Eli, awake if for only a minute

It seems that I (John) only get to see Eli for about 20 mins each night awake. He is either sleeping or I'm at school. Kudos for Moms hard work!!!

Eli asleep and Dad with the no sleep eyes :(

Ditto for grandma. She's been a big help taking the early morning shift with Eli, then running around all day with Miles!

Miles fun with Grandma

Miles is wearing a helmet because dad kept turning the corners too fast and Miles would crash into the walls. After about two or three head bonks, John remembered we had this helmet. Miles usually doesn't like things on his head but he didn't seem to mind this......wonder why?

PLAY THE ELI OR MILES GAME

OK all of you Eli and Miles lovers lets play the guess who game. So, grab a pen or pencil and a piece of paper and take a guess; the answers will be in the comments section bellow. Tell us how you did and Good Luck!!!

13

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

So how do you think you did?

WELCOME ELI

7 lbs. 3 oz, 19 1/2 inches long, born October 19th at 5:42 am

Eli is here!!!

The day we picked Mom and Eli up from the hospital Miles got a real cast for his elbow.  What a day!!
This is from Sunday night.  Miles didn't seem that interested in the new baby.  Oh, if he only knew how his little world is about to change.
Our little sleeper Eli just before we took him home.
I took this one because after loading the two boys I looked in the back seat.  I saw this and I was terrified at what was to come in the coming days-weeks-years-forever.....

Eli's first bath
Sunday morning snuzz.
Here is the to two champs.  I hope Wendy writes about her experience with the birth but a tid-bit,  she did it as they say "O-natural" in about 3 hours.
Happy day!!! Everyone seems to be happy and safe.

This is what did it for Wendy,  Chasing Miles and ridding on a bumpy hay ride put wendy into labor at 2 Sunday morning.

The last weeks with just Miles

As my brother Mike would say who needs toys when you have a box.

Movie time, We are probably watching Ice Age, the "Pig" movie, or the "Monkey" movie.

This is Art, his son Eli and Miles.  Art has posted a lot on the blog and is a great friend and study buddy in school.  If you read any of his posts you can see just how bright he is.

This is a tree at the entrance on the complex.

Miles new cast

Our trip to the Emergency Room

Our trip to the Emergency Room

Ok, go figure that out of all the crazy stunts, and climbing and falls, that Miles would do this just by falling off a laundry basket (turned upside down) that he was standing on (on carpet even). I didn't think much of it at first because it didn't look like too bad of a fall (I've seen worse). But, as the day wore on, I noticed he kept holding his arm next to his body at a 90 degree angle, and then he woke up from his nap screaming after only sleeping for 30 min or so. When I went in to go get him, he was still holding his arm and saying "ou-wee". After making a few phone calls to figure out what to do, who to go see, we were told to go to the ER (I was trying so hard to avoid going there). The first two hours were pretty crazy. Miles was screaming! He wouldn't let anyone touch him, especially the guys in the "white coats" (I'm hoping Uncle Rich can help remedy that fear as time goes on). And, I'll actually admit for once that I'm glad I'm still pregnant because I couldn't go into the x-ray room with Miles and dad (but I could hear him screaming standing out in the hall way). John was the best, sweetest, most sympathetic and patient best friend Miles had while they were taking the x-rays. John said that after each xray he and Miles would hug each other and that seemed to help. The last couple of xrays Miles did a lot better. So....the next two hours were much better. Miles and dad cuddled and watched tv and walked around the ER and looked at the fish while we were waiting for the radiologist to read the x-rays. We ate snacks and sang songs and he was pretty happy. Then the doctor came in and said they were pretty certain it wasn't broken, BUT, there was one spot on the x-ray that caused a little concern, and it was too hard to tell so the radiologist couldn't rule it out. As a precaution, they put a cast on and gave him a splint and said the pediatric orthopedic surgery office would call us in a few days to schedule a follow up appt. So there you go. That's how we spent most of our evening tonight. I almost asked them if they would just break my water while we were there and I'd walk over to labor and delivery while Miles and John finished up in the ER. One stop shopping at the U of M hospital!
Dad promised Miles he could have anything he wanted the rest of the night so here he is eating french fries and ketchup and drinking sprite at 8:30pm. And when he asked for more, we'd give him more. And when he dumped his sprite out, we just cleaned it up w/o a lecture. And when he wanted juice after dumping his sprite out, he got that too. I have to say, it was so liberating (and easier) not saying "no" to Miles all the time. I really enjoyed it. No wonder some parents let their kids have what they want all the time. But, reality check Miles...... Tomorrow is a new day and we have to re-establish some boundaries (even if you're still wearing the sling).

"M" is for Miles. He's probably telling the baby that if you get hurt, you get what ever you want after. So, it's not so bad.

So the new thought I often think of is.....

How do our minds work? I mean, how do our minds organize our thoughts, memories, skills, and all the empty space we don't use. Once our thoughts are where ever they go in our heads, how do we call them up to the surface. For example, if I have a memory of a bike ride I took at age eight to get to the school where I played, how does it get recalled and put to the front of my mind?

Most scholars on the subject say there are two separate ways of this happening

1 Our minds work like computers with Central processors. So in the example my central processor says call up this memory of the bike ride from this storage area barred deep in the old childhood area. Our Central processor my also store short term memories like what I ate this morning. If the Central processor decides that the short term memory is not that important it puts it in the "trash" like in our computers.

2 Our minds have many many many "Central processors" each one dealing with a certain thing. For example taste, walking, thoughts, love, anger, and memories. Interesting this set-up seems to fit with the way our physical minds are known to work for example we know that we damage this part of the brain, a person cannot talk, this part, no short term memory. Another advantage of this system is that it lends itself to interconnectedness. So, our mind could go to bike ride to smells to age to old memories to play with out having to stop back to the central processor each time a jump was made.

So, I know this is a lot of stuff but I would love to hear if others have any ideas of how the mind works or what they think of the ideas listed above!!!

I cannot wait to hear from the blog group!!!

Thank You, Thank You For all of the comments on my faith question!!! I put some music widgets on the side so if you don't want to listen to my crazy music you don't have to; but of course I highly recommend listening to get the whole Watson effect.

Random pictures from the week

John's snap shot of a leaf [the one thats not fuzzy]
Miles saying "cheese" for the camera
A quick family photo by our back patio

Great Grandma and Grandpa Hurst and Aunt Cheryl sent Miles a little package. Every time we would go visit he would head straight for the basket of cars, so they decided to send him a couple of his favorites (a green truck and a red hummer).