Since Tim won't post here, but he will on the Tun ... I'll post for him :)

Email sent to Tun
Subject: Defense, Defense!

Hi gang -

Now, you're probably all wondering about the title of this little missive.
Well, it has nothing (really) to do with basketball (or any other sports),
military maneuvers, etc...

My daughter, who just turned 7 months last Friday, has been crawling for
about 2 weeks now. With this newly gained mobility, she has set off on a
determined path to demonstrate to Annette and I just how *un*-baby proof our
house is. Fortunately she has not pulled anything down on herself (yet), but I
foresee a considerable amount of time on my belly in the next week or so to
determine what her "effective range" of fire (so-to-speak) is :)

Anyway, shortly after putting all the crawling motions together in the right
order to actually conduct forward motion, she began trying more advanced
skills...such as pulling herself up in her crib or using other furniture to
support herself in an effort to, as our pilot-minded friends say, go vertical :)

Last night, I was downstairs watching the History channel with Joy (it was
a show about Spruance - one must start educating the young properly at an early
age, especially if Joy's going to become the first female CNO ). She had
been using my leg to pull herself up - more or less. Suddenly she's not on my
leg, so I look over to my right..

And there is my darling little daughter, standing up on her own two feet
(!) She was in an almost perfect basketball defensive stance (if the Navy
thing doesn't work out, mabye she can become the first female Michael Jordan,
only better looking ). Alas, I did not have a camera ready, though she
continued to get up (her vertical moments last a second or two, and then she's
back on terra firma trying to get up again). I succeeded in snapping a couple
of shots of her upright...she was able to maintain vertical stability for
almost 3 or 4 seconds one time :)

Annette was upstairs reading the elder child his bedtime story, so I
gleefully showed her one of the photos I had taken of her daughter standing up.
I'm not sure what I enjoyed more....seeing my daughter stand up by herself, or
the look of despair/frustration in my wife's eyes upon presentation of
photographic proof :) I spent a good five minutes convincing my wife that I
had absolutely *nothing* to do with her standing up....I still got "the look"
that threatened me with banishment to the couch for aiding and abetting the
deliquency of an infant....

So there you go...7 months and 2 days (almost to the hour!) after emerging
into the world, our daughter has begun to assert her independence. I think
I'll post a picture on my desktop of her standing captioned "Look what I
did"...and maybe a picture of me pointing to her captioned "Look what I
made" :) [With my wife's help, of coures ]

Ok..back to work for me....../me wonders what his wife's response to this
will be....

Tim

And my response some hours later when Joy was finally asleep and I actually got a chance to look at email :)


yes, my darling husband came to me and told me that our daughter had the perfect basketball defensive stance. Not that she moves sideways (yet! Thank God!). And "the look" accompanied not frustration, but intense weariness as the magnitude of the situation hit me. part of me is very proud (look what *my* baby can do) and part of me wants to break down in tears of fear and frustration (can't you stay a baby just a LITTLE while longer, pleeeeeeease!!!!! I'm not ready for this!)

Sheesh! Josh was 8 months old before he started and he had the benefit of a walker! and had been crawling for three months before that!

I knew I should have had his sperm tested......

Annette