Sunday, July 12, 2009
Siamese Twins!
I got a new Macbook a few weeks ago. This evening we had some time to spare and so we played with the built in camera and an app called Photo Booth (or something like that). We got some cute pictures of the baby and then had fun with the effects. Enjoy!
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
How to Know You're Tired
1. Yesterday I couldn't remember the baby's name for a moment. It wasn't like I was accidentally calling him by my husband's or other child's name; I just drew a blank. The name Noah was coming to mind, but I knew that wasn't right. It probably took me two, maybe even three seconds to come up with "Liam" as I was literally asking myself, "What is his name?" That's actually a long time if you think about it (Mississippi one, Mississippi two...)!
2. Sometime during the first week after the baby was born, I was on my couch feeding him in the middle of the night, when I was startled to see a bat on my ceiling! Wait, that's the fire sprinkler. But apparently he brought his friend, because I saw another bat on the kitchen ceiling just 30 minutes later!
3. This happened to Jeremy when child #1 was a baby. He was up to feed him in the middle of the night. He had a bottle in one hand and a screaming baby in the other, but just could not figure out what he was supposed to do next. He cannot even remember how he finally got that bottle into the baby's mouth, though he thinks it may have been my Mother grabbing his hands and showing him what to do. Wow.
2. Sometime during the first week after the baby was born, I was on my couch feeding him in the middle of the night, when I was startled to see a bat on my ceiling! Wait, that's the fire sprinkler. But apparently he brought his friend, because I saw another bat on the kitchen ceiling just 30 minutes later!
3. This happened to Jeremy when child #1 was a baby. He was up to feed him in the middle of the night. He had a bottle in one hand and a screaming baby in the other, but just could not figure out what he was supposed to do next. He cannot even remember how he finally got that bottle into the baby's mouth, though he thinks it may have been my Mother grabbing his hands and showing him what to do. Wow.
Reply and tell us your story!
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Happy Mothers' Day
Today Heather got to pose with two kids for Mother's day instead of just one! I spent a while this morning digging through bags of #1's old baby clothes to find this exact onesie for the baby to wear today. Almost exactly five years ago, we went to a baby store at the mall with the express purpose of buying an outfit for #1 to wear on Mother's day. Since #2 is almost precisely the same size #1 was 5 years ago, the clothes fit him great (no need to buy a different size!).
While he doesn't have a shirt that says "I luv my mommy" anymore, he can give Mommy presents for Mothers' Day now. In this picture, you'll see a picture taken at preschool (he's holding it), a card he made (the pink one in the middle), a box filled with love from him (Heather's holding it), and a bag filled with coupons for his time (on Heather's lap). (Aside: I'm jealous that preschool will be out of session when Fathers' day rolls around. I probably won't get any stuff that cool.)Even though we never take any pictures together any more (one of us is always holding the camera), I love Heather, too! She's so good to our kids. She's so good to me. Even when she's exhausted from all that she's had to do that day, she is still able to smile at my lame jokes. (Okay, sometimes she can't pull that off.) She's my kind, loving wife and I'm so glad that she's the mother of our home!
A bit of showing off
Much to Heather's chagrin, I really enjoyed balancing child #1 on my hand when he was a tiny baby. She simply didn't understand that while I held him by the butt/diaper, my father used to hold us by our feet! However, it appears that she now appreciates it, because she requested that I do it for some pictures of the baby. We have hopes of making a cool animation out of some of this, but in the mean time, we figure we can just post some of the cooler pictures.
Had I known that Heather was including me in the photos, I probably wouldn't have made such funny faces.
Had I known that Heather was including me in the photos, I probably wouldn't have made such funny faces.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Preschool fun!
Even though we have a really cute new baby, we still decided to keep our first. I figured, since he's still our kid, I should write a blog post about him.
He has been going to preschool at a Methodist church near our house. There's been an interesting mix of kid time and religious time. It's been interesting to see what new habits he has acquired because of the differences between Methodist and Mormon customs.
