Spring 2008

Lots of long overdue pictures from this past spring and promises of more frequent posts to come.

Uncle Jona came to Athens and his visit couldn't have been more perfectly timed. We had so much fun at the MFA show together.


Rilke makes the funniest faces. She always has. She growls, wrinkles her noes, sniffs and squints like crazy, she's just plain silly and we can't help but plant kisses on those pouting little lips all day long.






As you can imagine Harper has been big brother extraordinaire. Right now my favorite big brother mission Harper has embarked on is making sure Rilke always dismounts the coffee table feet first. She'd love to dive off head first but with Harper tugging at her feet and anchoring them to the floor she doesn't have a chance.


Here we are at a UGA Iron Pour. We will miss those.


Playing at the UGA track...




This April Harper turned 3. He loved his cake and I was a very happy mama.


Harper visits dad at work and sits in on a critique.


A climb through the sinks and call it a day.


An awesome visit from Jen, Joe, Dana, & Curtis where Rilke and Harper got to spend some time with their adorable baby cousin Isabella.


Playing in the lovely yard at my good friend Amy's house. We miss her!



A good bye to the old LDSOA.



After this display I knew we had to go strawberry picking.


A trip up north to see the family. Here in VA with Poppy and Nanny.




Then up to Ithaca where Harper met Willow and and the hug fest began!

visiting Priscilla at her Little Leaf School.

Then to Orange County, NY where Jackson and Harper hung out at Taylor's Volleyball practice. Such a cute little fan club.


A ride with Ariana, definitely a highlight.


Very first tractor ride at my Mom's house.


A lovely spring.

Spring

Since our last post we quietly welcomed the New Year and a few days later Rilke had a minor strabismus surgery on her eyes (now they are perfect). A few weeks later we had a wonderful visit from my mom. We cooked so much yummy food, visited the botanical gardens, played in the freezing cold rain, and did our best to get months of catching up done in just a few days. Not long after we saw flurries in GA! The first time for us in three years and a pretty big deal for GA. We also had a wonderful visit from Stephanie (one of my best friends from high school). We endured some more freezing cold rain and just couldn't resist letting the kids jump around in the chilly muddy puddles. The visit was perfectly timed, a much needed distraction from missing Josh while he was in Texas.



The warmer weather is here and I can’t wait until I can take out the summer clothes for the kids. I am so excited to see Rilke in an itty bitty dress with little chubby thighs and bare feet and I am looking forward to hitting the pool again with Harper. Harper and I had so much fun swimming last summer that this year we might try swimming lessons.



Harper will be three next month and we are just amazed to see our little toddler turn into a sweet little boy who talks and asks questions non-stop. It’s really amazing to watch him learn. For example, Harper really pays attention to where I am driving these days. He knows the streets and once the car is pointed in a certain direction he will ask if we are going to drop off the recyclables, go to the YMCA, grocery shopping, the bank, FedEx, Post office, Book Store, Chrissy’s apartment, Amy’s house, the park, the car wash, etc. The other day we passed by Chase St., which takes us to Rt 129, which takes us to the lake. We haven’t been there in 8 months or so but when he saw the street he asked if we were going to the beach. I love moments like that where you can marvel at their sense of perception and memory.



Harper’s days are filled with Mommy, Rilke, and our friends we have here in Athens. We’ve had fun cooking together lately. I tried asking Harper to help me in the kitchen once and he was totally captivated by the process of measuring, pouring, and mixing. I try to let him help me when ever possible; at the very least I let him make me a cup of coffee in the afternoon. I am tickled by how serious he takes the task. He is completely immersed with pouring the water, scooping the coffee, sprinkling the cinnamon, pushing the button, adding sugar, tasting sugar, adding cream, stirring, and finally tossing the spoon in the sink. All in a days work!



When Josh gets home from school Harper’s world stops. He starts by saying “Daddy, What a surprise!!!” Then Daddy gets the biggest hug and kiss and is immediately asked to play Mr. Lightning McQueen, Does Harper like to eat, Look who’s coming, I’m stuck, Team down, Steam roller, and many, many other games they have invented together.



The above picture is at Discovery Place in Charlotte. One day during a wonderful trip to NC. Harper is still saying "No jumping on people Sadie" and "Vikii!!!! Use the doggie voice!"



Rilke is still the same boundless little girl she was months ago. She will still look at us with the most loving eyes. She bounces, kicks, rolls, squirms, and squeals with excitement. Above all, nobody can maker her smile and laugh like Harper.



