Ben had a Birthday

It's true.  Ben had a birthday.  Almost two weeks ago.  Was it a good birthday?  Yes!  Is Ben the type that writes his own birthday blog post hoping for even more attention than he's already getting?  Apparently not.  So you can all wish him a very belated 27th birthday, thanks to my timely update here.  The big day and the weekend following it included lots of celebrating!  It also included . . .

Rain

Hence the canceled plans to do something outdoors

Hence the new plans -- the Butterfly Place!

Buying a caterpillar-butterfly kit

Ben taking the day off (what a nice boss he has!)

Family togetherness

The Cheesecake Factory

Real Salt Lake soccer tickets

A new vacuum for cleaning the car (here's hoping :)

Homemade root beer

Barbeque with friends

Trying out his new-to-us gas grill

Cake Wrecks competition! (we are big Cake Wrecks fans)

And here are some pictures to prove it:

Just Try Watching This . . .

Without smiling!

Ellis Laughs from Ben and Jenn on Vimeo.

It's impossible!  Today Ellis turned 9 months old, and we caught on camera the best laughs we have heard from him to date.  He has always been a very smiley baby, but so far his hasn't laughed as hysterically as Henry did as a baby.  He just seems a little more mild and reserved overall.  But somehow Henry (and Nina) triggered Ellis' funny bone today.  I challenge you to watch it without breaking into a giant grin.

I love this sweet little boy and his rumbly little laugh.  

And . . . here's a picture of the boys in their new matching shark jammies!  We haven't had to buy many clothes for Ellis, so this is their first matching outfit.  I could get used to this  :)

One More Song

I should have posted this one yesterday with "Henry's Courage."  This one is completely original, believe it or not.  It's entitled, "I am a Dog," and uses an original guitar accompaniment (with some help from Dad).  

I am a Dog from Ben and Jenn on Vimeo.

Henry's Courage

Here's a new song composed by Henry.  

Henry's Courage from Ben and Jenn on Vimeo.

My favorite parts: 

• The fact that the Lord "commanded Henry to go and get a plane."  I guess you never know what the Lord is going to command next!
  
• Use of the adjective "wicked" to describe Ellis.
  
• Henry's sweet and bold obedience.  I love this kid.

One year down, four to go

A grueling, awful test this morning marked the end of the first year of my program.  Just four more years to go!  Really, though, this test was bad, and it was a fitting end to an incredibly difficult year.  Easily the most work I've ever done for school in my life--I had many, many dreams about solving economic models (complete with Greek letters!).  Now comes the wait to see if I passed (definitely not a sure thing).  Ugh.

On the upside, I've got the summer off!  Let's hear it for school vacations!  I'm not going to just be kicking my heels up, though.  I've got three research papers that I'm working on with various people, so I'll be working on those as much as possible to get them ready to be submitted to journals.  It will be a nice break from homework and tests, before I get back at it next fall.

I have to give a huge thanks to Jenn and Henry for supporting me through this year.  Not only did Jenn take excellent care of the boys and run the whole house on many a late night and weekend while I studied away, but she also had to listen to me each night trying to explain esoteric theories to her, even though she could care less about the Pareto optimal way to invest in public goods.  Henry was great, too.  At times during our dinner conversation he would break in with great questions like, "What's credit default, Dad?"  Or, "What did you learn about in Macro today?"  Or, "What games do you do in game theory?"  As funny as it is to hear a 3-year-old ask things like that, it was actually a pretty good thing to try explaining this stuff to a little kid.  Mostly, though, I just love his enthusiasm and curiosity about everything.

And Ellis?  Well, if you recall, he was born while I was in the middle of Math Camp at the beginning of the year, so he's been with me every step of the way.  I don't know if I can say that he really supported me, but he's done a great job of slobbering on a lot of things, you have to give him that.  And all of those full diapers were good excuses for me to take a few breaks from the books, right?

Twins for a day

We babysat Ellis' friend Bridger last week, and it was so fun to have twins (for a limited time, of course)!  They were so cute together, and it was fun to see how excited Ellis was to have a friend over who is almost the same age.  He was smiling and laughing the entire evening, which is really something because usually after 6pm, Ellis is done for the day.  

