Lots of Wasden Love

We've been so lucky to have so much family visiting for so long. It's just our very most favorite thing! We had a few quiet weeks after Papa John and Baba left to catch up on life a bit and relax. We had a quick little visit in there from Norah's cousin Bronwyn; it was so great to catch up. Then, Aunt Cat and Uncle Tyler visited over spring break. Since our nieces were on spring break that week too, it was a Wasden family party!

Auntie Cat arrived on Saturday, April 16th. We decided to visit the temple in NYC as a family and then pick her up on the way home. Lewis did really well. He napped for us in the car on the way in. He played happily in the church next door to the temple while Mommy and Daddy switched off visiting the temple. And, he seemed very excited to be in New York City! He happens to love the song "The Boy from New York City". So, being in the city was very fun. Plus, there were buses and taxi cabs and transportation galore! Despite the rain, he was a happy camper. Actually, since he loves splashing in puddles, he was probably even happier because of the rain!

We started the week on Sunday with a Passover dinner together. It was so neat! Mike and I have always incorporated something of Passover in our Easter celebration, but this year we decided that we'd officially like to commemorate Passover too. We really enjoyed it, and ate very well! Mike's matzah ball soup followed by roast lamb, veggies, and potatoes, and topped off with a flourless chocolate cake. Mmmm!

The next evening was a big feast again as we celebrated birthdays for Aunt Cat and Megan together. Delicious Chinese sweet and sour chicken and veggies followed up with a frozen layered cake that left us all doubled over in happy pain. Being with family is so good for the soul, but not quite as good for the waistline!

During the week, we had lots of fun playtime with Auntie Cat who is so amazingly fun and imaginative. She and Lewis went for lots of walks, played in the garden, read lots of books, threw rocks down the water drain, and picnicked in the back yard. It was lovely! Auntie Cat also got some nice snuggle time with Beau and officially declared him the happiest, best baby! He gave her lots of great smiles and coos, and she was smitten.

On Wednesday evening, uncle Tyler came up from DC to join us. What a treat to have him and to have the 4 oldest Wasden siblings all together! (We just needed Scott!!!) We had a barbeque out at Rosedale Park together on Thursday evening, and then did an Easter egg hunt in our yard. Lewis absolutely loved being at the playground with his cousins and playing by the lake. And, he really, really loved doing an Easter egg hunt with them. We've discovered that sugar at bedtime has quite a fascinating effect! Lewis ended the evening by literally running circles in the living room while he told "jokes" and sang songs for everyone! It was too cute! Beau also loves his adoring cousins and is always very accommodating while being passed around and admired!

On Friday, we all went to visit Mike at work and have lunch with him. That was really fun! Cat and Ty had a trip to the company store. Then, Mike met us for dessert at the Bent Spoon in the evening. We all indulged in ice cream, cupcakes, AND cookies. Hmmm. That place has literally the most amazing ice cream and cupcakes ever! What's a girl to do?!?

After lots of fun chats and laughs and hugs, we said goodbye to Cat and Ty on Saturday morning, sending them off with some Hot Cross Muffins (cause Mommy thinks muffins are way easier than buns!). Lewis has been talking about Auntie Cat going on an airplane and Uncle Tyler going on a train and a bus ever since. He also has started singing "The More We Get Together" with a second verse that goes, "The more we love Tyler, love Tyler, love Tyler, the more we love Tyler, the happier we'll be!" Actually, tonight we sang "The more we love Tyler on the bus, on the bus...". This kid is totally obsessed!

(As witnessed by the picture below. He's trying to stuff his loader truck into the diaper bag so he can bring it to church!)

Mike and I had a wonderful Easter filled with reminders of love and hope and peace. We felt very grateful for all that we have. After our company left, we also decided to prioritize sleep over everything else. Lewis had such a wonderful, exciting week that he woke up at 5am just about every morning. And, when Beau wakes up at 4am and then Lewis is up at 5am, there's not much sleep for mom and dad. So, we were happy but exhausted! We went to bed incredibly early on Saturday night. Then we ate crackers and cheese for lunch after church and took a long family nap on Sunday afternoon. We'll save the Easter ham for next weekend when we're a little more caught up on sleep!