The first change was when he informed us that Miss Cindy (one of his teachers) doesn't fold her arms -- she puts her hands together to pray. As he seems to always doubt our intelligence, but firmly believes his teachers to be infallible (more on this later), he decided he would do that for some time whenever we pray.
Then there was his's first song. He's gone to Primary at our church for years where they have singing time. However, he never had much interest in learning the words or the music. He had stage fright the one time he went up with the Primary to sing in Sacrament meeting. We just figured he'd grow into it. Well, at his preschool, they pushed singing a lot harder (or better (or both)). He finally decided about halfway through the year that he liked singing. The following was the song that he sang continually for several weeks:
Oh the Lord's been good to me,
And so I'll thank the Lord
For giving me
The things I need:
The sun, and the rain, and the apple seed.
The Lord's been good to me!
He called it the "Johnny Appleseed Song" (because it talks about apple seeds partway through). I just decided to look up the words on the internet, and found the following page which gives some slightly different lyrics (http://www.ultimatecampresource.com/site/camp-activity/the-lord-is-good-to-me.html). Since that page says "apple tree" instead, I'm inclined to believe that he attached Johnny Appleseed to the song after mixing up the words.
It's been quite nice because since that song, he is willing to learn the words to all kinds of songs. A wonderful change: He used to scream at me if I sang along with songs on TV (The Wiggles) or the radio (my music).
About teachers versus parents: It'll be interesting going forward to see how we're able to handle this. He is absolutely convinced that everything his teachers say is absolute truth. It's actually a bit worse than that, because he's convinced that his memory of what his teachers said is absolute truth. It's a fairly common occurrence for Heather or I to say something and have him respond with "But my teacher said XXXX". It's particularly fun when his memory of what his teacher said is obviously false. I'm sure this is just the beginning of many years of him informing us that we've always been wrong because his teacher told him differently.
During the week before Easter, they talked a lot about Christ's death on the cross and the empty tomb. I really liked the crafts that he came home with that week -- especially a coloring page with a rock that could roll away to show a tomb with just an angel in it (the rock was a brown construction-paper circle connected to the picture with a brad).
They also gave him a little cross that says "God is Love" which he decided was for the baby. He really took that cross to heart as evidenced by some little things he's done. For instance, he had two pieces of blue painter's tape (we always have some of that because we're never done painting walls). He decided he had to put them somewhere, so he put them on the back door of our house and informed us that it is "the cross of Jesus".
All said, I'm really glad that he has been able to go to preschool this past year. I'm sure he's far more ready for kindergarten next year (7:30-2:30!) because of his time in preschool. Because of his teacher's infallibility, they've been able to get him to work on sitting still (something he never listens to me about) and several other important public school things.
Now we just need to find a way to survive the three months this summer where he doesn't go to any school at all...
He has been going to preschool at a Methodist church near our house. There's been an interesting mix of kid time and religious time. It's been interesting to see what new habits he has acquired because of the differences between Methodist and Mormon customs.
The first change was when he informed us that Miss Cindy (one of his teachers) doesn't fold her arms -- she puts her hands together to pray. As he seems to always doubt our intelligence, but firmly believes his teachers to be infallible (more on this later), he decided he would do that for some time whenever we pray.
Then there was his's first song. He's gone to Primary at our church for years where they have singing time. However, he never had much interest in learning the words or the music. He had stage fright the one time he went up with the Primary to sing in Sacrament meeting. We just figured he'd grow into it. Well, at his preschool, they pushed singing a lot harder (or better (or both)). He finally decided about halfway through the year that he liked singing. The following was the song that he sang continually for several weeks:
Oh the Lord's been good to me,
And so I'll thank the Lord
For giving me
The things I need:
The sun, and the rain, and the apple seed.
The Lord's been good to me!
