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!