Ugly Sweater day at U

In celebration of our last class day we wore our ugly sweaters. I also rocked my christmas singing tie.

It's a question of motivation...

Michael has recently bought a brand new hi-def projector for his home theater. It was a reward for losing a certain amount of weight. I don't know how much motivation the hi-def projector provided him, but it seems like a nice reward.

Inspired by him Wendy and I have been debating what motivates us. We've discussed the possibility of a "techie" reward following Michael's example. In theory, something like the Iphone 6 should be fairly motivating.  Unfortunately, I'm not sure that is as motivating for me as it theoretically would be. In my experience the times that I've been most "motivated" seem to revolve around some form of competition. The time I lost 30 pounds in two months? Yep, weight loss competition.

So the problem I run into is; how do I make things I don't want to do...or perhaps better stated, currently lack the motivation to do, a competition? My results may depend on how I answer that question.

We're still trying to figure out what motivates Wendy. She joked today that "negative" consequences seem to be her best motivation.  For example, one of her suggestions recently was that if we didn't reach certain goals within a certain number of months we would be "forced" to buy a treadmill desk.

I guess at some point we all have to decide what it is that motivates us. I'm sure that we all wish it could be as easy as a 5 month old boy who wants a train.

Naptime routine

Naptime Routine

We've worked hard to create a consistent naptime routine for Andrew. By and large he lays down for his naps and bedtime relatively easily...as long as you willing to read a lot of books (which I am!). Today was not one of the easy days. We completed the routine, Andrew was in bed, thumb, in mouth, blanket over him, and kisses received. Usually this is the point where the parents say "night, night," leave, and the toddler goes to sleep.

Today at naptime...suddenly...thumb popped out of mouth...blanket was thrown off the bed..and toddler jumped out of bed.  Something had happened in his little toddler brain that shut off all synapses related to sleeping. These synapses did not restart despite the multiple, and sometimes painful efforts of his parents.  Including trying to let him take a nap with his parents. Abject failure.

Finally, we decided that Andrew needed to go and play somewhere because he obviously was not going to be taking a nap.  Due to how my brain is wired, Sunday afternoons are the only days that I can take a nap (too much to do on all the other days).  Wendy, being the saintly woman she is, decided to take one for the team and took Andrew out to play while I took a nap. 

Andrew, observant child that he is, caught on quickly. So he climbed up into the bed where I was laying, leaned over, gave me a kiss on the cheek,  and softly whispered  "night night" before leaving the room and closing the door.  Appears that Andrew's bedtime routine is now my bedtime routine also. 

The insight the toddler gives me.

Today's "It's disturbing the insight my toddler gives on my habits"  experience.

I was reading one of my textbooks while marking with a highlighter.
Andrew was next to me drawing on his papers with his highlighter.

I notice that Andrew has the unopened end of the highlighter stuck in his mouth while grinning widely at me. At which point I realize, my highlighter is in exactly the same position.  Appears I eat my highlighters when studying.

Boom! Plane!

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concorde

"Boom! Plane!"  The words are accompanied by a sharp jerk of the hand through the air.  Andrew loves it when we turn to the Concorde page in his little boy's plane book. I like to make sounds and actions when I read with my little boys. Sometimes Andrew enjoys them so much that he'll remember them and perform them every time we turn to that page. That is the case with the Concorde; we have to make the sonic BOOM sound and fly our hands quickly through the air.

So when my brother mentioned the possibility that there was an air show during the time that we would be in Idaho I though that Andrew might enjoy seeing some real life "boom" planes.

Andrew while intrigued with the planes on the ground; didn't quite enjoy the Thunderbirds as much as his Daddy. The "boom" planes had a little bit too much "boom" for him. I tried covering up his ears for him until a lady at the show had pity on the poor unprepared dad and gave us some ear plugs. Andrew was perfectly happy through the rest of the Thunderbird show. Of course he spent most of the show time playing with his older cousin and coming to me when his earplugs came out. Maybe a bit early for the Thunderbirds to appeal to him yet.

I, on the other hand was thoroughly fascinated. The formations, the speed, the "oh my gosh they are going to die" moments. My brother when he wrote about the experience become poetic. I don't disagree with his views.

I was also intrigued to see the F-35 Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II. Its the latest and greatest military plane (toy) that the air force has.  It also has, depending on how you calculate cost, a small price tag of $75 million dollars a plane.  Let's just say that we couldn't walk up a ramp to look into the cockpit like we could with the F-16's. 

