Rewind A Bit - Thanksgiving in the Desert

I've been waiting on my dad to upload some pics from Thanksgiving so I can post. Yes, I do own a camera but no, I didn't take any pics while we were there. When you have a simple point-and-shoot camera and everyone else in your family has fancy-smancy SLR cameras, you tend to not take pics when they're around! I didn't even take my camera to Christmas! The only downside is being at the mercy of other people uploading stuff.

Every Thanksgiving since I was little my family has gone to Anza Borrego to camp. Some years Brian and I go out a few days late so that we can spend Thanksgiving Day with his family. That was the plan this year until Brian got horribly sick with a killer cold that started out looking possibly flu-ish. In order to attempt to not get his germies, Austin and I drove down Friday morning by ourselves. And Brian actually felt semi-good enough to come down Saturday. Lots of driving for the 3 of us (it's about a 3 hour drive - more if you take the wrong exit like I did!) And then we all drove home Saturday night. Short trip but we still had a great time visiting with family.

Since I didn't have a blog last Thanksgiving, here are some from Austin's 1st trip out to the desert! (Granted he didn't spend much time out in the desert - just mostly in the comfort of my parents' motorhome!)







This year we did about the same! Normally we go off-roading but being all big and preggo, I didn't feel it would be prudent to do so. If McKenna has any chance of not being as ditzy as her momma, we figured it would be good not to jostle her around a bunch and save all those precious brain cells. So we just hung around camp and schooled Auntie Susan in card games! We did make it outside a few times but Austin is about as impressed with sand as he is grass, so we didn't spend a lot of time outside!

Some favorite shots of the weekend...

You wouldn't think the desert could be beautiful, but I think it always is! I love this place!


A gorgeous sunset.


Me and my precious boys! (I heart Austin's beanie so much in this pic!!)


Austin playing with his Auntie Suz and cousins. (Yes, Boomer counts as a cousin!)


My brother was clever and brought a projector and screen and everyone had movie nights outside. We obviously camp the old fashioned way.


My niece and nephew pretending they are on Santa's sleigh. Boomer is the reindeer!


A gorgeous double rainbow


It's possible that Bryce's beanie is a little big.

Santa's Not Welcome 'Round Here!

Three weeks ago, Santa visited our street and we thought it would be fun to take Austin out to see him. I don't know if it was all the police cars there, all the people, the fact that we were a little rushed to get him up on the sleigh before they left, or if he just plain is scared to death of chubby men with big white beards all dressed in red...but no matter what the reason, Austin did NOT like Santa Claus. Even when Daddy went up with him, he was still not a happy camper. We got a glimpse of his "Get me out of here" look that we'd only seen one time before at his 1st haircut.




Thankfully we did get him to calm down slightly for a decent shot of three of them. No smiles, but no screaming either. We'll take what we can get!



The following week Austin was over at my parents' house while I was out galavanting with my gal-pals. (aka eating really really yummy and way too much Italian food with some of the best women in the South Bay!) That night Santa just happened to come down their street, so Nani and Papa thought it would be fun to take Austin out and see him. They did not know about his previous experience, otherwise they may have thought twice. He didn't even let my mom get anywhere near the sleigh, let alone up on that crazy man's lap.

You can just see the look of distress on my poor boy's face!



Hopefully next year he'll be willing to at least smile for a pic or two.

Evolution of Walking

I've been trying to get around to post video of Austin walking for weeks now! But by the time I get around to uploading video of him, he's already made more progress and I feel like I should post that video. So I decided to post a quick video of each "stage".

Pre-Walking


First Steps!


Waddle, waddle, up, down, up, down..
(Or as my dad calls it.."His boxer stance")


Almost a pro!


It's so amazing to me how quickly that all that progress was made. From a baby to a little boy in a matter of a few weeks!

Balloon Boy

One of the things I forgot to mention on Austin's 14 month update was how much this kid loves balloons. When we're driving down the road he's able to spot them everywhere. So when he got his 2nd haircut a few months ago and they gave him a balloon for "surviving" it, he was in heaven! That balloon was his best pal for several days until it was a sad deflated blob.



Who needs toys? I should just invest in a helium tank!

14 Months (And A Week...Again!)

I know I'm very behind!! I took Austin's Pooh pics more than a week ago now, but between Christmas shopping and what-not, I'm very behind on actually posting! I have a feeling that this is going to be the story of my life though! If I have a hard enough time posting about one kid, how bad is it going to be with two?!?




