Kirk blAug

Jupiter has been wanting to make music lately. When he shows an interest in something, I typically look for ways to foster it. In this case Chris and I found a music class aimed at three and four year olds. It is called Music by Leaps and Bounds and is a once a week 45 minute session. It includes singing, dancing, playing simple instruments, learning about different variations in notes, and more. Jupiter's first day was yesterday. He was a little bit apprehensive at first but by the end of the session he seemed to be enjoying himself. I was supposed to leave for the first 30 minutes of the class and come back for the last 15, but since I had never left Jupiter alone in this sort of environment before, he asked that I stay this time. After class I asked if it would be okay if I leave next time and he said it would. He has so far learned about making long sounds with the triangle and short sounds by hitting two wooden sticks together and it seems that they add new instruments and dy

Some of the best toys cannot be bought in the toy section of the store. Regular household items that can be repurposed as toys can inspire great imagination. Jupiter and I had just used up a roll of wrapping paper after we wrapped his cousin's birthday present. I told him he could play with the cardboard tube that was left over. I remember my mother giving them to me to play with when I was a boy and I figured he might like to as well. He immediately found several uses for it. First he made his voice sound tunneled by speaking through it. We have all done that. Next he used it to hit the dogs. I was not to crazy about that and advised him against it. Then he started using it as a tunnel for his Hot Wheels cars to drive through. I am sure he will find many more things he can do with it too. What are some other good household items that can be repurposed as toys?

We recently moved Jupiter's bookshelf out of his room and into the play area so that he might have more encouragement to read. He likes to look at and read books a lot and I thought that he might benefit from it being in the area that he spends more awake time. He had been spending time reading during nap or bedtime and not getting enough sleep. One day I asked him if the books were distracting to him and preventing his sleep. Later that day he told me he wanted the bookshelf out in the living room. I think this arrangement has turned out for the better. I also thought that as Tsunami gets older they will probably like to share their books with each other so that they can both read all the books. Right now we pick out the books which we read to Tsunami and sometimes Jupiter picks them out for him too, but soon he will have his own book interests that he can share with Jupiter. Any suggestions to add to the shelf?

Today Chris, the boys, and I went to The Loop on Delmar Boulevard to check out the Ice Carnival that was going on. When we got there it looked like the 5k and 10k which started at 10 AM was just ending and the stores were starting to setup some carnival games in front of their shops. Many of the shops had ice sculptures in front of them of something themed based on that shop. For example, Moonrise Hotel had a moon ice sculpture and a tattoo shop nearby had an eagle that was reminiscent of one someone might get tattooed on their body. Here are a few more of them we saw: Eventually we got hungry and ate at the Eclipse restaurant which resides in the lobby of the Moonrise. Following our meal, we made our way to the roof where a skate party was going on. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7c5Zvz0GIZQ&w=490&h=279] Jupiter played a few of the carnival games on the sidewalk as we walked along too. He won a few stuffed animals. There was much more to do there, but the boys were

Tsunami and I like to communicate. He is two months old so he cannot actually talk yet. He also does not have very good control of his hands and arms yet, so no sign language either. Of course he knows how to cry when he needs something, but what about when he just wants to chat? Tsunami has mastered the use of his tongue for chatting. The other day Chris was sticking her tongue out at him and he mimicked it. Ever since then, whenever I walk by him he sticks his tongue out at me. Then I reply by sticking mine out at him. We go back and forth like that for awhile. It is usually a pretty good chat. Some consider sticking a tongue out at someone to be a rude gesture, but when Tsunami does it all I feel is love.

I have been wanting to go up to the top of the Gateway Arch since the first few times I visited St. Louis a few years ago. Unfortunately for me, no one wanted to go with me. Something about a cramped pod experience that they did not care to relive. I would have gone alone once, but on that particular occasion it was a weekend and there were patrons lined up far outside the security gate and I was not going to imposition my wife and in-laws to wait for me to wait in line. I ended up having to wait until I lived here to go. I thought that a Monday morning would be my best chance to get to the top without waiting in too many lines, and I was right. This morning I asked Jupiter if he would go up with me since no one else wanted to. He said he would, perhaps not knowing what I was talking about but excited about going on a ride, and so we went. On our way up Jupiter and I were the only ones in the pod. It was far from cramped for just the two of us. It looked like something from the future

Since getting moved, we have been doing a little bit of exploring around our new community. It has been keeping us very busy the past few days and my posting frequency has suffered a bit as a result. Sorry about that. When we found out the house that we rented was so close to an Amtrak stop, we told Jupiter that we would ride trains when we live at the new home. On Wednesday we fulfilled that promise with a short trip down to the nearest stop in Washington, Missouri. Jupiter had gotten sick over night and seemed to be tired Wednesday morning, but we decided that he would still enjoy the ride and went anyway. We could tell that he was indeed very excited, but he lacked the energy to express it. He wanted very badly to watch out the windows while the towns and other trains were going by, but had eyelids to heavy to stay open. When we arrived in Washington, we walked up the street a bit to a place which served food and pie. The owners had a sign up that stated "Pie Fixes Everything&q

