Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Bug Hill Update

I haven't mentioned the preacher's wife in a while. She's due May 14 which makes her about 28 weeks along. She's really getting big. Her new joke is to answer the question "How far along are you" with "56 weeks - 28 weeks times 2 babies". Most people don't get it - they don't think about 9 months equals 40 weeks (I know, it's really 39 but details) and get that 56 weeks puts her past full term.

She does look full term.

She's starting to think about the fact that she will have 9 kids under the age of 13. She told me that Michelle Duggar is pregnant again. That if Michelle can handle 17 (and possibly 18 kids, we haven't heard if it is for sure a singleton pregnancy) surely she can handle 9 and she must be a failure to feel worried. I reminded her that she breastfeeds until her kids are 2 years old (even when that means tandem nursing), that she cloth diapers. That she hangs all her laundry on the line. That she does not put her older kids in charge of a younger child or make them do most of the housework. She hasn't seen any of the TLC shows on the Duggars and hasn't really read much about them. She didn't realize that she does a much more intensive style of parenting than Michelle.

I told her that it's okay if she feels overwhelmed and to be sure to take any offers of help from anyone. And then I offered to have regular playdates with her 3 kids that are around the same age as my boys. I think I may be nuts. Playdates with 5 kids? Of course, her kids don't get to play videogames at home - how bad will it be if I let them veg in front of the Wii after their homework is done? I don't think she's against videogames, necessarily, they just don't have them. But I don't think I'm going to ask.

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