Anika's eventful night

Last night Anika had to go to the ER. Don't worry, she's fine, but it was a scary time for us. She was up in the middle of the night screaming and crying inconsolably. We finally called a nurse and they said just take her the the Emergency Room. Jon took her about 4:00 in the morning while I stayed here with Ezra. The doctor there thought she was really gassy and that was why she was crying. Jon felt really embarrassed that he took Anika to the ER for gas, but the doctor reassured him that he would have done the same thing and he's a doctor. It is really frightening when your kids are sick in the middle of the night and I am so grateful that there is always somewhere that we can go for help! Lesson learned from this experience: Keep gas drops on hand!! Poor baby girl!

So while we are on the subject of Anika, I was thinking about this conversation that Jon and I had the other day. We were discussing the upcoming telephone use of our daughter and Jon was groaning about the thought of her spending all day on the phone with her friends talking about boys. So he came up with the idea that we would implement a rule in our house that Anika cannot talk about boys during a phone call until her and her friends discuss and solve three world problems. Then they can discuss boys. Then he said "Also, when a boy comes over to take her on a date, he has to discuss with me a solution to one major world issue." So I told him "Well, that won't work because the kid will say: Well, I read your dissertation and you say that it doesn't matter what I do, nothing will ever change." (Ask Jon for more information about that.) Then Jon got this look on his face of pure joy and said "Then I'll tell him, Stop, you had me at 'I read your dissertation...'" So I guess now we know what it takes to win Anika's father's heart. I hope her future boyfriend/husband is smart enough to figure that out!

Anika is SEVEN months old!

It is insane to think that our little baby Anika is now seven months old! We were playing in the mall's play area today and she was taking command of some of the little things for kids to play with. It was such a treat to see how big she's getting. Of course, it's also bittersweet, since we still think of her as such a tiny little girl...

She's such a treasure to be around, and she has such a special relationship with Ezra. Also, she happened to get lucky in the looks department, as she seems to resemble her mom more every day. If she's lucky, she'll inherit Christina's looks and demeanor and my knowledge of 19th century American philosophy...

Anyway, here is a picture of our little treasure when she was born, one at seven months and one of Ezra at seven months for comparison. 

FYI, Ezra STILL fits into the onesie he's wearing at his seven month picture. We call it a "magical onesie." He wears it all the time! In retrospect, we should have bought 5 or 6 of those when he was born and we wouldn't have to buy another shirt until he left for college...

Here's a picture to prove it!!

1...2...3...Lift Off!

Here are a few pictures of Ezra, Anika, and Dylan playing at the playground. This was a momentous time because it was Anika's first ride on the swings! She really had a good time so we're looking forward to going to the park again (if it ever stops raining)...Ezra used to love the swings too, until he looked up and got scared. Hopefully, we'll be able to persuade him to try it again with Anika, at least for the sake of a picture or two. 

Ezra seems to be a bit timid at times. We are hoping that his friend Dylan allows some of his carefree nature to rub off on Ezra. 

Kite Flyers

Today after dinner we met Josh, Sarah, and Dylan outside to play. Sarah bought some kites and Ezra and Dylan were really excited to try them out. Here are some pictures of our somewhat successful kite-flying extravaganza!

Here's Ezra's determined look. He really wanted to see those kites up "high in the sky"...

Ezra and Dylan plotting their next move. They work pretty well as a team!
Ezra sees the grounded kite not as a failure, but as a successful wreck. 
Packing up and moving on. I think at this point the lure of outdoor basketball or chasing squirrels and rabbits got the better of their attention!

Ezra's happy & he knows it!

Ezra loves to be in front of the camera. When he saw that Anika had a video of her, he wanted one too. So here he is doing the actions to "If you're happy and you know it." He's pretty good at it! I peeked into his nursery class and saw him doing this a few weeks ago and thought it was pretty hilarious. Ezra was the only one jumping around and shouting the lyrics. He's really quite the show-off! (You might want to scroll down to the bottom of the page and turn off the sound to the music so you can hear him.)