He called it the "Johnny Appleseed Song" (because it talks about apple seeds partway through). I just decided to look up the words on the internet, and found the following page which gives some slightly different lyrics (http://www.ultimatecampresource.com/site/camp-activity/the-lord-is-good-to-me.html). Since that page says "apple tree" instead, I'm inclined to believe that he attached Johnny Appleseed to the song after mixing up the words.
It's been quite nice because since that song, he is willing to learn the words to all kinds of songs. A wonderful change: He used to scream at me if I sang along with songs on TV (The Wiggles) or the radio (my music).
About teachers versus parents: It'll be interesting going forward to see how we're able to handle this. He is absolutely convinced that everything his teachers say is absolute truth. It's actually a bit worse than that, because he's convinced that his memory of what his teachers said is absolute truth. It's a fairly common occurrence for Heather or I to say something and have him respond with "But my teacher said XXXX". It's particularly fun when his memory of what his teacher said is obviously false. I'm sure this is just the beginning of many years of him informing us that we've always been wrong because his teacher told him differently.
During the week before Easter, they talked a lot about Christ's death on the cross and the empty tomb. I really liked the crafts that he came home with that week -- especially a coloring page with a rock that could roll away to show a tomb with just an angel in it (the rock was a brown construction-paper circle connected to the picture with a brad).
They also gave him a little cross that says "God is Love" which he decided was for the baby. He really took that cross to heart as evidenced by some little things he's done. For instance, he had two pieces of blue painter's tape (we always have some of that because we're never done painting walls). He decided he had to put them somewhere, so he put them on the back door of our house and informed us that it is "the cross of Jesus".
All said, I'm really glad that he has been able to go to preschool this past year. I'm sure he's far more ready for kindergarten next year (7:30-2:30!) because of his time in preschool. Because of his teacher's infallibility, they've been able to get him to work on sitting still (something he never listens to me about) and several other important public school things.
Now we just need to find a way to survive the three months this summer where he doesn't go to any school at all...
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Look What the Easter Bunny Brought!
This little bundle was exactly two weeks old on Easter Sunday. Amidst the weariness and chaos of the day, I managed a spark of creativity and Jeremy and I set this picture up. I personally think my baby is adorable. You should too.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Liam Jesse Wendt has entered the building
Sorry it's been a long while since a new post. We've been busy with a million things, and exhausted because of all of the extra work required to prepare for a baby.
That said... We now have a new baby!
Liam Jesse Wendt was born Sunday, 29 March 2009 at 10:57PM. He was 7 lbs, 7 oz and 20 inches long.
It seems most people want the entire story...
Friday-to-Saturday night, Heather woke up with contractions around 2AM. She had been having Braxton-Hicks contractions (small contractions that are common) continually for weeks; these were something far stronger -- and very painful. After a somewhat sleepless night (we were both pretty anxious to have the baby) of consistent 15 minute contractions, the contractions went away at 10AM.
Saturday-to-Sunday night, Heather woke up with contractions around 12:15AM. They were stronger than Braxton-Hicks again. They were again 15 minutes apart. We were again somewhat excited -- although a bit more tempered by exhaustion and unfulfilled expectations from the night before.
However, the contractions did not go away that morning. So at noon, we shipped John off to a friend's house, Heather got a blessing, and we timed the contractions for real. We knew to look for 5 minutes apart. We were surprised to see that they were often closer than that. So, we went to the hospital. At that point, they immediately became less frequent. Heather wasn't dilated at all. They sent us home.
We were pretty frustrated and tired at this point. Heather stayed home to sleep some more. I went to church to pick up John and give Heather some peace and quiet.
After church, the contractions had continued, but were still around 10 minutes apart. John and I played outside much of the remaining part of the afternoon so that Heather could have a quiet home. At 6:00PM, we realized these contractions were getting closer together, stronger, etc., so we found accommodations for John for the night -- expecting to have a late night and early morning at the hospital.
