A Dog In A Manger

I heard a new saying today. I guess it actually comes from one of Aesop's Fables but it is one I hadn't heard before. I was on a conference call with our lawyer who is defending us in a law suite and he called the other sides lawyer a "Dog in a Manger". When I asked what he meant he explained. Apparently there was a down right mean dog who wandered into a barn one day and hopped into the manger looking for some food. Of course a dog can't eat hay but while the dog was rooting through the hay looking for something he could eat along come the cows who wanted to enjoy a nice meal. The cruel, mean dog was not about to let those cows near the hay so even though he can't eat the hay he was just mean enough that he wasn't going to let the cows eat either. So the cows and the dog are at a stale mate. There they were, staring each other down seeing who can outlast the other. Eventually the dog grew so hungry that he passed out and the cows simply shoved the dog aside and enjoyed their meal. According to our lawyer, the people suing us are so mean and stupid that they are doing all they can to make our lives miserable but he isn't worried because we can outlast them and eventually the other side is going to die of starvation. Funny eh?

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Alycia was due to be born somewhere around January 21, 1989. As with Kira, her due date came and went and there was no sign of her wanting to come into the world. Finally on February 2nd the doctor agreed to induce Lisa. She was begging to be induced long before that. We were quite happy about that because Kira was born September 2nd, Brandon was June 2nd, Ben was an oddball but wouldn't it be cool if Alycia was born February 2nd? I figured this would be a good excuse to miss work since I hadn't missed any work yet with any of the other kids. I took the day off work and we headed into Brooks. We had a great visit all day long but as far as contractions go nothing happened all day long. That should have been a strong indication then of just how stubborn of a child Alycia was going to be. She has always wanted to do things her way and she will usually do just the opposite of what people expect her to do. The doctor came by at the end of the day and decided to help things out by reaming her cervix. That about sent Lisa through the roof but it must have helped because when Lisa got up the next morning she called me at home and told me she was going to have the baby that day. I asked if she was in labor and she said no but she could just tell. By the time I got into Brooks she was already in labor and they hadn't given her the "pill" yet. So, with the other kids I hadn't been able to miss any work but with Alycia I got to miss two days of work. After a morning of hard labor Alycia arrived early in the afternoon (about 1:00) of Thursday, February 3, 1989. She was our biggest baby at 8 lbs 11 oz and 22 1/2 inches long. This has always bugged Alycia too, she was the longest baby but the shortest child. What a joy she has been. She has made a lot of people smile in her short 19 years on this earth.