Legos

Legos have become a daily past time in our house. Austin has finally gotten pretty good at putting them together or pulling them apart (they used to be just a source of frustration) and enjoys making all kinds of things. Mommy also is often asked (or told, but we are working on that) to make things...make a pool, make a house, make Austin's bed...pretty much anything he can think of or often having to do with things we have been doing lately.

Usually we make cars, towers, DVD players, couches, outside, flowers...anything that we encounter in daily life. He also has been wanting to make people lately...which usually is 2 or 3 Legos on top of each other, depending on the person's height, with the appropriate top lego for hair color (black for T aiyi, brown for mommy etc). He makes all the people you would expect, all of our family and relatives, friends he plays with, babysitters who come here. Then last week CHris was playing with him and he said "Make Gilpin Shu Shu". Gilpin shu shu? We assume he was referring to our family friend Gilpin Brown, who took family pictures for us in January. But he met him one time and I am pretty sure we had not talked about him or referred to him...but Austin remembered.

He also began differentiating between Carolina blue and Duke blue with the Legos...so we made a "pool" with Carolina blue, but we couldn't use any of the Duke blue for the pool. It has been a good teaching lesson :)

Duke blue vs. Carolina blue

He also has started to get abstract. The other day he said "Make Great is They Faithfulness". Hmmm. I finally made a "G" and an "F" out of Legos to represent it. And then he wanted to make God. It took awhile to (very inadequately I am sure) explain why we don't see God and that He is a Spirit and doesn't have a body. Then he said "make spirits" which I proceeded to try and explain that you don't see a spirit. Then he wanted me to make the fruits of the spirit...so we made some representative fruit for love, joy etc. It is a great exercise in creativity and also a challenge. He still gets frustrated with it at times when he can't get them together or apart the way he want, but it is a great activity.

I got rhythm

This weekend Chris had a music practice at our house for an upcoming concert. This had not happened for awhile and Austin thoroughly enjoyed listening to all the different instruments playing. He also "played" along on his favorite song "Cat" that T aiyi plays on her dulcimer. Chris and I were both amazed at how his rhythm and melody have improved in the past few months. Here he is banging away with his chopsticks- but much more in rhythm than before-notice how he hits the end note so well. They practiced this several times and he got it right every time. I think it is pretty safe to say he has gotten Chris' musical genes.

Duke lost!

Well, we actually have not kept up with our brackets very well, so I don't know who is ahead in the family competition ( though I am pretty sure it's not Austin- Marquette, VCU are out and I am not even sure about Utah). But we DID all enjoy hearing that DOOK lost big time. Chris sent me a text message about the game from the office, which I then shared with Austin. Austin's response to that was "Watch it. Watch Duke lose." When Chris got home from work today, that is what they did (sorry to any Duke fans out there, but we are Tar Heels). This is the three boys below watching highlights from the Duke-Villanova game.

I think I had better get used to this scene -with so many boys in the house this is surely only a preview of what is to come. Even Bennett seemed into it (or at least into moving colors on the screen). I wonder if we will ever have a girl...?

6 months

Bennett is now officially 6 months old- it has really gone by so fast. We went in for his 6 month check up this week. We got a good report on Bennett's head movement this time- the hard work paid off. THe doctor is not worried but still wants to be tracking Bennett's head size, since his head circumference is really off the charts...I'm not too worried though since Austin and Chris also have big heads. I do have to send in to the doctor the circumference of Chris' head though. There is apparently an official formula they can plug in that looks at the parent's head and the child's...it is very genetically linked.

Well, Bennett now weighs in at 8.6 kilos or 18 pounds 15 ounces. The funniest part about this is that I looked back at Austin's chart and discovered that he weighed 8.7 kilos (about 19 pounds) at ONE YEAR! So if Bennett continues this growth pattern he would be twice as big as Austin. I am assuming his growth will slow down here at some point, but it was almost comical.

Chris is back safely, which we are thankful for. All the boys seems a little sick and Bennett still isn't so into sleeping but we are doing fine other than that.

This week

Well, nothing terribly exciting to report on today. I got to go to Ikea with Laura this afternoon and got a shelf for the bathroom. Bennett seems to still either be teething or have Chris' cold...he woke up at 5 am and barely slept ALL DAY. He is thankfully sleeping now but I hope this will last through most of the night.

Chris heads out of town tomorrow through Thursday night, so I will not have the computer or be able to blog. Pray the rest of us stay healthy. By the way, just an FYI- there are lots of cheap flights to China these days. I was looking online recently and there are some great spring and summer deals, so anyone want to come visit? :)

Well, that is it for now, I am excited to head to bed.

