Keller has officially joined the party. I think I said this a couple of weeks ago, but he’s decided that his babyhood is practically over. He plays hide and seek as fast as he can. He climbs. He squawks. And he speeds. He chased and threw a ball all over the house one day. One night we couldn’t pry the toy hammer out of his hands, so he fell asleep with it. Actually, he hammered away joyfully until absolute exhaustion settled in. He pulls up on the edges of things like couches, yet he has two preferred standing spots: my knees and the bathtub. He has joined the sing-through-dinner chorus. (Wes told me that in his house they had a “no singing at the table” rule that maybe we should enforce…but I’ll take a joyful noise over the other options.) He and Lincoln have been stewing up fun. Yesterday as they sat in the toy room we heard bits of this conversation:

            “What you doing, Keller?”

            “Eeeee! Bababababa!”

            “No. What you doing, Keller? Do you want to play football with me?”

            Throw.

            “Good throw!”

Lincoln woke up, came to Wesley’s side of the bed saying, “I’m going to sleep by you, Dad. Levi can sleep by Mom.” A few minutes later he sits up, exclaiming: “It’s stinky!”

            Wes: “It is? Did you toot?”

            Lincoln: “No. It’s stinky!”

            Wes, laughing: “Who does it smell like?”

            Lincoln, decisively: “LEVI!”

We were all too tired for much of a FHE activity on Monday, so on Tuesday Lincoln chose to swim in the “little pool, because I am little!” Wes aired up the inflatable kids’ pool and they all splashed delightedly.

On Wednesday I had a temple recommend renewal interview, so the boys went to the beginning of mutual with Wesley. They loved it. Levi’s final comment of the day was, “I’m soooo glad I went to mutual!” Lincoln responded, “When I am a dad, I will go to mutual on Wednesdays!” (all things adult are encompassed in the phrase, “When I am a dad…” These discussions often occur in public restrooms). As I drove them home, Levi and Lincoln exchanged some significant glances and began an obviously practiced family council:

            We want a Daisy cow now.

            Maybe when you’re older.

            How about right now?

            Will you two take care of her and milk her every day?

            Oh, no! That’s Dad’s job.

            Or we could wait until you’re older and you can be in charge of milking her just like                                  Uncle David.

            We will be too tired; Dad will have to milk her.

            I guess we’ll have to wait, then because Dad has a lot of other work he has to do to take                           care of our family.

            No, no. We want a Daisy cow now…

The conversation ended with Levi’s conclusion, “When I get married, I will stay home with my wife and take care of her there. I love my wife.” Lucky her.

We’ve all been slow recovering. I didn’t think about it much until Levi got a fever on Thursday. The next day he was covered in a red rash. The doctor tested for strep. The quick test came back negative, but they sent in samples—we won’t know for sure until tomorrow. Despite rest and liquids he doesn’t feel any better and he sounds worse. Lincoln caught it as well, but still tries to go nonstop. We’re hoping that the rest of us might bypass it. Only Wes went to church today. Hopefully he won’t contaminate anyone else.  Levi has been taking amazing naps, though. No throwing up, no diarrhea, just slow and sore. If we need to be sick, this seems to be the way to go. Yesterday Levi woke up from a sick nap: “I need Lincoln!”

            “Why do you need Lincoln?”
            “Because he is my best friend!” Obviously. When Lincoln came in and crawled next to him, the boundaries of best-friend-hood were clarified with a few pushes and shoves.

In the midst of all of that, our vacuum smoked and died so we had to invest in a new one. I accidentally tossed my phone in the washer. Even after rice treatment, it’s dead. The replacement should be here around Tuesday. And when we went to the doctor, the receptionist informed me that our insurance wouldn’t cover our last well checks because they were too early (by a week for Keller); the insurance has a different story. Good thing we’re rich! All the back to  back necessity evaluations has increased my gratitude for all that we have and the miracle that we can replace these things without much discomfort or worry. We really are rich, especially in the blessings that cannot be measured with a dollar symbol. Most people in the world cannot do that. So, instead of asking “Why?” we try to ask, “How should we serve? How should we build the kingdom?” We’ll never be able to be deserving, but we try to be worthy.

On top of a huge rock wall at the park. 

Updates in Pictures

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.

