I'm Baaaack!

Man, look at how long it has been! A lot has changed since my last posting in March 2011. Let me catch you up.

Austin is now 8 and will be going into 3rd grade in August.

Nick and I have been married for almost 11 years.

Oh yeah, Sophie is now here! Sophie Elizabeth was born in May 2012 and is a sassy, hilarious, sweet 3 year old addition to our family. Things wouldn't be the same without her!

I'll add some pictures to a future posting, just so you can see how awesome and adorable the Millers have gotten!

I'm still working at Heartland Community College as an Academic Advisor. I've been here almost nine years, which kind of blows my mind! I do love my job, my supervisor, and my coworkers and am very happy with the job.

Nick has switched careers and is now the Branch Manager at Airgas in Bloomington. Airgas is a company that provides gasses, welding supplies, etc. for its customers. He started there a few years ago working in their fill plant and was basically asked to move up to sales and then up to be the branch manager! I'm so proud of my kick ass hubby!

(Side note: it is really overwhelming to try to sum up the last 4 years in a blog post! Man!)

I got my gall bladder taken out back in June 2011, is that interesting? Maybe not!

Also an addition to the family -- my nephew Max. My sister Erin and her husband Danny already had Eleanor, as you may recall, and she is now a gorgeous and fun 5 year old who will be starting kindergarten this fall. They added Max Evans Moyer to the family in May 2013. He completes the Evans' girls' kid bunch and really rounds out the whole two girls, two boys grandkid group nicely for my mom!

We have had a lot of ups and downs in the past four years. I'm happy and proud to say we're all still here, making it through, sometimes day by day! But the fact is that we're here, we have more people on our team since 2011, and I think we're a great group! Welcome back, blog readers!

The Wearin' O the Green

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Austin and I have been talking for a few days now about how he needed to wear something green to school today for St. Patrick's Day or else face the possibility of being pinched, so we made sure to get out his most green shirt this morning! After talking this tradition up for days, I then realized that I had better tell him not to pinch any of his friends at school if they weren't wearing green! Hopefully he'll remember that today!

Nick has been working at his new job for almost a week and things are going well. Monday through today, he has had to travel to the main office in Rockford for training, which is quite a drive from our place (a little over 2 hours!). The company did loan him a gas card, which is awesome, though! Tomorrow he gets to start working at the Bloomington office, so hopefully that will be a little easier on the schedule for him. He's still working his old job, and today was the first day he did a night shift followed by a day shift, so I'm going to have to see how that worked out for him. I completely respect and admire that he wants to work the two jobs for a while to build up our savings accounts, but I also want him to (a) not make himself sick and/or crazy with so little sleep, and (b) be around at night and on the weekends soon! I have a feeling that he's not going to want to keep this up for too long, so I should be able to convince him to drop the second full time job soon!

Wow, here I am again!

I literally just a few minutes ago told my sister that I had read a little of her blog and my blog while looking for a recipe online from our joint blog, and dang it, we're funny! I miss reading her blog and, really, I know I should write more, so here I am again for now.

It's been a LONG time since I last wrote. June 3?!? That's crazy! Since then, we've experienced summer, some family vacations, and swimming in the big pool. It's been a big summer! We went up to Chicago one Friday to the Lincoln Park Zoo. It was a pretty great time, despite my driving in Chicago stress. Let's face the facts...I am a great driver. And I rarely get that stressed out about driving, which is why I typically drive us everywhere. (And also, I get a little car sick unless I'm driving). But, man, driving in the actual city of Chicago gives me anxiety like nothing else! Especially when I'm driving with Austin in the car. You have to be a little aggressive if you're going to get to the lane you want, and I can do that, but I don't like it!

