Milestones and clean teeth!

How funny is it that as soon as you think nothing is happening developmentally, something shows up out of the blue?!?

Austin has always been very fearful due to balance issues so he's hesistant to try anything new unless he's good and ready. He's always climbed the stairs by crawling and has only been going down the stairs by crawling for less than a year. Well I turned the corner a couple of day ago and Austin was climbing the stairs using the handrail (which he's starting to grow tall enough to reach)!!! I was floored! I watched him without him knowing it and he successfully made it up 4-5 steps before I HAD to start praising him so of course he quit! Little Stinker!



Gift idea for parents of RTS kids!
I bought Austin a singing toothbrush from walmart and it's a hit! It was a stocking stuffer and as soon he realized that it played Veggie Tale music, he was thrilled! The music plays for 2 minutes to signal how long you are supposed to brush your teeth, cool huh? Well Andrew got a 'plain, non singing' Veggie Tale toothbrush in his stocking but when he saw Austin (who is now ASKING to brush his teeth) brushing his teeth to music, he HAD to join in. Here's a pic of the boys brushing their teeth in time to random Veggie Tale tunes!

Catching up!

It's been a while since I've posted so I have lots of pictures from Christmas!
This Christmas, Ben and I bought Austin a big wheel (he outgrew his tricycle) and Andrew a drum set (crazy people aren't we?).



One of Austin's stocking stuffers

Christmas pj's at my parents house

First 'Official' Day of Christmas Break

Playing with his hamper...








Guess I wore him out today...he fell asleep at 5:45pm (and had no problem going to bed at 7:30pm!)

my little mermaid-er, merman, I guess

Andrew woke up this morning with both legs in one pant leg and with one arm out the top of his pj's. I tried to take a picture of him but he kept yelling that he was hungry so I settled for this picture right as we gave him breakfast.

Frustrated

I just received today's mail and noticed a large manilla envelope addressed to myself and Austin. I never enjoy those big envelopes because you never know what they'll say or announce you don't qualify for such and such. I yanked out all the papers and realized the stack was from the Department of Social Services. Oh joy. I read over the letter on top and to my disbelief DSS wants me to fill out the entire stack of papers I received, gather all the forms and documents they need, visit Austin's dr. and teacher and have THEM fill out more papers, and then sign everything and return it to their office...get this...by December 30th!!! Are you kidding me?!?! Going to pull my hair out with this one...typical kids are much easier to raise. I'm going to be quoting "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" an awful lot these next few days.

Little boys...

How in the world do I start this post? At the beginning I guess!

Austin and Andrew attend A.W.A.N.A. Sunday afternoons at our church for an hour and a half. Austin is a Spark (K-2nd grade? Not sure) and Andrew is a Puggle (2 year old class). While the kids are in their classes, I usually sit in the church office, crochet, and enjoy the time without my children. I was quietly crocheting when one of the Spark leaders (and thankfully a mom with a son) bursts into the office with Austin. She quickly blurted out something along the lines of "I'm not sure what he's trying to do" and then quickly left and went back to the class. Of course, this got my attention and I jumped up to figure out what in the world she was talking about. I peer down at Austin and all I see is...

his naked bottom with his pull up and pants around his ankles.

Ok, so part of me wanted to die laughing but the other part of me was embarrassed for him! He was wearing wind pants that were the tiniest bit too big (he has NO butt to hold his pants up) so when the pants start to slip down-they take the pull up with them. Of course, this bothers Austin. Since he can't grab onto both the pants and the pull up, he naturally pulls them down. This time I'm sure everyone got a good glimpse of his rear end.

I 'think' his class was in game time at the moment so hopefully the other kids were too busy playing to notice. At least no one came up to me at church last night to tell me they saw Austin's behind!

My beautiful bathroom!

I tried really hard to find a picture of what the "before" version of my bathroom looked like but no luck. This is the only picture I took while painting with my sister back in 2004. I'll just describe it to you...



Our upstairs bathroom was a minty green color when I moved in (Ben was deployed to Iraq at the time) and just very boring looking. So I took it upon myself to make it look fun and cheerful. So I painted it orange. Bright orange. Yep, I did. Pick your chin up off the floor now, let me explain. =) I did a tropical theme with bright orange, blue, yellow, and pink towels. The tropical fish shower curtain with matching bath rug and switch plate. It looked cute and woke me up in the morning!

Well, four and half years later, the towels were starting to fall apart, the shower curtain was torn in a couple places, etc. and I didn't want to replace them with the same old thing. My husband, being the jack-of-all-trades, volunteered to repaint the bathroom and get new towels!

Some explanations...

1)my house was built in 1890. Our bathroom was probably a closet at one time cause it's really long and narrow. And no we don't have any problems getting in the shower, bathing the kids is another story...

2)the sink is an ugly shade of blue which I'm hoping will be replaced eventually!

3)it's hard to tell in the picture but the wall behind the toilet is a darker shade of brown...it's beautiful!

4)one last thing. I'm well aware I have a lightbulb out and the switch plate still isn't on. Oops!

Sorry the pictures are slightly blurry. Camera battery died!

Newly discovered talent

Been a bit frustrated lately with Austin. Not so much directed AT him but at RTS in general. He seemed to be in a rut. I haven't seen any gains developmentally in a long time. Every little step is something to be praised right? Maybe my eyes aren't quite focused on the "little steps" due to this busy time of year but I haven't even seen the slightest gain.

Until yesterday.

I was chatting with my mom at church in our Sunday School room (we teach the 4 year old class together) and Austin was doing his usual roaming around the room. Next thing I know my mom exclaims "Michelle, look at Austin!". I turn to my left and Austin is standing at the table with a number puzzle (#'s 0-9) and he's doing it all by himself. Now, Austin is NOT a puzzle person. It frustrates him and he ends up throwing the pieces across the room so this was exciting! I watched him as he successfully placed 5 of the numbers without my help at all. Never been done. No coaching. The last 3 numbers I had to help him with and Andrew had escaped with the rest so he did half the puzzle on his own! Yeah Austin!

Been a while...

Ok so it's been a while since I've posted. I've set up the Christmas decorations and tree, nearly finished my Christmas cards (just waiting to print the letter!), and have started wrapping the presents. Just not feeling the blogging itch, I guess!