July!

One of Keller’s top teeth pushed through this week. Poor kid has been feverish in the hot, sticky weather. (Thankfully, this week felt positively refreshing after the last few. Nothing like mid-nineties and breezy!). Despite this, he happily crawled all over. He’s figured out spots that he’s not supposed to touch: computers, cords, doorstops, things his brothers are holding. Whenever possible, he goes right for those, giggling. If he wants to play he’ll attack it noisily. If he really wants to grab it and eat it, he’s quiet and fast. We can distract him sometimes. Usually once he focuses his attention on something, deterring him is basically impossible. He screams and twists and glares as if to say, “I will get it! I will find a way!” He loves bathing and splashing. He loves moving, moving, moving. We lowered his crib all the way since he can push himself up to sitting, tries to pull himself up, and clambers all over. He likes being closer to the ground and seeing more of the action. He loves green beans, black beans, waffles…all food, especially if he can pick it up. His reflux has returned with a vengeance (once again, we’re the barf-smelling family!) and we can’t figure out if he’s eating something weird or what. Thankfully, he has his nine month (!) checkup this week. He has slept through the night all week. Hurrah!

Lincoln loves running. Runningrunningrunning. “These are my running shoes.” “These are my running shorts.” “I am runningrunningrunning.” He tries to use Keller’s shoes. My shoes. Levi’s shoes. His favorite are Wesley’s running shoes. He forgets to pay attention sometimes and runs right into the wall. Or the floor. After our temple trip yesterday, he jumped out of the car running. Freedom! We have so many near-misses with him. He ran into the dresser and conked his head. He ran with his toothbrush and jabbed his mouth (ouch! That was too close!) He ran with the big boys at playgroup with Frisbees and soccer. He tried to teach Dustin (a boy we watched—who is a bit younger than Lincoln and a quite a bit bigger than Levi) how to run. He pretended to be a cow. Then a cowboy. He changes his clothes all day. He often wakes up in a different outfit than the one we put him down in—when we see him, he’s always very pleased with himself. We saw a man with motorcycle gloves and irrigation boots at the library. Lincoln followed him around reverently whispering, “Construction Guy!” When the man left, Lincoln ran after him: “Why does he have those boots?” I barely caught him in time (meanwhile, Levi unloaded our books for the week onto the checkout desk…)

Levi has tried really hard to use his words when frustrated. A week without biting! A week with more understanding! I love when we can talk together. It makes even tense situations unifying. Thank you, Levi! We’re so proud of him for pausing to think before reacting. What an example. He has also taken up some strange dance moves: it looks like a rain-warrior-figuring-out-the-body dance. It includes a lot of yelling and fast hand motions. His favorite things of the week include typing the alphabet on the computer (over and over and over), hitting the tennis ball with a racket (also repeated), and playing Plants vs. Zombies with Wes on the 4^th for “Boy Time’ (which he invented). He built boats and airplanes out of Legos. He led us all in parades. He taught me a game called “Bouncy Ball” one afternoon. I zoned for a minute and he yelled, “Hey, Mom! You need to run! That’s what your problem is!” My favorite quote of the week came yesterday while I helped him buckle into the van when we left the temple. “Mom and Dad are trying to teach me how to be nice. I’m trying to be nice.” And he always is.

Wes and I are trying to figure out how to find the volume button on our boys and turn them all down. There is no “inside voice.” There is LOUD and LOUDER and degrees of shouting. Is this a boy thing? (No, it comes from me not Wes. I try really hard to speak softly now though!)

We looked for a parade all over Austin and found one in Elgin (a little town outside of Manor). It included the Boy Scouts holding a flag, a veteran in a car, three men holding a flag, a girl on a pony, a few kids on bikes, and some city council members giving out Valentine’s candy and flags. The boys loved it. Parades are a necessity for Independence Day.

We celebrated Wesley’s friend/colleague who just finished his doctoral work by going to pizza for lunch on Tuesday. The boys did well. We’ll miss Kody, but plan on staying connected. That day, we also fixed the car window (it wouldn’t go up after rolling down) and picked up some food orders from the Bishop’s Storehouse. Wow! We drive a lot. We’re so grateful we can have a car. And a van! What a blessing.  

We’ve decided to focus our next-career-steps on national lab post-doc positions. Wes will still apply for professorships, but we plan on a post-doc somewhere first.

We’ve been reading Wesley’s mission journal. Love it. My friend is struggling. She asked me to pray for her—which was a very tender gift for me. I asked if I could put her name on the prayer roll and got to testify of the power of prayer and the temple. It’s been a sweet experience. I just want everyone to know the full joy of the gospel—even when mortality can be really, really hard.

 

That’ll do for today.