After the zoo, we met up with our friends Jill and Charlie, Jill's parents, and Charlie's kids at Soldier Field. Jill and Charlie had gotten us tickets to the Bears' Family Night event for Nick's birthday, where we got to go and watch them practice, basically. I think we all thought it was going to be an actual game or scrimmage and, while there was a little scrimmaging, it was a lot of stretching and drills. Being someone who isn't that excited about football anyway, this was a little boring to me! But Nick had fun and we had a good time spending time together and with our friends, so overall, it was a good day! However, trying to get out of that area with all the stadium traffic around plus the entire other side of the street shut down from Lollapalooza was rough on our poor GPS! "Turn left...turn left now...take the immediate left..." Sorry, TomTom!

The next weekend, the three of us went to Union, IL to have our Day Out with Thomas! It was pretty cool! We got to meet Thomas the Train and Sir Topham Hatt and take our fun (but brief!) ride on the train pulled by Thomas. Austin loved seeing his familiar "friends" from TV and also exploring the other trains that were there at the train museum. We would have liked to see more of the Thomas crowd (Percy? James? Where were you??) but it was really a good time!

Field Trip Day!

Austin went on his first field trip today at preschool! The class went to Fairview Park to play, and took the city bus to get there. He was SO excited the last two days, especially about riding the bus! I saw the bus pull up at the bus stop outside my office window but of course, the kids had gotten on the bus at the stop closer to the preschool. I couldn't quite see into the bus from my office, so I went over to the door of the building and peeked out. Sure enough, there was my little buddy sitting on the bus looking out the window just like a big, grown up kid! I stepped out of the door and waved at him and I could see his face light up when he saw me (I'm totally tearing up writing this, sheesh!). I saw him wave and say, "Mom! Mom! Hi!" I can't wait to pick him up today and hear all about the field trip...and the bus ride!

We love Heartland's Child Development Lab!

Procrastination Station

I know, I should blog more. But I haven't been. But now I feel like doing it, so here you go!

It's May 10, and my heater was working it's little butt off this weekend! Note to nature: My heater should NOT be running in May, for goodness' sake! Yesterday was warmer, so the heat didn't kick in during the day, but Saturday? All day long it came on! Ridiculous!

I had a nice Mother's Day weekend. Incidentally, isn't it really Mothers' Day and not Mother's Day? Isn't it more than just one mother's day? I feel as though I'm committing grammar fraud every time I type "Happy mother's day!" somewhere. For the sake of this post, I'm going with the potentially incorrect Mother's, okay?

On Saturday, Austin and I ran many errands. We had lunch out together at Fazoli's using his free kid's meal coupon that he got for his birthday. My boy wanted mac and cheese and he got...fettucini alfredo, or "white mac and cheese", as I called it for his sake! He loved it! We also did a little shopping for me and got some groceries. I'm so proud of Austin because he alerted me each time he had to go to the bathroom and had no accidents! Incidentally, the bathrooms at Lane Bryant, Fazoli's, and Meijer all could use a little cleaning, especially in Lane Bryant where I completely whacked my forehead on a shelf after we washed our hands!

I tried to convince my son to take a nap when we got home from our multi-stop shopping trip, but he was having none of it. Nick woke up to take Austin shopping for my Mother's (hate it) Day gift around 4:30, and decided that they'd have dinner out at Denny's, just for fun! I think this was also part of my Mother's Day gift -- the gift of three solid hours of the house to myself! I enjoyed it, and also spent a part of it doing a little laundry and scooping the cat litter. Nice.

On Sunday, the actual Mother's Day holiday, Austin and I hung out again and did a few more errands. Nick and Austin had gotten me a really pretty necklace/bracelet combo that they'd given me the night before, but I wanted to try to exchange it for something a little less fancy so that I can get more use out of it. Alas, Bergner's had nothing I wanted and I couldn't even return it because I didn't have Nick's credit card with me, so the trip was almost for nothing. I say almost, because Austin discovered his LOVE of riding the escalator! It's was like our own personal (free!) carnival ride, and we rode that thing up and down at least a dozen times while shopping! We even walked over to Macy's to check out their jewelry selection and ride their escalator which was, I'm sorry to say, a bit more dog run than the Bergner's escalator.

