A Wilson Family Blog

A Very Andie Update

2008-07-06T17:54:00.000-07:00

With Jackson getting so much attention, we need to put up some funny updates about Andie.

This week Andie discovered the wonders of the public library, which is less than a block from our house. She loves all the books, but has problems when other kids want to read the books she's reading/hoarding. "No, that's MY libary book!" is something she often says, and she doesn't quite understand the concept of being quiet in the library. Of course, she doesn't understand being quiet at church, when Jackson is sleeping, or in general....

She also had a fun 4th of July. Recently, whenever she has seen a flag, she says "Look-- it's like Stephen!!" Andy has a great deal of joy that his daughter's first brush with patriotism is an ironic one.

One fun point on the holiday was when she picked up the box of red, white and blue cookies and wanted more, to which her mom wisely refused, saying it not time for more sugar. "Oh, but everyone loves cookies!" Andie replied. Good point, but not quite convincing.

Andie has also started really enjoying Blue's Clues. During one episode, the host jumps into a pad of paper to write letters. Earlier this afternoon, while watching the show, Andie asked for Dad to come with her to "Go draw letters with Blue and Joe."

"Go where?"

"Go to draw the letters to see Blue and Joe!!!" After I explained to her that we couldn't go into the TV, she started crying, incredibly disappointed.

Andie is the best Big Sister ever. She is trying very hard to take care of her little brother and loves to tickle his toes while he is being fed. She also sings to him and tries to help feed and hold him, but she's not quite big enough for that completely yet.

Welcome, Jackson!!!

2008-06-29T19:16:00.000-07:00

Jackson Warfield Wilson (nee Jackson Obama Wilson nee Jackson Kennedy Wilson) joined our little family yesterday, June 28, 2008 at 4:05 pm local time at Seton Hospital in Austin, TX. He was an incredible 21 inches (no wonder he was kicking so hard!) and 8 lbs 5 oz.

"As hard as Andie was, Jackson was just as easy." --Amanda

About 3 o'clock, everything was going well but the epidural was not quite totally working-- one leg was completely numb and the other not quite enough. After a quick visit from the miracle worker, I mean anesthesiologist, the nurse said we should do a quick check and then called everyone into the room because Jackson was on his way. After just a few pushes, he came out perfect and covered in vernix.

After a quick cleanup and taking some vital measurements, Jackson got to spend some quality time with mom:

He kept looking like he was hungry, so we gave him some formula right after that:

He's proven to be a very good eater, often wanting more than the 1 oz he's supposed to get every feeding. This eating has also led him to have several very healthy diapers, meaning he will most likely avoid the jaundice that we had to deal with when Andie was born (yay! No time under the lights!)

Thanks to everyone who's been so supportive. We're very happy and we'll post more as things progress. Coming next: Andie meets Jackson and up close with him! It may be that i'll get the videos up on youtube before I can blog them, so feel free to visit http://youtube.com/user/whillice for more updates.

A long awaited updated

2008-06-19T18:02:00.001-07:00

I know, I know, all 5 of you who are reading this have been bugging me that we haven't posted anything in forever, so here we go.

We moved to Austin, TX where Andy now works for Public Citizen on global warming and campaign finance issues. He's so busy with his real job he can't blog (sadness), although he is now involved with coming up with Public Citizen Texas's online/new media strategy..... launching blogs for other people like this one: texasclimate.blogspot.com Andy will also be spending his time at the Netroots Nation bloggers conference next month. It's been a huge party the last few years when they've held it in Vegas, and now it's in Austin and Public Citizen is a national sponsor.

We're also busy getting ready to welcome our new baby boy sometime in the next few weeks. We think we've settled on the name Jackson Warfield Wilson. (Warfield is Andy's grandfather's last name) You can believe me, as soon as he's born, we'll be posting photos. While we were on the hospital tour a few weeks back, Andy asked the nurse "Do you have a wi-fi connection avaialable here at the hospital?" What a world we live in where this is now even a consideration. When Andie was born, we barely had cell phones and were certainly not concerned about blogging newborn photos.....

And what prompted this blog posting? It's Amanda's birthday, and we wish her a very happy 29th birthday (for the 3rd time). Everyone pooled together and got her a Nintendo DS so she can play Dr. Mario and Tetris while in labor. "I could go through anything while I'm playing this because I'm focusing on the games." Poor Mandy and her video game addiction......

Andi also got a present today. We went to Target and bought her and her mom matching foam crowns so they can "be the queens" of the house. After waking up from her nap, Queen Andie addressed her subjects:

"Mama, I'm Queen Andie and Queen Andie needs cereal."

Needless to say, Andy is happy to have a new baby boy coming so there is some form of parity in our household......

Christmas Aftermath!!!!

2008-01-15T18:20:00.000-08:00

Well, we're two weeks into the new year. Let's catch up, shall we?