At 7:30, with John now at a friend's house to sleep -- with a way to school in the morning, I sat down to time contractions. We had received strict instructions not to come in until we had more than 1 hour's worth of contractions approximately 5 minutes apart. Between 7:30 and 8:30, Heather paced around our little island in our kitchen, stopping every 3-4 minutes to moan in pain.
I called the hospital to tell them how things were progressing. They were leery about sending us home again so they told Heather to take a hot shower and not come in unless they were still that close together at 9:30. At 9:10, the contractions were as close together as ever (and perhaps closer). We got Heather out of the shower and drove -- slowly -- to the hospital.
They wheeled Heather up to Labor and Delivery while I went to park the car. I got to the triage room only moments after Heather had (they had wheeled her quite slowly). The midwife arrived in the room and immediately told us we were going across the hall to the delivery room. It had been a productive afternoon: Heather was at 6cm.
Heather was hopeful that they could get an anesthesiologist in quickly. However, she was ready to push by the time the nurse had put in her IV -- before any anesthesiologist could arrive. (FOOTNOTE: Heather wins for the best quote: As she was pushing, she yelled, "I DIDN'T WANT A NATURAL LABOR!") She was fully dilated within 30 minutes of arriving, even though her water still hadn't broken. The midwife took care of that pretty easily.
Heather pushed like a trooper, and our little Liam arrived 45 minutes later: His head and body arriving at once in one strong push.
We are both so thrilled with our new baby. We had been quite concerned after all of the complications involved with John's birth that this one would be a repeat (John was induced a full month early because Heather experienced HELLP -- a deadly form of preeclampsia). We prayed fervently that this baby's pregnancy and birth would be far more "normal". We are so grateful that Heavenly Father answered our prayers with a "yes".
His name reflects our experience. "Liam" means "protection" (see http://babynamesworld.parentsconnect.com/meaning_of_Liam.html) and "Jesse" means "gift" (see http://babynamesworld.parentsconnect.com/meaning_of_Jesse.html). We are all so thrilled with our protected gift: Liam Jesse.
(Admittedly, we're pretty tired, too).
That said... We now have a new baby!
Liam Jesse Wendt was born Sunday, 29 March 2009 at 10:57PM. He was 7 lbs, 7 oz and 20 inches long.
It seems most people want the entire story...
Friday-to-Saturday night, Heather woke up with contractions around 2AM. She had been having Braxton-Hicks contractions (small contractions that are common) continually for weeks; these were something far stronger -- and very painful. After a somewhat sleepless night (we were both pretty anxious to have the baby) of consistent 15 minute contractions, the contractions went away at 10AM.
Saturday-to-Sunday night, Heather woke up with contractions around 12:15AM. They were stronger than Braxton-Hicks again. They were again 15 minutes apart. We were again somewhat excited -- although a bit more tempered by exhaustion and unfulfilled expectations from the night before.
However, the contractions did not go away that morning. So at noon, we shipped John off to a friend's house, Heather got a blessing, and we timed the contractions for real. We knew to look for 5 minutes apart. We were surprised to see that they were often closer than that. So, we went to the hospital. At that point, they immediately became less frequent. Heather wasn't dilated at all. They sent us home.
We were pretty frustrated and tired at this point. Heather stayed home to sleep some more. I went to church to pick up John and give Heather some peace and quiet.
After church, the contractions had continued, but were still around 10 minutes apart. John and I played outside much of the remaining part of the afternoon so that Heather could have a quiet home. At 6:00PM, we realized these contractions were getting closer together, stronger, etc., so we found accommodations for John for the night -- expecting to have a late night and early morning at the hospital.
At 7:30, with John now at a friend's house to sleep -- with a way to school in the morning, I sat down to time contractions. We had received strict instructions not to come in until we had more than 1 hour's worth of contractions approximately 5 minutes apart. Between 7:30 and 8:30, Heather paced around our little island in our kitchen, stopping every 3-4 minutes to moan in pain.
