Gotta love this state

Only in Texas...



My talented wife Katherine took this picture with a camera phone, from a moving car. Nice work honey!

Not taking chances...

Hey everyone,

I hope to blog soon about last weekend (more boxes unpacked, and another trip with a carload of "stuff" to Goodwill), but I wanted to let you all know that I'm going to be moving my blog to "Private" mode.

I don't understand enough about how one can search for and find a blog out here in Cyberspace, and since I'm going to be interacting soon with a bunch of technical-savvy college kids, I don't want to risk the personal information I share on my blog becoming public.

So in the next couple of weeks, I plan to privatize the blog --- I believe I know who most of you out there are, and I'll send you an invitation to this blog (although, to read it, you'll have to have a google ID - sorry about that, but it is easy to create). If you are not a regular commenter on my blog, feel free to post to this entry or send me an email to make sure you make the list.

Sorry for the annoyance, and I'll try to update my blog more often, to make it worth the log in! Thanks!

Movin' In (still)

It's been almost six months since we moved back into our house. We're pretty settled in, and in a comfortable routine. However, we started to notice that we were getting a little too comfortable, and not spending time continuing to unpack the boxes that filled our garage, our shed, and one fairly expensive storage locker. So we've re-committed to getting our stuff unpacked --- and we've given ourselves a deadline: September 11. I return to work full time on September 1, so it made sense to try to wrap this up before our lives got re-complicated by another change. However, we settled on September 11 as our deadline, as (1), we still have a TON of stuff to deal with and (2), September 11 will mark the one-year anniversary on which we evacuated our house due to Hurricane Ike.

We are making progress. In May, Mark and his Dad (thanks Paul!) moved our stuff from the biggest storage locker you can get, to the smallest one. They also inventoried all of our stuff, labelled the boxes, and drew a map showing where all the boxes are, so when we go back for another batch, we can decide specifically what we want to bring home (Paul's system - and we love it!).

Last weekend, Mark and I finished unpacking the stuff in the garage. Then this morning, we got through about half of the stuff in the shed, followed by our 3rd trip with a full carload to Goodwill. Our goal has been to get rid of at least 25% of our stuff as we unpack it. I think we're actually doing pretty well in that department!

We made another trip to the storage locker today (see picture above), and I'm hoping to get through a few boxes while Ben naps, before Ben and I commence our weekend errands routine: dry cleaner, library, grocery store.

Wish us luck --- and I hope to post a picture of our last empty box on September 11.

That's it for this little weekend update...

Big Boy Bed!

Earlier this week we moved Benjamin to his Big Boy Bed! We really had no intentions of doing so this soon, but it just felt right, and it appears to be working out!! Last week (maybe, my memory of the timing of all of this is a bit foggy --- in part due to some relatively sleepless nights...hence the change), Benjamin started waking up a lot during the night. We have a toddler-like sleeping bag in his closet (which he can see), and from time-to-time he would ask to lay on it at night (we would put it on the floor next to his crib). He usually couldn't settle into sleep, and so we would remove it, and he'd go back to sleeping in his crib just fine. But for a few nights in a row, he really wanted to sleep on his sleeping bag on the floor - but then would wake up and want to move to his crib --- but then would want to move back to the floor. It was exhausting! So we figured we needed to take away one of the choices. At first, we were going to remove the sleeping bag, and simply make him sleep in his crib. But then we figured, heck, he's two --- lots of kids move to big

beds when they are two (usually to make way for a sibling, but still, they do it). And he's having sleeping issues, anyway, so maybe why not just tackle this now as well?

So on Monday (I believe), we moved him to his big boy bed (which is his crib mattress on the floor). And put a baby gate up on his room, essentially making his room the crib. For the next few nights, he continued to struggle to sleep still (but he already was doing this), and we learned some odd desires of his when he has more choices in the sleep matter... particularly, he has always slept with just a tiny bit of light coming in from a closet in the hallways --- but for his second or third night in his crib, he wanted to sleep with his bedroom light on! --- and I tried alternatives - how about just the lamp? Just his closet light? Nope. He wanted the bedroom light on). And while we've always cracked his door just a bit open, he wants it WIDE open now. So it's a bit strange to go by his wide open door with the light on at night! (btw, I've switched to just leaving his closet light on, and he hasn't said anything --- it's still pretty bright in there!)

Anyways, it has gotten much better! Last night he slept through the night again (finally)! And tonight, he did not get out of bed and call to me from his room. He simply went to sleep.

I'm so proud, yet also a little in awe that this little boy of mine is daily morphing from my baby into a child.

Here's a couple of picture of our big boy asleep in his bed (taken different nights):





Next up: STICKERS! Our son has found his first passion in life (other than his beloved Biddy)!

