How Does Your Garden Grow - Part 3

It's amazing what can happen in a week with plants. No more itty bitties. We have some good sized plants now! Huge even!

Our zucchini took off!


And I think this is pumpkin. Whatever it is, it got bigger!


Nothing else got huge, but everything got a little bigger at least. Cute little carrots...


Sunflowers that are a mite bit bigger...


And a little pepper that, while still small, did doubled in size...


And of course, all our blossoming plants needed some watering by my cute little gardeners!



How Does Your Garden Grow...
Part 1
Part 2

Thirty Three or Three in Three

In just a mere 3 months, my little man will be turning 3! Which means it's time for another Austin update!

Seriously, how cute is this kid? I sure do like him!





New this quarter...

This was a quarter of language! I love the development of language! He is getting much clearer in his speech now and is talking so much. He is starting to figure out lots of humor and idioms. Idioms have to be so weird for kids! The other day I commented that we couldn't drink the orange juice I was making yet, that is had to sit for a bit. And he was very adamant that it was not sitting, it was standing! And he is using the proper pronouns most of the time, which really helps in understanding what he's trying to say. I wish I could record all the little nuances about his speech that I love! I love how he often says things twice - "Thank you, momma, thank you!" "Good job, momma, good job!" He is usually so polite and very encouraging! Other favorites "I'm grumpy!", "Okie Dokie!" and he's particularly fond of the word "Phew!"

By far my favorite phrase of this quarter has been "Follow me, momma, follow me!" Except that Austin's F's are still S's, so it's more like "Sollow me!" It's complete with arm gestures. Austin wakes us up each morning with a cheery "Hi Momma! Hi Daddy!" and then we are promptly instructed to "sollow" him into the other room to play. His enthusiasm for life almost makes up for it only being 7:30!

Despite being normally polite, he's gotten on a very serious bossy kick in just the last couple weeks. He'll order us to drink our milk, move out of his way, stop singing, turn on the light, etc! Just a two year old exerting what little power he can, but it's getting old quick!

His love of songs is growing. We recently got some new CDs for the car of kids songs and he loves singing along. My favorite part of listening with him is that when the next song comes on, no matter how many we've already listened to, he says "Oh! Another song!" Always so pleasantly surprised!

I'm am constantly amazed by his growing computer skills! He picked up how to "drag & drop" in about 10 seconds! We set up a shortcut to his favorite game on the desktop and he knows how to double click it and navigate all the links he needs to to get it going! He has a special kid mouse that is easier for him to use, but he's getting better with our mouse too.

We had a much better quarter when it came to food. We feel like all the changes we've made and the rules we've enforced are making progress. I would say that he's still fairly picky, but he puts up MUCH less of a fuss when having to eat something new or something he thinks he doesn't like. He's added a few new foods that he previously wouldn't touch, which helps menu planning. He still stalls and lags when he's not horribly hungry or if it's not something he loves, but he's getting better. I don't have to yell at him to take a bite anymore at least - all I have to do it start counting and he usually takes one before I get to 2! Not ideal, but making progress. Baby steps!

We're making some potty training progress too. Whenever we have a at-home day, he's in underpants. Unfortunately, that's not as consistent as it probably should be - we go out a bunch! He very very rarely tells me he needs to go but he's doing a really good job of holding it between potty breaks. He's had a couple days when he's stayed dry all morning, so I really think it's starting to click for him. I just hope he'll start telling me he needs to go more. He has done it a few times - usually at very inopportune times! Like the park, or when he's supposed to be napping or eating dinner! It's hard to tell what is just a stalling technique and what is him trying to understand what his body is telling him. Hopefully by the next update, we'll be much closer to being out of diapers!

Play Catch with Me, Please?!

Since Father's Day, Austin has been obsessed with his baseball glove. He likes to carry it around and take it in the car so he can hold the ball. Brian and he play some in the house, but haven't had much chance to go out and play. Since it's been so nice out at night and still light when Brian gets home from work, we're trying to make a point to go out after dinner at least once a week. So this last week, after seeing how much fun the kids had at the park with me, we decided to go there again that same day.

Austin was very very excited to play with Daddy and he did a pretty good job of taking instruction!





You can clearly see how much fun he was having!








McKenna was the best little cheerleader! Whenever either of them threw, caught or even came close to catching the ball, she very enthusiastically would clap for them!


It was so sweet to get to watch my boy play catch with his Daddy! One of hundreds of rounds of catch to come, I'm sure!

Wordless Wednesday

Fearless!

It's been a while since we've gone to our ol' favorite park - Polliwog. And since my bags of old bread were piling up and my kids were going a little stir crazy, I felt we were seriously overdue to go. We've gone so many times that I don't always take my camera but I was really glad I did this day! I got to document my kids learning new stuff and getting to watch them learn and discover new things is one of my favorite parts of my job!

After feeding the duckies (which I cannot take pictures of, lest one or both of my kids go swimming!) we headed to the swings. I love how much my kids love to swing! Just the first step to many days spent of scream-inducing roller coasters! I can't wait!








I have to pause here for an "Austin Funny" - As I'm putting McKenna's hair in pigtails that morning, Austin goes "Mom, mom, mom! A'Kenna's being a moose!"

On to new discoveries! I knew that my little girl was a climber, but I really had no idea she'd do as good on the playground equipment as she did! She just shimmied up everything! Pushing Austin out of her way cuz he was taking too long! She was fearless!









That last ladder she's climbing took her one try to get up it. Then she immediately climbed up to the top of the giant spiral-tunnel slide. Probably would have gone down without me if I hadn't zipped up to catch her! I did let her go down the open spiral one without me holding her and she loved it! Didn't matter if she ended up going head first on her back, she still had fun! I love how fearless she is! Although I'm sure it's gonna cause me a good amount of stress over the next several years!

Austin had a victory of his own! He is not a fearless kid. For some reason, he has a very distinct fear of heights. Even small heights. It completely baffles me cuz he is such a total extravert and for some reason those two things don't go together in my mind. We're not sure if it's a peripheral vision thing or what, but he's always been nervous about them. I think the holes in the playground equipment that he can see through to the ground gives him problems. But he is getting braver and trying new things. This particular day he learned how to climb a ladder and I was so proud of him! At first it took a little prodding but he still tried. He was nervous but persevered! And with a little more prodding, he went down the giant spiral-tunnel slide and loved it so much, he went down about 30 more times before I had to drag him away! Going up the ladder each time! I was so so proud of him!