Moments with our Boys

For this post, I'll include some notes I've been keeping for myself of cute little moments with our boys.

Our little John Beaumont Wasden was blessed at our church service on Sunday, March 13th. We were so happy to be able to have his namesakes, both of his grandfathers, there to participate in the blessing. It was very special. It made for a very fun weekend with the family. Baba was able to stay for a little longer as well and we had a fun week together filled with visiting story hour and music hour at the library and playing at the park.

We also spent a fair chunk of that weekend with Jake, Mish, and the girls. Lewis, of course, was in heaven. Within seconds of the girls arriving at our house each day, there would be peals of laughter as they all chased Lewis around the loop between our rooms downstairs. He loves to yell, “Hi”, as he passes by the girls going around each loop. He thinks it’s so funny! The girls helped me put Lewis down to bed on Sunday night. So, when he woke up on Monday morning, he was still hoping they’d be there. When I opened up the door, he was not all that excited to see me and threw himself back down in the crib crying. I told him I’d give him another minute and asked if I should close the door. Affirmative. After I did, I heard him saying, “Rachel? Rachel? Rachel?” Shame! So cute! Once he let me get him up, I explained that Rachel had to go to school, but that we’d see her again later. A few minutes after that, he started whining just a bit and then told me, “I’m crying. I’m sad. Rachel go to school.” After that he said, “It’s OK. I see Rachel again.” How sweet is that?

In other news, we had an April Fools Day snow storm this year that really was not very appreciated! But, within a few days, the warmer weather was here. Lewis loves playing outside again. The girls next door taught him how to pick up sticks in the yard and throw them in a pile by the road for pick up. So, we took advantage and had Lewis be our little work horse! He loves it!

Lewis likes to count things in his books , if he knows that’s the point of a certain page. He general points to things either one or multiple times and counts to anywhere from 2-10 regardless of how many cows or ducks or whatever there are! He is also getting very good at “reading” books to himself or to us when he sort of knows the story. Or, if he doesn’t know it, he just sort of mutters nonsense and makes it up!

Speaking of books, Lewis absolutely loves library books. He loves the library. He loves getting home, looking through his new library books, and putting them in his bookshelf. And, he loves reading them. He still has other favorites from our permanent collection, but the new library books we cycle through each week or so are fabulous!

On Sunday, March 20, I was playing with Lewis outside Jake and Mish’s house. I helped him jump off a big rock onto the grass. Afterwards, he told me, “Oh, I sorry. I’m afraid. I no do that!”

Lewis was pretending to feed me things off of one of his toys. “Here you go, Mommy. It’s a salad. Oh, it’s a cookie. Oh, it’s a mango.” Then he saw my phone sitting there, and he pretended to take a bite of something from it, saying, “Oh, it’s a phone.” Then he broke out laughing hysterically and said, “Oh, that’s so funny!” He cracks himself up!

Here's Lewis by the old Pennington train station. We come here at least every other day on our runs and try to see the train. Lewis is making peace with the fact that sometimes we're lucky, and sometimes the train has gone bye-bye. It's a freight train, and Mommy can't for the life of her figure out what schedule it's on. But, we try just about every day!

We think Lewis has the Ellis punning gene. He’s recently discovered that he can change words of songs around. His favorite one of the week is to say, “Wasn’t that a dainty dish to set before the...bowl”, and then he laughs and laughs and says, “Oh, that’s so funny!” He also likes to talk about “Rain-Beaus” and points at Beau! He has realized that “Ba Ba Black Sheep” sounds like “Ba Ba”, and he also jokes about “Bumble Beans” when we eat beans for dinner. Again...always cracking himself up with how funny his jokes are!

As we pulled into Manor Drive the other week, Lewis recognized where we were and said, “It’s Rachel time!” Now when we get home, he says, “It’s home time!”

