A Beehive State of Mind

We've been really bogged down with the reality of a big move coming very soon. We still have to sell a ton of junk, throw away a ton of junk, box up a ton of junk, and clean the junk off of the floors, among other things. It's stressful. But we've been disciplined and very rational about the whole thing. We're very serious around here. So, we've decided that since we have so much to do in so little time, the best and most rational thing to do is

take a two-week vacation to Utah and arrive back to home on the day before we have to load the moving truck. 

I think it's smart for several reasons:

1) If you can't see it, you don't have to pack it.

2) There's a chance the apartment could be robbed, leaving us with nothing to pack.

3) The kids haven't seen their maternal grandparents in over a month.

4) Annika turns 2 in August, so we had to get one last flight where we get to hold on to her with all our might while she struggles to run down the aisle flinging off her clothes and diaper and screaming for freedom.

Anyway, from our standpoint, it's a sound decision. The trip promises to be full of mystery and intrigue (our first visit to Christina's parents' new place AND Casey's studio), bloating (we're going to the cupcake store, probably more than once), and wonder (A new temple is opening, and we are excited to go). So, to our reader(s), if you live in the Provo area and you are aching for a visit from the us, you're in luck. Jonathan is bringing his disc golf discs, hoping to convince his brothers-in-law to give up the clubs and grab the frisbees, thereby scoring one for the proletariat.

If you are a burglar, however, we are indeed NOT leaving. We will be here the entire time. Just us, our kids, and our pitbulls. And the cops who live next door.* 

*Disclaimer: no individual or family with an actual job would ever live at The Village. As for the pitbulls, Mr. Burglar, you need to decide how badly you want our 2nd edition of Trivial Pursuit and our dishes from Kmart. Is it really worth the risk?

P.S. Check out The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick. It's one of the best books ever! Seriously.

p.p.s. We randomly drew the winner of our contest several weeks ago. Congratulations, Kayli, you've won yourself a (slightly toxic) family adventure game! There's (virtually) no lead in the game at all! Plus, it was taken off the market, so it's a collector's item! 

A Haircut for Ezra

Ezra got his first professional haircut today. He did great! He listened very well and really seemed to enjoy it. The place we took him specializes in kids haircuts. He got to sit in a plane seat and received a balloon and a free ice cream afterward. What a lucky boy! Here's a before, during, and after:

Our budding Picasso...

Our Thanksgiving List

Happy Thanksgiving! We hope everyone is having a great holiday!  We thought we would spend a minute to record some of the things we are thankful for this year. We have to keep it short because it is noon and we haven't even started cooking!  We miss all of our family and friends far away and wish you a happy day and a full belly.

Jonathan and Christina are thankful for six wonderful years together. 

They are thankful for two adorable and hilarious kids--precious joys who light up their lives!

They are thankful for a (finally) completed dissertation. Hooray!

And Christina is particularly thankful for a washer and dryer. After living without one for 10 years, she promises never to take it for granted again!

When we asked Ezra what he is thankful for, this is what he said: 

His dad...

His mommy...

Annika, his best friend...

Lions ("ROAR!")...

Milk...

and Jesus.

Annika is thankful for (as far as we can guess):

Things she can climb on.

Goodnight Moon. Which happens to be the one and only book she likes.

Milk. Lots and lots of milk.

Her best bud Ezra. These two give each other near constant entertainment.

ELMO!! Annika can spot an Elmo from miles away. She doesn't say a lot of words, but she never misses an opportunity to yell out "Eh-mol" whenever she sees him. 

Happy day.

Tonight we went to the pine wood derby/chili cook-off activity at church. It didn't start off very well. Annika was holding Ezra's car and dropped it. The wheel broke off and the axle (is that what you call a little metal pin on a piece of wood??) broke. We never could find the piece that holds the wheel on (the hub cap??) although when we raced it later it was fine...just super slow. Then we sat down to eat and Annika threw up her dinner all over Jon who then had to take her home to change. That was soooo embarrassing, especially since none of the people sitting directly across from us had children and we're (I'm guessing) not used to that sort of thing. I think they were probably so grossed out! I doubt they ate much after that. So Jon and Annika went home while I scrubbed the floor and apologized profusely. 

