May 2000: St. Pierre-Cook 1

The St. Pierre-Cook Family

 Basil, 68, Nova, 67, Ulysses, 15, Yvette, 15

Narrated by Nova



Our son, Dante, recently came over for a visit, just before Mothers' Day, to share some exciting news. He and his girlfriend, Cassidy, just found out they are expecting their first baby. We were a little shocked considering they have only been living together for a year.

But they did manage to wait for a year which is more than you can say about some other young couples. We already have quite a few young grandchildren, the youngest are Harrison and Duncan, though, so I'm secretly hoping for a granddaughter. Don't get me wrong, I love my grandsons, but it has been 5 years since we've had a granddaughter and since we have 5 granddaughters and 6 grandsons right now it would even things out nicely.

Yvette and Ulysses seem pretty excited to have another baby in the family. Hopefully having the boys and then this new one will keep them from getting started anytime soon. They'll be 16 in a few months and I'd really like to see them both focus on their schoolwork.

I think Dante will be a great dad, though. He's always been very well behaved and he even helps clean when he comes home for visits which is more than I can say for any of the other children.

After that shocking visit I sat down and got a lot of my fears for Dante and Cassidy out with some video games. It's amazing what a distraction they can be. I don't know how Ulysses can manage to focus on his reading with exciting things can get in the game.

And, as if we don't have enough going on in our lives, two teenagers, four grown children, 11 grandkids, plus one on the way, Basil has decided he wants dogs. We built on an addition that he intends to use later as a game room or playroom for the grandkids but for now it is dedicated solely to the dogs.

I wasn't convinced at first but he got me to come around. I told him getting dogs had to wait a couple weeks though. My girls, Bailey and Verity, were coming for Mothers' Day with their kids and I wanted to wait until afterward so I wasn't worrying about untrained kids while toddlers were in the house.

It was really nice to see Bailey. She doesn't come around much anymore now that her and Fraser's daughter, Beth, is 16 and not big into family gatherings. I have a feeling Verity guilted her into it but I'll take what I can get.

Verity and Galina's boys were so much fun to have around. Harrison will be four soon and was entranced by the fish. He spent ages by that fish tank.

Duncan just turned one and Harrison doesn't seem to be impressed by him at all.

The faces he makes when Duncan grosses him out are hilarious.

But Duncan doesn't seem bothered as long as he gets attention from us adults.

I think Verity and Galina enjoy visiting because they know that I will watch the little ones. It gives them some time to themselves.

And Carson, their oldest, can always find something to do with the other kids. He and Yvette get along wonderfully.

And when boredom overcomes the group there are always videos game to keep us entertained. Verity and Galina actually left early to get the boys to bed and Carson stayed to hang out for a few hours before heading back to campus.

Who knew watching your grandmother play video games was such a good procrastination tactic.

Only a few days later Basil went ahead and bought his dogs. He got a beautiful white Husky that we named Briseis and a German Shepherd that we named Achilles.

They get along really well already.

And seem like they'll be easy to train. Achilles has a great disposition and is very eager to learn.

And it doesn't seem like Briseis will be much of a problem, either. She is already acting as though she's trained.

I think Ulysses has already claimed her. He spends a lot of time playing with her and teaching her our house rules.

And she seems to like him just as much as he likes her.

My only issue is that I can't decide if we should allow them to sleep on our beds or not. They're so sweet, but I'm not a fan of the dog hair.

Pic spam because Harrison was being adorable (ignore the books all over the floor).

Notes: 

• This is going up a little late because I forgot I didn't have one scheduled to go up. Oops.

• Also, the couple at the beginning of the entry, Dante and Cassidy, are the couple that got pregnant a while back when I had to pop into some houses. It worked out well that his parents' update was coming up only two months later so I didn't have to figure out how to do a pregnancy update for a couple that hadn't even been introduced yet. And since they conceived in March they are due in December which also just happens to be when their update is already scheduled! Apparently this baby was meant to be.