Fun with friends

It is fun living in a city that is hub to the rest of the country, because we have more chances to see people who are passing through. I have really enjoyed our friends Matt and Laura being here while they had new baby Isaac. Last night we took them a meal and all ate together- our two families now have a combined 5 children between us. Such a long way from the days we were all single together, just out of college.

Austin really likes Julianna and Lydia and was excited to play with them and I think the feeling is mutual. After dinner Julianna was excited to show off her big sister baby holding skills and the rest of the kids watched.

Here are the boys with Lydia (19 months), Julianna (3) and baby Isaac (6 days old!).

We are doing well, though Chris has a cold and something is bothering Bennett- I am guessing teeth. He has been drooling even more than normal, waking up a lot at night and sleeping very little in the day. He has his sixth month appointment this week, so that should at least help me know that it isn't anything else.

Bracket madness

Well, it is that time of year...but we missed out! We forgot to fill out our brackets for our two online groups (brother-in-law Mark's and our traditional southwest group) before going to bed last night. We had guests for dinner and then got tired...BUT we did fill them out on paper and are having a family rivalry- Chris, me and Austin. The funniest was Austin's bracket. We went through the entire bracket and asked him..."Hey Austin do you want Xavier or Portland State? Do you want Florida State or Wisconsin?" Sometimes we substituted the mascots' names. Most of the time, he always answered the last name we gave. We tried to mix it up or say both names together really fast, but he usually still picked the last one. He did usually go for Huskies or Tigers over something else and the favorite mascot for him was the Golden Eagles (Marquette, which he has in the final). I think that is because there is a Thomas the Tank Engine episode about Thomas finding a golden eagle. He of course picked Carolina as the champion and had Duke losing in round one (he is well-educated, or really smart or indoctrinated, however you want to look at it). Except one time he kept picking the Clemson Tigers over Carolina and we would ask "Are you sure you want Tigers instead of the Carolina Tarheels?" and then he would say "Tarheels!". He also picked VCU to go a long way, because we told him that was where Nana worked. So his final four is Marquette vs. Utah and VCU vs. UNC, with UNC beating the Golden Eagles in the final. If he wins, we will be sad we didn't get online, because I am pretty sure no one else has that final! GO HEELS!

Sitting

Well, Bennett has yet to roll over but he is getting close to sitting up on his own. He definitely needs pillows to prop him up but is getting more stable.

Bye Bye Isaac (and hello Isaac)

Well, Isaac was the theme of our Monday. The first "Isaac" of the day was that Isaac Luther Kvernen was born almost a week early to our good friends Laura and Matt, who are were in town for his birth. We are celebrating with them for a quick delivery and healthy baby boy. I got to visit with Laura in the hospital Monday afternoon and marvel at the gift of new life. I can't believe it was less than 6 months ago Bennett was born in the same hospital. As if Bennett did not already seem big, he seems huge next to a newborn (who weighed more than Bennett at birth - Isaac was 8 lbs 5 oz).

The second Isaac was a goodbye party for our good friends Matt, Goldie, Isaac and Daniel- who left today to return to Australia. It was a very fun, though bittersweet, time to hang out and share memories with our friends. I will miss Goldie lots and Austin will miss Isaac- they had just gotten to the point of really liking to play together. But we hope maybe one day we will make it to Australia to visit and have a place to stay. Here are some pictures from the party. I forgot my camera at the hospital, so you will have to visit Laura's blog to see baby Isaac.

The swing, part 2

You need to read the previous post that goes along with this video. But right after I posted the last entry, Bennett started bouncing like crazy and I captured it on video.


So about 15 minutes after I took this video, Bennett got really quiet and I looked over and saw this precious face. This is now the second time he has fallen asleep in the swing. It unfortunately is impossible to get him out of the swing and stay asleep, but he went right back to sleep in his bed. Maybe this is the way to get him to nap!

The swing

Our neighbors the Shaffars are back after 6 months in America and we are glad! We have gotten to hang out and play some and look forward to more. When we were at their house last week, they had this bouncy swing out and we put Bennett in it while we ate dinner. He LOVED it- he stayed in it for almost an hour and was totally content. He played and figured out how to bounce. So they offered to let us borrow it and we took them up on it. It is nice to now have a place where Bennett can play contentedly but also use up some of his energy- especially using his legs. He has really strong legs and needs an outlet for it.