For dinner on Sunday, Nick picked up Famous Dave's takeout and we all enjoyed a delicious BBQ meal at home! We were going to watch a movie together, but we ran out of time, so we're saving it for this week. I'm a pretty lucky mommy to have such a great kid and a great husband to appreciate me!

The Weekend of Sick

Austin was sick at the end of last week and last weekend. He had a slight fever on Tuesday night (around 99.5), so we both stayed home on Wednesday, during which he had no fever. Great, I thought, that was a fast recovery! Thursday, however, I got a call from Sherry saying that his fever was 100.5, so I went to pick him up. He stayed warm on Friday and Saturday, spiking only to 100.8 on Friday evening though. I was pretty surprised. From what I've heard from other friends, most of their kids who have had this have seen fevers in the 103-104 degree range, so the fact that he didn't even hit 101 was a bonus.

We had a pretty low key weekend, which consisted of many movies being watched and the random trips to the store on Sunday. I could tell he was feeling much better on Sunday because he was rambunctious and just wanted to run all over the house and play. We had some issues, my boy and I, due to the fact that we were both stir crazy and bored from our few days of hibernation, which resulted in much whining, a lack of listening, several time outs, and some making up. I'm glad to say that he's back at Sherry's today (and, I'm assuming, doing well since I haven't gotten a call from her!), playing with friends and being way more entertained than he usually is with me!

Tomorrow, Nick leaves for his annual "Deer Camp" hunting trip. He'll be gone Tuesday through Sunday, so Austin and I are looking forward to some fun time together. We're planning a trip to the Festival of Trees (an annual outing for us!) and a visit with Grandma, Aunt Erin, and Uncle Danny this weekend. What could be better?

Playing catch up...

...and I don't mean "ketchup and Cool Whip" because I think that's been the highlight of my blog long enough!

Here are some Austin-isms and fun things to share from recent time:

• Tonight we went to Miller Park for the Stories in the Park free storytime event. It was pretty fun, although the male storyteller was a little bit over the top! I mean, let's get funny and get the kids into it, but I don't think that automatically means you must be what can only be described as goober-ish the whole time you're telling your pterodactyl story!
• Also, there was almost a rumble at said storytime event. A family right next to us (mom, dad, young daughter who was maybe 3ish) had some emotional times during the casting of the puppets for the pterodactyl story. The goober guy was calling some kids up to be certain puppets for his story (note to self: anytime a story involves puppets, the teller is likely to act dorky at some point; it's hard to be cool with puppets!). The girl of this family really wanted to be one of the characters, but she was shy and didn't want to raise her hand or call out when the man was asking for volunteers. This was a problem. Her dad (who kept calling her, the daughter, "Mama" -- weird!) told her to go up and tell the guy she wanted to be a puppet. Daughter walked up right to the front of the group...and stood there silently. The puppet passer-outer therefore had no idea she wanted to BE a puppet. Consequently, he never picked her for one. The dad was not having this, and he kept yelling out, "She wants to be the duck! She wants to be the turtle! Hey, man! She came up there to BE THE ALLIGATOR!!!! SHE'S RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU!!!!" It was a bit tense. Finally the guy heard the dad (I don't know how it took so long!) and offered the girl who had since come back to her family the chance to be the turtle. At this point, the girl was crying on their blanket. It was over. The whole family was crushed. It was quite the drama. Meanwhile, Austin and I just sat quietly and hoped this turmoil wouldn't resonate in our direction!
• On the way home from the park tonight, Austin busted out with the following: "Knock, knock! Who there? Mommy! Mommy, who there? Mommy...Mommy...MOMMY!! Say who there?" I answered him with the obligatory, "Who's there?" to which he replied, "You are there!" It was pretty hilarious.
• Lately, Austin has been a major Daddy's boy. This has it's good parts and it's not-so-good parts! I love it when Austin talks about "his daddy", as in "Where's my daddy?" or "I'm gonna tell my daddy I saw a fire truck!" However, leaving to go to Sherry's in the morning is really tough, because Austin doesn't want to leave Nick! Once we get to Sherry's, Austin is typically fine but we've had some struggles lately!
• Austin has discovered a new favorite food -- cereal! He loves to eat it (especially with his fingers!) and finish it off by drinking the leftover milk. So far, he's enjoyed the Honey Nut Shredded Wheat Mini Bites and some generic Honey Nut Cheerios. He usually ends up eating two small bowls for breakfast and could probably eat more if we'd let him!
• I've learned that when your kid randomly says, "I not gonna poop in the bath!" while in the bathtub, he probably is going to poop in the bathtub.
  
