Jet Lag

Well, the picture says it all, doesn't it? This has been the worst period of jet lag we have ever experienced. I think jet lag with two kids, including a nursing-through-the-night infant is a whole new realm of jet lag altogether. We have now been here a week and Chris and I are still waking up at 2, 4, 5,6 am. And just when you get to sleep, one child wakes up and just when he falls asleep, the next one wakes up and then...its morning. Austin is finally doing better, though waking at 5 am this morning. Bennett also has a cold, which makes sleep difficult. So, here's night seven of hoping for more sleep...but I'm not counting on it. :)

Gran

My Nana (my mother's mother, not to be confused with my mom, whom Austin also calls Nana) came for the week of Thanksgiving, which is a rare treat as she does not usually travel. She wants to be called Gran by her great-grandchildren and Austin is the first. Gran just celebrated her 88th birthday and she still lives alone and is in relatively good health.

Austin immediately warmed up to Gran, who read him books and played endless games of "boo". She also was great at rocking Bennett and is excited to have two blue-eyed great-grandsons like herself, after having mostly brown-eyed grandchildren. We treasure all the times we have together, since they are hard to come by these days.

Back in America

Well, we are now back in the US for the next 6 weeks. It is now 6 am and I have been up for two hours with Austin and Bennett, but I am really thankful Austin slept from 8 pm till 4 am- not bad for our second night here. The flight with two kids went really well- we got bulkhead seats together, which we didn't have all together before getting on the plane. Austin slept the first 5 hours and was awake the rest of the time, but did well. Bennett slept a lot of the flight and we arrived in Richmond on time.

Not much else to report, other than Chris and Bennett are still fighting colds and Austin has already been treated to the much anticipated donuts from both Bop and Nana AND Aunt Char, Aunt Em and Uncle Mark. The spoiling is just beginning. :)

Birthday party

Here are some pictures of the birthday party, which was Sunday afternoon. We had two friends from playgroup (Bree was sick and had to miss it) and our two neighbor families, McDonalds for the kids and of course, the cake.

Here was my attempt to make a (Thomas) train cake - it wasn't all that hard actually.

I think he liked the cake a lot more this year than last year!

Eating lunch- McDonald's chicken nuggets and fries for the kids.

Here are all the kids at the party (except for Bennett, who was sleeping in his bed).

Opening presents - a very fun construction set from Aunt Emmy and Uncle Mark and Legos from Aunt Char and Uncle John. All the kids were excited about it.

Well, this is the second time I attempted to upload a big video and when it was almost uploaded, it quit (after like 2 hours). So, I don't have time to do it again now, but maybe tomorrow.

Birthday #1

We had a lot of birthday celebration this weekend. Here are some pictures from November 14, the actual birthday. More to come from the party.

We started the day with two presents before breakfast...a bike from Mom and Dad and a Thomas train set from Nana and Bop. When he first got up, he went straight for the Thomas gift bag and only quite a few minutes later noticed the tricycle.





We ended the day at- where else- McDonalds. I think Austin enjoyed it, but he was actually SO tired at that point. He had gone several days not napping (even after staying in bed for two hours) and was almost falling asleep at McDonalds at 5:00. We had some cake (he got two cakes- it was what he was most excited about for his birthday) and he was in bed by 6:30. He slept till almost 8 the next day and took a three hour nap Saturday, making up for lost sleep.

Smile

Nothing is more precious than a baby's smile. Bennett has started to smile this week- he will lock in with eye contact a little more now and is just starting to have these cute little smiles. We still at first were wondering- is he really smiling? But now I am pretty sure he is. We have not gotten a full smile on the camera yet, but this is the start of one.



We also put Bennett in the big bathtub with Austin and Chris for the first time the other night. Bennett loved it - he was so content, but Austin was not so sure he wanted to share his special bath/Daddy time with Bennett. Fortunately for Austin, Bennett doesn't need too many baths at this point but I sure hope one day they love playing in the bath together.

Almost two

Austin's birthday is in less than two weeks and boy is he excited. Today at church we moved him up into the two year old class. I was a little nervous, because he has a very bad association with the nursery and usually is crying when we are still blocks away from the church building. But we had not been in a month since Bennett's birth and he didn't get as upset on the way. We talked up the "big kids class"- you get a snack, get to color and sing songs! He did really well- he cried just a little as a left but the teachers said he did fine after that. I think he is ready for the structure in the class. He seemed so big picking him up from class with the picture he drew...like he had been to school.

Austin knows his birthday is coming and almost every day asks for cake and candles...and gets the same answer, "when it's your birthday you can have cake". If you ask him how old he is now he will say "almost two". He also can understand and respond to that question in Chinese. He also knows that his birthday is in November, though I am sure he has no idea what November means, or month or any real concept of a year. But in our Richard Scarry book, Lowly Worm's birthday is in November too, so it was made memorable. It is hard to believe he is almost two.

Bennett is doing well, other than really not liking the Indian food I had for lunch. He has been fussy all afternoon and evening. I guess I should have known better, but I avoided the spicy dishes. Austin on the other hand loved it and ate a ton.

Sorry for the slow blog week. I had a pretty tired week and Chris has been gone long days with the computer lately, so my blog times are few and far between.