Bridger is a month younger than Ellis, but he taught him a few lessons about Tummy Time.  Ellis has never smiled during Tummy Time before, but ever since he saw Bridger doing it, he has started to actually enjoy it.  This child may crawl after all!
Bridger was only kind of amused by my peek-a-boo tricks.  I think he was a little scared of me.  We'll give him a few months!

Next up: twin 3-year-olds for a weekend!  Henry's friend Jack stayed with us last Friday - Sunday.  While a few things were harder with two kids (they did fight a bit when they both got tired), I found that most things were easier with the two of them.  They entertained each other for long periods so I actually got a few things done.  They also fed off each other when it was time for clean up, pajamas, and eating.  I almost thought Henry was going to start eating strawberries after he saw how much Jack liked them.  Jack asked, "Henry, do you like strawberries?" and Henry lied, "Yeah."  I kept quiet, watching to see if he would eat one.  Unfortunately, the peer pressure is not yet powerful enough for Henry.  He did eat a bite of a strawberry, but only with a wee bit of force-feeding and a lot of gagging "on the seeds."  Darn!

Unfortunately, I didn't get any good twin pictures of Henry and Jack.  I kept forgetting to get the camera out during the cute moments.  I finally pulled it out during Jammie Time, but I never got the shot because it took Henry like 5 minutes to get his PJ's on and then I lost my train of thought, as any mom of twins + 1 would.  Luckily, if you squint, you can see Henry in the background wearing only his undies.

Fire at Longfellow Chapel

Some of you might be interested in seeing this clip about the fire yesterday at LDS Longfellow Chapel in Cambridge.  This is not the church we normally attend, but we have visited there and loved the building.  It is the one right across from the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow house.  The fire happened during Stake Conference, and luckily no one was hurt.  Still, it looks like most of the building was destroyed.  So sad!  

The future is bright

Not only will I be DONE with the first year of my Ph.D. program next Wednesday, but people keep inventing incredible things like this.  Seriously, click on the link.  You have to wait for it to load for a minute, but it's worth it.

Sew Frustrating

6:30 am: the average wake-up time of Henry and Ellis three weeks ago.  Probably has something to do with the early sunrise, right?

$20: the amount of money I spent buying buying blackout fabric to attach to the back of the curtains in their bedroom.  Yes, I know I was probably ripped off.  I was desperate and know nothing about buying fabric.

2 weeks: the amount of time the ironing board and sewing materials sat out in the dining room waiting for me to break down and get them done.

3 hours: the amount of time I spent cutting fabric, ironing on the Stitch Witchery (I am afraid of the sewing machine), and sewing on the blackout fabric by hand.

9: Ugliness rating of the new curtains (on a scale of 1-10).  This is why you get a picture of the super hero capes I "made" out of the scraps instead of a picture of the finished product.

6:15am: the new average wake-up time of Henry and Ellis.  

Aaarrrrgghh.  And we're not even trying to be lazy and sleep in every morning.  All we're asking for is an hour in the morning to read scriptures and exercise before the sweet little monsters wake up!  And I really don't think it's possible for me to wake up any earlier than 6:00 right now.  Come on, boys!  Seven is the magic number.  YOU CAN DO IT.  PLEEEEEEEAAAAASE.    

Happy Mother's Day!

Ben is the husband of the century, as you all probably know.  He's wonderful and super-willing to do everything he can on Mother's Day to pamper me.  Last year I think I went a little overboard being the queen for the day (who, me?).  I think Ben did all the cooking and clean-up as well as taking care of Henry while I sat on the couch reading a magazine.  I remember thinking part-way through the day that it didn't seem very Mothersdayish to be pretending I wasn't a mother on the day we're supposed to be celebrating motherhood!  So  . . . this year we've had a little more of a balance.  I decided I just wanted to enjoy my boys and let Ben take care of all of those other wifely/motherly duties that seem to get in the way of just being a mom.  It's been an absolutely lovely day!  I got to sit and read with Henry and play with Ellis as long as I wanted to without worrying about the messy house (that Ben was whipping into shape before my eyes) and the Sunday dinner (that Ben was firing up on his new grill).  It was heavenly!  And when Ben discovered he had burned the grilled potatoes to the point of non-edibility (we're still learning), I sat and ate my dinner and put the Puffs (and peas!) in front of Ellis while Ben cooked up some homemade french fries.  It's kind of nice to eat dinner without having to get up a hundred times in the middle of your meal!  Let's also mention that I got a nice hour-long nap in the afternoon.  Yes, I definitely got pampered today.  A little pampering and a lot of love from my boys.  It was a great day.  And now I'm going to go eat blackberry cobbler . . . 