• I've also learned that cleaning poop out of the bathtub is harder than you'd think!
• A couple of weekends ago, Austin and I went to Decatur to help clean Aunt Erin and Uncle Danny's house for an open house, and also to help Gramma and Papa move som stuff to their new house. Austin was dusting with Gramma at Erin's house and I was trying to get him to show Danny something. He turned to me with this annoyed look on his face and said with the utmost seriousness, "Mommy, I WORKING!!" My apologies, sir!

More to come as I remember them!

Ketchup and Cool Whip

Austin has had a bit of a reduced appetite lately. I don't know if it started because of his strep throat or what, but I've been trying to make sure he gets enough to eat at each meal. Last night, we had a cookout, which was delicious! Nick grilled burgers and brats and we also had baked beans and fruit with some fat free Cool Whip on top. Austin took some bites of the food, but he also enjoyed several spoonfuls of just ketchup followed by just Cool Whip. Delicious!

Hey, it covers the veggie and dairy food groups, right?

Hello again...

Once again, I suck at blogging.

I don't know why it's so hard! I love reading blogs. I do it daily! I get excited when Erin or Cecilia post something new because I actually know them! I think I am so bad about posting because I tell all my stories to everyone I know before I blog. Then I feel like they'd read my blog and think, "Okay, this is not new information." Maybe I'll try NOT telling the stories and just blogging about them? We'll see if I can at least do that a little!

So the boy has been sick this week. He got strep throat after it ransacked Sherry's house (his daycare) over the last week or so. We kept him home on Tuesday because Sherry's two daughters got diagnosed with strep on Monday and then Tuesday night he felt warm. I took him to the doctor on Wednesday and -- ah ha! A positive strep test! I knew it! The nurse was like, "I'm sorry!" and I was the weirdo mom that was actually semi-happy about the diagnosis. After the mystery 10-day fever that was February-March 2009, I was just ecstatic to have a confirmed illness that is treatable with antibiotics!

Austin seemed to feel better pretty quickly and was all set to go back to Sherry's today when...he threw up water this morning! What? Throwing up water? What's that all about? Nick and I suspect he just drank too much right when he woke up and then maybe had to cough or something. We kept him home today and, from the report from Nick, he's doing well. They were all set up downstairs watching a little Thomas the Tank Engine and BOTH fell asleep! Nick said he woke up every half hour or so to check on Austin and that they snoozed the morning away, waking up at like 1:45 p.m.! Cute! I'm feeling good about Austin's health now. I don't want to jinx it, but I think he's on the mend!

This weekend is Memorial Day weekend. The skyrocketing cost of gas was a harsh reminder that the summer is almost here. However, last year at this time, gas cost like $3.85, so I'm trying to be thankful for the $2.59/gal price! We are going to Nick's mom's house tomorrow for a quick visit. She hasn't seen us since Christmas (I think? Maybe Nick and Austin took a trip over there since then? I can't remember!) and she's going to Wyoming for three months next week, so she requested a visit! I think the weather is going to be nice, so that will make for a nice trip.

Nick has to work all weekend and then will be working at the fire department Monday during the day. We might have a cookout that evening with friends, depending on who is around. We'll see. We're playing it by ear for now!

"I pat the baby goat!"

Austin and I went to the zoo with Casey and Ivy on Sunday. He loves seeing all the animals! I was pretty pumped because this time, there were people in the petting zoo area so we could actually go in and pet the goats! I wasn't sure what he'd think about the goats, but he LOVED this little black one!