I called the hospital to tell them how things were progressing. They were leery about sending us home again so they told Heather to take a hot shower and not come in unless they were still that close together at 9:30. At 9:10, the contractions were as close together as ever (and perhaps closer). We got Heather out of the shower and drove -- slowly -- to the hospital.
They wheeled Heather up to Labor and Delivery while I went to park the car. I got to the triage room only moments after Heather had (they had wheeled her quite slowly). The midwife arrived in the room and immediately told us we were going across the hall to the delivery room. It had been a productive afternoon: Heather was at 6cm.
Heather was hopeful that they could get an anesthesiologist in quickly. However, she was ready to push by the time the nurse had put in her IV -- before any anesthesiologist could arrive. (FOOTNOTE: Heather wins for the best quote: As she was pushing, she yelled, "I DIDN'T WANT A NATURAL LABOR!") She was fully dilated within 30 minutes of arriving, even though her water still hadn't broken. The midwife took care of that pretty easily.
Heather pushed like a trooper, and our little Liam arrived 45 minutes later: His head and body arriving at once in one strong push.
We are both so thrilled with our new baby. We had been quite concerned after all of the complications involved with John's birth that this one would be a repeat (John was induced a full month early because Heather experienced HELLP -- a deadly form of preeclampsia). We prayed fervently that this baby's pregnancy and birth would be far more "normal". We are so grateful that Heavenly Father answered our prayers with a "yes".
His name reflects our experience. "Liam" means "protection" (see http://babynamesworld.parentsconnect.com/meaning_of_Liam.html) and "Jesse" means "gift" (see http://babynamesworld.parentsconnect.com/meaning_of_Jesse.html). We are all so thrilled with our protected gift: Liam Jesse.
(Admittedly, we're pretty tired, too).
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Hey, kid! You've got placenta on your face.
We'll get back to ancient history (Christmas Trip part 2) later. Since Heather had complications with John's birth, the doctors are keeping a closer eye on this one. Because of that, we were in for our second full ultrasound (and Heather has had a lot of "mini" ultrasounds too).
First, we'll share an image from the first one (whoops, we forgot to post this picture 3 months ago):
Now, we'll share the cool pictures from this time. First, you'll be pleased to know that his profile still looks a lot like a baby's (Do any baby's ultrasound profiles look different?). In fact, it looks a lot better in this image than the last... What a difference 12 weeks makes.
Then we caught the baby with his hand to his face. I said he was picking his nose. Heather thought he was sucking his fingers. The technician thought it was on his cheek. (I think Heather and the technician (a female) don't know little boys very well.)
Then, it seems that technology really improved in the past 12 weeks! We got some really cool 3d images. I can explain how it's really a reconstruction from 3d data using the marching cubes algorithm... Just ask me.
In the above picture, you can make out eyes, nose, mouth, fingers (near chin), and placenta on his face (the entire left side of the image).
In the 3d world, you can see where the kid's hand ended up the next time he went for his face.
I still think he was picking his nose the first time.
First, we'll share an image from the first one (whoops, we forgot to post this picture 3 months ago):
Now, we'll share the cool pictures from this time. First, you'll be pleased to know that his profile still looks a lot like a baby's (Do any baby's ultrasound profiles look different?). In fact, it looks a lot better in this image than the last... What a difference 12 weeks makes.
Then we caught the baby with his hand to his face. I said he was picking his nose. Heather thought he was sucking his fingers. The technician thought it was on his cheek. (I think Heather and the technician (a female) don't know little boys very well.)
Then, it seems that technology really improved in the past 12 weeks! We got some really cool 3d images. I can explain how it's really a reconstruction from 3d data using the marching cubes algorithm... Just ask me.
In the above picture, you can make out eyes, nose, mouth, fingers (near chin), and placenta on his face (the entire left side of the image).
In the 3d world, you can see where the kid's hand ended up the next time he went for his face.
