Ladies and Gentlement - I'm Five!

A note to the audience:  Now that Austin is five, he is writing his own blog entries.  Unedited, raw, the beauty, the mistakes, the 'um's' and the laughs.  Enjoy -- Management

 

So, today I'm going to tell you stuff about my birthday party. 

I love my birthday party a lot.  It was very fun, and I think I just love blowing bubble gum this night (see above).  I loved it so much.  My favorite kind of like bubble gum I think is the kind I had tonight, and I think I would like to try mint bubble gum.

I got an ice cream maker for one of my presents and you can eat ice cream out of it.  Its good and I'm going to make vanilla ice cream.  So, um, let's see...

Ok.  (big sigh)  Well, I think I love the legos most best of one of my birthday presents.  Well, I think I kind of so what is happy the first time i'm having bubble gum so i'm going to do a birthday joke, ok?  Daddy? 

Knock, knock.

(Daddy):  Who's there?

A:  Birth?

(Daddy:)  Birth how?

A:  Birthcake with a birthday

(Daddy):  Ha ha ...

Here's some pictures from my birthday weekend:

This is my first of many cakes this weekend!
 

The official Birthday cupcake

My crew:  Bennett, me, and Elina (my new baby cousin)

My extended crew

Interview with an almost-5-year-old.

So, considering I'm turning five, I thought I would show you a purely unedited interview that my father (who is awesome) conducted with me.  Folks, this is verbatim!

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Dad:   Are you excited to be turning 5?

Austin:  Yes.  Ok, um, well I can't wait to be five!  And I can't wait to eat bubble gum when I'm five.  By then, maybe when I'm a little older than five I will do a lemonade stand and learn about how to sell lemonade.

Dad:  Austin, what was your favorite experience from when you were four years old?

Austin:  My favorite thing is space, but I'm going to learn about space even more when I'm five and maybe I will learn more about it when I'm in kindergarten as well.

Dad:  Austin, what have been some of your favorite foods to try as a four year old?

Austin:  I tried crab cakes, but I would like to try them again.   And, I, um, at my birthday place, is the first time I'm going out for my birthday place is called "Pump it Up" and we will do a space {theme} at my birthday party.

Dad:  What are you looking forward to most about your birthday party?

Austin:  Bouncing!  And seeing the people that are going to be at my birthday party ... and I'm happy that my birthday party is coming.  Something in my gift bags is one of the things is a blow-up spaceship shuttle and I can't wait to do it.

Dad:  I hear you are starting kindergarten next fall... 

Austin:  I can't wait - some of it will be in the summer because fall doesn't start until September.  I just can't wait and I'm not sure if we will do pumpkin carving or not, but in my old school, I just can't wait to do Dad's night, and I think that is all.

Dad:  Any words of wisdom for kids that are about to be four now that you have been four for a year?

Austin:  I think they need to know they can use monkey bars, but not really high ones because it is kind of dangerous, but they can if they can, and they can if they want to.  They can have a lesson about it or they can start right away.  Bennett is going to be four in a little while, but he first has to go through three.  I need him to know this.  So, I just love him, but except, I just can't run in the house, but I'm going to have no more timeouts in my life.  yep!

Dad:  Any final words to your fans that are out there?

Austin:  I would like to say "The End" for the end.  So that is the story...it's like a little story about turning five and stuff and there are so many questions -- "By Austin"  My whole name is Austin Mitchell Laves.

Touchdown

Given that Mack Brown never wrote me back, I'm realistically thinking that my career in pro football might not be my answer to seeing all the Texas games for free.  Therefore, I'm taking a different approach.  I figure if Bennett can become a good referee, then he could get me free tickets!  In anticipation of this, I've started with teaching Bennett the referee basics - Touchdown!

Mommy over Chocolate

None of this will make sense unless you watch the video: 
4 + 4 = 8
French Fries < Oranges
Oranges < Strawberries
Strawberries <= Chocolate
Chocolate Covered Strawberries (much) < Mommy
Else - Daddy - can I play a game on your phone?