"Mommy, I like the little goat!!"

I tried to get a picture of him talking to the goat. He got right in the goat's face and had a big conversation with him (her? I didn't check that area out!). Unfortunately, my camera wasn't ready, dang it!

Austin wasn't quite as into the bigger goats. In fact, he was patting this one and a bigger guy came up and just stood behind me. When Austin looked up and saw it, he was like, "Mommy! I don't like the big goat!" This one however? Just his size!

The weekend that went awry

Well, Cecilia and I were supposed to go out for a Girls' Night Out on Friday, which was to consist of dinner at Kobe and then something really awesome like shopping at Walgreens or Old Navy! We arranged early in the week for a babysitter to watch the boys at Cecilia's place, since Memphis was out of town with Rorhk. However, said babysitter didn't show. We called her when she was 15 minutes late and she didn't answer her cell phone. At 30 minutes late, she called us claiming that she had been in the hospital with food poisoning the night before and then "was out of it all day" on Friday.

Damn.

If she was sick, that's unfortunate. However, where was the call on Friday during the day? The whole "I was totally out of it" excuse doesn't really fly with me. I guess if I had a commitment and knew I wouldn't be able to fulfill it, I'd make sure I called or had someone call the person so that they wouldn't be stuck with no childcare!

We called everyone possible in our cell phonebooks but could find no other option for Friday or Saturday nights. Why don't we know more babysitters?? Cecilia and I ended up hanging out with the boys and walking from her apartment to Walgreens. Get. Pumped. We had a good time, overall, but it was kind of a letdown after the thought of a night out with just grown up people!

On Sunday, our bad babysitter luck struck again! We both brought our kids to the YMCA because we had a Zumba class to teach. There is childcare on Sundays from 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., pretty much because of the Zumba class. However, at 10:45 a.m., there was no childcare worker! A call was made and we were assured that someone would be "right there." "Right there" turned out to be more like 11:20 a.m. Cecilia ended up watching the kids in the childcare room until someone showed up and I started class. It worked out in the end, but why ya gotta hate us, babysitters??

The day after...

It was the big 0-2 birthday yesterday! We celebrated by me taking the night off from Zumba and the whole family going to Chuck E. Cheese for pizza and games. I got there before Austin and Nick, so when they walked in, I got to see the look of sheer joy and amazement on Austin's face. He was SO excited to see EVERYTHING! There was not much pizza eating by the young mister (Nick and I managed to eat our share), but there was a lot of Chuck E. Cheese love! He danced along with Chuck E. and talked to him and even wanted to share the stage with him! Austin also had a blast riding all the little cars and even playing a little Skee Ball (I heart Skee Ball, by the way!). We were there for just over an hour and could hardly pry him out of the place! We traded in 40 of his 46 earned tickets for a small plastic grasshopper...oh yeah, don't be jealous of our loot!

Happy Birthday, Austin!

Dear Austin,

You’re two today. Two! I can’t believe it. These past two years have flown by so fast. I remember being near the end of my pregnancy and just sitting in your old room wishing you would be born because I couldn’t wait! I wanted to write you a letter like I’ve seen so many parents do, telling you all the things that are in my head and my heart today. I don’t know if I’ll be able to capture what I’m feeling, though – I don’t know if it will be “good enough” to really convey your presence in my life, but I’ll try!

You constantly surprise and amaze me! Every day, it seems, you come up with another word, another phrase, another joke and just knock me off my feet. You are such a talker (you come by it honestly!) and you love to chat and have conversations with me, Daddy, and anyone who will listen. Sometimes I’m the only one who can interpret what you’re saying, and sometimes not even I can understand you, but you keep talking, and with such conviction that I know you’re saying something really important!

Some of the most recent things that you have said and done that have surprised and impressed me are things like singing “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” on your own. I don’t know where you learned that one, but you seem to love busting out into song with that tune! You also have started saying, “I’m sure!” and “I’m not sure…” in response to questions – what a little man!

