Our two youngest children are no longer toddlers or babies: they are both in pre-K, where they are learning how to read and write their letters, identifying colors, naming animals (and the sounds they make), and just recently mastered the time-consuming task of potty-training.  They are learning to dress themselves and how to put on/take off their socks, shoes, and underwear.

They are me in miniature.  They do have my wife's wavy hair and sparkling, dark, dark eyes, but otherwise, they are all me.  Both are only four years old, but they are as tall as a seven- to eight- year-old.  They will both probably be well over six-five by the time they reach their eighteenth birthday, according to our primary physician, Dr. Emmons.  Both are built like me as well: slender with long, long limbs.  Both will probably end up playing basketball or some other professional sport.

Ian Charles and Isaiah Cameron Sandusky are both in perfect health, which is amazing, considering one of them (Ian) started out life outside the womb without breath: doctors had to work hard to revive him.  Nothing wrong with their keen little minds or busy little hands and legs! For that, both Louisiana, my wife, and I (as well as their sixty-one brothers and sisters) can all be grateful this Thanksgiving season!  

In the fall of 2012, Ian and Isaiah will both start "big kids" school, when they both enter the world of kindergarten.  They will probably be two of the tallest kids in their school unless someone else comes along to usurp them of their title.  They will probably have an edge on those children who do not go to day care or pre-K.  

I just wish I could have a fraction of their energy level or be able to chase after them and play ball with them, but my own body has fallen apart and I'm not nearly as limber as I used to be.  I have since had back surgery which has finally gotten rid of years of crippling back pain, but my knees, ankles, and hips are a different matter altogether: I walk like a man of 75 insatead of a man in his middle forties.

My wife, who also had back problems that required several rounds of back surgery, gets around better than I do, and she was in even worse shape.  She couldn't even lift the children but now that she can she spends as much time with them as possible, caring for them, cuddling them, kissing them, and just enjoying their very existance.  Ian and Isaiah especially bring her much in the way of joy: she loves teaching them new things and singing to them, especially at night when they go to bed or when they are sick with colds or the flu.

I look at their baby pictures, verses pictures of them now or recently, and I am shocked, totally shocked at how fast Ian and Isaiah have grown.  It won't be long before they are ready to enter middle school.  High school  College.  Even get married or start families of their own or have careers.  Better enjoy them now while they're still small, I always find myself saying.

For Ian and Isaiah's birthday, we got them bicycles in which their older brothers or sisters will teach them how to ride, along with knee and elbow pads, crash helmets, and plenty of first aid cream, bandages, and medcine to take the "ouchies" away lest they fall down and/or get hurt.  Ian's bike is blue; as for Isaiah, his bike is fire-engjine red.  We even got them little license plates with their names on them.

We will also celebrate when family friends or neighbors come calling and on Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, we will have a cake for them if they aren't too full from the turkey and all the fixin's.  I am sure they will get boucoup of presents, cards, and money.  And then you have Christmas: more presents for the birthday boys!

Well, Isaiah is calling; he wants me to watch him ride his new bike.  I will write in here again soon.  Until then, this is Bill Sandusky saying so long and God bless; may each and every one of y'all have a very happy Thanksgiving with your loved ones and please don't forget to give God for His blessings!  We certainly haven't, and we will never forget: every day is a blessing, especially when I see how much the children have grown!  And now I have grandchildren to raise and spoil!

~Bill.  :)