Reflections on 2

Hi friends! This is Mark writing. On June 8th, we celebrated Benjamin’s second birthday. Wow, what an amazing two years. My first thought is how remarkably different the second year was from the first. Ben’s first year seemed like an eternity to me. Yes, there was some of the “it seems like just yesterday he was in the newborn diapers.” But for the most part that first year was long and challenging. This second year has been marked by milestones I have found more meaningful, and changes have come quickly. Now it really does seem like just yesterday that he was in newborn diapers. Here’s my chapter breakdown of his second year. (I realize many reading this blog will find this to be old hat as they’ve already been through this. We write these entries for the safekeeping of our own memories as well as for sharing with others. Maybe even you oldtimers will enjoy a different family’s experience.)

13-16 months. Walking! Ben actually took his first steps on his first birthday. They were small steps, but it was off to the races from then on. His crawl was awkward – we called it the cripple crawl – so I think he was happy to become a biped. I remember fondly going to Hermann Park, which is a very large park in Houston, soon after he learned to walk. We’d gone to feed the ducks, which we did for a while, but then spent an hour just walking around the outdoor amphitheatre. He enjoyed walking up and down the inclines in the seating area, holding on to the seats at times, and carefully navigating a few steps. It was a wonderful sight. They say you get a big wake up call when you have a baby, which I did. But I also had another one that August. The orchestra takes a break for a few weeks in August, and I had a healthy sized list of things I’d hoped to get accomplished during the break. You’d think I would have learned by then, but you just aren’t able to get as much done with a child than before. Those were a frustrating few weeks, but now that expectations are more reasonable I expect this August to be much more enjoyable.

17-20 months. Flood. Okay, that’s not really a child development stage, but there’s no other way to think of those four months. They were marked by stress, extreme business (at least the first couple months), and worry. But there were also some really cool things – living right in the middle of town, Ben’s first time going to school/daycare, seeing the house being remodeled and getting to choose exactly how we wanted many things. We also got to know extremely well our housemates – this wonderful couple in their fifties from our church. I think it would be a monumental act of generosity to share your house for four months, but I believe these folks saw this as simply following the biblical imperative to help other believers in times of need. They made us feel comfortable, doted on Ben endlessly – even taking him for a weekend while we left town, and offered free medical advice. (She’s a pediatric nurse practitioner.) We’re still close friends, in fact, closer than before. They’re leaving Houston soon to live in Colorado, and we’re going to miss them.

21-24 months. Talking and testing and interests. The testing part has not been that great, although even that has its rewards. But the talking has more than made up for it. In fact, this has definitely been the most fun I’ve had with Benjamin. I’ve mentioned before on this blog how rewarding it’s been to see the blossoming of our relatioship, especially with speech, and it just keeps getting better. “A loo daddy.” Can you figure out what that is? Probably the most wonderful things that could come out of a son’s mouth. He continues to learn new words and is now putting together simple sentences. I know my opinion on this will probably change, but one of the things I find hilarious now is this kid’s ability to negotiate. We try to give him choices about many things, and one of the most common is something like, “Do you want to leave the park now or in two minutes?” Of course, he almost always chooses two minutes but at least then he feels like he has a say in the matter. However, when we don’t offer a choice, he will still try to get the two minutes. “Ben, it’s time for your bath.” “Two minutes!” “Sorry son, time for your bath now.” “Two minutes!” Hilarious. He has interests in things now. The first distinct one I remember was trucks. He loved his books about diggers and dumpers, and when some friends gave us their outgrown toy trucks he went nuts. Then it was animals – elephants, rhinos, giraffes, hippos, zebras, etc. One of his true loves is busses. Particularly the yellow school bus. “Wello Bus!” He’ll eagerly point out every single bus we see on the roads, even ones an adult eye would never see. For example, waiting at a stoplight by a freeway overpass. I never see what’s going by on the freeway above, but now I know for sure when a bus goes by. Or the occasional concrete mixer.

Parenting brings joys that are amazingly powerful; joys I would not have understood in a tangible way two years ago. Two moments come to mind. The first was maybe six months ago when Ben and I were at the Woodlands Children’s Museum. They have this area somewhat like a sandbox, except instead of sand it’s filled with tires that have been cleaned and chopped into tiny pieces. Ben was in this area working with a dumptruck, repeatedly filling it with a small shovel, pushing the full truck over to this rock, and dumping it out. It may not sound like a big deal, but he was amazingly focused! I had such a wonderful time watching him stay completely focused on this task for a good while. Why does this bring joy to a new father? It’s a little tough to say, but I wonder if it has to do with seeing your son caring about something, being passionate about it, as much as an 18-month old can. I’m not sure if that’s it, but I still love to sit and watch him when he’s enveloped by something he’s working on.

