Squeaks and Giggles

Another post created mostly for my mom, or other people like her who can't stand the fact that Ellis is growing up approximately 2,348 miles away from them. And let me tell you, he's growing fast!

His latest new thing (besides sleeping for 4 hour stretches at night -- hallelujah!) is laughing. We love all of the squeaks, giggles, and other crazy sounds that come out of this precious, chubby, kissable bundle. We all can't help but do anything and everything to try to make him smile and laugh more and more. It's addictive. And apparently making video clips of him is too. Here are three:

Squeaks and Giggles from Ben and Jenn on Vimeo.

Squeaks and Giggles 2 from Ben and Jenn on Vimeo.

Squeaks and Giggles 3 from Ben and Jenn on Vimeo.

Did you never seen . . . ?

These questions were all asked to me within a five minute window. See if you can guess who asked them:

• Mommy, did you never seen a man wearing a hat on his boots on the top of the road and he fell down and a car ran him over?
• Did you never seen people wearing jammies on the school bus and they were going to sleep at the school? Did you never seen that?
• Did you never seen one boy walking on the road and he crashed into the car and he just fell over the road?
• Did you never seen a man playing a piano on a xylophone?
• Have you never had hot chocolate juice? It's a kind of red juice that's not very useful.
• Mommy, do you know what "betta" is? It's when you take a little bit of cheese, and you put butter on it, and you put crackers on the vanilla, and you mix it ALL up!

If you can't tell, we're going through a making-up-wild-and-crazy-stories phase at our house. If you still haven't guessed who the asker is, watch this clip of his latest made-up songs:

Random Songs from Ben and Jenn on Vimeo.

The Turnpike from Stockbridge to Boston

If something has to be called "the dead of winter," this is it. And when I say "this," I mean the end of January, freezing cold weather, biting wind, unceasing snow storms, and no spring in sight. As I mentioned in the last post, Ben has been on vacation for the past two weeks. What do you do on vacation in the dead of winter? We spent the first week and a half holing up in our somewhat warm apartment checking things off the to-do list. I must admit that this felt really good, since our to-do list has been hiding at the bottom of a pile of junk for the last 4 1/2 months!

Still, by this week, we were ready to play! We looked at about a million options for fun things to do in the area, and about 999,000 of them looked like they would be much more fun in warm weather. Consequently, we opted for museum mania! With $50 in our pockets (thanks, Mom!), we covered 4 museums and 2 restaurants in 2 days.

On Monday we went to the Children's Museum and Cosi Sandwich Bar in Boston (two of our favorites). Then on Tuesday, we hit the road for some other, more obscure museums we hadn't been to yet.

First up, the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA. For me, half of the reason for this trip was so we could take "the Turnpike from Stockbridge to Boston" while it was "covered with snow," just to appease Sweet Baby James. It was a lovely drive, and yes, "the Berkshires (the mountains you can see on the side of the road) seemed dreamlike on account of that frostin'." The 2-hour drive actually flew by, thanks to Linda's Donuts (yum!) and the fact that driving is one of the few ways Ben and I get a conversation alone anymore, providing the little monsters either doze off or zone out. It's almost like a date!


We loved the Norman Rockwell Museum! I suppose I am a huge fan of Rockwell's illustrations and the classic American values they portray (maybe it's because I've always thought I should have grown up in the 40's or 50's). It was fun to see the paintings up-close and the Saturday Evening Post covers all lined up chronologically to show their wave through history. I think it was also a great "art museum" for kids. Henry loved talking about each painting, and then they had a great kids' room on the lower level.
We headed back home and hit Springfield halfway there. Our Children's Museum passes get us into lots of other museums for free, so we hit the Springfield Science Museum while we were there. It was a pretty decent museum with a great animal exhibit that Henry loved.


Springfield is the birthplace of Theodor Geisel, and so there is also a history museum mostly dedicated to the great Dr. Seuss. We checked that out and then walked around the Seuss sculpture garden before heading home.

It was the perfect thing to do on such a frigid day -- especially since my feet got to roast under the car heater for nearly 5 hours of driving.

My Boys

I have been in heaven the past two weeks with Ben out of school and done with finals! What could be more perfect than lazy mornings with these three boys all cuddled up in my bed? Maybe if we had a king size bed and there was room for all four of us? Okay, that would be pretty good too.