One funny story about Ezra today--

Both of the kids were being fussy today. I finally got Anika to lay down on the crib in her room. I went back into the living room to where Ezra was. He asked me "Mom, where's baby?" I teased him and said "I sold her to the circus." He replied "Circus? For money?" We both laughed and laughed. We've been reading Horton Hatches the Egg by Dr. Seuss and at one point in the story some hunters find Horton and say "We'll sell him to the circus for money!" Ezra has quite the memory--and sense of humor!

Splash! Splash!

 Here's our first video! Anika learned how to mimic us when we asked her to splash in the tub. It's so so cute! The video doesn't do it justice, but you get the idea.

Easter Sunday!

Happy Easter everyone! 

Today we had a really fun day. As soon as Ezra woke up he grabbed Dad (pulling him out of bed and then handing him his eyeglasses) and ran into the living room to look for Easter eggs. He found all of them within a few minutes and then opened the basket. Ezra and Anika slept in the same room for the first time last night and it went really well. As soon as he woke up, she did too so they both got to enjoy the festivities. Anika mostly liked to chew on plastic Easter eggs, but she did manage to grab a hold of some stuffed animals until Ezra took them from her. 

Look what the Easter bunny brought us!!! Isn't she the sweetest thing? She really liked being in this basket too!
Ezra is going through all of the treats in their basket. He was really excited to get his ABC flash cards, since the alphabet is his favorite song (he sings it all day, but skips M,N, and O). Note the nice letter the Easter Bunny attached to the basket--how thoughtful!
Anika in her Easter dress, courtesy of Grandma McKenzie. She looked like such a cutie! 
Finishing the night off with a little bath together. Ezra loved having Anika in the bath--she splashed him the whole time and he thought that was the funniest thing ever. She really liked it too--she always laughs at her brother and I think she felt more like a "big girl!" 

It's been a while...

Dear Reader(s): 

We haven't spoken in a while, and we didn't want you to think we forgot about you. Our internet has been down for a while so we've been unable to keep you up-to-date with the sundry occasions of our family. But fear not! We're back, and much has occurred to tell you about. 

It's been partly exciting: Jonathan had a good week. He found out he got another paper accepted for publication, and will present another paper this August at a conference in Boston. He was also invited to apply for a summer teaching position at Yale in June and/or July. 

And today was also an exciting day for Ezra. This morning he went with Dad to Lowe's for their "Build and Grow" project. Every 2nd and 4th Tuesday, Lowe's (not just ours, but every store, as far as we know) lets kids come in and build a project. Today, Ezra and Dad made a miniature golfing hole with a windmill. It was a blast! Ezra even hammered all of the nails himself. He's really, really proud of it. Next time, we are going to make an ant farm! One of the best things about the program is that it doesn't cost anything and it's so much fun! Here, you can see Ezra's creation and his little apron that he didn't want to take off. Anika has continued to grow this week. We've noticed the past few days how chubby her legs are, and it's the cutest thing in the world! She was a little scared this week because she had to get her 6 month shots. Jonathan held her while she got them, and she screamed at him like he caused the pain...needless to say, she clung to her mom that day. But, like always, she was a real trooper who only cried for a few minutes. 
This week was also a little frightening: On Wednesday, Ezra was feeling really ill. When he gets a cold, we usually have to use a nebulizer for some breathing treatments to stop his wheezing. This week, however, we could not make it stop. Jonathan called the nurse Wednesday night and she told us to take him to the Emergency Room. We had never taken Ezra to the ER, so we were a little scared. Luckily, they only sort of mis-diagnosed him. The doctor said he had pneumonia but when we visited our doctor he said it was just intermittent Asthma, which we already knew he had. He's feeling a lot better today, which makes us (and him) happy! This picture of Anika is really cute. When we took Ezra to the ER, we had our friends Josh and Sarah watch Anika. Apparently, while we were gone, she threw up all over her pajamas so they put her in one of Dylan's old shirts. We thought she looked so adorable! 

