Fist chewing: a new favorite. This is good because people who have their fists in their mouths cannot yell very loud. Not that we mind his expressing himself. We cherish it, yessiree. We're good parents. That even though we are now officially part of the pacifier-industral complex. There are many grouches who think anyone who uses a pacifier is dooming their child to a life of havin' it easy: first pacifiers instead of true happiness, then Nintendo instead of friends, then drugs, then crime, then illegal nation-building in the Middle East, all because your father didn't pay you the proper amount of attention. Fact is that he only uses it in the car, and each time it works it probably prevents an accident and it definitely prevents Leah from becoming queasy.

We could use something like a pacifier as we await the results of our rebid on a very nice house near my sister's. The inspection turned up a lot of needs, like rebuilding the house, basically, and so many of the things were surprises that we rebid much lower than the accepted offer. We are hoping that the person who owns the house will interpret our low bid to mean that we are very wonderful people to whom she ought to sell her house at a fair price and all the dickering will soon end. In the meantime, we chew our fists and hope for the best.