Let's just say that we're all sad to see Ben starting classes again today. We love his student schedule and the flexibility he has! This morning, as Ben got all bundled up to walk to the bus stop, Henry asked, "Dad, where are you going?" He was clearly expecting some fun and exciting response, like "Out to play in the snow!" I think Henry has forgotten what it feels like to have a dad that leaves by 8:00 every morning. Here we go, back to regular life. Heaven sure was nice while we had it though :)

Farewell, Friend

Many of you will remember this dear family member of many years, the Hitachi 2. If you knew Ben during his childhood or teenage years, you may recognize this TV from the Iverson living room. Or if you knew me during my childhood or teenage years, you may THINK you recognize this TV because it is identical to the Hitachi 1, which graced the Griffin home for many years and also adorned a few apartments in my Provo days. If you are lucky, you may also remember that precious time when Ben and I were first married, and we had BOTH the Hitachi 1 and 2 in our apartment, stacked on top of each other as inseparable friends.

Ah, the memories. I'm sure if you were acquainted with either of the beautiful, wood-paneled Hitachis, you will be disappointed to see that we're finally saying our last goodbye. The government forced us into it! We would have been happy to keep this TV for 20 more years, but it's going to be obsolete next month with the big switch to digital. Darn newfangled gadgets! We opted to spend $65 on a TV from craigslist instead of $40 on the digital converter box. This is the new beauty below. You can see we're not big spenders when it comes to electronics. We were excited though, to find a TV with a digital tuner for $65. Some might even argue that it's a better TV than our old one. It's bigger, clearer, and has a remote control. Who knew how convenient a remote control would be? Last night we watched a movie and exulted every time we didn't have to stand up to turn the volume up or down. You're probably already judging us for our vanity. At least we still have the classy rabbit ears to keep us humble.

Happy Inauguration Day

Henry wants to brighten your Inauguration Day:


Barack Obama from Ben and Jenn on Vimeo.

Sansa Clip

I've wanted an mp3 player for a long time, but could never bring myself to buy an iPod.  The iPod Nano was way more than I needed, but the Shuffle didn't have a screen so you can only play your music straight through or shuffled.  And they're overpriced, in my opinion.  Well, for Christmas, with some help from Jenn, my mom surprised me with a Sansa Clip, and I've been loving it.  It does everything that an iPod Shuffle can do, but it has a screen, an FM tuner, and is half the price!  So this post is to get the word out to those of you who have been looking for a little player to take to the gym or on your commute that you can get one for only $40.

I'll be using my player to listen to audiobooks while I take the bus to and from school.  At least half of my commute is walking and waiting for the bus, so listening to audiobooks is a much better way to use my time.  That's good news for the book list, which has been dormant since we moved to Boston.  In fact, I'm nearly done with Seabiscuit, so watch for my review of that in a few days.

Winter Break

Last Thursday I finished my finals and completed the first semester of my program! I still can't believe that Harvard made us study over Christmas, but the good news is that starting next year we will be on a traditional schedule with finals before Christmas. Much better. Anyway, the semester is over and now I have a week and a half break until spring term starts up!

Looking back on the semester, overall I'd say it was about what I expected: hard, enlightening, frustrating, rewarding, and nice to have out of the way. Lots of people have commented to me something to the effect of, "it must be incredible to learn from some of the world's top economists at at time like this." While I definitely agree that it's awesome to have so many smart people teaching me, I heard surprisingly little about the financial crisis during my courses. For the most part the professors stuck to the lesson plans and went over model after model after model with us. The real purpose of the first year of my program is to catch us up on what has been happening in academic economics over the past 50 years, leaving them little time to talk about current events. However, there is a special course this spring where each week a different professor will give his take on the crisis, and I'm definitely going to be there. So I should hear a lot more about it all over the next 4 months! Besides that class on the financial crisis, I'll have microeconomics II, econometrics, and either behavioral finance or macroeconomics II. Sounds like fun, eh?

So, what am I going to do over the break? So far I've done a lot of snow shoveling (I think we've had nearly 15 inches over the past two days--the picture above is the view from our kitchen), and I've taken poor Ellis to the doctor a couple of times to deal with Bronchialitis (RSV). Now that he's feeling better and there isn't more snow on the horizon, I'm hoping to relax a bit, maybe watch some movies, put new strings on my guitar, read, etc. Sometimes being in school isn't all that bad.