I still think he was picking his nose the first time.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Christmas Vacation in LA (part 1)
Sadly, I got sick on Christmas Eve. This would have been sad enough, except that the next day, we had to be up at 4AM to catch a flight to Los Angeles. Fortunately for the sanity of all involved, John really enjoyed watching Wall-E. He watched it on the flight out to LA, and then at least once each morning the entire week we were in LA. Since Heather got sick as soon as we got there, and Grammy was sick (different bug) too, we were all grateful for the quiet mornings. Thanks Wall-E.
There were also other fun things to do while we were at Grammy's house that kept John happy while costing us less energy. One of the more exciting was Grammy's "ball room". Grammy drained the jacuzzi some time back, and started filling it with balls. John had a blast in them. I think it's genetic: When a dorm room went empty while during my freshman year, I attempted to convince the RA (older student in charge of keeping us freshman from doing anything stupid) that we should fill the room with balls and make it a play room for all. Sadly, it was part of his job description to keep us from doing such things.
(Quick note on the following images: I spent a long time creating an animating GIF for this. Sadly, it seems that it only works sometimes. The first image below is the first part of the animation. The second one is the last image. If you want to see the animation, click on the second image and watch it that time. It looks like this only works _once_ due to stupid caching behavior of images in web browsers. If you want more technical details, call me and I can bore you to death.)
We also spent one late afternoon at a kid's paradise. This is a store-like place in a strip mall that is full of things for kids to play with: A series of tunnels to climb through, a ball bin (but John already had one of those at Grammy's house), a bunch of reconfigurable kid-sized building blocks (as in 2-4 feet tall), a bouncy castle with a slide, etc.
We were still feeling rather sick, so we didn't get a ton of images, but these were two of the better ones. First, we have John going down the slide from the castle. You will note that he is wearing a blue shirt with a red cape: Those are his Superman pajamas.
Next, we have me teaching John how to play air hockey. He did pretty well for a four-year-old. The 8-ish-year-old kid beat him, though...
There were also other fun things to do while we were at Grammy's house that kept John happy while costing us less energy. One of the more exciting was Grammy's "ball room". Grammy drained the jacuzzi some time back, and started filling it with balls. John had a blast in them. I think it's genetic: When a dorm room went empty while during my freshman year, I attempted to convince the RA (older student in charge of keeping us freshman from doing anything stupid) that we should fill the room with balls and make it a play room for all. Sadly, it was part of his job description to keep us from doing such things.
(Quick note on the following images: I spent a long time creating an animating GIF for this. Sadly, it seems that it only works sometimes. The first image below is the first part of the animation. The second one is the last image. If you want to see the animation, click on the second image and watch it that time. It looks like this only works _once_ due to stupid caching behavior of images in web browsers. If you want more technical details, call me and I can bore you to death.)
We also spent one late afternoon at a kid's paradise. This is a store-like place in a strip mall that is full of things for kids to play with: A series of tunnels to climb through, a ball bin (but John already had one of those at Grammy's house), a bunch of reconfigurable kid-sized building blocks (as in 2-4 feet tall), a bouncy castle with a slide, etc.
We were still feeling rather sick, so we didn't get a ton of images, but these were two of the better ones. First, we have John going down the slide from the castle. You will note that he is wearing a blue shirt with a red cape: Those are his Superman pajamas.
Next, we have me teaching John how to play air hockey. He did pretty well for a four-year-old. The 8-ish-year-old kid beat him, though...
Christmas Morning
We always leave our stockings out for Santa next to our beds before going to sleep on Christmas Eve. Since we were going to travel on Christmas day this year, John wrote a letter to Santa asking him to bring our presents and stocking stuffers a day early. Santa obliged. So, these things happened first thing December 24.
(Quick apology: I remembered to bring the camera up to our room before going to bed so that I would get a video first thing. Sadly, I forgot to charge the battery. So this first video gets cut off before John finishes describing the contents of his stocking...)
Even though John describes them as "Easter Eggs", Santa wasn't confused about which holiday this was: Silly putty always comes in the little plastic containers that split in the middle (the same as those plastic Easter eggs for candy).
