My mother did not sing to get us up. Her favorite trick was showing up in our bedroom with the vacuum on weekends. We had no curfews, but we were not allowed to sleep in -- had to appear at breakfast and face the parents.

My mother had a large repertoire of songs with which she woke me, though that song was not one of them.

Wow, Sparky, I think that policy might have led to me moving out at 18 - or younger. I'm so not a fan of the am, never have been.

Mom didn't sing it to wake us up, it was just in her repertoire of old songs to warble while she did household chores. Which might be why my memories of it are fond and not aggravated.

I think that policy might have led to me moving out at 18

I went to college at 17, and spent one summer there after that. However, it really had nothing to do with the get out of bed policy as I am a morning person. I was the annoying person in college who was hoping for an 8 a.m. final exam.

Meanwhile, my sister writes that two weekends ago my niece (9 years old) and my nephew (13 years old) spent an hour in Harvard Square playing their fiddles a couple weekends ago and made $94. My nephew is reported to have said, "Wow, why would anyone work at McDonalds?" I suspect that he, at least, will be appearing sometime this summer at the 3rd St. Promenade in Santa Monica, as he is a boy who wants gizmos.

She apparently forgot the bugle part or thought it not relevant to the task of rousing us out of bed.

The "You've gotta get up" part is sung to the tune of revelle.

ION

Christopher just lost his first tooth.

Christopher just lost his first tooth.

Aw!

"Wow, why would anyone work at McDonalds?"

heh. Good for them! Get those tourist dollars!

Christopher just lost his first tooth.

Wow!

I'm all nostalgic. I knew it was coming, but still. It sounds the final knell on babyhood.

He's so happy and proud, though. I also think he's the only one of the three that didn't freak even slightly (there's usually a little dab of blood, which they have a hard time separating from the idea of injury). The next ought to fall out in a day or two.

They're taking bread out of the mouths of Harvard Square's indigenous Andean pipes-playing people!

Something of a tongue-twister there.

Going back a ways (having skipped like crazy) -

ChiKat, what you described is exactly what happened to me. I had a BIG white spot on my baseline mammogram and they had me come back in six months to check. After the six-month check, they did an ultrasound and said I needed a biopsy (it showed two cysts and something else).

I ended up having to have an excision (surgical) biopsy. I was back to pretty much normal after a week. The results were negative for malignancy.

So check, but don't worry - most of these things turn out to be cysts or something innocuous. That's what these things are for - to catch anything before you're in danger. They also scare you needlessly - really, it's almost certainly a cyst or something you don't need to worry about.