As an update, Ben is starting to talk more and more…the speciality of the week is “Apple” and “Apple oouce.”  He loves to blow kisses and watch basketball (ask Auntie Lani about that one). Ben is also an eating machine.  Having recently discovered fruit leather, we’ve been suffering from a rough side effect…biting your tongue.  I’ve been exhaustingly busy, but now that I’m back to the almost-treading-water state of keeping up with everything, we’ll slowly be getting back on track with our updates.  Today I went to Ben’s school to observe yoga.  Here’s a picture of dog-going-potty pose.  Note that at least half the kids are wandering aimlessly in the room.  Hysterical.  Jack kept me company and sat on my lap during yoga, and you can almost see Ben in the crowd: he’s wearing white socks with blue stripes.

More pictures to follow from our fun visit to SF to see Owen last week.

Been busy around here, plus I never finished the Christmas posts… I guess you can see all the pictures on Ben’s picasa page or the videos on Vimeo.

We’re back from our Northeastern wintery travels and have lots of videos and pictures to share.  Before we get to that, however, we should have a little recap.  Christmas morning in Austin (which occurred roughly around the 19th of December – the result of living different time zone, of course) was a new experience for all of us.  Upon speculation that the act of opening gifts would be enough excitement for the day, Ben received all kinds of supplies for his trip up north.  Of course, we were fools to think that this strategy would work.  Ben first discovered his brand new wagon, climbed in, and found his other gifts.  He opened the first one – a new bike helmet – posed for a picture, then threw it out of the wagon.  Second present?  New sweater.  Threw it out of the wagon.  Third present? Pack of crayons and pad of paper.  Gone.  Done.  Disappointed.  Mom and Dad, you stink.  He got out of his wagon and went to play with his other toys.  We had to practically coerce him to open his other presents.  Oh, well.  We knew there was more to come soon enough.

First we went to Grandma Hsiao’s house, where Ben had tons of fun playing with aunts and uncles, but mostly loved to follow Joe around and hug Owen.  These three are quite the bunch of boy cousins.  Here’s the piano players in full effect:

Ben also learned how to jump from watching Joe, as well as have a light saber fight (although Joey informed him that “the force was weak within him” – Ben gets easily distracted).  The real victory is that he finally sat still long enough to get a good shot of all the cousins.  This was largely due to the antics of Uncle James, who took to amusing the kiddos while the paparazzi went to town.

UPDATE:  Ben says Mom-Mom-Mom-Mom now.  Phew.

We then set about teaching him how to decorate the tree, fully anticipating this magical family moment where Ben decorates the bottom of the tree, all the ornaments in a small cluster, and his parents offer undue praise for his handiwork. Ben had other ideas. He prefers to let us decorate, and then gradually remove the ornaments one by one and throw them at the tree. Ahh, such a boy. Somehow he has also managed to get the bottom string of lights to stop working…’tis the season to experiment with toddlers and electricity!

Enough about the temperature, though.  The point I’m getting at is that we spend all our time outside, or else we duck for cover and stay inside all day.  None of this “inside/outside” moderation stuff.  We’re all or nothing.  We just rounded out an awesome visit from Ben’s cousin Owen (who incidentally comes with his parents, but that’s not the point).  Ben spent a couple days looking for “Aunt” and “O,” but eventually conceded that he was bound to be stuck with boring old mom instead.  Luckily we can still supplement our days with Jack in order to shake things up.

Ben’s language is coming to fruition.  He has his trusty “this?” which really sounds more like “dis?” and that gets him through the day, but he also calls for his parents when seeking help, or just looking for some attention.  This is not to say that he calls us “Mom” and “Dad” though.  It sounds a little more along the lines of “ass.”  Theories abound (he’s trying to say ‘Allison’, maybe it developed from saying ‘Auntie’ or ‘guys’, etc.), the result is that Stephan and I both now answer to the name “Ass.”  Fantastic.  I have a video of me trying to correct this pattern, but I already reached my vimeo quota until Tuesday.  Check back then.  Instead, here’s a picture of Ben’s favorite part of Thanksgiving: the onion dip.

More videos of the boys at play coming soon.