Some added bonuses --

A video of Ellis playing peek-a-boo all by himself!  This is his latest trick that he just started doing on Thursday.  We didn't prompt him or teach him or anything.  He just started up doing it and got this really clever/proud look on his face.  Ooh, he is sweet:

Peek-a-boo! from Ben and Jenn on Vimeo.

Aaaaaaand some more of Jenn's creative madness, coming your way.  Mother's Day gifts for my mom:

And Ben's mom: 

Food is our friend

Let's start with a little Henry-Ellis comparison, because those are fun:

Henry

Ellis

It's fun to see them both at the same stage.  I think Ellis is starting to look more like Henry than before, but they still definitely each have their own look.  Henry sure was a chubby one!

Ellis has been loving his new life as a solids-eater.  I've been kind of slow to introduce each of the baby foods, mostly because I'm lazy.  What I didn't realize was how much he was going to LOVE the table food.  I should have started it a month ago!  Ellis has really been quite grumpy lately, and we were blaming it on teething for a long time.  When his two cute little bottom teeth cut, however, he didn't cheer up.  Our new discovery is that Gerber "Puffs" are the secret to his happiness.  We just have to keep giving them to him (one at a time because if he has two he'll get so excited that he'll drop both of them).  His happiness is living Puff to Puff right now.  Yummy!  Soon we will add other easy-to-gum solids (any ideas?).

I must say that the very best part about Ellis eating solid food is the re-introduction of that song "Millions of Peaches" into our home.  The song just jumped out of me while trying to convince Ellis to open his mouth for the peaches.  Since then, someone in our home has sung that song (or some variation of it) at least once every day for the last 3 weeks.  This has brought back many happy memories of the good old days as a really super cool (and not awkward at all) 8th grader.  I also have this really vague recollection of Tyler Squire doing an oral report about peaches and singing that song as part of the presentation.  Is anyone else lucky enough to share that memory with me?

If you enjoy watching clips of baby cuteness, here's a good one:

Ellis eats Puffs from Jenn and Ben on Vimeo.

Why I wear bright colors in the spring

I pulled this dress out of the back of the closet on Sunday, and (with the help of my sports bra and 2 people helping with the zipper) squeezed into it for our first real springy Sunday.  Why?  

1. I really can't wear black and brown when the weather is so lovely.

2. I get reactions like this out of Henry:

"Mommy, I like your colorful dress!

Because it makes me think about Jesus.

It makes me feel so good inside my heart.

Because it makes me feel the Spirit."

With a response like that, what kind of parent wouldn't dress to match the season?  Happy spring, everyone! 

"I'm a Good Artist!"

Henry got to paint last week because he saw Mommy doing it and begged for his turn.  I wish I let him paint more often.  It's just so much effort, you know.  And we don't have any washable paint --  I should probably get some.  Needless to say, it's stressful for me -- hovering over him the whole time, making sure he doesn't paint the table, chairs, or his clothes.  But Henry had such a great time, it was probably worth it!  He said, "I'm a good artist" at least 50 times while he was painting, and I agreed with him every time.  You can see from the photo that Henry "performs all different kinds of pictures."  These ones are mostly snakes, birdies, and dinosaurs.  I'm just proud of him for being so excited about it and so confident.  Hopefully his enthusiasm will continue, and you'll see more of his work!