Then, mercifully, the races started. You should have seen how much fun Ezra had racing his car! He was thrilled to have a car this year that he could show people and put on the track. He was so mad last year that he couldn't play with any of those cool cars. He had so much fun and didn't care at all that he came in dead last- out of everyone! (I didn't feel the need to mention that part to him, and I love that he doesn't even know what that means yet anyway.) Two is such a great age, I really love it! Ezra was so excited to be able to be like the big kids and put his car up on the track. And he even received an award! He was awarded "The most artistic car." I credit Jonathan and say "Bravo" since this is the first thing I have ever seen him make in the entire time I've known him. He is usually not into that type of stuff. I've been trying to get him to take up a hobby for quite some time now but he hasn't been able to think of anything he was interested in doing. When it came time for the derby though he decided to make a car because he knew how happy it would make Ezra. I am very proud of him and I think he has found his hobby too... whittling wood!

In other news, Ezra has made both Jonathan and I very happy this week. He decided it was time to be potty trained. He started three days ago and he just sort of got it. Only one accident in two days (not counting nighttime). We are so proud of him and so happy we can now save some money on diapers! Why did I ever stress about that?

We can't believe our kids. Ezra is potty trained and Annika is walking all around. Why are they growing up so fast??

Ezra's Race Car!

Last October, we attended the pinewood derby/chili cookout at church and had a great time. The pinewood derby was the event of the night--and Ezra was really excited to watch the cars race. After a bit, he really wanted to race the cars himself. Since, of course, we did not make a pinewood derby car, Ezra couldn't race. He was really, really sad--so I told him we would make a really cool pinewood derby car for the next year and race it at church. Ezra was excited. 

After a few ideas, Ezra and I decided we would make a banana car with a spot to put his monkey in as the driver. Christina got me some woodcarving tools for my birthday, and I spent a few days whittling the shape of a banana out of the block of wood. Ezra and I finished painting everything today. Since I usually don't like to build things, it was an accomplishment for me. I really enjoyed making it and plan to make bigger and better things in the future. 

Ezra is really excited to race his car. We're going to race it this Friday, and we can't wait. We added some pictures to this post so you can take a look. Wish us luck!

Catch Up

Well, it's been awhile since we have posted but we lost our internet for awhile and then I was just lazy after that. I don't even know what we have been up to except that Jonathan has been busily applying to jobs for next year. It is quite exciting and we have found a couple of places that we would really love to live, so I have my fingers crossed. 

I did find some cute pictures on my camera from the past couple of weeks so here are some highlights:

Annika has been practicing her walking skills. She was particularly good with this walker type toy. I say was because it has now disappeared from the yard. Oh well. She isn't walking on her own yet, but she is very close. I'm not too anxious for her to walk though because I know when she does she will be off and I'll never catch her!

One day we got out the bubble machine and played in the yard with it. It was quite the hit with all the neighborhood kids too. Everyone came over and played. It was a lot of fun.

I thought this was a funny sight. All the preschoolers hanging out on their bikes! What a bunch of cuties. 
All last week Ezra was soooo excited to go see Horton hears a who at the movie theatre. It was a free matinee and by the time Jonathan had gotten there to get tickets they were all gone. When Jonathan told him they couldn't go see the movie Ezra was so upset! He cried all the way home. He was still crying when he came in to see me. He really wanted to watch his show and eat popcorn. I tried to console him and tell him I understood how hard it is to be disappointed. It broke my heart to see him so upset. He usually doesn't get that way. Well anyway, Jonathan rented a movie and got the kids some popcorn. It wasn't quite the same, but Ezra didn't seem to mind so much. The movie was a Halloween special with Barney and Bob the Builder, so I think that took some of the sting off of Ezra's disappointment. I told Jonathan he should have found a few kids and paid them 20 bucks for their tickets, but he didn't think of that. I guess it worked out okay in the end--the kids got to sit together on Annika's favorite couch, enjoy a little show, and eat a TON of popcorn. And they did it without throwing a fit or fighting with each other, which was nice. 
Well, that's all for now. We hope we still have readers who will check in once in a while. We vow not to take such an extended vacation between future posts!

