These go to eleven

On Friday, my dear, sweet Kerouac and Owen turned eleven. I really can't believe it has been that long. On one hand, it seems like they've been with me my entire life -- on the other hand, it seems like yesterday I was reading an email from my good friend Page telling me about the "muddy-looking litter of kittens" born in a spare tire in her backyard in Lascassas, Tennessee.

Little did I know that eleven years later, I would have spent over a third of my life with those muddy buddies and soon they will be meeting my daughter. It might be a parenting red flag that I feel a little more confident in our parenting abilities when I think about how good Owen and Kerouac are. Afterall, I raised them for eleven years and Fox has assisted me in raising them for seven of those years. But seriously, if you spent some time with them, you would not think that's such a crazy notion (I think). They are really awesome cats. They love to snuggle, play with toys, and wrestle.

We headed up to Knoxville Saturday morning for UT's first SEC match-up against our dreaded opponent the Florida Gators. We attempted our first mini-tailgate with the Prius. We were extra brave and had both Vols and Gators in attendance at the event. I know what you're thinking-- a bipartisan tailgate is pretty ambitious. Don't worry. I was fueled by my weekly Petro. There was minimal heckling and a good time was had by all.

Unfortunately, the Vols could not quite pull out the W this week, though there were several times we thought it was going to happen. The team didn't look bad, they just made some mistakes that we will chalk up to being a very young team. Next week we should be able to break the two-game losing streak. However, it was a fun game to watch, and Baby Fox seemed to enjoy herself (if that is what kicking and moving around means).

Speaking of Baby Fox, we've started week 23 of pregnancy. We go to the doctor on Wednesday for our monthly check-up, which should be very routine with no big events scheduled. I'm sad we won't get to peek in on her, but we did get to see her a month ago. I really like reading about all the amazing things that happen during pregnancy (it is a nice consolation when you look down and think about how alien your body is and how you weigh more than ever in your entire life). Something that really amazes me is that as of ten weeks ago (when we were 13 weeks pregnant and didn't even know she was a girl yet), Baby Fox already had all of the eggs she will ever have. So one-half of all of our grandchildren for Baby Fox are already in existence inside Baby Fox, inside me. That's pretty incredible if you ask me. And since you are reading my blog, you kinda did.

**Warning - this paragraph contains a baby rant** I have also started looking at baby things, most of which completely baffle me. Babies require a lot of research. One strange thing I have noticed is there is a compulsion on the part of people to try to somehow make the baby about them. It apparently isn't important that there is a totally new human trying to figure out the world, it is really an opportunity to advertise something about someone else. There is a huge amount of baby apparel with slogans like "I get my looks from my mom" or "Go ahead and push me around but you ought to know my grandma's the biggest, baddest, meanest lady in town" or "My uncle kicks butt" or my favorite "My aunt Jen is single" (I did not make these up -- they are all real). Really? You are now using the baby to try to set up a relative on dates? What sort of guy would even respond to that? Whew - sorry. All the baby stuff still seems really new, and I get a little worked up about aspects of it sometimes. Also, I found out what pilates are this week, and man, they are hard! It is amazing that such small movements can make you feel like you got such a workout.

I hope everyone has a great week. Be sure to check in with us next week when Baby Fox is as long as an ear of corn!