I can't help but add my own little bit of artistic fun from the week.  New projects have been reeling in my heart since our visit to that Cape Cod art gallery, and I couldn't help but let something out.  This one was for our dear friends' 50th wedding anniversary.  Made with wood-burner, paint, and paper.  Hopefully there will be more where this came from as well!

Cape Cod Weekend

The Griffin family fun continued with a lovely weekend at Cape Cod.  A few highlights:

 
The Easter Bunny managed to find our hotel, and he hid the baskets for the morning of "Easter Saturday."  Henry acted excited and surprised about the basket and its contents.  I made up some story about the Easter Bunny leaving the aforementioned Target bag at our house on accident a week earlier because he didn't get the memo about what hotel we would be staying at.  I think I got away with it . . .

Of course, Henry remembered exactly which items he had seen in the Target bag.  He wasn't accusing at all, but he pointed them all out: "Those are the bath toys I saw in the Target bag!"  Luckily we picked up just a few extra treasures that he HADN'T seen to throw him off a little.  Maybe next year I'll be good at this.

The Heritage Museum had a showroom with 37 classic cars, some of which had been owned by celebrities.  Henry was in heaven, practically running from one car to the next.  I was surprised at how everyone in the group actually loved this museum!

Here's Henry taking us all for a spin (he's driving us to the "Please Touch" Museum, as opposed to the "Please Don't Touch" Museum).

Tanner eating a sandwich and playing Slamwich in Sandwich (that's the name of the town).  We failed to talk my parents into taking us to Ice Cream Sandwich, also in Sandwich.  

Strolling along Main Street in Chatham (the elbow of the Cape).  This was Eliza's recommendation and we loved it!  I loved all of the shops, especially the cute little book stores and the candy shop.  My favorite by far was a little art gallery called The Artful Hand.  If this had been the only thing we had seen the whole weekend, I would have been satisfied.  The gallery had work from several of my favorite artists, including Brian Andreas, Curly Girl, and Sticks.  

Sticks is the artist that first inspired my use of woodburning as a medium!  It was amazing to see some current work and get ideas, ideas, ideas!  I've been thinking about new projects pretty much every minute since we left this place; I feel so inspired to spend ALL of my bounteous free time creating!  

Awwwww . . . the children.

Now for some beach pictures.  It was a gorgeous day, for April.  You can't beat the sand, the ocean, and being with people you love.  Thanks Mom, Dad, and Tanner!

We love you!

Family Week

One of the hardest things about living far away from family is watching how quickly my little boys grow, knowing that my parents are missing it all!  I called my mom a few months ago and told her she'd better get here QUICK before Ellis grew up behind her back.  She responded fairly quickly . . . we had Mom, Dad, and Tanner here for the week of Easter!

It was Dad's and Tanner's first time visiting us here.  We spent a lot of time just chillin' -- playing inside and playing outside, making sure everyone got their fill of my sweet boys.  Henry and Ellis had the time of their lives.  I suspect Grandpa Dave did too.  He played the role of Henry's official full-time playmate, which means he got his fair share of playing with . . . you guessed it: CARS!

The cars went to Boston and arranged themselves by color.  This is just one of many intensely fun car outings.
Henry also did his traffic jam puzzle with Grandma and Grandpa and then cleverly matched up one of his toy cars with each of the cars in the puzzle.  If you look closely, you can see his cars placed on top of the puzzle.

After appeasing Henry's obsession by day, we worked on Tanner's latest passion by night: strategy board games.  Tanner currently spends most of his waking hours either playing games, reading about new games on boardgamegeek.com, or designing his own games.  He even chose to play board games over sleeping several times during the trip!  And for a 17-year old boy, that's saying something.  The night before they left Utah, Tanner emailed me with a list of 9 games (and links to their synopses, instructions, etc. on boardgamegeek), wondering which ones he should bring.  He brought 6 of them.   The favorites?  Power Grid, Puerto Rico, and Dominion.  

Other noteworthy nightlife includes my parents super-gluing Tanner's feet.  They claim that super glue immediately "fixes" cracked skin by creating a barrier from the air, dirt, water, etc. that would otherwise get past the skin and make it hurt.  My favorite was Tanner's reaction 20 minutes after this picture when he realized his sock was super-glued to his foot!  They had to cut off the sock!  Good times.  More to come in the next post.