Bennett's First Word!?!

Ok, so Daddy talks a big game about how "Dada" was Bennett's first word, but let's be honest - I have the real proof. Bennett's first word was after his favorite (and only) brother!  I think that the next word I will teach him is "Texas"...

Train Conductor - Part Three

So, for almost a year now I have been practicing my train management skills.  At first I started with toy trains (First Blog Post about this).  Then, I moved into track building and enhancing the original skills (second post).  Now, to be honest, it was time for a real life test run, for which I needed a guinea pig.  Fortunately, my younger brother Bennett was willing to help out in my crazy endeavor!

Bennett's First Steps

I feel like I should take full credit for this one. Bennett has been watching me run around so much, that he decided he should take part in the action - at 10 months, 2 days! - pretty amazing:

Birthday Lessons

So, now that I'm three years old, I have to start acting like an adult, right? --- NAH!

Mommy and Daddy threw me a birthday party with all my Pacific Northwest friends. There was homeade cake made by Grandma, presents, and ... (wait for it) ... BUBBLE WRAP!!!!

As you can see, my friends and I truly enjoyed the bubble wrap. I even overheard Mommy say to Daddy, "That was the best eight bucks I ever spent!" (Ofcourse, Daddy then said, "Eight Bucks for bubble wrap?!? You gotta be kidding me!")

Here we all are waiting for the cake to show up. We had our party hats on and "Curious George" masks.

Even Bennett got into the Birthday spirit!

Finally, the cake arrived, and boy what a doozie! I saw three sticks of butter go into the oven, and a beautfiul (and tasty) cake come out ... now that is magic!

However, everyone knows that the best part of the birthday is the presents! I did enjoy opening them up, but according to Daddy and as you can see from this video below, it's never too early to learn another rule of life - SHARING!

Lastly, the big present from Mommy and Daddy was an outdoor playhouse. 180 screws, 3 beers, and 4 hours later, Daddy had completed the project. All that hard work should not go unnoticed, so I made sure that Daddy took adequate "picnic" breaks with me. Here's a snapshot of us enjoying lunch:

I Love Airplanes

Airplanes have been a passion of mine ever since I got my first one. To foster the importance of technology and flying, Mommy and I went to visit the Museum of Flight in Seattle.

Teaching Bennett the ropes

Lately, each day has been about a new lesson with Bennett. For example, the other day was about the importance of exercise:

The next day was more on associating colors to objects and the importance of reading:

Just my take here, but Bennett seemed more interested in the exercises than the reading :) Ofcourse, the self-grooming habits are most important, and I was happy to share my knowledge in the next video below...

Mommy! Bennett's doing "Tummy Time"

So, Bennett & I were chilling at the cabin, and Daddy caught this video of Bennett and I playing. As soon as Bennett rolled over, I thought it was very important that I tell Mommy!

Just some pics

This winter in Seattle is nothing compared to my past two winters in Chicago! I mean, I'm happy rolling around in a T-shirt. With Bennett and Daddy to play with indoors, life is a hoot. Here's all of us on one such occasion:

Daddy has been very busy teaching Bennett those crucial Laves traits. For example, here, he's teaching Bennett the special "Laves" smile (good for catching the ladies ... or ... getting a fist in the face if you are taunting the OU Sooner football team)

and here Daddy's teaching Bennett how to look surprised when your hand is caught in the cookie jar!

All those lessons (and some milk) just exhausted the poor guy, and he was fast to sleep in minutes!

Lastly, my friends (from L to R: Cole, Reilly, Max, Leah, me) thought it would be funny to all sit on Daddy. Sure enough, the person who thought it was funniest was ... Mommy!

My brother is happy to see me!

Quite ironic, don't you think, that my brother's first smile (caught on camera) was because I drew it out of him.

The holidays...

Wow, the holidays were crazy this year, complete with Thanksgiving, a party for Bennett, Hannukkah, Christmas, and Bebe/Zayde in town. But, even with all that, I still had time to build a snowman!