Meet the Cars

(Jenn) Some of you may wonder what Henry does all day. You may think that since he is only 3 years old, he doesn't accomplish very much in a single day. Let me inform you that this kid is one of the busiest I know. He wakes up every morning with an agenda. Every day, "the cars" have something important to do, and it's up to Henry to help them make it happen, one car at a time. With over 100 cars in his collection, it turns out to be a full-time job to drive (not fly -- that's cheating) each car to its destination every day. No wonder Henry doesn't have time to play with any of his other toys!
Here are a few pictures of what the cars have been up to lately. I should mention that many of these agendas get repeated. I think "Cars stuck in traffic on the George Washington Bridge" has happened at least ten times. Here goes:

1. Cars stuck in traffic on the George Washington Bridge

2. Cars making an "H"

3. Cars in the parade

4. Cars going to Boston

5. Cars going in the Lincoln Tunnel

6. Cars crashing

7. Cars at "Touch the Trucks"

8. Cars at the circus

9. Cars at church

10.Car school

11. Cars at piano school

Which is your favorite?

4 Weeks Later . . .

(Jenn) 3 weeks is a long time for a vacation. Add half a week before and after the vacation to prepare and recover, and we find we have devoted 1/12 of our year to one trip. That's a big deal! Upon returning from Utah, we discovered that:

• Ellis has grown accustomed to the Mtn timezone, which means he insists on a 1:00am bedtime instead of 11:00pm.
• Ellis is sleeping for longer naps now, for whatever reason (maybe because he's sick?). We'll take it!
• Ellis now likes Henry (this is new).
• We're no longer afraid that Henry is going to kill Ellis if we leave them alone together for a few minutes.
• I can type using both hands, if I'm careful! I call it "finger exercises" to justify it.
• Henry loves all of his old toys!
• It only takes him 15 minutes to unload 97 cars from the bin and take them "to the parade."
• Our house actually IS way colder than normal people's houses. The thermostat says 70, but it's lying. I'm sure of this.
• Henry can suddenly open all of our child-locked cupboards. Who taught him that? (Isaac? Evan? Dan?)
• Henry now owns Transformer underpants. Thanks to somebody.
• Ellis is suddenly a big baby. He turned into a 4-month-old while we weren't looking.
• Ellis has decided that being awake and not being held is unacceptable. Who wouldn't after 3 weeks of the pampered life?
• All of that sickness and injury was good for something. I am suddenly back in the pre-pregnancy weight range (although my tummy could certainly use some toning)!
• http://www.peapod.com/ is amazing! I ordered groceries before we left Utah, and they arrived while I was still unpacking.
• Ben has finals starting next Wednesday. Aah! I guess our Christmas tree will stay up for at least another week.

Jenny

(Jenn) My brothers, Brady and Tanner, are rad, rad, rad. I think I have said that before. In Utah they sang me this song by Flight of the Conchords called "Jenny." It being the most hilarious thing I have seen in a long while, I wanted to take my brothers with me wherever I go and make them sing their song to all of my friends. When they wouldn't consent, I decided the next best thing would be to film them singing it and post it here. Alas, here is the poor-quality video of my new favorite song:


Jenny from Ben and Jenn on Vimeo.

I personally think B&T's rendition is better than the original. But "Flight of the Conchords" is a pretty fun thing to type into YouTube on some Saturday night if you haven't done it already. I think they are the 4th most popular folk-parody duo in New Zealand, from New Zealand.

Cousin Sleepover

(Jenn) This was Henry's first year to be inducted into the elite cousin sleepover group. I wasn't invited to this event, but I just found these pictures on my camera:

A Name and a Blessing

(Jenn) And now for a special post about a sweet boy on his big day.

Ellis Evan Iverson received his name and blessing at a small family gathering on December 28th. These are the special Priesthood bearers who got to stand in the circle for this sacred occasion.

This is the incredible man for whom Ellis is named: my grandpa, A. Ellis Griffin.

The two Ellises loved each other on this first meeting.Grandpa reading scriptures with Henry.