The other moment was actually just yesterday, although there have been a number like this. Katherine’s parents are visiting, and they had set up a little water park for him. We all watched him as he entered the plastic kiddie pool, then climbed some steps, then went down the slide into this other water toy that squirts some water in little jets. He did this repeatedly for a long time, laughing the whole time with this huge smile on his face. I found myself rather overcome just watching him. There’s something very, very special about that unadulterated happiness. No worries about worldly things, relationships, yesterday, or tomorrow. Just enjoying everything that moment had to offer. Maybe dad could learn something from this two year old.

Best Gift Ever

This is Mark writing on a lovely Friday morning when I don't have rehearsal. A few weeks ago, Katherine offered up an amazing gift to me - take a few days and go wherever you want to do whatever you want. It's one of those things that, a few years ago, I would have thought that was nice but not a big deal. But it's so rare now to take a true break for a few days totally uninterrupted. It really was an amazing gift. Perhaps the title of this post was a little exaggerated, as Katherine didn't donate a kidney or anything. But it really was a very special treat - I had a fantastic time, rested a lot, and felt totally rechared afterward.

I know you're just dying to know what I did, right? As I've told folks in person, there have been two responses. 1. "Oh wow, that just sounds amazing! I wish I could do something like that." These are the introverts like me. 2. "Okay Mark, that sounds fun. Have a good time." These folks are saying in their heads, "That doesn't sound fun at all. Why would you choose to do that?" These are the extroverts. I drove about three hours to a college town in east Texas called Nacogdoches. I really wanted to go to east Texas because it's full of awesome trees - very pretty drive. Once there, I got a hotel room and spent two days building a radio controlled airplane. You may know one of my great dreams in life is to build a real airplane (http://www.vansaircraft.com/public/rv-10int.htm). Katherine's father gave this model as a gift to me a number of years ago. It's a model of another of Van's Aircraft planes - the RV4. It's a pretty serious model - complete with all the moving parts necessary for flight and a real internal combustion engine. I loved working on it and made great progress when we were living in Florida. I completed the airframe, installed the engine and the radios. It was almost finished. Then when we moved to Houston, the plane went to the back burner and has stayed there pretty much since then. But I've really been wanting to finish it. So while in Nacogdoches, I filled all the holes and imperfections in the airframe, sanded the whole thing, tweaked a few things, painted the cockpit, and covered the fuselage and tail. The covering is this iron on stuff that was totally new to me, so it took a long time to learn to work with it. I didn't get the wing done, the cockpit canopy needs to be installed, and there are a number of small little details yet to be completed. But it was some serious progress and hopefully this thing will fly in the near future.

While working on this, I really got lost in time. I slept in until about 9:30 one day, worked for a while then went to lunch. And before I knew it, it was 11pm and time to pack everything up to leave. I had the Rockets basketball game on at one point in the background. I looked over thinking it would be early 2nd quarter. To my surprise, the game was almost over. Wow, time flies when you're having fun!

Thank you Katherine. It was a remarkable gift and you're a wonderful wife!!

Here's a couple pictures. They're not great, but the best I could do with a camera phone.

Here's the plane assembled. It's been sanded smooth and is ready for covering at this point. There's really no reason to assemble the parts at this stage except to look at it and make airplane noises.


Here's the fuselage with the tail attached all covered and pretty. Color will come later.

Pause

It's Wednesday morning --- which is quickly becoming my favorite time of the week. While most people's "Hump Day" is just something to get through, mine is something to savor - a chance to do those things that are hard to get done otherwise (laundry, catch-up on email, pick up the house a bit) - but mostly, it seems to be the one day of the week when I can pause for just a moment, and finish a thought or a note, and take a look at the weeks ahead and determine what I need to do to prepare for its arrival.

How is this possible? From a beautiful combination of Ben being in school, and me being home from work. My new job is very demanding, and it's hard to carve away time to keep it part-time --- a status I'm supposed to be able to enjoy until September. So I try to block of my calendar for Wednesdays (I'm successful maybe 3/4 weeks), and I drop off Ben at school in the morning --- and then get to savor five hours of time where I decide what to do. Not my deadlines at work. Not a demanding (although adorable) Toddler. Me.

And I try to take a few minutes on these Wednesday mornings to do something fun --- like post on my blog --- in the hopes that when I pick up Ben this afternoon, I will be refreshed and energized. Ready to tackle the challenge of balancing deadlines and demands during another round in the office while still trying to carve out time and energy to spend with Ben. And trying to also remember that I'm still a wife to my husband, and a friend to my friends, and a daughter/sister to my family. Sometimes it can just seem like so much, and I wonder if I'm simply being carried along by my life, or if I am in fact leading it.

But for today - for this morning, this WEDNESDAY morning, I get to pause.