Austin also likes the swing- both helping Bennett and getting in it himself. He is so funny though. True to his cautious nature, he first got in it but would not lift up his legs to bounce...he was afraid of falling I guess. I tried to get him to lift his legs and he would lift one and then the other, but not both at the same time. Finally the second day we had it he tried it again and he finally started bouncing and swinging. He is so cautious sometimes but also wanting to do things himself. Today on our way outside after church he was up on this low wall and wanted to jump off it "by myself". So he refused any help to get down, but then was too scared to actually jump. He stayed on the wall about 7 minutes before finally compromising by jumping off himself...into Daddy's arms. :) He is so cute though. I don't mind that he is cautious as his mother...though I want to teach him to be (appropriately) brave and self-assured too. Lots of opportunities for that in the future I guess.

Growing up fast

Bennett is growing so fast...not just his size. I realized today that he is only 2 weeks away from being 6 months old! This is a fun age and I need to stop and enjoy it more. He has had some not so fun moments though...he is back to taking only 30 minute naps and wanting to be held or cries. This was sort of a long week...though today he did take a longer nap. I think when he can sit on his own or roll over he will be more content without being held. At least, this is a theory I hope will come true. He gets bored easily in one place and wants to be active, but he doesn't have the skills to go with it. I have heard the voice of my sister Charlotte lately, warning me of the scarring effects of having few pictures of the second child, so I have tried to take some lately.

You may not recognize these pants, but I'm pretty sure Austin wore these until he was almost 18 months old (they are 6-12 month size) and they fit Bennett pretty well now. Amazing how different they are!

He is very social. Bennett will start crying almost immediately if I leave him by himself in a room even for a few minutes. But if anyone looks him in the face and smiles and interacts with him, he is so smiley and happy. Maybe we finally have an extrovert in the family?

He still has not reached the rolling over milestone (I think because he is so big it is hard to roll) but he is working on it. I think it could happen any day now.

All of a sudden he can lift his head more and will look more to the right...I am glad to see our hard work to strengthen his neck is paying off. This only lasted a second, but it is definite improvement!

Here are a few of Bennett's recent noises.

Sunny days...

Well, we had a much better day today. Thank you to all who called and emailed about Austin. He had no fever and no throwing up today. He still had a little upset stomach from the other end this morning, but seems about normal tonight. During his sick day, we watched quite a few videos...a special sick day activity...including "Sesame Street". We have a set of "Old School" Sesame Street videos, yes the ones from the 70's.

So today we went outside and it was a really pretty day with somewhat warmer temperatures. And Austin kept singing, and wanting me to sing, the Sesame Street theme song (you remember, Sunny days, keeping the clouds away...). It was rather appropriate today and we enjoyed the weather. It was also pretty windy though and I think the wind and dust storms of spring here are just around the corner. I don't really like it, I think especially because spring is usually my favorite season, but the wind and dust here make it hard to enjoy spring as much.

We are hoping the stomach bug stops with Austin and doesn't visit anyone else in the family.

The part of parenting they never tell you

Have you ever read a parenting book that spent much time telling you how to clean up throw up? I feel like this is a very necessary skill that parents need, but you don't hear about it much. I know my friend Laura is now an expert at this after last week. Well, I felt like a really HORRIBLE mother today. At 5:45 am I was feeding Bennett and thought I heard a funny sound on the monitor from Austin's room, but it was very brief and followed by silence. Well, at 8 am Austin was still not awake so Chris went in to check on him. He had thrown up sometime in the night (maybe twice) and fallen immediately back asleep I guess. Poor thing, we had to wash his hair, pajamas, sheets, pillow, blue puppy and Kopo animals, etc. It was everywhere.

He did not throw up any more today but did not feel good most of the day and had a slight temperature. We watched a lot of videos and he took a 3 hour nap...which is a record with his latest tendency to not sleep at naptime. He is asleep now and we are hoping this is the end of it. Well, that was my exciting day. No pictures today, I am sure you are glad about that.

Reading, take 4

Ok, I am excited that our internet seems to be working better now and I finally got this little video to post. This is Austin reading to Blue Puppy and Nemo his Curious George's ABC book. He has started reading to his animals...and he usually is pretty close to the actual words in the book. I feel like his imagination is just taking off and he is constantly pretending something or "making" something from Legos or sticks or toys. THe other day all his stuffed animals were out ...it was the zoo. He had a panda, monkeys, a bear and other animals lined up as the zoo. So cute.

Again, sorry for a week of no posts. Chris was gone for a few days with the computer. Then my friend Laura is in town for a month to have baby #3. We saw them this week, but unfortunately her oldest was sick throwing up. Laura was here by herself this week, pregnant with two children. I ended up accompanying her to the ER one night, when Julianna was still throwing up and so dehydrated...and then got behind on sleep. SO, enjoy this video and I am hoping more posts will follow this week.