Picture this.  Levi and Lincoln sitting in matching black bottoms and blue shirts, sitting in their foldable camp chairs next to the front window, pretending to be pilots—of course. They flew to Utah, Colorado, looped to D.C., then returned to Austin. They took a long flight to China to visit Shu Xu’s family (Wes works with Shu. He’s from China and has come over for Thanksgiving and FHE).

Levi: “I’m the pilot. What’s the word for what Lincoln is?”

Mom: “Navigator.”

Levi: “Right. I’m the pilot. He’s the alligator.”

Lincoln: “No! I’m a crocodile and you’re the pirate!” (which sounds pretty close to pilot!)

For mutual on Wednesday, the young men came over to our house to make cookies before making visits. The boys loved it. I hear, “Now, I am the young men…” all day long. We made puppets on popsicle sticks in the shape of Levi, Lincoln, and Keller. They are all young men.

During the day when Levi starts playing the piano, the little brothers sing loudly. Their favorite game is still “Name that Tune”—they hum a lot of “Jingle Bells,” “I Am a Child of God,” and “How Firm a Foundation” (Lincoln’s current favorite). I love when we sing because one of them usually jumps up to lead the music and the other pretends to play the piano. During singing time in nursery today, Lincoln stood up in front of the singing leader, turned around, and lead the music confidently. I should teach them to do it correctly. They’re so cute. While their music has no limits, mine does. I started singing while we worked on the fruit. Levi sighed at me patiently. “Mom, please making that noise.” He practically sniffed at my inconsiderate nature. “I’m trying to focus.” Oh. Oops.

Levi has helped a ton all week. His parents finally realized that 1. He wants to and 2. He can! We’re a little slow. He’s been putting all the utensils away and setting the plates on the table. He helped cut the strawberries in half with a butter knife then make strawberry jam. He peeled a ton of peaches when we canned them Saturday. What a worker! We cleaned a sister’s house on Tuesday; under Levi’s direction, the boys put on plastic gloves, pulled out the rags, and rubbed a few walls before playing. They obviously have a spectacular life. I wonder why the house still resembles an eruption?

Lincoln claims his stuffed dog, “Doggie” pronounced “Dogdie,” is his baby who does not have a mouth. He swaddles it and hums to it and puts it down for a nap. He doesn’t have to feed it; it doesn’t have a mouth. Or a gender. He told me the dog might grow a mouth when he’s bigger, but maybe not. One morning, he looked at me over his oatmeal to say, “Dr. Edgar is a daddy. And a nice grandpa. I like Dr. Edgar!” pause. “I like daddies!” (Dr. Edgar is Wesley’s advisor). They voted to name the van “Tom” after Dr. Edgar. Yesterday, Wes lay down on Levi’s pillow. As this seemed unacceptable, Levi took it away. Lincoln quickly brought his own pillow, “Here’s a pillow for you, Daddy!” Lincoln has also gone another successful week in underpants—even on public potties! Go Lincoln! Practicing for parenthood, I guess.

Keller slithers, inches, smashes. I’m trying to convince him to use his knees, but he’s not willing to have even a temporary slow-down. He rolls, coos, sings. Sings very loudly. He loves the park, especially the swings and the slides. He cuddles his blankets. He crawls all over the floor, then drags himself to the kitchen or wherever I am, puts his arms out, and drops his head between them before wailing. We can go from giggling and smiling to horror-struck in less than a second. Oh, the dramatic emotions of my children. It’s a gift: this means they can embrace all the facets of life, right? Despite the lathered sunscreen, even Keller sports some pretty awesome tan lines. 

We go to the park. We come home drenched with sweat. We started a playgroup a few weeks ago. One of the older kids played Frisbee with Levi and Lincoln—so they all ran and ran and ran. For Lincoln, running = joy. He loves Frisbee. We met our friends Laurie and Eli at the nature center. This is a free mini-zoo with birds of prey, reptiles, and a few foxes, opossums, armadillos, etc. who cannot go safely into the wild for various reasons. Lincoln loved them. He wanted to touch them all and take them home. He couldn’t; instead he tried to hold conversations by screaming at them. I don’t think they want to be friends anymore. Laurie found out that their new baby is a girl. We gave her a Book of Mormon to celebrate. Levi was so excited to share it.

Wesley pulled everything together after his conferences, researched his own projects, submitted a paper, and worked, worked, worked. I found another spot with white hairs. I think that sums up our life happily!