The Belly Gene

So last week, we went to Peoria and saw MacTroll's family. It was the first time in four years the four brothers were together. And now each of them has children. So we took family photos. The first one was the group picture. 

MacTroll's family is very left brained, so we had to stand near our spouses and children, to clearly identify our familial units. Missing is my SIL Jun Mei, who is due in December.

When we tried to line up the grandkids with the grandparents, X-man decided it would be more fun to help out with the photo taking than being a participant. This is an attribute MacTroll and I both have. We both think it's much better to be the photographer than the photographed.

But the older kids waited patiently for X-man. My nephew Nathan was stellar at toddler rounding. There should be a competition. "After the toddler round up, we'll see the cat herders."

I also learned something new by looking at these photos. MacTroll has this habit of lifting his shirt and exposing his belly. He'll sit on the couch, with the shirt pulled up to his chest. For a decade and a half I've been asking him what that's about.

He always says, "I'm hot."

He means he's warm, but I always joke about how poorly located his venting system is if he has to cool off  at the midsection.

And then I noticed similar traits in these photos with a niece and two nephews. Mmmm. 

It appears to be a genetic venting issue and not a psychological one. I think we'll have to wait and see if X-man is a stomach venter or not. 

The last photo is my favorite. There's just something about a pile of kids ages 2-13 that is heartwarming. 

Particularly Nathan holding Mikayla in the middle But they're all mixed up here, sitting where they want to sit. And you can kind of tell by the photo, but X-man is in the middle of sitting down next to my niece Alex. He gave her a hug and then went down the line hugging kids.