John Paul Three

Part of the busy-ness that has so affect this blog the past two months was the all-expenses-paid trip -- courtesy of the Extraordinary In-Laws -- to Cape Cod for two weeks at the beginning of July. They wanted all their daughters and their families together all at once (a bit masochistic of them, really, but who am I to turn my nose up at a solid week-and-a-half on Old Silver Beach?).

Anyway, that's were this recent picture of my son, John Paul, with his first cousin, Benedikt Markus, comes from (that's Johnny on the right, of course).



And here's part of them, playing in the sand.


In a conversation with Benedikt's mother (my sister-in-law, who is married to German national; they live in Berlin), she asked me if I spank my kids. "Just often enough that the threat of a spanking means something," I told her. She replied that in Germany, they would probably put me in jail for that. I calmly pointed out that in Germany I would already be in jail for homeschooling my children. This seemed to surprise her, but her husband agreed that it was true.

Anyway, two weeks later, first Benedikt, and then John Paul each turned three years old. Here's Johnny with his older brother and sister, the Extraordinary Boy and the Beauty Girl, aged approximately 7 and 5, respectively.