Thursday, February 22, 2007

February update

The past few months have been eventful! Here's a little peek. I am writing this while I sit at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL) doing experiments at 2 in the morning, so if anything I write is illegible, or poorly styled, ...

We enjoyed Christmas break in Utah. For the first time, our kids remained relatively healthy during the break, aside from Link losing his lunch a few times. I went running twice in the frigid cold weather before giving up on that crazy idea. We appreciated the opportunities to visit with friends and family at various reunions and shindigs. Karen and I particularly enjoyed spending some time with Grandpa and Grandma Pike in Gunnison.

After a delayed return flight home to sunny California, we settled back into life. Max is really enjoying his preschool, which meets every morning. He loves planets, and nearly every night, I am called upon to sing a "silly planets" song to him. This consists of singing a song about the planets (learned from the popular kid's show, Blue's Clues), but replacing all of the planets' names with characters from other shows, or family members, or whatever else we can think of. I think we have done at least 20 different "silly" versions of the the song so far.

Doman loves trains, and puzzles. We have been busy with Doman's pediatrician and a developmental specialist, trying to figure out how to help him gain weight and develop his muscle strength. The best news yet is that he doesn't have Celiac disease (i.e. we don't have to go gluten-free!). He is quite a happy child and has a natural peacemaking tendency that is adorable... one can often observe him willingly breaking off a piece of his snack to share with a marauding Lincoln.

Speaking of the devil, Lincoln is quite a handful! I like to call him "little chort" (chort = Russian for devil). It is hilarious to watch Link try to copy everything he sees his brothers doing! I'm sure Link is a typical baby, doing the things babies have been doing from time immemorial, but we are still enchanted watching him. He lumbers about, nigh unto impossible to stop. When he finds something he likes to hold, sometimes it will stay desperately gripped in his stubby little hand for hours.

If you haven't checked out BYU basketball lately, you're missing out. For the briefest of updates, you can always peruse the headlines at
http://cougarfan.com/teams/basketball_m/
March Madness is right around the corner!

I will try to post some pictures on this blog from time to time. I haven't been on top of our family media lately.