A lot has happened in the past few weeks, so we'll do some catch up from Christmas. Some of it has been great, some not so good such as everyone in the house being sick for the better part of the last two weeks. The upside of this has been a lot of time to play Guitar Hero, which was a Christmas present from Abuela.

Andie had lots of fun opening presents, including this one, a copy of Ratatouille.

Everyone has gotten into Guitar Hero: Andy beat the game on Easy in two days. Then Andie decided she wanted to play.

Andie's a great little rocker. She woke up this morning and the first thing she asked her dad was "Play the tu-tar?" (she can't quite say guitar). Her favorite song to "play" is Slow Ride by Foghat-- she asks for it by name. She also likes Welcome to the Jungle. She refers to Slash as "guy with hat."

Her favorite is when we finish a song and she asks "What happened? Oh, YOU ROCK!!!!" Mandy is also incredibly good, beating many of Andy's high scores. Now we just have to wait for Nintendo to start selling the individual guitar controllers (sometime in the next few months) so we can both play in co-op mode and, more importantly, compete against one another.

Anyone is invited over to play anytime they want!

Christmas Letter 2007

2008-01-15T18:18:00.000-08:00

December 21, 2007

Hello Everyone!

As part of our New Year’s goals, we want to start sending a
family newsletter. Being that we have waited until the last possible
minute to write this newsletter, we had better stick to just once a
year.

This year has really been a good one for our family, full of
changes, most for the better. We began the year in our tiny fifth
floor apartment in the Bronx, climbing the long flights of stairs
daily and yet somehow, not really losing weight. Probably all the
take out we got used to. But in June we were able to move to quite
peaceful part of the Bronx called Woodlawn. It’s a small Irish
community that would make you believe you were not even in the Bronx.
We are quite happy in our new place, which has carpet and a backyard
for Andie. We also brought out our car this summer and have become
keenly aware that the stereotypes about New York drivers are all
true. Between double parked cars, pot holes, disregard for traffic
signals, and the pedestrians who are no longer afraid of cars, we
think the Bronx driving experience would make a great video game.

Big Andy has been through a lot this year too. He wrapped up
his master’s degree in Elections and Campaign Management this past
August. In February, he was offered an amazing job opportunity with a
polling company in Manhattan and gained valuable experience working
there for a few months. Unfortunately, they couldn’t keep him on due
to downsizing. A month or two later, Andy got an even better job with
a new political movement called Unity ’08 as the Volunteer
Coordinator. It is dedicated to forming a unity (one democrat, one
republican or neither) ticket for president to hopefully remove the
disenfranchisement of the two-party system. Andy really believes in
the goals of Unity ’08 and really likes his work. Mandy, however,
really likes that he gets to work from home, with some occasional
trips to D.C.

Mandy has made the adjustment to stay-at-home mom, though she
can’t quite call herself a homemaker as that implies regular cleaning
and cooking, neither of which gets done around here as it probably
should. She continues on as Relief Society president, which keeps her
quite busy. Life is never dull in a Bronx Ward. In fact, we don’t
think we’ve been so busy with church issues since our missions.

Little Andie is quite adorable and it’s a good thing too. The
terrible two’s have hit our home hard and sometimes Andie’s cuteness
is the only thing that saves her. Her parents are contemplating
turning Zen, so that we can learn not to be attached to anything. For
example, we are on our second set of sheets in 6 months and need yet
another one because Andie has developed artistic side. She has more
energy than should be possible for such a little person. And yet, she
continues to make us laugh with her new found language skills. She
has recently started saying, “Help me, ayudame!” and likes to push
Mommy along calling, “Empujen!” both phrases courtesy of Dora the
Explorer. She also loves music and has memorized the words to several
of the Primary songs, her current favorites being Jesus Wants Me for a
Sunbeam and Smiles (or as she calls it, Frowny Face). And let’s not
forget her all time favorite, Tear the Roof Off the Sucker or We Want
the Funk. You can see her performance to this song on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IUz0eszVWM

The biggest news for our family this year would have to be the
anticipation of a new little one at the end of June. Mandy is about
three months pregnant and, surprisingly, not that sick, for which she
is truly grateful. Andie likes to point out Mommy’s baby belly, as
she calls it, which is growing too large, too quickly. She frequently
comes to us and pronounces, “Big sister,” pointing to herself. Our
little one looks healthy according to the sonograms we’ve had, and we
hope to find out the sex in early February. A little boy would balance
out our family as Big Andy hopes, but every girl needs a sister, so
either way, we’re happy.

We hope you all are happy too. We wish you a very Merry
Christmas and a Happy New Year!

With Love,

The Wilsons

Andie's videos

2008-01-15T17:59:00.000-08:00

I hate it when blogs launch and they have no content. So here's a little retrospective so there's some thing there for all 5 of you who might be interested in this.

This was a video we put together for Christmas 2007. Enjoy!

http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

You can see more videos of her at http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=whillice