I Hope He Always Says "Woowie"

I'm sure that some day, my son will resent me for recording him saying words incorrectly, over and over and over. But really, I just can't get enough of hearing him call Woody "Woowie". Over and over and over. And thankfully, he is kind enough to accommodate me by doing so! Over and over and over! And if I have it recorded, even when he learns to say it right, I can pretend that he's really saying it in his original endearing way!

We have a box of wipes that has Buzz, Woody & Jessie (who he calls "Jess Jess") on the front and in this video, he's naming them as I point to them.

I May Not Like Big Girl Food But I Sure Like My Big Girl Chair!

Austin insists that McKenna eat with him every meal. When she happens to be napping, he gets upset that she's not sitting is "Aus seat!" I actually thought he would be more possessive about his booster seat, but I think that lasted only for a moment. He does however, get possessive if I put her in the big high chair. McKenna, for her part, loves sitting in her chair. From there, she can watch her big brother eat and laugh at his antics. She just thinks he is the funniest kid!

Early BCs

Austin loves to sing his "BCs" (what he calls the alphabet). He's very good now, but when this video was shot, he was just getting the hang of it. At the time, he could actually say the alphabet completely, but just not fast enough to keep up with the song on his toy. That's why he's only singing every few letters. Plus he gets distracted by his awesome dancing!

I apologize for the length. I just like watching my kid. Plus I couldn't get a shorter version to load.

Little Sisters are Annoying

Right around 7 months McKenna really starting interacting with Austin and taking an interest in whatever he was doing. This day they were watching TV together and "reading" together. As you can see, Austin wasn't as keen on the "togetherness" as she was.






















Poor kid! Little sisters are annoying. I know! I am one! It's our job. And we just get worse!

Evergreen Friends

You know a friend is a great friend when no matter how much time has passed between visits, you pick up like it was yesterday. I've heard these relationship described as "evergreen friends". That's exactly what my friend Malia is - an evergreen!

It was such a wonderful treat to have her and her two daughters, "E" & "Z", come visit for the day. So much time had passed since we last saw each other, that we hadn't met each other's newest daughters! Her oldest, "E" is 9 months older than Austin & her little one "Z" is about 2 months younger than McKenna and both are cute as can be!





Malia & "Z"


This was the first time I'd seen McKenna take interest in another baby. But she was so confused why Z wasn't interacting the same way she was. Apparently it was very disturbing! She just burst out crying. Then would stop and try to play again and then start crying again. It was hard not to laugh at my daughter's misery. I'm such a sweet mom! But how cute is she when she's upset?!




Thanks for the visit, Malia!

Wordless Wednesday

UnPuzzled - My Mister Smarty Pants!

Austin working on his first 24 piece puzzle. (He's 2 years, 1 month)

Love Those Baby Blues!

Tiddle Treat!

I was really looking forward to Halloween this year. Austin was old enough that he might get the concept of Trick or Treating. I knew he would at least understand the concept of candy!

I picked out a tiger costume for Austin thinking that since he loved tigers so much and loved to tell you what a tiger says, he would be excited to wear it. I was so incredibly wrong! I knew we'd have issues with the head piece cuz he hates hats, but I was surprised that he didn't want to wear the body either. So we had "practice" runs several times before Halloween - all usually ending in tears and me trying to figure out how to modify the costume so that he couldn't get the head piece off. When it came to the big day, I decided that I would give it one last ditch effort, but that most likely he'd just go with the body and I'd draw a nose and whiskers on.

Early Halloween evening, we met up with all the other young families at our church. Thankfully Austin was distracted enough with his friends that I was able to get his hat on and snap it in a way he couldn't easily get it off, then I bribed him with a lollipop and soon enough he forgot about it! And he made the cutest little tiger ever!



You can tell by this picture a friend took how much he liked his costume!


It wasn't until much later that I realized it was weird that his costume didn't include a tail. I kinda forgot that tigers have tails =P



Once again, Austin found a buddy to hold hands with and he was set! It probably didn't hurt that it was a girl. He likes the older women apparently!



It took a little coercion (read "lollipop") to get Austin to go to the first house. But once he realized that they give him more lollipops & more candy, he got right to it! Even invited himself into a few houses too. He did really good with saying "Trick or Treat" too. We did some practicing in the weeks leading up to Halloween. But it comes out more "Tiddle Treat".



Dad, look what I got!


Now for McKenna! She was dressed as the cutest lil' pink ladybug you ever did see! Are you surprised that I would pick a pink ladybug costume? Yeah, I didn't think so.




Our friends' kids (and our friends) were pretty darn cute too!


After trick or treating, we went to my parents' house for some dinner and to show off our cute children.




Austin got to help my mom pass out candy. Turns out this is WAAAY more fun than receiving candy! He was so excited anytime kids came. A little too excited. He would run at them yelling happily, babbling something about a pop & papa's house. And he would tell them "Trick or Treat"! A little confused. And I think he scared a couple kids too. But he was so entertaining!





And one more pic of me and my ladybug, cuz I can't get enough of her. Seriously, how cute is she?!

You Can Do It!

One of Austin's early favorite songs to sing was "You Can Do It" from My Friends Tigger & Pooh. For translation purposes, the lyrics are

You can do it, do it, do it!
You can do it, do it, do it!
You can do it, you can whoo hoo hoo it!
You can do it if you try!
He tended to get stuck on the "do it" part and needed some assistance to get to the "if you try" part.

Early Waves

McKenna's first attempts at waving (6.5 months)

He'd Rather Paint Than Carve

I tried to get Austin to carve pumpkins with me, his part of the job being the cleaning out part, not the carving with incredibly sharp objects part. He wanted no part in his task. But really I couldn't blame him. I hated cleaning out pumpkins too when I was little. Too goopy and slimy.

Thankfully Grandma Judy had brought Austin a ghost pumpkin and he was more than happy to paint it!









And then he decided to lick it, so I deemed the pumpkin masterpiece done!


The finished project!


I couldn't let the pumpkins I bought go uncarved, so I spent the rest of the night scooping and carving.