Lewis seems rather sensitive to his expectations not being met. He loves coming to the gym with me and loves his teachers at the Kids’ Space, the little daycare there. Well, yesterday we went to the gym in the afternoon instead of the morning. And, there are different “teachers” there in the afternoon. He was all excited to be there, but when we walked in, it literally took no more than a split second for him to realize that the teachers were different – not the ones he was expecting. He all of a sudden got very clingy and started saying, “No, no, no”, and didn’t want me to leave to go exercise. It took a good few minutes of playing with him, introducing him to the teachers, persuading, etc., before he’d let me go. Then he was fine, but it was so funny. He left that separation anxiety phase so long ago, but this was like a brief little relapse.

Beau seems to be very happy with new people. When Lewis was a baby, he’d just stare people down so intently. We could tell he was really interested in people, but he would have this really serious little look on his face in new situations and would just stare and stare at people, really from the time he was a tiny little baby. Well Beau, on the other hand, seems to be all laughs. Someone new looks at him and he sort of throws his head back and breaks out into a big smile. It’s very cute, and really neat to see his temperament coming through.

April 4^th, 2011 – Today Lewis grabbed me around my legs and gave me a big hug around my legs and told me, “Mommy, I need attention!” Then we just laughed and laughed and said it was so funny!

April 4^th, 2011 – Lewis was helping me move the laundry from the washer to the dryer. He’s a great helper! I gave him a pile to push into the dryer and he looked a bit confused, after which he said, “But, it’s all wet?!?” I told him that’s OK!

April 4^th, 2011 – Baby Beau started sucking his thumb today! He was very happy to have found his thumb. In fact, our little content baby isn’t even asking to eat anymore because he can just take care of soothing himself!

April 6^th, 2011 – Today Lewis lined up all the trucks at the sandbox in one, big, long line. He loves to do this because he’s very methodical. When he had lined up just a few trucks, he started counting them, and he said, “One, two...too many trucks”. So cute – another little play on words from our boy! By the time he was done, Lewis had all 12 trucks from the Kunkel Park sandbox lined up.

April 8^th, 2011 – Lewis loves pretending more and more. Most of his pretending games have to do with food. He is pretending to bake cookies in the oven today, and he put one on the floor, and one in the basket. He’ll ask me, “You want some? You want some, Mommy? Here you go!” And then he gives me a little “cookie” to eat!

April 8^th, 2011 – Beau is definitely a thumb sucker. He’ll be 11 weeks old tomorrow. He went to bed last night after a 9pm feeding. He woke up at about 7am, but didn’t start crying until about 9am because he was just sucking his thumb! He’s such a happy little boy!

April 8^th, 2011 - Lewis did his first Easter egg hunt with the Moms’ club today. He did great. He found a lot of eggs. At one point, he tried to pick up an egg that another little girl had wanted to pick up. But, she was a bit smaller than him, so she hadn’t gotten to it as quickly. When Lewis picked it up, she started crying, and he looked sad about that. So, I asked him if he could share it with her, and he gave it right to her. He’s such a sweet boy and a good sharer.

April 10^th, 2011 – Today Lewis went to his first concert. We went to a voice recital for 4 different girls from Westminster Conservatory who are in our ward. He loved it. He sat mesmerized for the first two performers. Then he got a bit antsy and wanted to go play. He told Mommy that the girls were singing too loud! But, he loved it and he was very good.

Beau had a wonderful time at the concert too. He slept for the first half and then he woke up and wanted to eat, so Mommy fed him. During the last performer’s first number, Beau filled his diaper rather loudly. It was during a rather loud part of the piece, so not too many people heard. Then, just as she completed a very dramatic conclusion to the piece, there was complete silence, and Beau filled his diaper for all the audience to hear. It was so funny! Everyone laughed!