Spring Break Roadtrip

Although we live far away from our parents, we feel very lucky to have so many other loved ones within driving distance of our home!  We decided to take advantage of this with a road trip down the East Coast for Ben's Spring Break.  Here's the skinny:

1st stop: New Jersey. Back to good old Jersey to catch up with old friends that feel like family! Hung out with church friends, playdate friends, neighbor friends, and many others.  Ate Ralph's pizza and made the mandatory stop at Shop-Rite.  Went to church at the old Paterson Branch. Introduced Ellis to everyone who hadn't met him yet.  Cried about how much we miss all of these people.  

2nd Stop: Pennsylvania.  Had dinner with Emily and Dave of Centennial fame.  Stayed with Christina and Mike of London Study Abroad fame.  Got to know Ava and Ezra.  Trip to the Please Touch Museum.  Covered the Philadelphia basics: the Liberty Bell, Constitution Hall, and Philly Cheese Steaks -- yum!

3rd Stop: Virginia.  Played with cousins, cousins, cousins!  Had late night conversations about family planning and the dream neighborhood.  Went to the Spy Museum in D.C.  Had an indoor picnic and movie night.

BIG LONG DRIVE: between Virginia and Connecticut.  The boys were stellar passengers.  Henry enjoyed the scenery, the DVD player, the Dairy Queen stop, and the time to just think.  Ellis caught up on some much-needed sleep.  Ben and Jenn loved the conversation time.  Nobody really loved the icky traffic in Delaware.

4th Stop: Connecticut.  Played with Amy and Dave.  Played with JoDee & Brandon.  JoDee took amazing pictures of Ellis.

5th Stop: Home!  And now I'm tired of making this post try to look good, and I'm going to bed.  But thanks to everyone for letting us crash at your places and making it a fabulous trip!

Worst Mom Ever #367

Henry gets more and more clever every day.  Knowing this, I was pretty aware that the Easter Bunny would need to be a little more cautious this year than he has been in previous years!  We planned a special time yesterday when Ben could stay home with the boys, and I could run to Target for the Easter basket shopping.  I was careful to separate the Easter items from the other things I bought and leave the secret stuff in a bag in the car.  Then, when Ben returned from the Priesthood Session of General Conference last night, he snuck the bag safely into the house.  He set the bag on the kitchen table and, like the two sly little parents we are, Jenn and Ben went to bed.  

Lo and behold, Sunday morning.  Henry wakes up at 6:30 as usual.  Jenn opens one eye to greet Henry when he comes into the bedroom.  Jenn says, "Shhh.  Don't wake Ellis.  Go downstairs and play."  Ben sleeps on (Yes, this is pretty typical).  At some point, Ben hears Henry ask if he can eat some Cat Cookies for his "breakfast treat."  "Only 3," he responds groggily.  He fails to stop Henry from stuffing all three cookies into his mouth at the same time.

7:30 happens.  Jenn and Ben stretch and revel in the gift Ellis has given them of "sleeping in" this late.  Mmmmmm hmmmmmm.  Jenn turns to look at the clock.  Suddenly the kitchen table and secret bag flash before her eyes.  She realizes that Henry must have been in the kitchen already because he asked for Cat Cookies.  There's no possible way he could have gone into the kitchen without spotting the Lightning McQueen Easter basket poking out of the Target bag.  Aah!  "Ben, did you hide the stuff?"

Ben rushes downstairs to find the contents of the secret bag strewn across the table, and Henry handling some of the secret treasures.  If Ben had been thinking fast, he would have pretended it was Easter today and that the Easter Bunny just didn't have time to make the baskets look pretty (I think that really would have worked).  Instead, he mumbles something about "You're not supposed to open that," and then Jenn walks in and rambles something like "Did you see what I bought for you?  I mean what the Easter Bunny bought for you?  From Target?  Uhhhhhhhh . . . "

Perhaps the damage is already done.  Any ideas for explanations we can give to the ever-shrewd Henry?