What a sweetie!
I’ve heard just the opposite. That there’s some danger the USPS could get closed all together so we should use them as much as possible!
Thanks, Romani. I hadn’t heard about that. We in CT are still getting mail every day, but the amount is dramatically reduced. I think companies have generally stopped sending junk solicitations.
Same here - still daily mail but a lot less of it. Even the local grocery stores have reduce their weekly flyer to only a page.
You don’t have to actually use the postal service to help save it. Just buy A LOT of stamps to keep in your house. Best case scenario, you’ll use them in the future. Worst case, they’ll be a novelty item for future generations.
Exactly. We bought a bunch of stamps recently. We just don’t plan on using them until things get a little better around here.
I think Detroit’s USPS just happened to be hit really hard.
Yes Detroit is exceptionally hit hard. Mail is extremely slow depending on where you live. My sister’s a postal carrier in Mt Clemons but they seem to be OK right now.
I’m a big fan of USPS. Imagine getting a letter across the country in a day or two. For 40 cents. I’d pay more.
Strangely, my mail routine hasn’t changed in volume or speed. Only change lately is it seems we’re often last delivery on the route. They always rotated the schedule, once in a while, changed the carrier person. but we always had the same carrier until the next reassignment. Now, some evenings, it comes after 5pm and it’s not the same deliverer, day to day. Not like before when we’d have the same guy over a few months, even a few years.
Confusing.
USPS delivered here last Sunday!
I think 1st class stamps are $0.55 now 
Our mail comes at all weird hours. Sometimes at dinner time. Some days it’s just junk, others it’s “real mail”. That usually signals when the regular lady is working or off.
We’ve had the same guy for many, many years. He gets annoyed at us when our private road gets icy, which is often since it’s shaded. I used to be the person responsible to cell for sanding and plowing (why do I volunteer for jobs like that and moderating??), but I passed the torch.
I feel a bit like a Ren photos stalker, but I’m really just a superfan! And Kate looks gorgeous in every photo.
Such loving and joyous photos! Ren seems increasingly alert and curious–very fun and exciting times!
Thanks, @yauponredux . You’re way too kind. I feel like I barely look human some days right now lol.
Stalk away. I’m glad he’s bringing joy. As long as he does, I’ll continue to add.
I would post our tummy time videos but it sounds like we’re torturing him lol. He’s very, very vocal when he’s trying to do anything but we’ve already figured out the difference between his upset cry and his trying to do something cry.
But during tummy time, he manages to push himself around a little (like an inchworm) and can already lift and turn his head. I started walking at 8 months and I really, REALLY hope he’s not on that same trajectory. If he could not crawl until about 8-10 months and not walk until after his first birthday, like all of his cousins, that would be fantastic lol.
Little Ren has a very pronounced cleft above his upper lip. Not sure what that part of the body is called, but it’s distinctive on him! I think he has your upper lip shape too.
My D3 was born full term (41+weeks) and weighed 8 lbs. By 6 months she had grown but also shrunk back to being 5th percentile, where she has since stayed. I imagine Ren will do the same, by growing extra, and will shoot up in percentile for height.
@greenwitch I just put up a side by side of me at a few days old and him. (It’s a bad picture of me since I was actually a long skinny baby and here I look like a butterball, but it’s the only one I have on hand lol.)
He definitely has my nose and lip area. He looks a LOT like me, my paternal half sister, and my dad.
I need a baby picture of Mr R…
@greenwitch It’s called the philtrum. (I know that from portrait painting classes!)
My oldest was born 3 weeks early, but hit the milestones at pretty standard times. Though I remember he ended up being in 90%ile for height and weight with doctors tell me he (and later his brother) would be over six feet tall. That’s seemed unlikely to me as we are all of average height, but both kids are just over six feet.
Ren is just so cute and adorable!
The philtrum, that sounds vaguely familiar. His is very cool. Could make him a movie star one day, you never know…
My twins were born early and I was frazzled for months and can’t remember their exact weights and relationships but they both fixed their life long percentiles by 6-9 months.
I hope he has no interest in being a movie star lol. Its a terrifying industry.
But fun fact: he’s related to Burt Reynolds on Mr’s side and my cousin is the stunt double to a lot of the leading male actors (Hugh Jackman, Channing Tatum, Chris Pine, etc proving my theory that all white men in Hollywood look basically the same lol).
Both sides of the family are heavily involved in music and musical theater too lol.
My S was walking at 9 months and an escape artist way before that. He could wriggle our of any car seat or stroller, though fortunately he remained seated in strollers.
Your REN looks like a very content kid. I hope he doesn’t give you the stress our “Houdini” did.