Ben’s Blog

Both Luke and Liam enjoy TV, for better or for worse. When Luke was about seven or eight months old, he decided he didn’t like riding in the car unless someone was sitting back there playing with him. That wouldn’t work so we bought him a portable DVD player for the car. At first he only got to watch age-appropriate Baby Einstein DVDs. At some point after he turned one he got bored with those and Cassie and I went to Toys ‘R Us to get him something a little more exciting. After a brief discussion we decided on a Wiggles DVD. If we had only known.

Luke and Liam now have four or five Wiggles DVDs. We have around a dozen Wiggles TV shows “TiVoed.” Wiggles was all Luke watched for a long time. His interest has now branched out into Handy Manny, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and Imagination Movers, all Disney shows. Until recently he only had Wiggles DVDs, we just recorded the other shows. Before our trip to the coast we bought him a DVD of each of the other shows. Liam loves the Wiggles too. It’s definitely his favorite, but he enjoys Mickey Mouse Clubhouse too.

Luke with his guitar, back in April.

Several months ago we got Luke a Wiggles guitar. For a long time he took it everywhere: the grocery store, restaurants, and one time, even church. Now he’s content to leave it in the car when we get out, but he still has to make sure it’s in the car before we leave. He plays along with the Wiggles, the Imagination Movers, or any other show with a guitar.

Several months ago we found out the Wiggles would be doing a tour in the US. We didn’t know when or where, but Cassie and I agreed that if it came anywhere close, we’d have to take the boys. Then, one day, after months of anxious waiting, the email announcing the tour came. Unfortunately, the closest concert wasn’t very close; Atlanta or somewhere if I recall.

Cassie ended up on the Ticketmaster web site somehow, and happened to notice that they had a Memphis date listed for the Wiggles tour. For whatever reason, the Memphis date wasn’t originally listed on the Wiggles site. Maybe the details were worked out at the last minute or something. In any case, because no one else knew about the Memphis concert, we managed to get front row seats.

The concert is tomorrow, and I think Cassie is more excited than anyone. :) We’ve been telling Luke about it for the past day or so, but I’m not sure he understands the “in person” concept. The Wiggles show up inside his TV at least once a day, after all. I think they’ll both get it when the concert starts though. It should be fun. I know video cameras aren’t allowed in the concert, but I’m hoping to be able to take pictures. We’ll see.

Since my last update, Liam is crawling all over the place and pulling up on everything. He’ll play in the living room for a while, then move to the “dining room” (aka their third play room), make a loop through the kitchen, and then maybe go play is his room for a while. He doesn’t particularly care if anyone is playing with him or not. In that respect, he’s more independent than Luke was at his age (11.5 months).

Liam loves to play “chase.” He loves for Luke, or for that matter, Cassie or I, to crawl after him. He thinks it’s great fun. He and Luke are getting to be pretty big buddies. Most of the time Luke remembers that he’s still quite a bit bigger than Liam, but occasionally he gets too rough for our liking. Sometimes you’d think he’s been watching wrestling. :)

Liam’s spitting up has gotten much better. Good enough, in fact, that we’ve tried mixing whole milk into his bottles. Unfortunately, it seems to make him spit up quite a bit more. We’ve stopped for the moment, but will probably try again soon. Hopefully it was a fluke. I’m anxious to get him off his ~$50/week formula habit.

Luke’s learning new words at a pretty rapid pace. He’s still not saying a lot of phrases, but that seems to have improved in the past week or so. At least to me, it’s obvious he’s a pretty smart little kid, we just need his verbal skills to catch up to what’s going on in his head. I have no doubt that’ll happen in time.