Last Saturday, Balin went to the first session of “Mini-kickers.” It wasn’t actually a soccer game - but a group that promised fun adventures while also working on soccer skills.

We arrived to find to two of Balin’s friends (Trevor and Alex) also in the group.

From First Soccer

As soon as the coaches started speaking, they gained instant credibility with the adults simply because of their British accents (although our German friend was much less impressed, and considering their record against the English…but I digress.) In addition to their soccer cred, the teachers had a great sense of how to engage young kids and get them to have fun moving the soccer ball. The field became “soccer island,” and almost immediately, all of the kids were dribbling the ball independently while pretending to be different animals, or in one case, kicking the ball at their unfortunate robot parents in order to turn them back into humans.

We were proud that when the first game was announced, Balin was the first to take off out of the group, yelling ZOOM! and doing his best cheetah-playing-soccer impression. When it came time to find and imitate other animals, Balin made us laugh by correcting the coach, “No, I saw a shark! Not a [whatever it was.]” There were no sharks in the game.

It was a great morning and we’re looking forward to many more soccer adventures in the weeks and years ahead.

From First Soccer

From First Soccer

From First Soccer

From First Soccer

Of course, Athena had fun running around the field.

She may have a future in sports, too:

From First Soccer

From First Soccer

For our far away friends, it’s time to share an update on Athena’s language skills. She is quite a talker at times, and she is very comfortable to interact with others in social situations. She definitely makes her intentions and desires well know to everyone.

If you haven’t seen us in person lately, here’s what you’re missing:

Clothes:
Sock, shoe, shirt, hat

Body Parts:
Eyes, nose, ears, teeth, toes, hair, cheeks

Sounds:
Doo Bee (short for Do be do be do, which means penguin)
Hop, hop (frog)
Glub, glub (fish)
Woof, woof (dog)
Meow (cat)
Peep (chick or bird)
Roar! (Chewbacca the Wookie and also lions)
Quack, quack (duck)
Choo-choo (train)
Vroom (car)

Animal names:
Duck, dog, cat (She prefers sounds over names.)

Foods:
a-pple!, pizza, cracker, heethe (cheese), yogurt, grape, cookie (usually in reference to Cookie Monster), howbeez! (strawberries)

Other things and expressions:
Hat, bath, ball, tree
Elmo, Happy (name of her doll)
Daddy, mommy, bra-bra (brother)
No (usually very emphatically)
So (said while holding her hands up in the air to show us how big she is)
Uh no! (I dropped something - or threw something on the floor and I want it back.)
Oh, na! (All purpose phrase meaning I want that, help me, look at me, pick me up…)

This week Balin’s daycare had a celebration for all the kids who will be starting kindergarten in the fall. It was incredibly cute and I nearly melted when I heard Balin saying “that’s my mom!”

The kids sang a few songs in front of the group. It was a bit hard to get a good picture from where I was sitting. Balin is now considered a “Senior Frog.”

From Balin & Athena 3.1

I was not surprised that Athena wanted to be part of the show and with the other kids. She is totally ready to be a part of the place. In a few months, she will be a little tadpole.

From Balin & Athena 3.1

It’s been a very busy spring in the Hunt family. Since the last post, Balin and Athena have both had many great adventures.

From Balin & Athena 3.1

We’ve had lots of visitors, lots of travel, lots of work, lots of trying to fit all of life in. The kids have mostly enjoyed the craziness. Watching Balin and Athena interact together has been a joy. Athena wants to follow her brother everywhere, and Balin likes this most of the time. Today, he gave her big hugs when we went to pick him up at his daycare. He also proudly told some of his classmates that this was “his Athena.” (One of his friends there also has a new baby sister named Athena.)

Both kids have grown so much and Balin recently humored me by posing with all of his old shoes. We may not continue to keep every pair, as they wear out quickly when he plays outside so much these days.

From Balin & Athena 3.1

As you might imagine, mealtime within out family is never dull. Balin is very expressive and has learned that he can make us laugh with funny faces and word play. Meanwhile, Athena is learning to feed herself and definitely tries to tell us what she wants - “OH-NA!” usually means “I want what you’re having despite how much of it I might already have on my own plate.”