April 19^th, 2011 – Today by 9:30 in the morning, we had had family scripture study, everyone had had breakfast, both me and Mike had gone for a jog separately, I had done all the dishes, Lewis had a bath, Beau had a bath, Lewis had a haircut, we played a lot, I read my scriptures and the news, and I was feeding Beau again before we got ready for the library. That’s kind of a lot for 9:30 in the morning! Here is the haircut, and the lollipop for being such a good boy!

April 20^th, 2011 – Lewis just asked me where Cat was. I told him that she went to take a shower. He said yeah. And then he told me, “Cat’s nak!”. I said, that’s right. Auntie Cat probably is “nak” in the shower!

April 23^rd, 2011 – I just asked Lewis if we could go upstairs and take a bath. He said, “And, we see rubber duckies?” I told him, yeah. Then he added, “And, we see the poop?” To which I responded, “Oh, did you do a poop?” He told me yeah, and started laughing and laughing.

Lewis has a new pun. Instead of “Okay”, he now likes to say “Oh cake”, and then laugh and laugh!

April 24^th, 2011 – This morning is Easter. We were very tired this morning at about 6am when Lewis woke up this morning. Daddy went in and got him out of his crib and gave him some books, which is our typical routine. Beau woke up too, and so I lay in bed and fed him. After quite a while, I started wondering where Lewis was. Normally he only reads for about 10-15 minutes and then comes in to find us. Just then, I heard Lewis coming up the stairs. I quickly asked Mike if Lewis had gone downstairs, but Mike didn’t know. Sure enough, Lewis opened the door with a very messy face and a happy grin and announced, “Mommy, I eat the chocolate bunny!” He had found his Easter basket all on his own! He also found about 10 eggs hidden around the room with jelly beans, and he had polished those off too. Thankfully, he hadn’t eaten everything in the basket so he could still share with Mommy and Daddy!

April 25^th, 2011 – Yesterday in church Lewis was lying down on my lap. He started to say something to me in a normal voice, and I told him to be quiet and whisper. So, he said, in a very intent little whisper, “Mommy, I have a belly button.”

Lewis was pretending that we were all different animals the other day. He had told me and Daddy that we were horses and ducks and cats, etc. Then he went running around the house and ran back in the room yelling, “Mommy, you’re a cow!” Cute. So cute.

Beau is beginning to move around. Just about every time we get him from his crib, he’s somehow turned himself around 90 or 180 degrees. To be honest, I’m not totally sure how he’s scooting around. I have seen him flip his legs up and then start rolling. But, I haven’t ever caught him actually rolling from his back to front, or vice versa. (Although, he’s very close!) This is the difference between a first and second child. With Lewis, I would have been able to tell you every little move and noise he made and exactly how he got from point A to point B. With Beau, I must admit, I find myself turning around or coming back into the room a little mystified as to how he’s off the play mat!

Beau is such a love. He just loves to coo and gurgle and have what seem to be full little love fest conversations with Mommy. I just love it!

I have to put in one little tidbit about Lewis that just amazes me. I got an iphone recently. Of course, I have a whole page of free apps that I've downloaded that are to entertain Lewis when we're in the doctor's office or some such. I must admit, they've gotten a fair bit of use this past week as he's been up so early each morning, I've just been searching for anything he can do sitting next to me in bed so I at least can lie down from 5:30-6am!!! Anyway, it's remarkable to me how quickly he's picked up on how to use it. It's almost scary! The first week or so, I wouldn't let him hold it because I wanted to protect it. I'll let him hold it now because I've realized that after watching me do something literally once or twice, he knows how to do it. He now knows how to unlock the phone, scroll over to the page with his apps, click back and forth between various apps and the home screen, and play whatever little shape games or train games or flashcards or songs I've managed to put on there. It's remarkable to me! Despite the fact that we happily have no TV, he's going to grow up in a very different world than I did!

Last little thought. If you keep up on our blog, you know that Lewis looks very cute in lederhosen. Ours are actually from Spain, not Germany. We do now have quite the little collection of lederhosen, which means Lewis looks very handsome for church! I'm not sure if everyone quite knows what to make of it, but we love it!