Potty Training

This is what I've been up lately. Well, this and cleaning up a lot of messes! We're getting there, so wish me luck! The other little boy in this picture is Dylan (who is also in the process of learning to use the potty). They are both doing pretty good! 

"Uh-Oh!"

As Annika rapidly approaches the one-year mark (only 11 days left to go!) we have marveled at the ways in which she appears less like a baby every day. We've heard her say a few words, for instance, but were never really able to reproduce them. Tonight, she said the first "official" word: "uh-oh." She repeated it countless times, clear as a bell, and seemed to really get a kick out of all of us (Ezra included) laughing and telling her to do it again. It was a real milestone. Of course, we're not entirely sure what to think about the fact that her first word was "uh-oh" since we rarely say it around the house; we hope, at least, that this does not foreshadow a clumsy or otherwise accident-prone child!

It also reminds us of that time, not so long ago(!) when Ezra said his first word. Of course, we were also worried about his word...which was, of course, "Ezra." What kid says their own name as their first word? What kind of narcissist were were raising? 

Anyway, it reminds me of something the linguist Steven Pinker said in his book "How the Mind Works." To paraphrase: we spend our lives worshiping the achievements of Shakespeare, or Darwin, Freud, Dickens, or countless others, for their ingenuity, perseverance, genius. But nothing they could ever do compares in the least to the average child's growth between the ages of zero and two. 

It's really true--to think that just one year ago, Annika was born without a clue how to identify the world around her or what to make of existence, and now, just a year later, she's mastered so many big parts of life. And speech is probably the greatest advance any child can make. It's extraordinary. 

Congrats, Annika!

(Oh, and by the way, here are some great pictures Christina's friend Kayli took of Annika when she was a wee little one. How cute!) 

The Fort

As many people may know, Christina's parents have moved from Wyoming to Utah. When Christina was in Wyoming helping her parents pack their stuff, she really wanted to find the little fort she and her brother Alan received as a Christmas gift when Christina was about 5 years old. Christina's mother and grandmother made the fort themselves, and Christina wanted to make sure Ezra and Annika could play with it. Unfortunately, nobody could find the fort when they were packing.

Luckily, we got a surprise package a few days ago from Christina's mom that had the fort inside. We immediately went to the store and bought a card table. Unfortunately, however, the card table (like everything else in America) got bigger over the past 20 years or so. So Christina spent the past few days taking the fort apart, sewing on an expansion, and making sure everything fits just right. She just finished tonight and Ezra and Annika will be so excited when the morning comes and they can play in their new fort!

ICE CREAM TEST RESULTS:

Christina :

You are passionate, creative, and inspired. Black raspberry ice cream is an unusual color and flavor, so some people might consider it strange, but your exciting personality is what makes you so delicious. You bring a juicy burst of flavor to everything you do, and your life is packed with one memorable experience after another.

3% of the people who took this quiz got the same evaluation.

Jonathan:

You're as popular and relaxing as vanilla ice cream. You go with the flow, and get along with all sorts of people. You appreciate peace and simplicity, so you sometimes find crowds and loud noises overwhelming. You are a chilled-out, calming influence on the people in your life, and your friends appreciate how supportive and flexible you are. 

32% of the people who took this quiz got the same evaluation.

All of this "ice cream personality" stuff really makes me want to have some ice cream... is there anyone out there who has an ice cream maker we could borrow? We're going to try some black raspberry ice cream--it sounds interesting!

Ezra's Creative Side Showing!

