It's a girl (although we already knew that)!

Let it be said that I am efficient (when I want to be).

We had a baby girl early this morning.

My wife woke with contractions around 3 a.m., and woke me when her water broke just after 4 a.m. We called my sister-in-law to watch the kids (she arrived 5 minutes later); arrived at the hospital about 20 minutes later; and birthed the baby 20 minutes after that (forget what I said about my efficiency - it's my wife who's efficient!). Small claim to fame of our #5 child - she was attended by a nurse, born in the triage area, because the on-call doctor didn't have time to get in (I warned them we'd be fast when I called ahead)!

Pink cigars for everyone - you can get a real (chocolate) one if you see me in person before they run out!

Much (and little) has happened.

Not that you're coming here everyday looking for updates, but I guess I should post something this summer.

First, my summer school class is over. As my first endeavour into Physics, it was a pleasant diversion. The extra income is very pleasant (although it surprises me how quickly it gets gobbled up). A good bunch of kids, although a couple shouldn't have been in there (oh well, they passed, by their teeth-skin).

The earlier-mentioned tree stump is out (thanks largely to my Dad's industriousness - if he wasn't Catholic, I'd 'blame' it on his Protestant work ethic). My sister's husband was also an important player in this venture.

Near where the tree was removed, my older brother and I have 'tipped the shed' (okay, the quotes are entirely not necessary: firstly, because there is no colloquially equivalent expression; secondly, because we actually did tip the shed onto its front). It was easy work (we used a hydraulic jack), but needed two bodies to complete this job. I'm nearly done the prep work for the concrete pad for the shed - picked up the aggregate mixture with my uncle's truck today (are any of you beginning to see the many benefits of large families?) - it was over 2 metric ton's worth, mind you. I hope to be mixing concrete soon (with my Dad's concrete mixer, which he hauled out here from Saskatchewan recently).

The one rather large item noticeably absent from my summer events so far, you will notice, has been the birth of our second girl. She seems to be taking her time (okay, we're still before the due date, but ALL of our children thus far have been early, and so it feels overdue already). We did have a false labour experience last Friday, complete with hospital trip - interesting, because we haven't had that experience before. Should I start the concrete, or wait until the baby's born first?

UPDATE: I went ahead and laid the concrete during the daytime (my two oldest boys were really quite industrious - thanks, guys). Pooped out, I looked forward to a full night's sleep, only to be awoken for the baby-birthing experience in the early morning. I've got a separate announcement for that, but just wanted to note how good it is that it happened now, because now I have something to do while I wait for the concrete to set!