Austen and Adler's New Bed

Last weekend, we did it. We transitioned Austen from his crib to a big boy bed. I was a little sad taking down his crib and moving his baby furniture out of his room knowing that he's growing up but I was excited to see how he would react to his new room once we set it up.

So set it up we did last Saturday. He certainly liked using his stool to climb up into his bed and playing cars and reading books on his bed but he wasn't too happy that he had to sleep there when it was time to turn in. The first night was a little rough but he's slowly adjusting to his new bed. Of course he also likes to jump on the bed too and already has gotten a bruised ear lobe from jumping, falling and hitting his ear on the guardrail (who knew earlobes could bruise?!).

Anyway,thought you might like to see Austen and his pal Adler trying out the new bed.

Now I Know My ABCs...

Austen is a little sponge these days repeating everything we say or at least trying too. I guess that means we had better be watching our language! He is a little chatterbox too and likes to ask "what's that?" or point out all the things he sees on a trip in the car or a walk with Adler like choo choo trains, garbage trucks, big trucks, mailboxes, basketball hoops and of course airplanes!

He's finally showed an interest too in his books (which I am thrilled about since I love books) but he insists on reading them to us and not having them read to him!
Some of his recent favorites are "Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed," "The Runaway Bunny" (he says the net used to catch fish in the book is a basketball hoop), "Big Red Barn," and this book about all the things "on the go" that my friend Shannon bought him. He always wants to turn to the train pages and yells "oh no!" at the end when all the modes of transportation collide.

Lately, he's also been going around the house singing songs he's learned at school like Bingo...B-I-N-G-O, B-I-N-G-O, he chants repeatedly. He likes to sing his ABCs too. Here's one of his recent performances.

Easter Eggs

This is Austen's third Easter. The first, he was barely three months old and I took him to see the Easter bunny and made him wear some goofy hat with ears that was too small for his head (which was surprising since his head always measured really small when he was a baby). Last Easter, we put plastic eggs on the ground making a trail for Austen that he could follow. Since that day, he's kept those eggs in a drawer in our kitchen. So everyday since has been Easter. He's gotten really good at finding the eggs and most recently, hiding the eggs too. He puts them in shoes, under pillows, in Adler's dog bowl and even in one of my centerpieces on the coffee table. Then he makes us find them and he gets so excited when we do.

So, this year, we thought he was old enough to help color some eggs. Austen loves projects so on Good Friday, I bought the family size 18-count eggs from Costco and we colored Easter eggs. Of course Austen wanted to do everything himself so some of the eggs have a few cracks in them (luckily I remembered to hard boil them so it didn't make too much of a mess) but he enjoyed selecting the color that the egg was to be dyed and then fishing them out of the cups. At first, his dad, created a makeshift egg dipper thing that didn't work so well, so Austen resorted to the spoon. He actually was pretty good at getting them out without making a huge mess or knocking over the very full cups with dye in them that his dad so generously put together.

Since everyday has been Easter at our house since last year, I wonder if Austen will be as excited about his Easter egg hunt tomorrow. Still, I can't wait to see his face in the morning when he finds his Easter basket and all the eggs I hid tonight.

My Vacuum Cleaner...Adler

It's great having a dog when you have a toddler around just for the fact that you don't have to whip out the dustbuster or the broom or constantly bend down to pick up food off the floor when your 2-year-old thinks it's funny to throw his food on the floor or accidentally drops something there.

Now, I know it's probably not good for Adler's waistline but we've cut back on her food to be able to let her enjoy these free snacks in the morning, at night and three times a day on the weekends. However, trying to get her to go outside when Austen's eating is like trying to get my mom out of a store when there's some great deals going on. It's not easy. But the part that I have to laugh at is that Adler parks herself pretty much under Austen's chair and her long-haired fur catches some of this misplaced food so she inevitably wanders around with food stuck in her hair. Check out this photo of a piece of macaroni and cheese stuck in her fur by her ear.

She doesn't seem to mind though. In fact, I think she might've been saving it for later.