Lately, Ezra's creativity has gone through a bit of an explosion. This can be good--he's learning to make things himself and having fun imagining different worlds and trying to mimick what Mom and Dad do. For instance, he often says "I'm going to work. Love you. See you later" and he packs a backpack and walks into the living room. After a while, he comes back and says "I'm home" and explains that he plays with Dad and Dustin (our neighbor who is also a grad student) at work all day. Of course, it can also be very amusing, as Ezra has really fancied "made up conversations" lately in order to get what he wants. He will say something like, "Annika told mommy 'I don't want to go to the playground I need a nap' and mommy say 'you go time-out' yesterday. She said that. Annika did" or something to that effect. Or he will say that mommy gives him cookies in order to try to get dad to give him cookies. The more frightening made up stories include: "Annika punched my face and pushed me into the ground. She did that yesterday" and variations on that general theme. 

Anyway, so these are some of the more interesting bits of creativity Ezra explored in recent days. 

When Ezra wants to wear sunglasses, he always gathers all the glasses he can find in order to try to balance them on his face. Here he actually managed to put three pairs of sunglasses on his face at the same time! He was pretty proud of himself!

Usually when Ezra is completely quiet for 30 minutes or so one prepares for a disaster of sorts. On this day, however, he cleaned all the toys in his room so that he could play with his blocks. He got the blocks and a while later called for Dad to enter the room and see what he made. When Dad came in Ezra said, "Daddy, look at my airplane. See it? It goes high in the sky to Grandma's house!" If you look at it, it is really a pretty good rendition of an airplane. And, of course, all airplanes go straight to grandma's house!

"Go to bed!"

In the 2 1/2 years that we have been parents we have used a lot of tactics to get our kids to go to sleep. At times, we have found ourselves stooping pretty low--lower than we ever thought we would as parents. Here are the top ten tactics we've used to get them to go to sleep: 

6. "Lay down on your bed or your Thomas the train pillow goes in the garbage forever." (This tactic works best when you have the trash receptacle in your free hand with Thomas dangerously close to the brim). I think we've only used this once, and it was awfully late, if that's any excuse. 

5. "If you don't go to bed, mom will email Santa and tell him how naughty you've been. Then you won't get any toys. Is that something you want?" (Just used this one for the first time tonight. Thus far, mixed results.)

4. "If you don't go to sleep, daddy can't get the sleep he needs to finish his dissertation and we'll be stuck in West Lafayette forever. You don't want to be a Hoosier forever--trust us." Ezra and Annika are too young to understand the ramifications involved in this threat. 

3. For about 3 months, Ezra would not go to sleep until one of us (usually dad) made a bed on the floor of Ezra's room where dad would lay down and pretend to fall asleep, while Ezra rolled around for a while before falling asleep.  By this time, dad usually fell asleep as well. These months are what we call "rock bottom." 

2. Last summer, we would take Ezra for drives since that was the only thing we could do to get him to go to sleep. We would get in the car, and he would ask to see the horse statue on campus for about 30 minutes, then settle down a little and fall asleep. It was a blast, as you can imagine. Of course, current gas prices impede us from continuing this method. 

1. Recently, we have taken to walks to get them to fall asleep. As previously mentioned, Annika requires anywhere from 1 to 3 walks per night (the first usually around 8, then 10, then perhaps midnight) while Ezra will usually fall asleep on the first walk if he didn't nap earlier in the day. If he napped, even for 3 minutes, there is no way he's going to bed until at least 10. He has an excuse arsenal that includes: "my leg hurts," "my ear hurts," "there's a tiger in my room," "I'm scared," "Annika is in the living room, I want to go in there," "I'm hungry for treats," "I want milk," "I want water," "I want to read more stories," and, if all else fails, the cry that wakes Annika and sends the apartment into a frenzy. That's our favorite. 

For those who expressed jealousy that we got the kids to sleep at 7:30 a few nights ago, there are a few things we neglected to mention: 1) it was a total fluke and 2) Annika woke up 20 minutes later, and didn't go back to sleep until 11:30. Clearly, we have no idea what we are doing in this department. If anyone cares to share their tips, warnings, horror stories, etc., we would love to hear them!

Annika at Eleven Months!

