Brothers have never been so different

I would like to take this opportunity to write about what extreme opposites our sweet little boys are. 

Here’s a little background.  Austin, since he was just a few months old, has had some social anxiety when it comes to new places and new people.  Some have taken offense when they walk in a room and Austin starts to cry.  We try our best to reassure our friends and family that it is nothing personal…Austin does this whenever he meets someone new.  When Austin was 3 months old, we would go to Grandma and Grandpa Gardner’s house and the minute we would walk in the door he would start screaming.  We would walk outside, and he would stop.  We thought he would grow out of being hyper-sensitive to new surrounding, but it has not happened yet.  For Austin’s first Halloween we bought him an adorable dragon costume.  This is what he did…

That child screamed and screamed until we took the costume off.  His second Halloween was better with the costume but he really didn’t like walking up to strangers very much.  Well, this year I tried to really prep Austin well so he would have a lot of fun dressing up and going trick-or-treating.  A couple of weeks before Halloween we went to the store and picked out a costume.  He loves batman right now so I splurged and bought him the $20 batman costume.  He was excited at the store but once we got home he wouldn’t put it on.   I thought he would warm up to it after a few days, but no such luck.  Last year he didn’t mind his Buzz Lightyear costume once we forced it on him, so I asked if he wanted to be Buzz again this year.  He said yes and happily put on the costume.  Needless to say, I took the Batman costume back to Walmart. 

My camera is lost so we took the boys to Walgreens to get their picture taken.  Austin had a complete meltdown.  He was crying and wouldn’t sit on the bale of straw.  He kept saying, “I too scared!” This is the best picture we could get.  Austin looks like he has somewhat of a smile on his face, but don’t be deceived, that is his whining face.  Notice how Kaleb doesn’t seem to mind the dragon costume.

And then there is Kaleb. He is our social butterfly. He is not happy unless he is getting all the attention from everyone in the room. Whenever he starts to get fussy and I can’t seem to calm him, we go to the store and walk around so he can get out and see some new faces. Works every time.

A couple of weeks ago Kaleb was being particularly fussy, so we took an exciting to trip to Broulim’s. Kaleb was happy as a clam and all Austin kept saying was “I want to go home!” At “Story Time” at the library, Kaleb will sit with all the kids and listen to the story. Austin will only sit if Kaleb is right next to him and I am within arms length. It is really quite comical actually.

Now that Christmas is fast approaching we decided to take the boys to see Santa Clause.  This is Austin sitting on Santa’s lap a few years ago.

Poor Santa. This is Kaleb sitting on Santa’s lap.

We have been excited about Christmas this year because Austin is old enough to know what is going on.  He has been really excited for Santa to come and bring him presents.  I thought he might actually sit on Santa’s lap this year.  No such luck.  This is the closest we could get him to Santa.  He was fine to wave at Santa from a distance but as soon as we tried to inch him closer…he started to lose it.  We figured it wasn’t worth the battle so I settled for a picture like this:

Now that is not to say that Kaleb is always a perfect angel and Austin is a complete terror.  Kaleb has his moments too.  It just funny that what Kaleb has fits over and what Austin has fits over are exact opposites.  At home, Kaleb is super fussy because he always wants all the attention on him, but Austin is content to just hang out and play by himself.  In public, Austin is always on the verge of a meltdown, whereas Kaleb couldn’t be happier.

It is so interesting to see how different these two brothers are.  It is a true testament to the fact that each little spirit that comes to this Earth has their own personality, and temperament, and therefore have different roles to fulfill.  It will be so interesting to see them as teenagers or grown men.  I wonder if they will always be opposites.

Grandma King’s 80th Birthday

On Saturday, November 5, 2011, Grandma Merilyn King turned 80 years old.  The whole King clan traveled down to Salt Lake to celebrate with her

We sang “Happy Birthday”, Grandma opened presents and we had a delicious dinner (thanks to Aunt Lucy).

It was so fun to sit around and visit with all the family.

Of course, no King Family “get together” is complete without a musical program.  This is Uncle Corey singing with his daughter Aubrey.

These are Seth and Jessica’s adorable kids singing “I’m Trying to be Like Jesus”.  Lydia is accompanying them on the violin.

Vance sang a Jack Johnson song with his brother Brian.  Now, Vance has got a lot of flack in the past because he usually weasels his way out of singing at family events, but this year he did it.  Him and Brian sounded really good together.

Sarah, Jessica, and I sang “ How can I keep from singing”.  The thing I love about the King’s is that they are all so musical that we all just show up a little early, throw together a few songs, and it sounds like everyone practiced for months.  During the program Michelle King commented that the Kings are going to need to start holding auditions to be able to marry into the family.

One of my favorite parts is hearing Allison and Dave play their stringed instruments.

This is the Barry King Family singing a number from “The Prince of Egypt”

The Bruce King family sang “The Lions Sleeps Tonight”.  It’s always very entertaining to watch Bruce come out of his shell and dance along to the song.

At the end, per Grandma’s request, all the men stood up and sang a few hymns.  They just stood up there and broke out into perfect 4-part harmony, without any practice.  When they would finish one hymn Grandma would request another and another.  She really loves to hear her sons and grandsons sing.

No King Family Program would be complete without Grandma playing the piano.  She is an amazing pianist.  We all love to hear her play.  I love that music is her legacy that she has passed down to her children and grandchildren.

This is Kaleb with Estella Stout.  She is about 8 months older than Kaleb, but they look about the same size.  It’s Kaleb’s freakishly large head.  It makes him look older than he is.

The “little kids” had fun swapping slobbery toys and poking each others eyes out.

The “big kids”  had a lot of fun playing together.  They just ran a played in that gym all day. This Hot Wheels track kept them entertained for a long time.  Austin was having the time of his life running around with all the kids his age.

This is Kaleb and Evie.  They are about a month apart.  I love all that hair on that girl.  She is the spitting image of her mom.

We did manage to get a few family pictures in.  These are all the grandkids of Bruce and Elaine King.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to get 8 kids under the age of 10 to sit still for a picture?  I took over a dozen pictures and these were two of the best. 

The whole gang.  Not a bad looking bunch, I’d say.

Kaleb is Crawling

Kaleb is officially crawling!  He has been able to get up on all fours for about a month now, but he hasn’t been very motivated to go anywhere.  He would go from sitting to all fours and then back to sitting again, but no forward motion.  This weekend at Grandma King’s 80th Birthday party he was getting himself around pretty well.  This picture is a little blurry but I love the look on his face.  It is so Kaleb!

Austin in really good moral support for Kaleb.

What a cute little bug!