Sept. 2009-March 2010

March 2010
Okay, so I know it has been quite a long time since a blog update for us. I will give some quick updates to bring you up to speed, and I may just paste in the text of our 2009 Christmas letter to bring you up to speed to at least near Christmas. Below is just my rambling of things I can remember that are going on in our lives, feel free to stop reading whenever you are bored. Since my last post in August last summer:

Grant taught himself how to read (a bit to our surprise until he told us we were not reading everything correctly to him before bed and then correcting us) and Grant has become even more proficient in reading since then. It is great to see him read books and enjoy them. He has a great memory so that helps too. Grant loves pre-school and is again one of 3 boys in a class with 9 girls. The girls love him and Grant fell in love with… the mom of one of his classmates. Grant still loves dinosaurs and also loves Tom & Jerry, Scooby Doo, Chip & Dale, Pink Panther and other classic shows. The event of 2009 for Grant was likely going to see Walking With Dinosaurs. It was an awesome animatronics show of 30 foot tall dinosaurs that looked very real. Grant had a great Christmas and turned 5 in January. His birthday party was at the ice skating rink and he had the best birthday cake. I am going to try to include a photo. He can’t wait for kindergarten to start and he will do great there. Grant is so quick and witty. He is quite funny and of course getting more and more handsome every day, (as if that were possible). Grant loves to play games and it is so fun as he learns to play more games outside of CandyLand and Chutes & Ladders. We have been playing a French card game called Milles Bournes. He also likes to play Mexican train dominoes.

Porter has the best laugh, you can’t help but smile. He is very coordinated and loves to follow Grant around and do what Grant is doing (that can be good and bad). Porter loves to ride Grant’s old big wheel and play outside. He also loves Thomas trains and playing with the train table (although one of his favorite things to do is throw the tracks for which mom spent many hours building a nice track). Porter is starting more recently to be happier, for which we are very thankful. He has learned to play by himself more, although in recent weeks has really had a strong separation anxiety issue. Porter appears to currently be getting his 2 year molars. We can’t wait for all of his teeth to be in as they really seem to bother him when they are coming in. Porter is a giant chatterbox and to our amazment knows nearly all of the letters in the alphabet. He loves to play with letters. Porter has been doing better with reflux and with eating. As some of you may know Porter has had a very difficult time learning how to eat. For many months, he would choke on his food and throw-up at almost every meal. We became experts on noticing when he was going to choke and lose his lunch, but unfortunately, it just happens when you are never ready, at stores, in the car, in the pool for swim lessons, etc. In February, Porter caught a cold which resulted in a swollen throat and we had to put Porter back on liquids for a short time because he would choke and throw up again. Now that his cold is not so bad, he can eat food again, but we just can’t get him to eat very many healthy foods. Any ideas here?

Kent and I got iPhones in September and we love them. We can’t decide if Porter or Grant is more addicted to our iPhones. Grant is amazing at the games on our iPhones, which just confirms that we should not get any other computer game console for our home or I would never hear from Grant again. Porter loves to play Shapebuilder – a puzzle game on our iPhone. He especially likes it when it the puzzle is a letter.

Yes, I know I am skipping a few months – it is a result of my bad memory. Fortunately, nothing too drastic happened in October, November or December. Busy, but we enjoyed Halloween, Halloween parties, school carnivals, Thanksgiving with friends, and Sherri’s mom came for Christmas. Grant went bowling for the first time, and as is common for Grant, he quickly learned to bowl very well and earned a 97 in his first game, yes, that is higher than most of my bowling scores. We did go through several weeks/months of sicknesses in November and December.

February has been a month of sickness, with pink eye for Grant, then later Porter, double ear infections for Porter, colds for all, bronchitis for Kent, in addition to all of the usual injuries, busted lip, scraped nose, scraped knees, cut knees, bruises, etc. Kent spent a few days freezing in Rochester, MN. Sherri turned 34 in February and enjoyed a massage on her birthday and Grant took me to dinner at Red Lobster. We had a really nice time. I think this was the first time Grant has been to a restaurant where you have a waitress, so that was fun. They even took one of the live lobsters out of the tank and let us pet him. Ohh, and it SNOWED IN AUSTIN. Can you believe it? It was the first time Grant got to touch snow, so that was really awesome. It lasted less than a day, but it was beautiful to see. Our plants don’t really think so as they are not suited for snow or freezing and are now not looking so good. Porter thought the snow was okay, but he isn’t the cold weather lover like Grant.

Kent and I have been able to go on more “dates” lately as Porter is okay with one of the high school girls from Church (Lauren) that we love and Porter’s issues with eating have gotten better (doesn’t throw up so much). I think the thing that makes it is okay for Porter is that we let Lauren give him his favorite fruit snacks and marshmallows. It has been great to get out of the house and have time for just Kent and I as we never usually get to speak to each other because both Porter and Grant like to do most of the talking at home.

We have been planning a kitchen remodel and are very excited about it, but it is very time consuming to plan it all out. We are hopeful to have our new kitchen by summer.

Kent is active in Toastmasters and is President of his IBM chapter. (In case you do not know what Toastmasters is, I describe it as a group that gets together to help each other become better speakers). Kent won his chapter’s contest this week. Apparently, it is an international contest and so Kent will go on to the next level.

Work continues to be busy for Kent and me – which is a good thing in this economy. I am not sure how much busier our lives can get. Hence, the lack of blog or photo postings.

I keep trying to make it a goal to update the blog more frequently because it helps me remember what happens and is kind of a journal for me. The only reason I have the time to type this current blog entry is because I am at an Intellectual Property law conference.

So what’s coming up later in the year? I may be going to Los Angeles in April to see a client. I am going to Boston in May for a conference, but will also be able to see Kent’s siblings and their families. I am also excited because they have a Wagamama’s in Boston – woohoo!. Kent is jealous because Wagamama’s was our favorite restaurant when we lived in London for a semester of law school. Kent may go to Budapest, Hungary in early May. My brother Shawn is coming to visit in May. Grant is so excited because he loves to play with Shawn and catch turtles. Porter will turn 2 on May 22. Kent’s 20 year high school reunion is coming up this summer in Tacoma, Washington, so he plans to go to that. We will plan out some camps for Grant this summer.

That is all I have for now, but take a look at the new photo section. Yes, some of the photos are quite old, but I recently found the files and ordered pics so they are included below