From Balin & Athena 3.1

From Balin & Athena 3.1

From Balin & Athena 3.1

At the beginning of April, Balin had both his tonsils and adenoids removed as they were extremely enlarged. The recovery from this was really tough and lengthened by the double ear infections that he got during his recovery. We really began to wonder when we would get our Balin back. The recovery period was filled with many movies, popsicles, and homemade snow.

Unfortunately, the weather turned very hot and the AC was not turned on in our building while we were all spending extra hours at home trying to help Balin through this time. Athena really wanted to play with her brother, but we were eventually able to distract her with a big new fan.

From Balin & Athena 3.1

We’re happy that Balin has finally returned to his old self and he again prefers to drive cars and trains to most other activities.

This spring we did make it to a Rocknocernos concert, a neighborhood egg hunt, and Athena took a trip to Texas to meet some of her mom’s oldest friends.

From Balin & Athena 3.1

From Balin & Athena 3.1

From Balin & Athena 3.1

From Balin & Athena 3.1

From Balin & Athena 3.1

Last week week we learned that Athena is allergic to peanuts and eggs. The doc thinks this is why she has had so much eczema for the past several months. Athena has never eaten nuts, and we now have epipens ready for some time in the future if she accidentally does. We are also now trying to remove all traces of egg and nut from her diet in hopes that this will help her skin. Hopefully, Athena will grow out of the egg allergy as many kids do, but peanuts will likely be an issue for the rest of her life.

A more fun update is that today Athena had her 15-month check-up, and her latest stats are weight 22.25 pounds (40th %tile) and height 31 inches (60th %tile). We finally turned her car seat around last weekend and on the first car ride she promptly fell asleep. However, she is now having fun facing forward and playing and chatting with Balin.

For those of you who want to see the kids grow, you can find new pics added to the picasa album. We also have lots of video clips of the kids now and we know that they will make you smile if we ever find the time to post a few…

From Balin & Athena 3.1

From Balin & Athena 3.1

The Hunt clan has survived our first full year as a family of four and it has been full of excitement and adventure.

We recently celebrated Athena’s first birthday with a party that included some of our friends from the neighborhood. While Athena was a bit overwhelmed, Balin and the other kids had a great time playing with the balloons.

From Balin & Athena 3.1

From Balin & Athena 3.1

As expected, Athena is on track to be long and lean like the Hunt boys. At her recent check-up she was 30.25 inches long (90th percentile) and 19 pounds, 9 ounces (25th percentile). Our little girl must have some crazy metabolism, as she eats all the time. It is not unusual for her to spend over an hour eating dinner. Anyway, this means we’ll continue to keep her car seat facing backwards for a while and Athena will continue to walk her way out of some of her less snug jeans.

Athena is sleeping most nights and she makes us smile with her waves and chatter. She always wants to be around Balin, and he is happy to play with his little sister–except when he is trying to park his cars.

Here is a rare photo of both kids looking in approximately the same direction. Check the album for a few more.

From Balin & Athena 3.1

We had a great holiday, considering all the sickness that was going around. Here are a few pictures. As always, there are more in the online photo album.

From Balin & Athena 3.0

From Balin & Athena 3.0

From Balin & Athena 3.0

From Balin & Athena 3.0

From Balin & Athena 3.0

From Balin & Athena 3.0

Two kids have been keeping us busy and we haven’t had time to write lately.  Here’s an update. Check our picasa album for all the things I’ve left out.

Our most recent adventures have been trips to the corn maze, apple picking, and a birthday party.

Corn Maze:

From Balin & Athena 3.0

We love this Hunt family tradition, which Sherri has proclaimed we will enjoy/endure every year. This year our friends Clint and Jen met us again to be embedded in the Hunt family for an afternoon. We headed out west towards the country and the hills to Corn Maze in the Plains. This fun spot has a great playground that I think Clint and Josh like to play in as much as Balin does. There are huge slides, big pieces of pipe to roll in and a large tire filled with corn. On arrival, we were a bit concerned because some of the corn looked very short. However, most of the maze was actually quite tall.

