Transforming Julian

As someone who was once so reluctant to embrace new technology, I'm still amazed that I keep finding new ways to use more technology instead of less.

It's not because I feel like I have to start using Pinterest or upload the kids' videos to YouTube, it's because I want to.

Technology makes it easier to share photos, stories, words of encouragement and creativity with people not matter where (or when) they are.

I sound like a futurist, but part of this acceptance of technology is trusting that in 10, 20 or 50 years, the content that I create online will still exist somewhere in then digital sphere. Blogging and Facebook might literally be comprised of 1s and 0s, but I have hope that no matter how technology evolves, those 1s and 0s will still matter and that this blog will be around as a digital scrapbook for Avery and Julian and maybe even their kids and families.

This is one long introduction to the newest creative outlet for our family, Transforming Julian.

Yes, it's a blog. For a 5-year-old.

It's a place for me to put things like his Transformer videos and stories that I want him to have when he's older, and I'm hoping that one day soon, he'll learn to post on it himself. (He's pretty savvy when it comes to navigating the web, but typing, uploading and publishing on his own are still a few months/years away.)

Julian's 5th birthday

I've been trying to dump all the videos on my phone to YouTube, including this one. Look for lots of new cuteness soon.

Cute kid antics

Since I posted last:

Summer finally ended.

Julian started pre-K.

Avery turned 1.

A very pregnant Chelsea came to visit.

Ian started working and got accepted into the Grammy association as a voting member.

I was named (well, tied) best food writer in Austin in the Chronicle readers' poll.

My workhorse of a laptop died.

I got an iPad, which I'm breaking in tonight. (Hopefully this post isn't too wonky. I'm still hunting and pecking until I get a real keyboard.)

I'll hopefully get to post more photos soon. Baby A is growing fast. Lots of blond curly hair and a wicked smile. Julian is on the verge of reading. La vie dansante...

Julian and Judy have Bieber fever

The older girls at school taught them a dance to go with Justin Bieber's "Eenie Meenie" song. The movie "Marmaduke" has a scene that features that song, which was perfect to dance along with. 

Julian starts school tomorrow

Tomorrow is Julian's big day.

After three years at Lala's, he's ready for a change. The kid says "prefer" and "deceive" and "articulation" and knows the difference between frustrated and annoyed. He's 4 and a half going on 8, it seems some days, but on others, he acts like he's closer to Avery's age. (The fake crying has been particularly annoying lately.)

It's been a long, hot, dry summer, and we're ready for something, anything to change. The days are still long and the 105 degree temperatures never seem to end (we're about the break the record for the most 100-degree days — 69 — this week).

Avery is in the home stretch of babydom. He is walking now, but I haven't had a chance to catch him in action on the camera yet. As you can tell, he's into everything, including the trash. His top two teeth are finally dropping, which we've been waiting on for months.

In the kitchen scenes here, Julian is helping me make friendship bread cupcakes from a starter our neighbor gave us.

Jules is excited about tomorrow, but he's told me he's nervous, too. I tell him we all are nervous, but we have to put on our braves faces and be willing to try something new. A 7:45 a.m. start time will be as hard on us as it is him.

But it's time. They can't be — and we wouldn't want them to be — young forever. It's such a zen-ful thing watching and experiencing something so constantly full of change as raising children. There are milestones every month, it seems, and you feel them as much as your kids do. If it's just you, the milestones are harder to gauge.

So here we are, the night before Julian goes to his first day of pre-kindergarten. We have to pay for it, but it's about the same cost as Lala's with infinite benefits. He'll go a half day on Tuesday and Thursday, and then a whole day on Friday with the whole class. We met the teachers, and they are lovely young women who in any other situation I'd be geeking out about food blogging or hanging out with over a beer.

In that way, Lala has spoiled us. I can't tell you how many meals, slices of cake, beers and even a few shots of tequila I've shared with her. She's our abuelita in almost every sense of the word, and I'm glad she'll be part of our lives. Avery will still be going there, but later this fall, we're cutting him down to two days a week. Ian is good at many things, and one of those things is parenting. Julian gets out of school every day at 2 p.m., and I have no idea how that is all going to work out.

All I know is that tomorrow, we'll all be getting up an hour before we normally do (and that's on a good day), eating breakfast and loading up the car to drop one off at Lala's and then take the other across the street to the elementary school.

Butterflies as we reach the school's front door.

Just put one foot in front of the other, I'll tell him.

Julian's first official Transformer toy review video

For the past few months, Julian has been enthralled with Transformer toy review videos on YouTube. It's a thing, these review videos. There are reviewers, like Julian's favorite, Sean X Long, who have MILLIONS of views on these videos of them transforming figures. He's watched for more hours than mama cares to admit, but he's learned words like "translucent," "articulation" and "gimmick" and developed a desire to make videos himself in the process.

Using my iPhone, he's been practicing these videos for a long time. Usually, I'll "press record" and just let him talk to the phone for 15 or 20 minutes at a time about one Transformer or another. But recently, I've actually pressed record, and this is his first official review video.

