Kirk blAug

This afternoon Chris and I were spending some time in the backyard with Tsunami. He seemed to be in an independent mood and was wandering about the yard in full discovery mode. I personally love watching him when he is doing this. A few days ago we put plastic eggs all over the yard and let Tsunami and Jupiter hunt for them. It was all part of some sort of Spring holiday tradition wherein folk celebrate everything from simple sugar overdose to sex and fertility to even walking dead deities. Tsunami really enjoyed this egg hunting part of the holiday because, to him, the eggs look a lot like balls. At this stage in his life, he is very obsessed with balls. With the 'ball' hunt in mind, he was out to find some again today. His ability to find balls in just about anything is pretty amazing to me. Today he was not off the mark by any means. He found some plants in the yard that were growing purple balls at the flower and started picking the balls off of them. As I watched h

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 Jupiter, Tsunami, and I went to the Missouri Botanical Garden with the membership that we received from Antijen and Uncle Tom for the holiday. I asked Jupiter to choose between going back for another round at the Sculpture Park or the garden. When he choose the garden, I was skeptical that we would have any fun and tried to convince him to go to Sculpture Park again since it is January and I suspected nothing much would be in bloom, but I think he actually had the right idea. The Missouri Botanical Garden was actually much bigger than I had thought from looking at it from the outside. I had been there before to go in the Climatron, but there was still much to see outside even though flowers are not in bloom. Lots of interesting trees and other plants, plenty of peaceful walking paths, and flowing creeks were all over the place. Jupiter had to make sure to try out a bunch of rocks that were just off the path to see which ones were good for sitting and which ones were not. Tsunam

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.

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!