Becoming a big brother

Benjamin still doesn't really understand how much his life is going to change some time around May 23.  Of course neither do the rest of us really!  But over the last few months, his understanding of what it means to be a big brother has grown.  The baby doll pictured above sleeping on Benjamin's chest has been one way we've been introducing the idea to him.  He has learned to hold, rock, and swaddle the baby, change her diaper, and now feeds her and puts her down for naps and bedtime periodically throughout the day.  

The picture above is how he wanted to go down for his nap today--with baby doll on his chest just like JB sometimes lets him sleep when he wakes up too early and comes into our room in the morning.  B also insisted that we read her a "tiny baby book" before they went to sleep.  I don't really know what he means by that, but  this soft version of "Are you my Mother?" satisfied him.  

The above picture is for mom.  Not so very long ago you showed me a candle you kept that had my tiny little kid fingernail prints all over it.  I thought of that when I found Benjamin occupied digging his own little fingernails into this candle in the living room.  We don't really use them anymore, so I let him do continue--I think he spent a good 10-15 minutes delighting in the feeling of sinking his nails in candle wax.  

One more little Benjamin anecdote.  We were all eating a meal together the other day when something I said (cannot imagine what!) made JB say to Benjamin:  "It looks like mama is wrong, huh?"  And Benjamin replied, "Unbelievable!"  I prefer to think that this was meant sincerely and not sarcastically, but there was a certain glint in his eye : )  Can two year olds be sarcastic?!  

This last photo shows one of my favorite things about our house in the winter.  The possum haw looks like this all winter.  When the morning light hits these bright red berries the world feel warm and beautiful.  Now little green leaves are starting to bud out, and it makes me a little sorry for spring to come.     

Here is a picture of a few things JB can do while lying on the couch with his knee elevated:  read The New Yorker, play the memory game with Benjamin and take pictures.  

I think the pictures below must have been BEFORE the knee surgery.  JB is really doing a lot better, and he can hobble around the house pretty effectively, but he still wouldn't be out there planting asparagus at this point in his recovery.  I am SO glad that he got this asparagus planted though.  We actually have at least 8 asparagus spears coming up already--surprising to me anyway since we just got it transplanted from the other garden a few weeks ago.  In a few days we'll have enough to make a meal.  I've lived in Texas for almost 10 years now (!) but it still amazes me to see the first signs of spring in the middle of February.  We have daffodils and other bulbs

The matching shirts were not planned.  But they do make a cute picture, eh?  B helped JB pound in the fence around the asparagus to keep Brazos from running through it.   

Another favorite activity recently has been painting.  He is getting the hang of watercolors--I'm sure he'll look forward to doing watercolors with his grammy when she comes to visit.  Do you think he has a chance for his own art show, mom??  

Life in January

One thing I have resolved to do in the new year is keep a log of the meals that I (or we) prepare.  Last spring I started a list or recipes that could be used for the abundance of dill we had in our garden, and I am so glad that I did. I didn't think I even liked dill last year, but now that I know what to do with it I am looking forward to having too much again.  So, I'm going to do that with everything we make this year--just look back over the week and write down the recipes I used, where I got them, and things I made up.   

I think this was inspired in part by the abundance of meyer lemons we had this winter from our very own lemon tree.  I made preserved lemons with about half of them, so I had to find all sorts of recipes that use preserved lemons.  What a revelation!  Eating this January has been pretty exciting.  Ellen was here visiting when we had that Moroccan Fish Tagine with preserved lemon--she can tell you how good that was.  Oh man.  

The picture above is Benjamin doing one of the few tasks in the kitchen that he is truly capable of doing all by himself and actually being helpful:  peeling tomatillos.  I think making pozole-- a mexican chicken soup with hominy, tomatillo, and jalapeno and then topped with all sorts of good things like avocados and radishes--is going to be a new year tradition from now on.  It's enough work that I would only want to make it once a year, but I am always surprised at how delicious and refreshing it is.  