Today my hair smells like watermelon. It is not because I got into a food fight in the produce section. No, that is still on my bucket list. It is because my shampoo is packed in a box somewhere and the only shampoo I could find belongs to my two year old. We are packed up and ready to load up the rental truck and drive it from Lincoln, Nebraska to St. Louis, Missouri. The family finally ready to make the move. It is about time. We have been talking about it for almost two years. Jupiter was surprisingly helpful when packing. He was eager to help me pack up the kitchen which was by far the biggest headache in my packing yesterday. He also packed himself in a couple of boxes, but we let him out eventually. Tsunami was also pretty helpful in that he remained mostly quite and sleeping while we were packing. We can not ask for much more than that from him. Today we load the truck. Tomorrow we hit the road and unload when we arrive. I am excited for some new scenery with some new experience

Our Halloween celebrations have been heroic this year. It started with Jupiter telling us that he wanted to be Superman for Halloween. Not only did he want to be Superman, but he wanted Tsunami, Chris and I to be Superman as well. So he is going to be Superman with Tsu, and Chris and I will wear our Superman T-shirts as well. We got our pumpkin from Arbor Day Farm, and carved the 'S' from Superman's chest into it. Jupiter keep telling us that he was going to show Superman when he was done, which we thought was strange until he brought out his stuffed Superman. Over the weekend we were in St. Louis getting some things in order before we move there. We stayed with Jupiter's aunt and uncle. Uncle Tom had the terrific idea of making more super hero jack-o-lanterns. We had originally planned on doing a Superman and a Green Lantern with the two orange pumpkins that Tom had already picked up, but while roaming around a pumpkin patch Chris decided that we should get a green pum

We finally got out to one of our favorite pumpkin patches this weekend. We chose to go to Vala's because I thought there would be more for Jupiter to enjoy. The whole family is sacrificing sleep due to the new baby, even Jupiter. He cannot seem to sleep through the cries. So we did not plan to spend too much time at the pumpkin patch. A couple hours was enough for all of us. The first thing we did was ride the train. Aside from being a fan of trains in a general sense, this one is particularly fun for Jupiter because the engine is a half scale model of the infamous Jupiter steam locomotive . He really gets a kick out of that aspect. Then after having lunch at the Country Bakery, Jupiter rode around on the pedal trikes and we visited Bunnyville. Then we strolled through the Storybook Barn where Jupiter hugged a dragon and rode a school bus. After that it was time to leave. Jupiter was worn out. Tsunami was worn out. Chris was worn out. Kirk was worn out. So we went home.

A couple years ago, Chris and I were clergy for Halloween. It was when she was pregnant with Jupiter. I played the part of a priest and she the nun. This was half a month before he was born, so the effect was pretty good. Some of the people at the party we went to that night did not even know that we were expecting. It was especially fun to see the reaction of those people. What are some favorite pregnancy Halloween costume gags that you have done?

We have been back in the hospital for the past day, or actually, Chris and Tsunami have been back in the hospital. Jupiter and I have gone home to try to sleep with varying success. Tsunami was a little jaundiced when we left the hospital the other day, but his levels were not high enough to worry about. Yesterday was his first appointment at the pediatrician where the doctor took his bilirubin level again and it was going up. He recommended that we put him under a light until the level gets below 15. We had hoped that it would be down by last night, but after his most recent test this morning it was still at 16. We are not too worried about it. Jupiter was much more jaundiced than this when he was in the NICU after he was born. But here we are, waiting, not getting much rest. Hopefully we will get out sometime today. Update: We have just been told that we can go home and will have to come in for another blood draw tomorrow morning. Yay!

Today has been a very busy day. I took Jupiter to his gymnastics class today. I thought it would be a nice chance for Jupiter to get a healthy dose of his normal routine and for me to get away from the hospital for a couple hours. When we actually got to gymnastics, he just wanted to leave to go see his new little brother. I can tell Jupiter is very excited about his brother at this point. He just wants everybody to come home and for things to get back to normal. I can sympathize. Being in the hospital is nice because of all the help we get from nurses, but being home will be good. We get to go home tomorrow. Jupiter has been excited about riding in the car with Tsunami ever since we put the baby seat in Chris's Prius during one of the false alarms from earlier. Every time we get in her car he asks us, as if he needs reassurance of the reality, "Baby ride back here with me?" Needless to say, he will like having a travel companion.

Tsunami Dawkins Augustine was born at 13:05 on September 26, 2011 at Bryan Hospital in Lincoln, NE. He weighed 8 lbs 5 ounces and measured 20 inches. Mother and baby are doing great!

Today started out pretty rainy, so Jupiter and I abandoned our plans to go to Nebraska City. As the day went on, though, the rain was subsiding and it looked like we might be able to go wander around the orchard after all. So we did. Nebraska City has a city wide Apple Jack Festival every year in September. It features patents, craft shows, art shows, air shows, car shows, a carnival, and much more. However, Jupiter was not interested in anything but the apple orchard at Arbor Day Farm . I could not blame him, it is fun to pick and eat apples right from the orchard. When we got there, Jupiter saw his friend Elsa and started following her on the trails (which are another fun thing to do at the farm). But we were there for apple picking, so we soon left the trail and went to pick some Red Delicious, Golden Delicious and a few different apples that we were not technically supposed to pick yet. We tried many of them out too. They were all pretty tasty. After filling our bag with apples, w

We seem to hear the ice cream van that drives through our neighborhood pretty often. By the time we actually get out there, money in hand, it is usually gone or too far away. After living in this neighborhood for over a year though, we finally caught up with it. Jupiter seems mesmerized by his choice of a Batman Pop.