One of the things I love about you is your sense of humor. You love to laugh and giggle and tickle, and can spend minute after minute chasing and “getting” Daddy and me, only to make sure we chase and “get” you right back! I don’t know where you get your energy from, but it’s endless! I love when you get the joke, too, like when you know you’re doing something funny and making me laugh. I can see the enjoyment in your face knowing that you’re cracking me up, and so you do it even more!

Another thing that is growing everyday that I love about you is your compassion and caring. Yesterday, you helped Daddy put mulch down in the yard, and you were very concerned and asked, “Are you okay, Daddy?” a lot to make sure he was doing alright. If I trip or stumble, you are right there asking me “You fine, Mom?” And if you accidentally bump me or something, you jump right in with a big kiss on my “ouch” spot and a hug to follow. Your heart is so big, my boy, and I hope it always will be.

There have been a lot of ups and downs during these past two years, and I credit you for helping me get through the rough times. I don’t know where I would be today if I didn’t have you in my life, because sometimes, when I’ve been really down, the only constant has been you. You’ve given me something positive to focus on when I have needed it the most, and that has helped me put a lot of things into perspective.

You are my son, my heart, and my friend. I miss you when I’m not with you, and I feel so lucky to have someone as special, smart, funny, and beautiful in my life. I love you so much, buddy! Happy Birthday!

Love,

Mommy

"Cece is stuck in my pants!"

Austin has a habit of putting whatever toys he is playing with up his pant legs while riding in the car. I'm not sure why, but this is pretty fun for him lately! Today, we were driving to Sherry's house for daycare and Austin was playing with Stretch and Cece (one of the Little People). They were, as usual, traveling up and down inside Austin's pant leg. Suddenly, he started crying and getting upset.

"What's wrong, buddy?"

"It's unner me, Mommy!"

"What is? What's under you?"

"Cece!"

I was pretty confused. After some more questioning and some strategic looking over my shoulder at the 4-way stop, I realized the dilemma. Austin had shoved Cece waaaaaaaaay up inside his pant leg and now he couldn't reach to get her out.

"Is Cece stuck in your pants, buddy?"

"Yes! Cece in my pants!!"

"Don't worry. When we get to Sherry's house, I'll get Cece out of your pants!"

These were not words I thought I'd be saying to my son, but we were able to extricate Cece from the pant leg and continue on with our day. Whew!

Austin-isms, the brief March 2009 edition

Here are some of Austin's latest sayings and funny things:

• "Dee-row!!" This is "Eyeore". Austin's new diapers have Tigger and Pooh on the front and Eyeore on the back, and he finds this VERY exciting! We always have to look at them and talk about "Tigger Pooh! Dee-row too!" Sometimes he throws a "Rabbit too!" in there, but it's not consistent.
• Turpitt -- turnip. We've been talking about turnips lately. I don't know why.
• I bought him some new sandals for this summer season. The last couple of nights after his bath, he will see the sandals and insist on wearing them with his pajamas. They are obviously his dancin' shoes because putting them on always leads to Austin doing a little jig around his room and saying, "Dance! Dance!"
• We've starting practicing the ABC alphabet song, and Austin and I usually sing it in the car a few times during each ride. He joins me for several of the letters at random spots -- usually "A, B, C", "F", and the whole "P, Q, R, S" run. Also, he ends up laughing hysterically during parts of the song. I guess some letters are just funnier than others!
  

My funny boy

Austin is nearing his 2nd birthday, and he just amazes me all the time! Here are some of my favorite things he has done/is doing:

