Nick has a birthday . . .

Today is Nick’s birthday. Nick is my daughter Cindy’s youngest son – Pat is the oldest. So maybe that means Nick is creative and charming according to the Norwegian study about which I wrote several days ago. I’m also the second child and am very creative and so charming . . . I think Nick takes after me. He has both of those traits. He’s in college now, but when he was younger his family had a wonderful dog named Larry. I’ve already written about Larry in an earlier posting where I was lying on the floor and Larry’s head was lying on my stomach as if he were comforting me.

Larry always hung around the table when everyone was eating. And if they left the table for a minute, he’d eat whatever was left right off the table. I love this picture because it looks as if he’s saying, “What? No bacon and eggs?” He was a special dog and much loved by the entire family. Nick was having breakfast and Larry was watching and waiting for something better.

But now Nick is off to college far away from his home in Washington, and I think he’s learning more than I thought was possible. Nick is a very smart kid and is soaking up all that he can at school. The last time I saw him, he talked about things I could barely understand, but I didn’t care. I just loved listening to him. It’s too bad his birthday is the 23rd, right before Christmas. That was not well planned at all. I used to baby sit Nick and Pat when their parents were out of town. When they were really young, it was so much fun to rock them and sing to them. I did that for hours. And then as they got older it was not as much fun, but very interesting, trying to keep them from crawling out the window at night which they frequently did. But maybe it was just Pat that did that. But how could that be if he has the higher IQ since he’s the older one . . . why would someone with a high IQ do something stupid like that, knowing he’d be found out? I think those Norwegian researchers should stick to their herring and leave the IQ business alone. We don’t need them telling us things like that – maybe we should build a fence to keep them out. Oh . . . I forgot . . . we already have one fence up and probably can’t afford another one right now what with paying for the war and other important things like that.

So Happy Birthday, Nick. I hope you have a very special one.