it is. Play ball!

A Rock 'n Roll Education

Last night, somewhat bored, I put on some music in the basement, which, as it frequently does, inspired the girls to start dancing. Annika much prefers to dance with someone (me), holding hands and mostly jumping around the room. Abby was content to dance by herself, holding a Polly Pocket doll most of the time. Both girls like to watch their reflections on the dark TV screen. We also played steamroller during some of the songs. Abby wasn't quite so keen on getting steamrolled. Last night's playlist:

Roy Orbison - Oh Pretty Woman
The Beatles - Oh Darling, Hello Goodbye, and All You Need Is Love
The Traveling Wilbury's - Wilbury Twist
They Might Be Giants - Istanbul (twice - Annika really liked that one) and Particle Man
Queen - Crazy Little Thing Called Love, We Will Rock You (Abby started to get the lyrics to this one) and We Are the Champions
Fountains of Wayne - Mexican Wine (a perennial favorite) and Stacy's Mom

Annika went into ballerina mode during We Are the Champions, but it actually fits pretty well. I dipped her at the end of Istanbul, which she thought was great, so that's why we had to do it again. I do realize that it doesn't sound great that my 5-year-old likes a song called Mexican Wine, but...I don't have any good defense for it, either. It's a fun song.

Speaking of fun songs - the first few lines of the Wilbury Twist go as follows:

"Put your hand on your head (hand on your head)
Put your foot in the air (foot in the air)
Then you hop around the room (hop around the room)
In your underwear (in your underwear)"

Of course, Annika thinks this is hilarious, and every time I've played it I've had to stop her from following the directions word-for-word.

When it was all over, it was time for jammies. They were sweaty.

Miscellaneous October Items

First off - go Tigers! After assuming all was lost last Sunday, it was joy to see the party that was Comerica Park yesterday after the Tigers offed the Yankees, the most vile of all baseball teams. Last week it seemed like a nightmare for the Tigers to lose their division and end up facing the Yankees. However, I couldn't script anything better for the Tigers to dump the Evil Empire in Detroit and then watch the whole park celebrate. Here's hoping the next series goes this well...

Abby's speech and vocabulary continues to expand. She occasionally declares things to be "awesome," which comes from her sister's influence. The other day, while wearing a long-sleeve onesie and overalls, she also had on a dress-up skirt and two dress-up shirts, and then would throw her arms in the air and declare "Beautiful!"

Tonight Annika offered to pray before supper and promptly thanked God for skunks, tigers, birds, cats, dogs, horses, cows, and most of all, people. No mention of the scrambled eggs we were about to eat.

I missed some of the Tigers game the other day because the house three lots down from us had a fire in the basement, which brought around about nine firetrucks, water trucks, ambulances, and police cruisers, along with firefighters, many of which are volunteer. No one was hurt and the outside of the house shows little damage, but apparently it's not livable. Quite the excitement for Dairy Lane. I rode my bike over and watched for a little bit, and had a conversation with some neighbors that had recently put their dog down. I'm still not used to country-style animal care, which usually involves guns.

That's the latest here! Yeee-haaa!

Harvest Time

Our first successful foray into gardening is almost to a close - the zucchini, summer squash, green peppers, corn, lettuce, and cucumbers are long done, and we're just picking the last of the tomatoes now. The sunflowers did well, too. About half a dozen of them are taller than me. I'd say the tallest is about 7 feet tall. With the tomatoes we've already canned two batches each of salsa and pizza sauce, and there are more tomatoes waiting in the fridge to turn into some fresh spaghetti sauce. At left Abby helps pick tomatoes the other day, and up above Abby and Annika help make tomato sauce, in their pajamas, while sitting on the counter.

Meanwhile: the Tigers could clinch a playoff spot today, for the first time since 1987. Unfortunately, the Yankees and their $200 million payroll are looking really strong, and I could see them taking another World Series this year.

The Office premiere on Thursday was great. I love having that half hour of glee to look forward to once a week.

Oh, just stuff...

Life continues...

We're three weeks into school. Everything individually is fine, but altogether it's a pretty crazy life we're leading. Annika is doing well in kindergarten and liking it, Abby is enjoying daycare "Jenna's house!", my classes are going well, and Lisa is doing well as a pregnant special-ed teacher. She had a checkup a couple weeks ago, and all is well. They found a strong heartbeat, in the normal range for heartrate but slower than our girls were. So, is this a boy??? We'll see....!

My poor Irish got smoked by Michigan yesterday. I quit actively watching before halftime, and stopped altogether shortly into the 3rd quarter. I don't hate Michigan, but I did during the game. However, now I'm sort of hoping that U-M and Ohio State are both undefeated going into their matchup in November. I'll be at the game (yay for Nick and his grad student status at OSU!), and to see two undefeateds go head-to-head in their final regular season game would be great.

Tonight, while taking some cough medicine and looking at me, Annika asked "Dad, why do you have hair in your armpits." I explained that that's just how it works, and noted that I'm good at growing hair all over. "That's because you're a boy," said Annika, but then I mentioned that many women shave their legs and armpits just like I shave my cheeks. She just made a squeaky noise and gave me her "Whaaaat???" look. Aah, parenthood. Also, I'll admit that amidst the baby discussions we've had over the past month, on more than one occasion, she's asked "But how does the baby get in Mommy's tummy?", just as a logical extension of preceding questions. We've totally wimped out on answering that one so far.