• He has started calling Nick and I Dad and Mom instead of Daddy and Mommy. I don't necessarily love this, because he's too little to switch yet! But it sounds so cute when he says it!
• The other night, I was taking him upstairs to get ready for bed. Nick said "Night night, Buddy!" and Austin said as clear as day, "Goo night, Dad!" Very formal!
• Austin gets SO EXCITED when I get to Sherry's house to pick him up for the day! He recently went through a phase of not wanting to leave with me, so this is such a pleasant change. He starts saying, "Mommy! Mommy!" with a huge smile on his face and run towards me then doubles back and says, "Get coat on! Get coat on!"
• We were playing in his room last night, he and I, and we started playing the airplane game. You know the one -- I was laying on my back lifting him up with my feet and he was "flying." He was eating it up and each time I put him down, he'd say "I wanna go AGAIN!" Then he'd grab my feet and hold them up onto his belly, grab my hands, and say, "One...two...THREE!!!!" until I lifted him up. I kept letting my feet fall down and he kept picking them up, saying, "Come ON, feet!"
• He LOVES to "nuggle" (snuggle with) Nick and I. In the morning, his favorite thing to do is still eat his "cay cakes" (pancakes) and "nuggle Daddy!" while watching The Disney Channel.
• Lately, he can't say "Hi Mom!" enough times!
• I also love how when I say, "Hey Austin..." he'll always look at me and say, "What?"

Love him.

Another Friday night!

You might remember that I posted a while ago about a wild Friday night that consisted of playing "That's MY Milk!" and cleaning up poop from the bathtub. Tonight was another exciting time!

Austin and I had a lot of fun while Nick tried to catch up on some much needed sleep. First, we looked out several of our windows and tried to see some birds. Austin is big into birds lately. He likes to take the pieces of cereal that he finds on the floor of the car and "feed birdies!" Several times each week, we toss these pieces out our front door or out of the car. Anyway, since the bird feeding has begun, I've noticed a big increase in Austin's interest in birds. Unfortunately, there were no birds out for viewing this evening, so there was a lot of "Where birdies go?" instead. It was too cute!

After trying to find birds, we had some dinner and cleaned up. Austin helped out by making a giant mess with some applesauce but was excited to brush of the "crumbies" into the kitchen sink, as has become our routine after meals. We went downstairs to play and ended up coming up with a new game to add to our repertoire. We call it "Help Me, Kitty!" Basically, it involves me wrestling with Austin and him calling out to our cats to help him because he is stuck and getting attacked! The cats didn't help him out...you know they're on my side!

Photo Tag

I have been tagged by Cecilia!

Here are the rules:

1. Choose the fourth folder you store your pictures in on your computer.

2. Select the fourth picture in the folder.

3. Explain the picture.

4. Tag four people to do the same



This picture was taken on Christmas in 2007. It's probably Christmas Day, as Austin has a bow on the top of his head that I'm sure was taking from a present that morning. Despite looking similar, please note that this is not me in this photo but it is my sister Erin. I know, amazing, huh? You thought it was me for a minute and you were thinking (a) When did Emily let her hair grow so long and (b) Why is her brother in law standing so close to her? What kind of family is this?

This picture was taken at my parents' house in Elwin. Austin loves to play the piano whenever he visits! He was about 8 1/2 months old on this Christmas, and had just a little bit of peach fuzz hair! Look at that bald head! Look at those cheeks! What a peanut!

As an additional note, Erin and Danny are in a band, so they are probably the best people to choose to help Austin learn to play the piano! They have more musical talent than the rest of us!

I'm going to tag...Erin? Just you? You are it on people I KNOW who read this blog and have one of their own (besides Cecilia, who has already done it!). I will also fake tag Lindsay, Mom, and Kimberly who sometimes read this blog to just do this anyway. Maybe on Facebook? Maybe in an email to me? Challenge yourselves, ladies!

My son is turning into a grouchy 15-year-old boy.

Lately, when it comes time to wake Austin up in the morning, I feel like I'm getting a glimpse into the future. Whereas he used to get right up when Nick or I would go in to get him, we're being met with some pretty strong resistance these days! Austin has been sleeping with a pillow and a couple of blankets for a while now, and because of these he stays mostly in one spot in the bed now. When I go in to his room in the morning, more often than not, he will pull the covers up over his head (without opening his eyes) and say, "No, Mommy! I seepin'!! I wanna seep!" I thought I had more time until we got to the really grumpy morning times. I didn't realize that overnight, Austin morphs into a grouchy teenager!