January is also JB's birthday, the celebrations for which always seem to last a week or so.  The above picture is not a birthday party but a good-bye party/hymn-sing we helped host for some friends from church who are moving away.  It happened to be a couple of days before JB's birthday.   We love to have the house full of people and music.  One of the friends who left was also in the band that JB has been playing with for the last, oh, year or so.  They had one last show together at a local cafe and had it recorded.  Below:  Benjamin listening to the recording.  

January was a great month for visits.  We had a great time visiting with Heidi before she shipped out for officer's training for the Air Force.  Thinking about her in basic training the last couple of weeks makes my stomach turn a little bit.  I know SHE is very capable--it's thinking about doing it myself that makes me sick.  We're very proud, Heidi!  

I took my own less physically taxing visit last weekend to St. Paul, MN, for a meeting having to do with church.  I was nervous about flying (motion sickness worse during pregnancy), but it was actually a really wonderful trip--kind of a retreat away from normal life for a few days. It did help to think that it's probably the last trip I'll get to take by myself for quite a while, maybe years?!  And knowing B was in good hands with JB and grandmommy made the trip relaxing too.  

January will also be the month of JB's knee surgery.  Think of him next Tuesday, Jan. 29, when he goes under the knife for torn cartilage.  A pretty routine surgery apparently, but still ... surgery.  Thank goodness JB's mom is able to come help us again!  

White Christmas

Benjamin with Grandad's hat. On the left is the tent they rigged up for Benjamin to sleep in until he's big enough for the Mayflower bed.  Maybe next time.  

 I wish we had gotten some pictures of our white Christmas in Texas, but by the time I got the camera out, Benjamin had realized how COLD the snow is and we were done.  Getting snow down your sleeve induces a very particular kind of whining that I had not yet heard from him and probably won't again any time soon.  Not that I blame him--I whine when I get snow down my sleeve too.

So the somewhat unexpected snow kept us from our Christmas dinner with JB's extended family in Dallas, but it didn't keep us from having a nice time with the more immediate family in SS.  It was a relaxing 4 days--we didn't have too much planned, but that is sometimes the best.  We ate well, got to hear and play good music, JB got to see some old friends, and we all spent time with Midge.  Benjamin got to find eggs in the chicken house every day and play drums with granddad.

We woke up Christmas morning to a power outage, so we huddled around the gas heaters and lit candles, and were generally thankful for having a gas stove for making coffee.  When we got around to opening gifts, Benjamin opened one gift and was ready to play with that for the rest of the day.  I felt like I was going against everything I valued by encouraging Benjamin to open more, more more!  How wonderful to live with absolutely no expectations for Christmas day at all.  The tree, the egg nog, the presents--all a bonus on what was already going to be a pretty good day because you are a toddler at your grandparents house.  I think the only way to maintain this sense of wonder at Christmas over the years will be to help him have fun giving gifts.  It was great fun this year helping him understand the idea of giving a gift--he helped wrap presents and would repeat over and over again what we were sending to baby Jack in NY.    I wonder what Christmas is like next year with a three year old?

 

I made a Christmas pudding this year.  Thanks to Aunt Mary for letting me borrow her pudding mold.  Here's the pudding up in flames.  

We got to have second Christmas when we finally made it back home through the snow and ice to our own (poor dried-out) Christmas tree.  Grammy and Grandpa in NY gave Ben and Jack both these great chairs for Christmas this year.

 Aunt Mary made the sock monkey perched there by the B, and Auntie Karen made the memory game in the bottom picture from her own wood.  So creative, huh?  Right now B likes to just find the matching pictures and give them all out as cookies (or whoopie pies) to whoever he sees.

We sure missed going to NY this year.  By not going, however, we got to have an appointment with Christy the day after Christmas, and we found out that we are going to have a daughter!  We couldn't be happier.  She is becoming more real to us every day as she kicks away inside of me and Benjamin learns to talk about having a sister.

Benjamin really likes to help with the baking and cooking.  Spreading butter on the cutting board is his specialty.  Good thing we have him around.

National Pie for Breakfast Day

And now--with the newsletter at the printer, one final given, a few papers graded, and one sleepy boy upstairs saying over and over "good night, don't let bed bugs bite"--I think I have a minute to finish a post I started right after Thanksgiving.