New this month...

We have an official walker. On our way to a runner! About one week after I posted his last month update, he decided that walking was the way to go. Unfortunately it was the week that Daddy was out of town, so Brian got little video updates each day on his phone. Each day was a little bit steadier and a little farther. He took some good tumbles in the last three weeks but they are getting fewer and far between. I am very thankful I put up the bumpers on the tables and the fireplace though, or we'd have several more posts like my "Not Me Monday" post!

My absolute favorite part of having a "walker" is having him come running to me when he wants me. He'll come and give me hugs and kisses and then take off to play again. That's the best!!

He's getting much better at signing. Last month he was doing "More", "Milk", "All Done", and "Phone." Now he can do "Bath", "Sleep", "Please", and "Cheese." "Phone" and "Sleep" look an awful lot alike and "Please" and "Bath" do too. And often if you ask him to say "Please", he'll sign "Cheese"! But he's definitely getting more consistent and clearer. And he's done what I consider to be 2 word sentences! He often says "More fishies" (even though his "Fishy" isn't the right sign - it's a fishy face!) and he's asked for his nap by saying "Sleep Please" a few times! Such my little smarty!!

Tooth #4 finally popped through over Thanksgiving weekend.

He's starting to say more words, but they're not super clear and won't do them on command. He does a ridiculously cute "Hi" when he first sees you and occasionally will say what I'm pretty sure is "All done!" He can tell you what a kitty cat says.

Austin loves to give kisses. He even puckers up his lips...most of the time...if you're lucky! If you're not lucky, you get a big sloppy kiss instead! But they're both wonderful!!

He's recognizing an amazing number of words and phrases. I'm always surprised when he understands something I ask for, like "Bring me my wallet, please." I don't know how he knows the word "wallet" exactly but he must just be a little sponge! I think my instinct is to assume that because he can't say the words that he shouldn't understand them either.

He's started enjoying videos this month. After he wakes up from a nap and is still a little drowsy, I sometimes set him up in front of the computer and play Veggie Tales Silly Songs for him on YouTube. He is mesmerized by them and asks for "more" when each one ends. I can tell that there are some he likes and some he doesn't, because he'll sign "more" in the middle of some instead of waiting for the end.

I no longer have a kid that sleeps in! We're lucky if he makes it until 7, which we have deemed "waking up" time. That seems to be the time that he's happiest when he gets up and makes it until a decent time for a nap. Plus it's the time that Momma doesn't feel like crying when she gets out of bed! So we encourage him to go back to sleep, which he's been doing a good job of doing, or if he's completely up, he sometimes gets set up with some toys in his crib. He's such a good boy and will play and play until Momma doesn't feel like weeping at the sight of the clock anymore!

What's In A Name?

I was hoping to announce our Baby Girl's name when we announced she was a girl. But due to some indecisiveness on both Brian and my parts, we didn't have it quite figured out at the time of the ultrasound. I've always been the type to share my babies' names. Partly because I really stink at keeping secrets and know that there is no way I could not share for 3 to 4 months! And partly because I love the idea of calling her by her name from the moment it's decided. I feel like I knew Austin better when he was born because we had always called him by his name. It probably sounds silly, but it makes sense to me and that's all that matters.

So today I'm happy to announce that we won't have to go through the next 3 months calling Baby Girl "Baby Girl" anymore. From now on she is McKenna Rose Crowley!

McKenna is a name I've loved since high school. I went to school with an awful, awful girl named Makenna, but I really loved the name. I'm just choosing to ignore how awful she was (Seriously, she was just awful!!) by spelling my daughter's name differently. Makenna/Makena is the Hawaiian version. McKenna is the Gaelic version and since Brian is 1/2 Irish, we like that spelling better.

Also, in the midst of our indecision, we looked up the meanings of the names we were considering and discovered that McKenna means "Son of Kenneth" in Gaelic. Now while she's not a son, it is a fun tie to my family cuz my dad's name is Kenneth. The significance of being linked to my family put us over the edge for the name.

Her middle name, Rose, is in honor of Brian's mom, Grandma Judy. Judy's maiden name is DeRose and we've known for a while that we'd love to use Rose as the middle name because of that! I love that she will carry a little bit of each of our families' heritage with her forever!

Now we just have to wait another 112 days or so to call her McKenna in person!

How's Your Day Going?

This pretty much sums up my day.






How's your day going?