Messy Eaters

We've been trying to teach Anika how to eat but, as we noted in an earlier post, she prefers to do most of the work herself. This leads to more food getting on the bib and her face than she actually gets in her mouth, but we figure it's worth it because she takes such joy in feeding herself. Of course, our feedings usually devolve into Anika obsessively drinking water from one of Ezra's cups. We don't even try to help her very much--she prefers to do it herself. 

Ezra has a long-standing tradition of getting food all over the place. One of his favorite meals is yogurt, which he usually gets just about everywhere. Generally, we know that if he is going to eat yogurt, one of us had better get the bathtub ready. He's similar to Anika in that he took it as a personal insult if you would try to help him eat. 

These kids are fiercely independent, and they have the messy faces to prove it...

Ezra's never too messy to crack a smile for the camera...
Here Ezra is asking Thomas the Train if he wants to eat some yogurt. Look at the very nice splatters he's put on his shirt. Almost like a Jackson Pollock, but with vanilla  yogurt.
This is Anika's victory smile after wrestling the water cup from Dad. She's always happiest when she's in control...
After having fed herself some carrots and having roughly one gallon of water (much of which adorned her bib and diaper), she looks pretty worn out. Feeding oneself is hard work! After we got some clothes on her, she fell asleep for about 2 1/2 hours!
Anika wonders how in the world we could ever tell her "no, let daddy feed you!" She looks so sweet!

Winter go away!

I really love these pictures of Ezra with his friend Dylan. Yesterday was a really nice day when these were taken so we thought "Oh good, winter is finally over!" Today we woke up and found that it was really cold outside (depressing!) I guess mother nature thought it would be hilarious to trick us and tease us with spring. So I've decided to pretend that it is really nice out and that spring is here to stay. So look how nice the weather was today! Isn't that great! There, that feels better.  

The Joys of Spring

Now that it is springtime in West Lafayette (hopefully for good), we are spending as much time as possible outside. Today it was about 60 and sunny, which was just perfect for our tastes. The best part about living in our apartments is the wonderful series of parks, each of which has something different for the kids. Just behind us is one little park with several swings, jungle jims, and slides. Ezra really loves to play in the parks and outside in general. 

Here's a picture of Ezra we took while we were playing on the lawn in front of our apartment. He was too busy to properly pose for a picture, so we got one of him as he walked away!
This is one of the first days this year we've been able to take Anika out and let her breathe the fresh air. She seems to like being outside (as long as Mom is holding her, that is).
Ezra is never without his trusty treats! Carrying around a bag full of some kind of food is sort of his trademark. Here he is with his number one request, a bag full of grapes!

Day at the Museum

Today we went to the Children's museum with our friends Josh, Sarah, Dylan, Masa, Irit, and Mati. We had a great time--we were there over five hours and nobody got tired or cranky! Ezra particularly enjoyed the science center, playscape, curious george, star show, and carousel (he got to ride a tiger and he was REALLY excited about it. He even gave the tiger a kiss after the ride as a 'thank you'). He was also excited to spend the day with his sister and his friends. Anika really liked the carousel and the "baby-scape" (a huge play area for little tiny kids).

Click on this picture to see how blue Anika's eyes look! We still can't decide whether they will stay blue or not. 

Here is Ezra checking out Curious George. They look kinda similar , huh?

This is an exhibit in the Science area. It is a big contraption made out of metal pieces, blades, baskets, etc. There are 20 or so pool balls continually rolling throughout. They eventually roll out the bottom where you see Ezra and Dylan and then can be pulled up and back into the cycle. It's also really loud.

This is also in the science area. It is a big pile of dirt that can be picked up, thrown, and jumped on. Every little boy's dream!

