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!

See...

I can still blog! I swear I haven't forgotten how!

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!