It's 6:10 am and I can't sleep anymore . . .

I've been up since 5:30. I guess this is what happens to you when you get older. You forget how to sleep late. I want to sleep late, I really do, but I can't. Old habits are hard to break. Katherine had minor surgery at the Army Hospital yesterday and has come out of it well, so she and everyone else is going to be headed off to school this morning. The doctor had to sedate her with laughing gas to remove the back of an earring which had completely been swallowed up by her ear lobe. Noone ever tells you things like that can happen. So I'm hear to warn the world : check your child's earrings every single day and wear safety backs (those big plastic round ones). On a happier note, Rob, the kids and I joined a pool. It's a public pool here in Alexandria, and we went ahead a bought season passes because it was just so cool. It's run by the park service of Northern Va, but it's probably the coolest pool I've ever been to outside of a water park. There's a huge wave pool, a play pool that perfect for the kids with two waterslides in it, and there are three HUGE "straw pipe" slides for the people who actually know how to swim. Ben spent about 30 seconds being shy of the pool, lurking around the edge, touching the water with his toes, before he lost all inhibitions and picked up right where he left off last summer. That boy can swim, though I don't think he's consciously trying to. He goes under water and dog paddles, and for the most part, get along really well. He even went on the water slide with Rob and I twice! The girls still have a thing about dunking their heads, but had a great time playing on the slides too, after Caroline convinced Katherine that it wasn't so scary. We had a great weekend.