When we got back into the car to go home, Anika started saying "DaDaDaDa" Ezra was excited about this and started encouraging her to keep saying it. He would say "Baby, you say 'Dada'? And then she would respond to him. It was adorable. Then he fell asleep. She kept saying "DaDa" louder and louder, continually looking at Ezra for a response. She eventually gave up and fell asleep too.

Thoreau for kids

We went to the library today for lapsit (stories and songs for kids) and also checked out more books while we were there. I (Jonathan) want to tell you about them because I think they're the best kids books ever. 

The series is by DB Johnson, and they all have to do with Henry David Thoreau. For those whose memory of Thoreau is hazy, he is perhaps America's greatest literary figure and also the subject of my dissertation. These books take real stories from Thoreau's life and work and tell them in a way interesting to kids. Also, the illustrations are unbelievable. We read three of them together tonight. For me, it's a great way to communicate some of what I do and what I love to study to the kids. And the books are more accurate and faithful to Thoreau's work than most of the academic studies I read...I can't recommend them highly enough. They're great books, even if you don't love Thoreau!

Also, Christina got an ipod shuffle for her birthday from Mom and Dad McKenzie. She's really excited about it and so is Ezra (as you can see from the photo). Christina put a few songs on it and let Ezra listen. When he put the earphones in and Christina turned it on, he said, "Mom, is this the Weakerthans?" The kid knows good music when he hears it...

Spring Fever

Today is the first day of Spring Break here. I think everyone is getting spring fever. We are all really sick of winter and can't wait for it to be over. The weather is supposed to get nice on Wednesday, so we are going to Indianapolis with some friends to visit the Children's Museum. Other than that, it won't be much of a vacation, since Jonathan still needs to work on his dissertation. 

Anika was an infant scientist again today. Christina took her and they studied whether she could familiarize herself with the vowel structures of the French language. They gave her different versions of the vowels--some that we do not use in English--to see if she could pick out the patterns. At six months, babies should be able to easily distinguish the different vowel sounds. The professor said that, by 10 or 11 months, a baby cannot distinguish the vowels of another language any longer. By this point, they've already settled into English and put their attention toward perfecting this one language. It was really interesting and Anika got another book as a reward. She's really starting to earn her keep--six months old and she's already had a job from which she received two books!

One additional hilarious story: Today while Ezra was getting ready for the bath, he and dad fought about which toys he should be able to take into the tub. He wanted to bring Bob the builder and Scoop, two die-cast metal toys with him. Dad said no. Ezra said yes. Finally, dad said "I'm sorry, Ezra, but they cannot go in the bath with you." And Ezra replied, "Sorry, dad, they're comin' in the bubble bath!" Despite his strong argument to the contrary, Ezra wasn't able to take Bob into the bathtub with him. He is, however, getting better at stating his case...

Yummy Vegan Cookies!!

These are Jonathan's favorite cookies in the world. (And that's saying something because I've made a lot of cookies in my time.) We made them tonight and thought they must be shared with all of you out there in cyberspace. So go get your spatula and start making these! (If you do make them let us know if you like them or not!!)

2 ripe bananas, mashed

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup sweetener (sugar, honey, etc.)

1/2 cup oil

3 tsp milk (we used soy, but you don't have to)

1 cup flour (we used wheat flour and it was good)

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1 cup oats

1 cup coconut

1 cup chocolate chips (or more !!)

(We also added a few walnuts to half the batch)

Mix the bananas, vanilla, sweetener and oil in a food processor (or just use a spoon and mix a lot). Add the flour, soda, and cinnamon. Mix. Then toss in the oats coconut and chocolate and stir. Place by tablespoonfuls onto a cookie sheet and bake in 350 degree oven for 8-9 minutes. Then eat and marvel at how a cookie can taste good without eggs. Weird.

Also, check out Jonathan's new haircut!!

Update:

Ezra has fallen asleep on his own for 9 nights in a row (with the help of the Thomas pillow)!! It's a miracle!!

