surgery canceled Posted by: Niki on 2008-05-08 at 20:06:53
Just to give you an update. We have canceled Austen's eye surgery. It appears as though his eye no longer has the clogged tear duct, so there is no reason for the surgery. I'm really glad that we are able to avoid him having surgery.
Water, Out, Doggy Posted by: Niki on 2008-05-04 at 21:26:30
Today Austen said, "out" when he wanted to get out of the wagon. He also saw a dog barking and said, "doggy." Tomorrow he will be 18 months old and I am excited about the next 6 months. I remember when Lili was around that age it seemed like she was saying a new word every day.
The other day I was taking a shower in our bathroom. Our bathroom has a separate shower stall and tub. Lili was telling me that when Jack and Lane were here she turned on the water in the tub all by herself. When I got out of the shower I discovered that Lili had turned the water on in the tub, the drain was plugged and Austen was standing in the tub with his pjs on and he was soaked.
Bird, Door & 3 years old Posted by: Niki on 2008-04-25 at 14:00:41
Today Austen was laying in bed with me and we had the window open. Outside the birds were chirping. He lifted his head up, pointed at the window and said, "bird." At nap time, he was looking at a book and pointed to a door in the book and said "door."
A couple of days before Lili turned 3 she stopped taking naps. It had gotten to the point where she wouldn't fall asleep until 10:30. Since then she has taken a couple of naps, but for the most part she doesn't nap.
Last week, Lili started a Spanish class on Thursday and a Games class on Friday. Both classes are ones where I leave her and go do something else. Last week's Spanish went OK, she was super shy and I actually stayed in there for part of the class. But both Games classes (last week and this week) and yesterday's Spanish class went really well. Her teachers said she did really well and wasn't acting shy at all. I think the trick is to get there early so she is one of the first ones there. My little girl is growing up.
Austen's eye Posted by: Niki on 2008-04-16 at 08:09:02
We took Austen to the eye doctor yesterday for his clogged tear duct. After the doctor looked at his eyes he asked me if anyone in the family is badly nearsighted. Me! He said that at Austen's age most kids are far sighted, but Austen is already showing signs of near-sightedness. I told him I thought I had to start wearing glasses around age 5. He said that Austen will be lucky to make it that long. Poor guy, I had hoped that the kids would have Michael's eyes, not mine.
His surgery for the clogged tear duct will be on May 12. It will probably be early in the morning, however, we won't know exactly what time until the Friday before.
Stickers are my job Posted by: Niki on 2008-03-28 at 13:17:30
The Easter bunny brought the kids stickers in their baskets. On Sunday afternoon Lili was playing with her stickers and she said, "I am working. When your a kid you work at stickers not at the computer."
Sweetie Pie Posted by: Niki on 2008-03-24 at 22:39:27
For the last 3 nights Sammy has put Lili to sleep. What that means is that Samantha lies in there with Lili on the floor while Lili falls asleep. This has actually worked very nicely. Last night when it was time for Sam to come upstairs Lili kept saying over and over, "Come on Sweetie pie" and "Come on Sweetie" and a couple of times, "come on pie". We laughed hysterically.
Sometimes before bed (and at other times) Michael will walk around on his hands and knees while the kids ride on his back. Lili calls it Horsey. Every once in awhile she will say, "We almost lost one." We think it dates back to one time that Austen started to slide off and Michael said that.
Last night and tonight after bath, Lili and Austen got into Austen's bed. Lili said, "I'm going to put Austen to sleep." Then she proceeded to read books to him. We got a picture of that one - stayed tuned - it will be on here eventually.
For the last week or so, Austen's walk has been getting faster and faster to where I think we can say he is running.
A More Perfect Union Posted by: Michael on 2008-03-18 at 21:34:24
We tend to keep the stories on our blog light and happy. Sometimes it is easier that way. Probably the most profound statements made were when I talked about my father's death and life, or perhaps when Lili mention mine and Austen's "peanuts".
I got done putting Austen to sleep tonight and came down to the basement to work on the finishing of it. I sat down at my computer and checked a few news sites, included an aggregator called Digg.com. On digg I saw a story from the Huffington Post about a speech that Barak Obama made today in Philadelphia. I haven't listened to too many speeches from Barak, but I decided to put this one on while I worked.
As I listened to the speech, it was as if Barak was describing portions of my family. He mentions his white gramdmother, and her admission that she was scared to walk past black teenagers on the street. He mentioned his African American community back in Chicago, and the racial injustices his peers have had to tolerate. He mentions the white worker whose getting laid off, while that worker hears of the black man getting a break due to affirmative action. He mentions that how the resentment and hatred can build up in people through the years from America's poor job at fixing it's racial woes.
As Barak mentioned these things, I thought back to Christmas when certain members of my family made racially charged statements regarding a toy Austen had received. I thought back to my father. A man who, as early as I could remember wasn't prejudice, but who slowly and gradually grew to hate African Americans for many of the same reasons Barak was mentioning now.
I thought of all those people in my family who have racial bias, and I finally felt as if I could understand where they are coming from. Not that I think it is right or justified, but here was a black man, running for president, that completely understands both sides of the racial equation. He wasn't pandering to one side or the other. He understands the woes of both sides, and that is the first step at healing this scar of our nation. This alone is enough to make him our next president.
I guess she knows who the cook is in the house Posted by: Niki on 2008-03-18 at 10:31:34
I was making tuna patties for lunch today. Usually lunch consists of reheating leftovers. While I was cooking, Lili says, "Why isn't Daddy making dinner?"