Athena liked standing and smiling by the big pumpkins and trying to eat the hay. Balin liked playing everywhere and, as expected, liked the tractor ride best. We had fun exploring the maze, but apparently our direction skills were off that day as we spent much longer being lost in the maze than any of us wanted. Athena fell asleep as we were wandering and Balin really just wanted to find the way out so that we could ride the tractor. Clint took on some of the carrying duty and Balin liked being up high in spite of his pouting lower lip. Jen wanted to get to the Farmer’s market and get some peaches before they sold out. We just missed them.

From Balin & Athena 3.0

From Balin & Athena 3.0

From Balin & Athena 3.0

From Balin & Athena 3.0

We finally found our way out of the maze and had a delicious lunch consisting primarily of kettle corn. By the time we left the Farmer’s market and said goodbye to Clint and Jen, it was time to feed Athena, so Josh Balin headed back in to wait. This turned into one more tractor ride before heading home. It was a long day, but we definitely feel like we seriously did the corn maze this year.

Apple Picking:

From Balin & Athena 3.0

Last weekend we headed up north to pick some apples with our friends Tracy and Trevor. It was a great day to be outside and the farm was packed with families. Once we met up with our friends, we found a wheel barrel and headed out to the trees. It took a bit of walking to find some trees with apples, but once we made it to the right spot, Balin and Trevor both had a great time picking the apples and chucking them in the basket. For boys of that size apples are just as much fun to throw as they are to eat.

From Balin & Athena 3.0

From Balin & Athena 3.0

From Balin & Athena 3.0

From Balin & Athena 3.0

Once we were certain that we had more apples than any of us could eat, we headed back over to the pumpkin patch and the hay pile. All of the kids had a great time in the hay and we loved watching them. Next, we saw the ducks in the lake and the other farm animals. It was a bit of work to coax the boys back up the hill, even with the promise of snacks. We ate lunch, which included caramel apples, treats from home, and hot dogs. Amazingly, the boys were not exhausted, so we loaded up to take the hay ride. The boys had lots of fun riding along and Trevor composed a great song - “Chicken Song.” We had fun listening to them sing and laugh while putting hay on their heads.

From Balin & Athena 3.0

From Balin & Athena 3.0

From Balin & Athena 3.0

From Balin & Athena 3.0

From Balin & Athena 3.0

From Balin & Athena 3.0

At the end of the day, we were worn out from the fun. On the way home, Balin was asleep almost as soon as we got out of the parking lot. It was an excellent fall adventure.

Birthday Bash:

A couple of weekends ago, we went to a big birthday bash for Balin’s friend Aylin. There were a ton of kids and we got to see the band Rocknoceros. They are now Balin’s favorite music (and our least favorite…) Balin loved seeing Aylin again, swording the pinatas, and eating cake.

From Balin & Athena 3.0

From Balin & Athena 3.0

Last weekend I took about eight hundred pictures of Athena in this cute blue dress. Comparatively, only a few are posted. She is amazingly cute sitting up and playing. She really loves the feel of grass and very much wants to eat it.

From Balin & Athena 3.0

She also looks good red:

From Balin & Athena 3.0

In other news, Athena has been eating lots and lots. She is starting to get almost as much food in her tummy as on her face during a meal. So far, she seems to like sweet potatoes best.

Lately we have been on the move a lot. Athena has mastered sitting now with only the occasional tip-over. This means lots of super cuteness from our little girl. She has also become very vocal and likes to say things like “ahhhhh” and “da, da, da.”

From Balin & Athena 3.0

When she’s not sitting, Athena is rolling and moving. Not quite crawling yet, but she really can make her way around a room. We’re already teaching Balin about moving small things that Athena might try to eat.

Balin continues to be an awesome big brother. He loves to give Athena hugs, make her laugh with a tickle spider, and share toys with her.

From Balin & Athena 3.0

It is so fun watching the two of them interact together. If seeing these two kids in their matching shirts doesn’t make you want to protect the environment, then I honestly don’t know what will.

From Balin & Athena 3.0

From Balin & Athena 3.0

Finally, Athena has her first pony tail yesterday. You should expect more of this craziness from our little girl’s hair.

From Balin & Athena 3.0