Day out with Mom

Yesterday I took Ezra and Anika to a hands-on museum that isn't very far from where we live. We went with our friends Sarah and Dylan.  It was pretty cool because they had a train, and a snake, and frogs, and books, and legos, and hammers, and rocks, and stuffed animals, and tons of other stuff. It was all geared toward learning activities. I thought it was pretty cool. 

Ezra and Dylan played for over two hours and had so much fun. In a lot of ways Dylan is the complete opposite of Ezra but they have become the best of friends. They are hilarious together and Dylan is a riot. You can check out his dance moves here. 
 Anika slept for most of the time, but did get up to play with mom for a little while.

Here is Dylan and Ezra riding the city bus together. They look a little scared but they really did have fun. You can't really tell from the picture but Ezra is holding onto Dylan's leg for safety. It was really cute!

Story Time at Purdue

We took Ezra and Anika to story time at the student union on campus this afternoon, which was a lot of fun. They set up several stations with fun stories and games and provided cookies and chocolate milk for the kids to drink as well. They even supplied several inflatable animals, two of which Ezra managed to corral back home (an elephant and a giraffe, which he is VERY excited about. Dad wasn't quite as excited about holding these two giant animals on the crowded bus...) Anyway, the special guest was Purdue Pete, the university mascot. The people who put the program together clearly didn't have kids, as they thought a gigantic man with an ugly plastic face wearing black and brandishing a 3-foot sledgehammer would be a treat for 1 and 2 year old kids. Needless to say, Ezra was not impressed with Pete. He kept looking nervously at Pete and crying when Pete would wave to him. Apparently, this was pretty common, as Pete ended up relatively depressed, sitting in a chair in the corner, trying not to make the kids cry.

It probably wasn't his best hour.

Thank you, Thomas!

So the other day we went to the store to buy a few groceries when Ezra spotted this Thomas the train pillow. We usually will let him pick up a toy and look at it, if he wants to, while we are in the store but then he knows he has to put it back before we check out. So when he spotted the Thomas pillow he had to hold it. We let him and he put it down in the bottom of the cart and laid his head on it. Then he requested a blanket (that we brought for Anika) which he used to act like he was sleeping. He looked so cute with the pillow and he said he really, really wanted it so we decided to buy it instead of putting it back. I felt really guilty about this since the thing cost 13 dollars (I thought that was a complete rip-off!) and I won't normally splurge on non-essentials like this, especially if it is over ten bucks, but Ezra really liked it so we got it. Even when we got home I was debating on whether or not I should return it when Ezra insisted on taking it to bed with him. He laid in his bed that night gazing at his new favorite thing and drifted off to sleep without complaint. This is, by the way, a MIRACLE! His normal bedtime routine consists of lots an lots of crying and pleading for mom or dad to come in and lay down on his floor, which we do until he falls asleep and then we creep out and pray he doesn't wake up and notice. So since that first night, he has fallen asleep on his own, in his bed, without a sound for 4 nights in a row! It is truly amazing! So as it turns out, that Thomas pillow is by far THE BEST investment we have ever made! 

"Dad scared Ezra!"

Since it was the first really nice day of the new year, we all went for a long walk around Purdue Village and delivered cookies to some of our friends. Jonathan also had to move a stove that had burned in a resident's apartment, so we went to get the work truck so he could load it and move it. It was such a nice day for a walk, and I think Ezra wished we could have done more fun stuff outside (I think he, like all kids, really miss the outdoors during the gloomy winters). Anyway, when Jonathan got the truck and put the stove on it and tried to move it, the truck got stuck in the muddy grass. It took a while to get through the grass and back on to the pavement. Ezra, who was watching from a short distance, got really scared at the loud noise and the mud flying everywhere and cried a bit. For the rest of the night, he kept telling his dad, "Dad scared Ezra! Dad scared Ezra!"