Thunderbirds

We enjoyed the show too much. A line of military formed up behind us on the tarmac to make sure it was clear.

Project: Grandparents

During our recent vacation to the West Coast we had double Sundays of the same lesson. When we got home we heard the same lesson again. What are the chance of that? That lead us to discuss whether there was something in the lessons that for some reason the Lord just didn't think we were getting. Probably!

It's possible that the lesson "Bringing up Children in Light and Truth" from the Joseph Fielding Smith manual might not have made such an impact on us if Wendy hadn't been prepping for her lesson. She had to teach about President Henry B. Eyring's talk, "A Priceless Heritage of Hope" and Elder Quentin L. Cook's talk "Roots and Branches." In 2001 some researchers rated children's ability to handle stress and face challenges using a 20 question "Do you Know?" scale. Turns out that the more you know about your family, things like where your grandparents grew up or what high school your parents the higher your chances to be happy and emotionally healthy ("The Stories that Bind Us" by Bruce Feiler, New York Times, March 15, 2013.Turns out that the more we know our family the more connected and in control we feel about life.

So when prophets, current research, and our own interests align it leads to what I call, as of two seconds ago, the Project Grandparents.  We want Andrew and Cameron to be able to feel connected to their great-grandparents and know their stories. Of course, that means we actually have to have their stories and pictures so we can show them to the little ones.

So since we came back Wendy has been on a family history mission. Every Wednesday Grandma Stuart and Wendy dig through pictures and books to find stories to tell the little ones.  We also realized that we should focus on the grandparents who are still with us. 

So this past weekend, despite being swamped by graduate school coursework,  our little family packed up and went up to Idaho. 

The Grandparents were an immediate hit with the little ones. Andrew was holding Grandma Hunter's hand as soon as we got to the parking lot for the traditional Golden Corral smorgasbord. Grandma helped him take his seat to our table. 

Andrew was fascinated by the all-you-can-eat buffet. Maybe a little bit too fascinated. I took him through the tables and he picked out all of his favorite foods: pizza, spaghetti,  bread, watermelon, and of course various kinds of meat.  He was very excited.  We got back to the table and he proceeded to...watch everyone else in the restaurant.  All his favorite foods remained...untouched. His father had the opposite problem. He put all of his favorite foods on multiple plates and ate it all. Once the meal was finished Grandma had to help Andrew get into his car seat.

That evening something surprising happened.  Ben, did family history that did not involve pictures or blogging. I interviewed Grandma Hunter.  I was also thoroughly unprepared.  Mom and Elizabeth had previously done an interview and Wendy has listened to the entire thing. I had not. Unfortunately, Grandma can hear me, not Wendy.  So I attempted to get Grandma to tell us stories about herself and her two husbands. Fortunately Grandma is a great storyteller once she gets started. I learned all kinds of things about dating Grandpa Russell, Grandma's favorite place to live (hint, it's not in Oregon or Idaho), and some other things. I worried that I had only repeated information from the previous video. Wendy promises me Grandma told me some new information. So that made me happy. 

It also made me happy to see the little ones with both Grandparents. 

Cameron was so comfortable with Grandpa Hunter he went straight to sleep.

Pictures with the Grandparents

A big and little brother

Wendy and I have tried as much as we can to prepare Andrew for the appearance of his younger brother. We both have so many great memories with our siblings that we were excited to introduce Andrew and Cameron to each other.

To help, Debbie gave Andrew a little doll that we used to show how to hold, to rock, to put into the swing, and even to diaper. Andrew's favorite part was (and is) changing the diaper. He would go grab a diaper, wipes, and his doll and spend quality time changing the babies diaper. A few times he even insisted that the "baby" eat dinner with him at the table.

The difference however between a doll and a baby is that a doll doesn't take other people's lap space, especially not at inconvenient times. Andrew by and large has taken the arrival of the new little brother in stride; with the lone exception of lap time. If Cameron is on the lap the Andrew wants to be on; he doesn't throw a fit or cry. He just goes to the person holding Cameron and points out another person for them to give the baby to. There is no pattern to whose lap he prefers.

Beyond lap hogging; Andrew has shown a lot of interest in his little brother.  Andrew kisses Cameron, hugs him, and even begs his parents to hold him.

Showing little brother the fun monkey

Wendy and I decided to try to have a little brother with big brother photo shoot.

Andrew's done with pictures

Well...not completely

Andrew took this picture

Looking forward to teaching Cameron the fun things in life