(BTW, the "hard thing" that he mentions when the video cuts out was an apple.)
Realizing my mistake, I plugged in our camera's battery immediately to start recharging. I then had to stall John some so that the battery could get some life in it. So, we talked about the silly putty and what it can do. He enjoyed taking the letters off of pages in books.
After around 15 minutes, we decided it was time to go downstairs and open presents. John told us about downstairs:
John: "There was lots and lots and lots of presents down down there!"
Jeremy: "Did you already look?"
John (matter of factly): "Yup."
It was a bit sad not to be able to see his face when he first saw the presents, but we still had a good time opening presents.
John's favorite present that morning (by far) was a marble track. I had spent several hours the evening before putting it together -- but I'm sure it was nothing compared to my father putting together 5 bicycles on Christmas Eve once. Plus it was worth it to watch him being _so_ excited.
If the lighting had been better (and higher resolution video), you could see his eyes following each marble as it rolled across each part of the track. The incredible thing about it was that he actually laid on the ground staring at it for half an hour at a time multiple times during that day. Here's a shot of one of those times:
We had a pretty quiet afternoon. John played some with his toys. Jeremy and John watched Wall-E. (Jeremy's first time. It wasn't his last -- see our next post on vacation in LA.) That evening, at the Mudrick's house, we made a gingerbread house (log cabin style). If anyone requests, I'll look up a picture of that and add it later (hint: You can add comments to posts below).
(Quick apology: I remembered to bring the camera up to our room before going to bed so that I would get a video first thing. Sadly, I forgot to charge the battery. So this first video gets cut off before John finishes describing the contents of his stocking...)
Even though John describes them as "Easter Eggs", Santa wasn't confused about which holiday this was: Silly putty always comes in the little plastic containers that split in the middle (the same as those plastic Easter eggs for candy).
(BTW, the "hard thing" that he mentions when the video cuts out was an apple.)
Realizing my mistake, I plugged in our camera's battery immediately to start recharging. I then had to stall John some so that the battery could get some life in it. So, we talked about the silly putty and what it can do. He enjoyed taking the letters off of pages in books.
After around 15 minutes, we decided it was time to go downstairs and open presents. John told us about downstairs:
John: "There was lots and lots and lots of presents down down there!"
Jeremy: "Did you already look?"
John (matter of factly): "Yup."
It was a bit sad not to be able to see his face when he first saw the presents, but we still had a good time opening presents.
John's favorite present that morning (by far) was a marble track. I had spent several hours the evening before putting it together -- but I'm sure it was nothing compared to my father putting together 5 bicycles on Christmas Eve once. Plus it was worth it to watch him being _so_ excited.
If the lighting had been better (and higher resolution video), you could see his eyes following each marble as it rolled across each part of the track. The incredible thing about it was that he actually laid on the ground staring at it for half an hour at a time multiple times during that day. Here's a shot of one of those times:
We had a pretty quiet afternoon. John played some with his toys. Jeremy and John watched Wall-E. (Jeremy's first time. It wasn't his last -- see our next post on vacation in LA.) That evening, at the Mudrick's house, we made a gingerbread house (log cabin style). If anyone requests, I'll look up a picture of that and add it later (hint: You can add comments to posts below).
Sunday, January 18, 2009
An After-Dinner Discussion
This is a fairly faithful transcription of an evening in the Wendt house. Please forgive any repetition, just understand that there is a four year old involved.
(Heather wants me to point out that we don't do this every night.)
Mom: Here's your cookie. Please go sit in your chair.
John: Thanks, Mom.
Mom: You're welcome, John. Thanks for eating your carrots.
John: Thanks, Mom.
Mom: You're welcome, John. Thanks for eating your meat.
John: Thanks, Mom.
Mom: You're welcome, John. Thanks for eating your noodles.
John: Thanks, Mom.
Mom: You're welcome, John. Thanks for ....
John: No! Stop saying "You're welcome"!
