Preschool Update

Preschool has been good. He was so excited at first and then he had a rough couple of weeks where he was a little upset in the mornings and didn't want to go because he doesn't like it when kids get in trouble. He's been fine the last two weeks though and seems happy and excited to go and tells me all about everything when I pick him up. He knows the date and what letter he's learning about and tells me what he'll learn about next week. I knew before he started school that his fine motor skills weren't great and so he has had a little bit of difficulty learning to hold his pencil and controlling it when he writes. He gets frustrated with some of the lowercase letters because they are more curvy. He doesn't like the "e" in his name and asked me if he could skip it. We have been practicing his name and it has been frustrating and usually takes a lot of time and patience. His teacher is wonderful and has been working him a lot on it at school. And he's getting so much better! Yesterday he sat down to do his homework and wrote his name by himself in a few seconds! And it's not huge, it's smaller and more controlled! I nearly cried I was so proud of him.

Yay!

Busy Photographer

haven't taken any photos of the boys lately but Rexford has been busy snapping pictures! He likes to go around the house and take pictures of everything! For your viewing pleasure, here's what he took this last couple of weeks.

The train table

The backyard

His fire station and trucks

Magnets on the fridge

An awesome picture of Brian

The rug :)

Stuffed animals all over the living room floor

Curious George

Wheel of Fortune - his before bedtime show

breakfast

Uncle Caleb and Rexford

Caleb's girlfriend Catie

Artwork

Austin's blanky in a fish

Fun Videos

This post is for my brother Caleb who said I needed to update the blog(let's be real here - I update my blog WAY more than my sisters so he should really be telling them to update but anyway). Here are some fun videos that I haven't had time to upload yet but since I haven't taken any photos in a few weeks, I decided to update with the videos. Caleb these are for you :)

This video is from Rexford's camera. He is videoing himself talking about how he loves his family.

This is Rexford videoing himself one day in the car talking about how he loves to ride bikes with Papa.

This CRAZY video was taken by Lauren Tait. Gavin, Rexford, Austin, and Lauren were dancing and having a blast taken funny videos. It was a very wild morning with lots of laughter and craziness! I love these fun kids!

WARNING - Watching this video may cause dizziness, nausea, and mild headache.

This video is of Austin and Rexford playing Wii. Austin keeps asking for Mario and is so disappointed that they are playing a different game.

This is cute Austin being moody and then cheering up with some tickling - which he loves! He always asked to be tickled.

This is Austin playing in our fun Thomas tent. Such a cutie!

Austin Update

I remember writing down all the words Rexford used to say when he first started talking and I thought it was time to do that for Austin too. Austin has been saying words here and there for awhile but in the last two months his vocabulary has exploded. I didn't realize how many things he could say until I wrote them all down the other day and saw that he says over 100 words. He has started to put words together too like "all aboard," "watch Huckle," "bye bye Aly" and "Daddy mow." Everyday he says a new word and it's fun to see him so happy when we understand what he tells us. He also loves to make animal noises (cow, elephant, monkey, snake, lion, pig, etc) and when I put him down for bed he always says "meow." I say, "are you a cat?" and he laughs and says, "no mommy!" Then he makes a dog noise and I say "are you a dog" and he says, "no mommy!" He said "i love you" last night for the first time when I was singing him a song in the rocking chair! So sweet :)

So for record keeping purposes for Austin when he's older, here are all the words you were saying in September 2010:

ding-dong

help

happy

please

eww!

bye ___

Mommy help

choo choo

Yummy

hot dog

George (Curious)

backpack

oh no

show

pillow

Word World

uh oh

hammer

saw

football

egg

school

tub

no Mommy!

hat

bug

stuck

Wowakka (Mousekabunga)

hand

Pete

Todd

sock

eye

snack

shoe

Mickey (sounds like Minnie)

nose

towel (howel :) )

e-i-e-i-o

moon

book

banana

Bob

sun

meow

ball

boat

yo-yo

boots

crab (hab)

stool

apple

yep

door

boo boo

Woody (Toy Story)

Mommy

Ramone(mamone)

beep

Daddy

poo poo

pee

baby

bath

duck

mow

quack

wet

bubble

mine

Elmo (Melmo)

tickle

Abby

Yum! (for Cookie Monster)

Huckle

Mario (Wario)

Kachow (Lightning McQueen)

bobo (brother)

bebe (blanky)

eat

empty

open

up

down

milk

weee!

yee-haw

more

Papa

Aly

that

Nahna (Christina)

Grandma

yeah

no

bus

woo woo (fire truck)

moo

hi

hello

ok

mumu (shamu)

Aquatica (Aca-i-ca)

done

out

where

what

wheel

All aboard!

hot

whale

juice

cheese

Shannon

Wally

Wayne

tube

blue

ball

why

cookie

Austin is growing so fast- he's a climber and loves to jump off of things. He loves to play with Rexford. He loves his blanky and he loves fruit - apples, plums, nectarines, grapes, etc. He loves to play outside and is really into lawn mowers and lawn equipment. He also likes to watch fire trucks, trains, airplanes, motorcycles, and helicopters. Sometimes he gets shy and will pretend he's sleeping. He squints his eyes and pretends to snore :) He's funny and sweet and we love him. I can't believe he'll be 2 next month!

