Andy & Jessica

At Sarah Proper’s (Harter’s) wedding gift opening on Sunday, a strange thing happened. There were dozens and dozens of gifts in nice boxes and bags. But, Levi was fascinated only with 3 presents. He dragged the first one over and kept pointing at it and saying “choo choo.” He clearly and mistakenly thought there was a nice train wrapped up inside the box. He then dragged over 2 more even larger boxes. He played with these 3 boxes for probably 45 minutes. I noticed one was from Grandma Proper, who died last August. Grandma had purchased 3 presents well in advance of the wedding and Leanna had wrapped them up. I was really surprised to see that the other 2 presents that Levi had been fascinated with were also from Grandma Proper. Strange that he chose just those 3 presents to play with and they happened to be the 3 that she had given.

Levi still doesn’t talk much for being 2 years and 3 months old.  But, he’s adding words more frequently now.  He now says, “No way.”  He also said, “No, mama” and “blue car.”  He says, “I too” for “me too.”  I can only think that may be a translation of “Ich auch” (literally “I also” in German).  He also was constantly pointing out trees, cows, and choo choos (trains) on the way to my cousin Sarah’s wedding in Wisconsin this weekend.  He still counts in half English/half German, “Eins, two.”

On the way to Jude’s doctor’s appointment this morning, I was explaining to him different things they were going to check, including his vision. He said, “I can see really good. I can see up to space and that is really far away. The sun and the moon are in space and I can see them. That is really good.” Can’t say I thought of that before, but it does come across as very impressive. I suppose we can explain that away since the sun is, if I recall properly, 1 million times larger than Earth (in other words, the Earth is like a grain of sand and the sun is like a beach ball), which is why it is visible, yet so far away. Still, I love that he thinks so highly of his vision. What a cutie!

Last night Jude hadn’t had a nap so he was just a total crab. I asked him to clean up his toys. When he didn’t do it, I said that he could leave out whatever toys he wanted to donate or sell in a garage sale. Then he decided he wanted to have a garage sale and right then. He then picked out some toys of his that he wanted to sell. I would have given almost anything if I could have gotten a video of him announcing the toys he wanted to sell, “a broken car, a popped balloon” a broken this and a broken that. It was hilarious. He then cried for 45 minutes when I refused to go out and help him sell his broken stuff. I instead said that I loved his idea, but that we needed to do some planning. I said that we should have a lemonade/cookie stand and then he can sell his toys there. All proceeds would go to HopeKids, but we needed to make a sign and advertise, etc. When that didn’t work to get him to delay the sale, I had him call both his grandmas for 2nd and 3rd opinions about whether it was a good day for a sale. Thankfully, that ended up distracting him enough to stop crying. We’ll plan a sale for later this summer for HopeKids. I think it’s funny that he didn’t just want to throw away his broken stuff. He said he’d rather someone bought it. Can’t hurt a guy to try.

Although this video doesn’ t show it (Andy has other video that does show it), Jude attended Gopher football camp last weekend and took every opportunity to tackle the large Gopher football players.  When his instructions were to run up and then around a player who was standing there waiting to tackle him if he got too close, Jude would run right up to the player and tackle him.  Pretty funny.  They were good sports about it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9-G0kydIac&feature=player_embedded

Jude has been going to children’s church for maybe 8 months or so and I just learned some embarrassing stuff. First of all, I guess they take an offering each week and use the money to buy gospel materials for poor children in other countries or whatever ministry they select for the year. Jude never told me a thing about it until he was sent home with a letter saying how much they had raised for the year. Jude told me that he even got to put some money in the basket one week when a little girl had so much money to give that she gave him some to put in.

Then I learned that they also do prayer requests. Jude had them pray for my knee (since I severely bruised the bone in a bad fall on the ice), for his knee (for a practically invisible scrape) and for his ear (since I still put scar cream on it daily after his fall and 6 stitches. Then he said that he forgot to have them pray for my neck (since I have arthritis and have constant pain as a result). They must think we’re the most banged up family.

Asher is just 8 months old, but is already table walking and walking with a walker. It’s really crazy to see since he’s so little and skinny. He just looks too small for that. But, he’s far to eager to keep up with his cool brothers so he’s right on their tail. Jude and Levi are just so good to Asher . It’s so fun to see.

Levi is talking more and more. He now has come up with a way to refer to baby Asher — “Bobo.” It’s so cute. He is so nurturing towards Asher and kisses and hugs him a lot.

We also saw his nurturing side last week. We ended up taking a baby girt doll home from the church nursery last week since Levi fell in love with the little baby and was tucking her in bed and smoothing the blanket over her just perfectly, giving her a ride in the stroller and then feeding her in the high chair. They were going to retire the doll from the nursery anyway so they just gave her to us after he first snuck her out of the nursery and then screamed bloody murder when I tried to make him return the doll. He hasn’t taken any interest in her since we got home.

Most of the bills for our recent week in the hospital with Levi and Asher have arrived and our share will amount to $8,000. I work on health plans for a living and believe that the plan I’m covered under through work is the worst I’ve seen as far as premiums and out of pocket costs go. This will definitely hurt.

Yesterday, Levi was sitting in a corner watching Cars in German on the iPad while Jude and I were reading a book on the floor and Asher was crawling around. At some point, Asher must have decided he wanted to see the book. He crawled up to me and kneeled by me and then used my sweatshirt as leverage to pull himself up. He did this cool trick twice. Jude and I were so proud of him that Jude said that if Asher could eat treats, Jude would have given him one.

He also crawls, and stops to sit up while leaning back on one hand. It is so cute and looks a bit like a glamour shot.