As promised, here are some pictures of Annika at eleven months...

It's really hard for us to believe, but our little bundle of joy is getting awfully close to being a year old! Yesterday was Annika's eleven month birthday, and we can't believe how she's grown. I took some pictures of Annika to post on the blog, but Christina deemed them "atrocious" so we will have to wait until a later date to add pictures. Nonetheless, here is the text-only celebration of Annika at eleven months: 

-She loves to talk. All of the time. She has a high-pitched squeal that is really her favorite mode of communication. She does it when she's happy, sad, angry, content, bored, interested--really any time she can. It is unbelievably loud--like we would imagine a baby stegosaurus would sound. As far as regular words go, she will mimic pretty much anything you say, but she doesn't know what the words mean. We're pretty sure she knows what "daddy" and possibly "Ezra" (pronounced "er-uh") mean. Beyond that, we're not entirely sure what she is saying. 

-She blew a kiss the other night, which was a first. We were trying to get her to go back to bed (on the day we posted that they were asleep at 7:30, she woke up around 8:30 and stayed up until just past 11:00) and she clearly had other plans. Instead of being a grouch, she simply put her hand up to her lips and blew both of us the sweetest little kisses. Of course we let her stay up another 1.5 hours afterward, trying to get more kisses blown our way. It never worked, but she knows what she's doing. 

-She is an unbelievable eater. Ezra wasn't super picky, but he mostly liked to eat vegetables by themselves, usually cold, and any kind of fresh fruit. He didn't really like junk food and is only now venturing as far as to try a sandwich. So, when we started feeding Annika food, we were totally unprepared. She will eat ANYTHING. Vegetables, fruits, meat, cheese, carpet pieces, toys, pasta--to this point we've determined only two things she does not like: french toast and tapioca pudding. She's the best eater ever. We just put the food in front of her and let her do her thing. 

-She no longer likes to sit on the floor. Every time we sit her down she finds the nearest prop so she can stand up. She won't even sit in the bathtub anymore. She wants to walk so badly but she doesn't have the leg strength yet. Every time she stands up on something she's so proud of herself. 

-She remains the cutest 11 month old on the planet. Some of you may know (or even have) other 11 month old babies, but Annika is certainly the cutest. She still has blue eyes and she has the cutest little smile. Just adorable!

-She displays uncanny patience--mostly with Ezra. His latest game is to grab some toys, go up to Annika, and say "Hey Annika, you want to play with these?" and then hand them to her. She reaches for them, and Ezra yanks them away, saying "You can't play with those. You're too little." He must think this is the best game on earth (it is a game that allows him to boss someone around, something he happens to enjoy a great deal) but Annika usually just laughs it off. Of course, when she's had enough, she knows how to pull hair to settle the score. 

-She loves music. Anytime she hears music she starts bouncing around like crazy. It's hilarious to watch!

-She likes books a lot more than she used to. She has a particular fondness for books with the faces of other babies on them. She likes to try to poke their eyes out. We can usually sit and read 5 or 6 books before she's had enough, which is pretty good. 

-She loves to go for walks in the stroller to fall asleep. She'll generally fall asleep during the first nightly walk at around 8 o'clock but sometimes will wake up again, making walk number 2 a necessity, usually around 11 or so. She loves to look around at everything and then just collapse backward, falling right asleep. 

-She's a blast to be around, has a hilarious sense of humor, and is more or less the perfect little girl. She's just perfect and we love her so much!!!

Wagon ride

Yesterday we borrowed Dylan's wagon and took the kids for a ride in it. Thanks Dylan, they loved it! It is so much fun for us to do little things like that for them because they really appreciate it. They display this innocent happiness or jubilation that is hard to replicate when you are older. I guess that's why we have kids, to remind us of all the little joys in life. Bigger, newer, faster is not always better and in most cases it is usually just more headache than happy. We love that our kids remind us to be grateful for the things we have and most especially-for them! (I'm a little more in love with them than usual tonight because they both went to bed at 7:30!! Hurray!)