Family Photo

Rexford needed a family picture to put in his "me bag" for preschool to show his class and our last picture was in December so Austin looked so different. So we set the timer and took a few pictures and they're not bad. It was evening so the lighting isn't great but everyone is looking happy for the most part! Here we are September 2010.

WIPEOUT

Rexford loves to watch Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy sometimes too. One night after Wheel ended he discovered the show Wipeout and loved it! Now in our house you can often find the boys pulling all of the cushions of the couches and trying to make "wipeout courses." They have lots of fun but it has led to some bleeding and crying :) Here they are one day playing on their course.

Fudge Pops

Rexford has first fudge pop much earlier than Austin but we haven't really bought junk food in awhile. I finally bought some the other day and let Austin have one and he loved it! He made quite a mess but it was bath time anyway :)

Rexford enjoyed his too!

Friday Fun

Rexford had been crying in the morning before preschool the second week so I told him if he tried really hard to be happy and have a good day then we would go to Sea World on his day off because he'd been wanting to go there. I was hoping it would be cloudy and not too hot and though it was still warm it was cloudy and not too terrible. The boys had so much fun and were so excited since we haven't been in months. I can't wait for all the fun Halloween stuff there soon!

Loving the aquarium

Austin and Rexford loving looking up at the fish

Rexford, Aly, and Matthew (who isn't too sure about being in a small plastic tube with two other people :) )

Matthew and Aly and Nemo :)

Me and my boys

In the underwater dolphin viewing area there was a dolphin that just hung out on the bottom by the glass for several minutes. The boys had lots of fun watching it!

Loving the tower ride

I was going to take Austin on this crab ride and he was fine until they tried to pull the black bar over him and then he wanted out. So I rode by myself and had fun :)

Playing in the sand and shade

Cooling and cleaning off!

Temporary Pets

The boys' California cousins sent us a butterfly kit a few weeks ago. The boys were very excited when we got our caterpillars in the mail and they loved to watch them. Because of the heat our caterpillars turned into chrysalids 2 days after we got them. They started to get darker and one night as I was looking at them I just knew they were going to come out soon. I woke up the next morning to find three butterflies already out! I really wanted to see one come out so I watched the two left but then I had to go make breakfast and get Rexford ready for school. I came back in the room a few minutes later and another one was out! I really wanted to see the last one come out but I had to take Rexford to school and of course when I got home I found that the last one was out too! The kids were so excited to see the butterflies! After dropping Rexford off at school I stopped by the store to get an orange and watermelon because they apparently like to drink from them. I put some at the bottom of the net for them and it was fun to watch them drink the juice. We watched the butterflies for 2 days but then we could see that they were getting a little anxious to fly so after dinner we took them outside. One of the butterflies was hanging out around the top and immediately flew off so high! I had been a little worried that they wouldn't be able to fly. The second one took a few tries to find the way out but found the opening and flew super high too. The last three were near the bottom of the net so Brian picked one up and let the boys touch it and then let it fly off. He helped the last two out and off they went! They all flew! We loved having them around for awhile and it was a little sad to see them go. But I was so relieved that they were fine and healthy and Rexford was excited that his butterflies were getting to explore the world. By the way, he named them Fluffy, Rexford, Austin, Ava, and Zach because those are pretty good names he said :) Thanks Aunt Eileen, Uncle Mark, Savannah, Mark, and Brockton for our fun pets!

Rexford with the chrysalids

Getting very dark - the night before they came out

I woke up and found three butterflies and the other two came out within an hour

Our little painted ladies

Enjoying some watermelon

Getting ready to explore the world

This was our anxious little guy who flew out first

Austin touching the butterfly

Rexford touched it but was a little nervous

Blonde Buddies

Austin has a new friend now that Rexford is in school. Once a week while my friend goes to her doctor's appt., her son comes over to play. Austin likes to play with him in the tent, with trains, etc. Last week they were playing piano together and having so much fun.

Gavin and Austin