Grandma Whitesides, here to represent Grandpa Evan Whitesides, the other incredible man who gives Ellis his middle name.

We love this precious boy!

Merry? Christmas Trip

(Jenn) Our Christmas vacation this year started out to be everything we were hoping it would be:
great snow to play in . . .

Henry's first alien encounter . . .

games . . .

girlfriends (Brady's and Tanner's) . . .

and late night stairwell conversations . . .

Then BOOM! We got hit by the vacation-destroyers! [This is where I stopped taking very many pictures.] Henry got sick with the flu, and Ellis was so stuffed up that he couldn't breathe well enough to sleep. As I was carrying the humidifier into Ellis' room to help him get some rest, I tripped over the cradle and smacked into the wall. CRACK. Ouch, that was my hand. Thinking it was a dislocated pinky, we rushed to the E.R., hoping they could pop it back into place and we could get on with our merriment. Oh, no. It couldn't be that easy. Instead, the X-rays showed a fractured metacarpal bone, a break that would require surgery and two screws. The next day was a blur of Lortab, a giant out-of-state insurance mess, fasting (for the anesthesia), pumping (for Ellis), starving, and much crying before finally having the surgery that night. Let's just say this was not exactly how we were planning for our vacation to go. And lots of our relatives were not planning on changing diapers, folding our laundry, carrying our boys, and lifting Ellis up to me to nurse for the next 2 weeks. Still, at this point, we were pretty optimistic about the rest of the trip turning out okay, and then BOOM! Ben got hit with the stomach flu on Christmas Eve and Christmas day. Merry Christmas, Ben. Henry also still had it and threw up several times all over everything, having not yet mastered the knack for using a bucket. I caught the bug on Christmas day and the day after. Lots of angels in our family got to clean up throw-up and change sheets.

We all started feeling better around the weekend. We had a nice family party, a great Sunday (including Ellis' baby blessing), and a fun ski/play day on Monday. Then on Monday night at a fabulous El Matador dinner, Henry got sick with Flu #2 and threw up right at our table, enough to fill two tortilla chip bowls. We endured the disgust and mockery of the tables around us, and Brady dutifully carried the bowls to the bathroom to be dumped. That night, I got this 2nd, much more violent case of the stomach flu and joined the vomiting brigade (I know -- too much information -- sorry!). We cancelled our plans for the next day and just sat around watching movies all day. By New Year's Eve, we were all starting to feel a bit better, only to receive the phone call that Ben's grandma had passed away the night before in her sleep. Her death came as a surprise to all of us, although really she couldn't have left this world at a better time or in a more peaceful way. I think mostly everyone felt calm about her passing, she being victim to a stroke 6 years previously, but I must admit that grieving and attending her funeral was not exactly how we had planned to spend the last weekend of our trip.

By this point, Ben and I had wondered several times if someone was trying to intentionally destroy our vacation! We also worried that our bad luck was spreading like a tornado to everyone we came in contact with. We certainly passed our illnesses to hundreds of others, and the extended Iverson family had pretty similar luck to ours. Between all of us that were staying at Ben's parents' home, we had 3 trips to the emergency room, several cases of stomach flu, a 9-1-1 phone call, and strep throat among the other things already mentioned.

So mostly I'm telling you all of this because I think our luck was so outrageous that it is almost comical. I don't want any pity or sympathy! Really, overall I felt like it was a great vacation. Because we were sick for over half of the trip, we spent a lot of time just sitting around with our families, relaxing and talking, which is really all I wanted to do anyway. I feel bad that we didn't get more pictures of the good times that we had. Here are a few I snapped to prove that it was a good Christmas after all:

Santa came, and we feel so blessed with all he brought us as well as all that our Savior has given us.

Christmas morning was nice and peaceful, and we had a lovely breakfast.

In spite of being sick, Henry and Ellis were adorable and everyone loved them! Many people shed tears as they parted with Ellis, knowing he will not be the same baby in 6 months.

The snow and the mountains were glorious, and several times I was thankful I got to stay house-bound and not go anywhere.

See? Whoever was out to ruin our trip failed. We did have a good time. We got to see LOTS of people that we love and miss, and for that, we will probably consider returning to Utah again next year. Okay, so it's pretty much a given that we'll be there. We love you people!