About a month ago Rilke got her bottom two teeth. Since then we’ve started feeding her cereal. Trying to get the food in her mouth is absolutely comical. Sometimes she will lock her lips and spit bubbles entertaining herself as I go through my entire routine of trying to get her to taste some delicious oatmeal. Other times she is so excited about eating you’d think she was trying to catch a fast moving target. I’ll slowly approach her with the spoon and she’ll whip around, mouth wide open with enthusiasm, hands flailing trying to grab the spoon or the bowl. It has been a test of coordination and speed; I think we’re making progress.



She can roll over and wiggle enough to get her anywhere she wants to go. Rilke loves to put her feet in her mouth, especially if she has her shoes on. I love when she does that, it’s exactly what you picture silly sweet babies doing.



Other little habits that just melt me are when she plays with my hair, holds on to a handful of my shirt, nuzzles her sleepy little face into my shoulder, growls, and stomping her feet when she wakes up. My favorite little trick is when she whips off her hat. She’ll be wearing her winter hat for a long time and then all of a sudden she’ll get the idea that she wants it off. Then she reaches up her hand grabs on to a handful of hat and whips it off so fast. She’s left looking at me with this unruly wild wispy hair. I can’t resist sneaking the hat back on her head just to watch the whole sequence unfold again.



Wishing everyone a wonderful spring! Miss you all!

Rilke...baby sister...4 months

It seems like we blinked and 4 months went by. It’s been busy and hectic with Joshua juggling school and home and all of us balancing a life that revolves around a newborn. Harper welcomed Rilke with the utmost affection and it hasn’t slowed down since. He frequently asks throughout the day if he can “give Rilke a nice gentle kiss on the cheek?” He brings over a collection of toys for her to look at when she’s lying on a blanket and meticulously places them about a centimeter from her face so she can see them. He congratulates her on all of her daily accomplishments by exclaiming, “Good burp Rilke!” and “Good poopy diaper Rilke!” My favorite is when he hugs her and says, “I’m so proud of you Rilke.” It is so fascinating to see how siblings interact even on the simplest level.

Rilke has been growing into such a happy little girl. She is very smiley and treats us to the most amazing coos and squeals of excitement. She smiles with her whole body and looks at us with such loving eyes we can’t help but smother her with tons of kisses all day long.



Admittedly, the first six weeks were really difficult, the second six weeks were still a little tricky, but now things are really settling down and I feel like we are in a much more peaceful place. Although Rilke isn’t much of a napper, nights have been so much better. It was stressful putting her to sleep in the first few weeks. She was so persistent and would fight it with all her might. Now she is falling asleep all by herself and only wakes up two or three times a night to eat. Just last night I walked into our room at around 10:00pm to get something and I heard her rustling around. Within a couple minutes I heard her slurping away on her thumb. It was the first time she had found it and then she used it to snuggle herself back to sleep. Josh and I stood there crowded around her crib in the dim spotlight of a cell phone screen; we were so proud of her.





The past few months have been really great for Harper too. He can experience and appreciate so much more now that he’s getting older. He notices the sun setting early and he loves when we’re outside as it’s getting dark. Falling leaves, carving pumpkins, celebrating Josh’s birthday and my birthday, Thanksgiving, and now seeing Christmas trees everywhere mean so much more this year than they did last year. We will be getting a Christmas tree for the first time this year and I just can’t wait to see what Harper thinks about it.



Harper has been very consistent in his love for music. All day long he requests different songs to be played so he can sing along with a pretend microphone or drum along with a pair of wooden spoons. Right now the top requests seem to be Counting Crows, Dave Matthews, and lots of Elvis. Josh has been so good at introducing new songs every couple weeks which is great because after hearing “King Creole” a couple hundred times I am ready for a new one. Harper’s other love these days is his stuffed puppy. It was a gift from my friend Kate, meant for Rilke but snagged by Harper the second he laid eyes on it. It was affectionately called brown puppy for a few months but now is called Sadie (named after Curtis and Dana’s new dog).



A new fad Harper picked up is calling Josh “Babe”. I think it’s going to be a short lived phase so at the moment we still think it’s really silly and funny. He will pretty much substitute Babe for Daddy when he’s talking to Josh and he’ll even use it when Josh isn’t home. He’ll ask me, “Where’s Babe?” or say “Babe will be home soon”.



Josh and I have been blessed in so many ways. As we stumble our way through parenting we realize how fascinating the parent-child dynamic is. It’s hilarious to be on the other side of parenting, realizing that once we left the room as children, our parents might have been discussing whether or not they totally blew that one. Yep, Josh and I have had that conversation once or twice. We try our best not to go back on our word and we try to be consistent but sometimes Harper’s cuteness is just too much. Like the other day, we were in the car and we told Harper twice that he could eat as much of daddy’s sandwich as he wanted but he couldn’t hold it. I guess Harper though he just needed to request it in a more polite articulate manner so he said, “Dad, may I hold it one time please?” How can you deny a request like that coming from a two year old? Anyway, Today was Josh’s last day of class. We are SO excited because after a nice Christmas break Josh only has one semester left until graduation; we can’t wait to see what comes next!