Also, I'd like to throw a shout out to my new "Aunt" to be, Caroline! Uncle Alex popped the question on xmas morning. Here's the happy couple with Bennett:
Hannukkah was crazy this year. Here's the family on Bennett's first Hannukkah:

I've started to learn the prayers, but don't have them quite down yet...anyway, here's a short clip of us lighting the candles:

The presents were off the hook this year! I got a guitar! (Ladies - I will post tour dates shortly) All that present opening made Bennett pretty sleepy. Fortunately, he's good if he can sleep on a warm arm...He's ok with a warm belly...

...wide awake with a shoulder!

or...whenever Daddy is holding him!

Here's me and my friend Max, which I've purposely put in the middle of this blog posting so that hopefully the ladies might gloss over. Please ladies! Don't be jealous...There's enough of Austin to go around!!!

Also - some random cameo's of Bebe and Zayde reading to me... you can never have enough of these pictures!

Lastly - I had a very important event this past week. I saw my first movie (Yogi Bear) in a theater. It was in 3D, and I'm still talking abou it.

Hangin w Baby Bennett

So, I've been trying to think of good ways to keep Bennett entertained to help Mommy out. First, Dad and I tried playing with my tools...

Bennett lost interest quickly. So, then I thought we'd do a little rough housing on the bed...

At first Bennett was like, "What?!?"

But then, he finally started getting into it ...

Bennett even got a few 'shots' on me. Fortunately, nothing that did much damage...

But all of this rough-housing made Bennett tired. I tried to get him to close his eyes and maybe take a snooze, but he just wasn't having it... so I took him into the living room and sat with him while he fell asleep. Ofcourse - I had an ulterior motive. Curious George was on the TV!

Regardless - Success! Baby Bennett got his snooze (and I got to watch Curious George!)

Bennett's first Shabbat (and a video)

I spent a fair amount of time teaching Bennett the in's and out's of Shabbat. I showed him how to do the blessing over the candles, but he just wasn't quite getting it yet. Fortunately, Daddy and I had it down, so we covered for my little brother...

After all the blessings were said and done, my favorite part of Shabbat was here! CHALLAH! (and I had an extra piece of challah for my baby brother)

Lastly - here's a quick video of Bennett being held by Daddy.

Hanging at the hospital...

I went to visit my baby brother in the hospital, and he was a total treat. Mommy and Daddy let me hold him, and here's how it went down:

I must say, I'm getting pretty good at this 'big brother' gig!

I even bought my baby brother a present - of course, I had to help him open it!

Here's one of Mommy, Daddy, and Bennett:

All of this attention on my baby brother eventually started to get to me, so I made myself at home in the only way I knew possible...chilling in Mommy's hospital bed and watching some Curious George on the portable DVD player!Lastly, here's the much-awaited-for close-up of Bennett:

I'm a Big Brother!!!

I'm a big brother!!!! This is soo exciting. Mommy and Daddy have been talking about this for almost 9 months now, and this day is finally here! It is my honor and joy to introduce you to the newest edition in the Laves family:

My baby brother:

Bennett Fredrik Laves

Born Nov. 1st, 2010 - 9:41 AM

7 lb, 9 oz - - 20 in

A little about the name. Bennett is named after my Mor-far (grandfather on my mother's side), whose name was Bertil Fredrik. Also - Daddy wanted me to let everyone know that Mommy and baby are both doing just fine!

Train Conducting, Part II

Ok - let me just say that I have perfected my train conducting skills. If you missed my amateur skills earlier, you may want to view this post first. Anyway, let's just say that I could do this for hours (or at least five minutes in a row!) :)

Snoqualmie Falls

With my baby brother due to arrive any day now, I think Mommy and Daddy were getting a little restless, so we decided for some fresh air. A quick 20 minutes from our house in Redmond, and we found ourselves in front of Snoqualmie's beautiful water falls. It's pretty scary up there, so I grabbed (what little I could of) Daddy's hair and enjoyed the view. We all did.