As good a day as Thanksgiving is--and I do LOVE Thanksgiving--this year, I found myself really looking forward to the day after:  National Pie for Breakfast Day.  And then on Friday I had pie for breakfast and regretted it all day.  We were trying to leave for Sulphur Springs all morning, but I felt so awful that it took us a while to get on the road. 

Another way of telling this story would be that after what seemed like two-weeks in the clear, morning sickness reared its ugly head once again.  I still don't know which one it was--pie or morning sickness-- but I don't think I've said yet on this blog that we are expecting another baby, so there it is!  He or she is due May 23, and we (me and JB) are filled with a complex of emotions of about it that happy or excited or anxious does not seem to do justice to.  This is what we wanted, and we are looking forward to having another child, but I just remember how hard those first few months were.  Right now May seems too far away to think about it too much.

JB didn't have to work the week of Thanksgiving, so we did some traveling.  We had a great one-night camping trip to Colorado Bend State Park in the Texas Hill Country, we had a delightful Thanksgiving day at Neil and Christy's house, and we eventually made it to Sulphur Springs for a few days with JB's family. 

I think Benjamin enjoyed just about everything about camping.  The tent, his own little sleeping bag, the campfire, the freedom to play all around our campsite, the river, and even the hiking.

Benjamin pretending to sleep in our tent 

The Colorado River 

Our campsite is in the background--you can see our tent through the trees.

We did end up going on one hike that was a little harder than it looked like it would be.  Normally, it would not have been a hard hike at all, but for a pregnant mama, a daddy with a bad knee, and a 2-year old in a backpack, it was a little rough.  This is our new normal, at least for a while, and we just need to get used to it.   The hike was just 1.5 miles to a 60 foot waterfall, but we didn't account for having to climb down to the bottom of the waterfall at the end.  And then we had to go back. It was a beautiful hike, but would not have made the choice to do it if we had known. 

Thanksgiving moves right along into Christmas, and this year, Benjamin is into it.  REALLY into it.  The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we went with JB's parents to a little Christmas in the Park celebration at a heritage park near their house and I think we were all amazed at how much Benjamin loved it.  He is transfixed by Christmas lights and was of course delighted that there were cookies to eat at almost every old house that we walked into.  He still talks about and imitates the handbell choir playing Christmas Carols and the blacksmith hammering on metal.  And the real surprise to me is that he remembers the name of the woman who handed us popcorn at one of the houses.  Whenever we have popcorn now, which has been a few times, he says "Mary Lucy!  Mary Lucy gave us popcorn!"

So now we're back in Waco, trying to enjoy the beginning of advent while hurriedly finishing up final grading.  Benjamin helped set up our tree.

And we are reading a book for advent with our small group called "Silence:  And other surprising invitations to Advent" by Enuma Okoro, which focuses on the story of Elizabeth and Zechariah.  It's been a great source of discussion and inspiration so far this season.

Raking leaves and putting up Christmas trees go together in Texas.  

Halloween

 Last year at this time I was really happy to have a one-year-old who didn't care a thing about halloween, dressing up, or even candy.  I savored my last year NOT thinking about halloween costumes. I really did.

That was the last year for a long long time.  Now B is into everything about halloween, and I have to say--we had a lot of fun.  We carved pumpkins and made jack-o-lanterns and we dressed up and went trick or treating around our little neighborhood.  And this year Benjamin is very much aware of the existence of candy in the world.

I feel the need to apologize for all of the people (mostly Amy) who inspired me with many fun costume ideas.  It was fun imagining.  But then it came to the day before halloween and B still didn't have a costume. Handmade was just not going to happen.  So we got some more use out of his raincoat and rain boots--which he loves--and bought a fire hat and there you go.  We had to spend some time explaining what a firefighter is, but he got excited after we explained it.   

The first thing B did after walking out the door to go trick or treating was slip down the stairs, so we had to have a little comfort time on the swing before setting out.  Rain boots are hard to walk in!

I wish we had gotten some better pictures but here he is at the next-door neighbors' house deciding whether or not he wants to verbalize trick-or-treat.  Mostly he said it when no one was around to hear it.

After all that, B did well for about three or four houses on the block and then he was ready to go home.  Until next year, halloween!