Julian changes Avery's diaper, just like a Transformer

Getting to know Avery Jack

Everyone always asks you what your baby is like, "you know, what kind of personality does he have," they'll clarify, and I never know how to respond.

In trying to enjoy kids for who they are, I try not to put anything on them. Yes, he can be fussy, but I don't think that necessarily means he's going to be impatient and demanding for the rest of his life. Plus, I'm too close to him to really be able to distinguish him from other babies. I don't know other babies. I know my baby, and to me, he's a joyful baby.

 

Eight- and nine-month-olds can be pretty clingy to mom, so we're a little like magnets right now. I try to not always have him within a one-foot radius of me, but he's certainly much happier without me near if I'm just not in the house. (This is good for Ian, who says -- teething, notwithstanding -- he's pretty fun to hang around with alone when Julian and I go out.)

It's nice when people comment about what an all-star parent you are, because deep down inside, you know you are, too. Parents who are doing the juggle take on superhuman strengths that are hard to imagine when you're not required to have them. Even when Julian was 2 or 3, I remember looking at moms with babies that are Avery's age and thinking, "How in the hell do you do that?"

I tell you, it ain't easy. At times, you'll find yourself feeding the baby while feeding yourself and your inbox. And you don't even think it's of note until your husband says, "I gotta take a picture of this."

Babies are a lot happier in the summer, I'd say, than in winter, when their little hands and feet are so cold all the time.

Plus, naked baby time is a lot more fun than being in footed Onesies all the time.

It's nice when people come and visit us because it's hard to pack up everyone and have a good time at someone else's house. Both the boys enjoy being in new places, but it takes some planning to make sure everyone's as comfortable as they would be at home.

Plus, you get to hold and kiss the baby as much as you want.

Avery loves taking baths. Much more than Julian, but J is getting better about it. 

Music is a good way to keep his attention.

 

Happy baby, I say.

After what seemed like many months of teething, Avery's first two bottom teeth poked through in the past week and a half. At first, he was a little snaggle tooth, but the other tooth started to come in, too. It'll be nice when this phase is over, but when their first birthday looms on the horizon, you try to hold on to the baby days because you know they'll be gone as soon as they came.

Brotherhood begins

Avery has been going to school with Julian since January. He was four months old and I was back at work. Instead of Ian being a full-time stay-at-home dad, we'd send Avery to school so Ian could actually get some work done at home.

Of course, on the second day of school, they had school pictures, which means Avery got his photos taken, too. I wasn't planning on being in the shot, but since Avery couldn't sit up by himself, I got to hold him.


Because they get to spend so much time together at school, in addition to being together at home, I feel like they are creating a really special brotherly bond, even though Avery is still very much a baby.

Julian does everything from "helping" change his diaper or feed him to being on guard all the time for choking hazards that Avery Jack might put in his mouth. He's a big help, most of the time, but for at least 30 percent of the time, his needs are greater than Avery's. It's his emotional needs, but they are needs, nonetheless, and they are exhausting to deal with.

It's typical 4-year-old stuff: An obsession with Transformers, a dish he's not quite sure of, clothes that don't fit the right way, a desire to watch something different than what we're watching. He's vying for attention with a baby, but Avery is rarely the focus of his frustration, even though they share the same room.

I think that's a good thing, but as with all aspects of parenting, I can't be sure.

Ian is doing a good job balancing both boys, even though Avery is still waking up around 3:30 or 4 a.m. for a snack and daddy feels perpetually sleep-deprived. (Mommy does, too, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.)

They get a boy night all together at least once a week, but I try to limit my work-related evening activities to no more than that. I've started taking Avery or Julian with me to activities that are appropriate for one or the other, which means Ian only has to stay back with one, but the vast majority of nights, we're all together, watching a movies or TV show streaming on Netflix with popcorn and Coke. (It's a weakness.)

It'll be nice when Julian and Avery can really occupy each other's attention in a way that doesn't feel so lopsided, but I think even Julian appreciates that he's still in his cute baby phase.

Easter in Oklahoma

Like we've done several times over the past few years, we met my parents for a long weekend in Oklahoma, and my grandmother, sister and brother-in-law came along this time.

They are all so musically talented, it's incredible. Kenny, Ian, Mom and Dad makes some beautiful music when they get together. My sister and I sit back and get to enjoy it.

Avery had just started crawling and pulling up on chairs on this trip. This was also the first time for us to get to see my sister after she got pregnant. They are getting ready to move to Boise, Idaho, where Kenny is starting a new job at a church, and she's due in November. The other big celebration on this trip was Kenny's graduation from college.

It was so wonderful to get to see GaGa for a few days straight. She went canoeing with us on Easter Sunday. It was a wonderful 3 hour canoe on a river in Beaver's Bend State Park. (Hopefully I can get some of the other photos from the egg-hunting and hikes from two readers of this blog who have cameras who were on that trip. :) )