Mom: Well, stop saying "Thanks, Mom".
John: OK.
....
John: Thanks, Mom.
Mom: You're welcome, John.
John: Thanks, Mom.
Mom: You're welcome, John.
....
Mom: Thanks, John.
John: You're welcome, Mom.
Mom: Thanks, John.
John: You're welcome, Mom.
....
John: Thanks, Mom.
Mom: You're welcome, Daddy.
John: My name's not "Daddy"!?!
Mom: I thought Daddy might want to join our game instead of typing.
John: Do you want to play, Daddy?
Dad: I'm trying to type what you guys are saying.
The End
(Heather wants me to point out that we don't do this every night.)
Mom: Here's your cookie. Please go sit in your chair.
John: Thanks, Mom.
Mom: You're welcome, John. Thanks for eating your carrots.
John: Thanks, Mom.
Mom: You're welcome, John. Thanks for eating your meat.
John: Thanks, Mom.
Mom: You're welcome, John. Thanks for eating your noodles.
John: Thanks, Mom.
Mom: You're welcome, John. Thanks for ....
John: No! Stop saying "You're welcome"!
Mom: Well, stop saying "Thanks, Mom".
John: OK.
....
John: Thanks, Mom.
Mom: You're welcome, John.
John: Thanks, Mom.
Mom: You're welcome, John.
....
Mom: Thanks, John.
John: You're welcome, Mom.
Mom: Thanks, John.
John: You're welcome, Mom.
....
John: Thanks, Mom.
Mom: You're welcome, Daddy.
John: My name's not "Daddy"!?!
Mom: I thought Daddy might want to join our game instead of typing.
John: Do you want to play, Daddy?
Dad: I'm trying to type what you guys are saying.
The End
Sunday, January 4, 2009
John's Creative Writing
When you reach Junior High, they call it "Creative Writing" when you write something that requires imagination -- a short story or other work of fiction. I think that at the age of four, "Creative Writing" describes your way of writing, spelling, and diction.
The weekend after we returned from Christmas vacation (posts pending), Jeremy spent the larger part of his first Saturday home cleaning up after (and preventing future occurrences of) a specific unwanted incident. This incident was so important to John, that he decided to write about it:
We'll take you through this in phases. First -- through the Urim and Thummim -- I've translated the letters from "reformed John-ian" into the modern alphabet:
"UMISSECKITOORHUS"
Following the style of ancient Hebrew, John avoids spaces in his writing at present. In order to aid in your translation, I've added spaces.
"U MIS SECK ITO OR HUS"
Finally, I've added the missing letters (and removed the wrong ones). Knowing what he was trying to write, it turns out that he did a really good job.
"A MICE SNEAKED INTO OUR HOUSE"
(P.S., We had two bits of good fortune with relation to this event: First, we always clean things up quite well before leaving town, so there was little for the mouse to eat (although it did have a good time eating the flour from a rolling-pin cover). Second, it was caught in short order and disposed of quickly.)
The weekend after we returned from Christmas vacation (posts pending), Jeremy spent the larger part of his first Saturday home cleaning up after (and preventing future occurrences of) a specific unwanted incident. This incident was so important to John, that he decided to write about it:
We'll take you through this in phases. First -- through the Urim and Thummim -- I've translated the letters from "reformed John-ian" into the modern alphabet:
"UMISSECKITOORHUS"
Following the style of ancient Hebrew, John avoids spaces in his writing at present. In order to aid in your translation, I've added spaces.
"U MIS SECK ITO OR HUS"
Finally, I've added the missing letters (and removed the wrong ones). Knowing what he was trying to write, it turns out that he did a really good job.
"A MICE SNEAKED INTO OUR HOUSE"
(P.S., We had two bits of good fortune with relation to this event: First, we always clean things up quite well before leaving town, so there was little for the mouse to eat (although it did have a good time eating the flour from a rolling-pin cover). Second, it was caught in short order and disposed of quickly.)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)