Sometimes this is accompanied by some whining and crying, too, which usually only lasts until he notices that I've taken him in to snuggle with Nick and watch Little Einsteins while eating his pancakes ("cay-cakes", a step up from the original "tee-tees" pronunciation!). "Nuggling" with Daddy and "cay-cakes" and "Ein-tines!" makes getting up in the morning a little bit easier!

The Disney Channel -- My Review

Okay. Hopefully you're not reading this topic thinking, "Get a life, Emily!" because, if you are, why are you reading my blog anyway? I watch the Disney Channel with Austin, and so, since I'm subjected to it so often, I feel qualified to give a brief review of some of our favorite (and not so favorite) shows and segments.

First up, the Crown Prince of Disney, The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. I would say that this is currently Austin's very favorite show. At first, I wasn't sure about this show, because it's one of those where the characters talk to you and wait for your response. A little annoying, but this group of our old favorites have grown on me! Nick and I find ourselves talking about this show and its characters sometimes and we have to stop and laugh at ourselves. For example, Pete? Pete the Cat? Who knew this guy was a cat? And can he be more of a jackass to Mickey and his friends? They are always so nice to him, and he's kind of a jerk! Get over yourself, Pete! Also, why is Goofy a dog who is also kind of like a person while Pluto is a dog who is a pet? And where do these characters live, since they don't actually live at the clubhouse? One of my favorite things about this show is when Austin sings the "Hot Dog" song at the end of the episodes. That is so cute!

Next is another favorite, Handy Manny. I have to say that Handy Manny is kind of my dream man. He is friendly, never loses his temper, and can fix anything while keeping a positive attitude! We've been watching Handy Manny the longest and, while he has fallen from the number one position on Austin's list, he is still enjoyed by all of us. I think we've even gotten Erin interested -- she's said something about watching Handy Manny herself at home a couple of times!

Most mornings after getting out of bed, Austin and Nick (and sometimes me, too!) usually watch The Little Einsteins. This is something that, I think, grew out of the Baby Einstein franchise. Again, these kids talk to you and wait for your response, which is sometimes annoying, but they're not too bad. Nick and I prefer June out of the bunch. She's our favorite! Austin has also been saying "I want Einsteins!" a lot lately, which is cute to hear! He loves Rocket!

The last show that we watch regularly is The Imagination Movers. For some reason, I could watch this show all morning! I think I'm slightly interested in this show because one of the Movers looks like a friend of Nick's and another one looks like Sean Astin. See? Sean Astin -- Mover Dave. For some reason, they've hooked me in! Nick doesn't like the Movers that much but will watch it with Austin from time to time. Here's my question about the Movers, though. Their WHOLE business is that they are problem solvers. So if someone has a problem or, more appropriately, and "Idea Emergency", they come to the Movers to get it solved via one of their patented "Brainstorms". Seriously, Movers? This is your job? And you need a HUGE warehouse for this? I'm skeptical of how much business you actually do, as I have seen almost every episode of this show since it started recently and have seen maybe 4 customers! How do you keep your business open?

Our other absolute, wonderful, top of the line FAVORITE thing is one of the short segments between shows, Choo Choo Soul. Oh. My. Gosh. I can't even begin to convey the love Austin has for Choo Choo Soul! ANYTIME he hears a train whistle or sees a train, he immediately goes into his whole "Alllllllll BOARD!!!!!!" routine which includes singing the theme song and ending with "Gee-veeve!", Austin's version of "Genevieve". Nick and I have even heard him yell "Allllll BOARD from his bed when he's falling asleep if a train goes by our house!

So there you have it. My review of the shows we enjoy on Playhouse Disney. I won't even begin to touch Frosty the Snowman, which remains at the top of the enjoyment list (believe me...I've watched that DVR'd copy at least 45 times since it aired in December!). That's another topic for another time! Be prepared for Austin to instantly say, "I want Fwosty No-man!" if you mention Frosty's name! He'll also include his version of the theme song!