Rilke Leah Bienko

We knew it was going to be a big day. Thursday was the first day of the last year of graduate school for us. I woke up early to have copies of my syllabus printed and to tie up some loose ends before the school year began. I taught Color and Composition at 11:00 and then had a Graduate Crit class at 2:00. MJ and I hadn’t talked all day, which was sort of unusual, but with the hustle and bustle of the first day of school, sort of expected. I called MaryJo shortly after class (which went for the full 2 hr 45 min on the first day of class!). She said, “I’m kinda struggling. Are you coming home soon?” When I got home, she handed me a short grocery list and asked me if I was done for the day. I had two things to do still, so I swiped Harper up and the two of us took off to, “help Daddy go to college.” Sidekick in tow, Harper and I overnighted a letter, made a seating chart for a 300 person class, and went to Kroger to get the things on Mom’s grocery list. Mom stayed home and exhaled. After all, unbeknownst to the rest of the world, she had been taking care of an energetic two year old all day while in labor. You wouldn’t know it by looking at her or talking to her.

When Harper and I returned, Mom stayed in the bedroom, readying herself while I readied Harper for bed. MaryJo called the midwife at the hospital who, (exactly like last time) doubted her level of labor because of her calm, pleasant demeanor. We called Sean Mills, a recent Digital Media grad and a great friend. Upon receiving my phone call he dropped everything and said, “Do you want me to run there, because I will.” I picked him up, briefed him and by about 7:30-40, MaryJo and I were off to Athens Regional Hospital. She had bags pre-packed, clothes for Harper pre-laid out and instructions for a babysitter pre-written out. In short, she was pre-pared.

Unfortunately from here, there is little to tell. We arrived at the hospital, registered, (which took over ten minutes and two maybe three contractions) and headed up to the delivery room. MaryJo smiled at me during our registration and said quietly, "Imagine how long it would have taken if I hadn't pre-registered!?” We laughed together while we looked around for some sort of Candid Camera crew. You wouldn’t believe how many people it took and how many times they had to hit the F10 button to let us in.

We met our Midwife Tanya, who said she would go ahead and check if MJ had made any progress. She was floored to see that MJ walked into the hospital, (once again) 7cm dilated. I’d love to take you through the next two hours step by step, but I can’t. It’s a super-real experience that won’t translate. My love and my admiration for my wife are incommunicable. I went to fill her Gatorade bottle half way through and a team of nurses stopped me to see if I was with the girl they had all apparently been talking about. They asked me if she really was 9 cm dilated and “THANKING her husband for rubbing her back DURING her contractions!” At 9:50pm Thursday the 16,th our second child was born. We asked that the nurses not reveal the sex of the child. Instead, the baby was put on MaryJo’s chest immediately. We smiled and kissed and quietly gave thanks for our blessing staring at each other and the baby. My wife looked so beautiful.

After about five minutes, we couldn’t take the suspense. We peaked under the blanket. Maybe it was dark, maybe I didn’t think it was possible, but it looked like a girl. MJ looked and asked the nurses for confirmation. Indeed our eyes had not deceived us. We had a beautiful baby girl. We named her the next day, Rilke Leah Bienko.



This morning, a new midwife came in to check on us. She said that the midwife from the night before had relayed the story to her. She said that in all her years, she had never seen such an amazing, beautiful birth. She said, “those two are something special.” MJ said that was so sweet to hear, and thanked her. I think it meant a lot to her to hear what an amazing job she did from someone else. She was and is, amazing.


Harper is adjusting wonderfully. All he wants to do is "Kiss Rilke?" I wish you could hear the way that he says it. He tells us, "The new baby is very delicate." He is going to be an excellent big brother. Here are some pictures of our growing family.

Harper is Two!

One year ago we were here in Athens celebrating Harper’s first birthday with my mom, sisters, and Harper’s cousin. It was such a wonderful time and I still feel like it was yesterday. But one whole year has passed and it’s amazing what has happened. Harper has grown into such a little person. He talks to us all day long and we constantly get to overhear him singing songs and reciting his favorite books. Harper absolutely loves to be outside. We try to go the park every day that we can and although he enjoys the swing and the slide we think he likes to tell us about them more than actually use them. Either way he has plenty to do there, especially when he finds a nice long stick which makes a perfect golf club to practice his swing in the wood chips. He loves to climb around the jungle gym and because Harper is so sweet and a bit shy he spends a lot of time dodging other toddlers as they zoom around.
It’s somewhat comforting to see that Harper hasn’t changed at all in some ways. His favorite things to do are still reading, singing, and golfing. He still runs to the window every morning and waves to Daddy as he leaves for work, he still gets really annoyed when our neighbors do anything noisy like using a saw, leaf blower, lawn mower, etc, and most of all green blanket is still numero uno!
Harper also has some new interests. He loves playing the piano and we think Julie Andrews may be his hero. We had a feeling he might like Marry Poppins and it is by far his favorite movie. Aside from Baby Einstein World Animals it’s the only movie he requests.

We celebrated Harper’s 2nd birthday with cake, presents, and a trip to The Interactive Neighborhood for Kids. It’s a make believe neighborhood for children that includes a grocery store, vet, doctor’s office, beauty salon, dentist office, library, bank, theater, etc. Every thing is child size and in the center of it all is a really great jungle gym.


Although Harper didn’t really grasp it was his birthday he definitely realized the day was special. We all had so much fun and it was such a happy day.

16 Months

Harper will be 16 months old tomorrow. We celebrated by shaving his head. He has had a mohawk for a while and we thought it was time to try something new. Coincidently Josh just shaved his head, so again they are twins and it is so cute.

This summer we embarked on Harper's second big road trip. We drove from Georgia to New York and back again. Harper was such a sweetie the whole trip. Although Harper was still a bit shy, he managed to enjoy himself alone with Oma and Aunt Leah. It was so sweet to see him slowly start to appreciate all of the affection emanating from my lovely mom and sister. A few days into our trip Josh and I both noticed a change in Harper. He seemed to be getting older right before our eyes. He was becoming more observant and more particular by the day. Apparently Harper is on a learning growth spurt. For the past month he has picked up so many things. It's hard to keep up with it because it has happened so fast. For example Harper knows the sounds of about 10 animals, he has started stringing 2 or 3 words together, he can eat almost effortlessly with a fork, and he can recite several letters of the alphabet. He also understands so much more of what I say. He will correctly respond to so many requests like, please throw it in the garbage, put it in the washing machine, go get a book, please give it to Daddy, sit down on the couch, etc. Sometimes we'll say something not expecting him to understand and he does. I know it is so typical of a toddler to surprise you every day with their capacity to learn but I never expected to be this amazed.

Harper is currently obsessed with two things: Daddy's Moped and buttons. He spends all day trying to get a hand on the keyboard, cell phone, television, and dvd player. When he's not doing that he is telling me all about the Moped. He has the cutest routine in the morning. As soon as Josh gets his sneakers out Harper will say "Daddy! Scooter! Brrrmmmm! Buy Buy! Scotter! Scooter! Scooter! Brrrmmm!" He concienciously works on his pronuciation. For scooter he'll say "sssss-doe-doe", for fan he'll say "fffff-dan".
Harper is definatley a handful but everyday brings more fun and Josh and I are enjoying every minute of it.

Rememberance of Things Past

11 Months Old

Literally, you blink. You blink and that six month old rolling around in the laundry is now tugging at your leg saying "up up up," because he's tired of walking around. In the past three days, Harper has decided that walking is ok so he's just gonna go for it. In the previous weeks he has been comfortable walking from Mom to Dad and then back but apparently that wasn't cutting it. Now he just goes blazing off so condfidently marching himslf right over toys and books and Dad and then collapses when things get going a little too quickly.

Harper's first word was without a doubt, "hat." He closes his eyes and sort of picks up steam and then bursts with a "Hat!" He does all of the normal baby tricks, like "how big is Harper?" (both hands shoot to sky) and "Yay Yay, Clap Clap" (hands clapping). It seems like he's been fake sneezing and coughing for months now. That is a sight to see. His favorite books include Sheep in a Jeep (which he calls "Uh-Oh"). The books goes, "Sheep in a Jeep on a hill that's steep." Harper predicts the next page with "Uh Oh, The Jeep won't go." He only gets the Uh-Oh part for now. His favorite book of all time is Five Little Ducks. I've even tried beating him at his own game and reading it until he just can't stand it anymore. I have not found his breaking point yet. Neither MaryJo or myself can decipher what this means but as soon as you begin to read this book to him he looks straight into your eyes and makes the "brrrrr" sound. He does it so seriously like it's something you really need to know. "Brrr!" "BRRRR!" "Sheesh is anyone listening to me?"

He is not eating at night anymore. Five out of ten nights he sleeps from about 7:00 to about 7:00. If he does wake up I get to go into his bedroom and try to rock him back to sleep. He has a very very soft white Blankey that comforts him at night.

Unfortuntely his favorite toy bar none is the computer and the mouse. He would do anything to have five minutes with that keyboard. The sadest funniest thing that happens is, when he gets on his toes and starts grabbing for the mouse I say, "Harper, no no," and I go over and pick him up. He instantly begins sobbing, and shaking his head, no no. It's so damn cute, I end up laughing. I try not to but it's really hard.