Happy Girl

Peyton has a new nickname. It's "happy girl." This kid is pretty much always smiling and just laying back and taking everything in. She rarely fusses and when she does it's really just to tell me that she's hungry or tired.

She's also four months going on four years. She's already using her heels to push herself up off the ground and likes to use her feet to rotate herself around in her crib. One morning I found her with her head where her feet were supposed to be! She also likes to rock up onto her side and I guess at "school" last week, she ended up getting enough momentum to flip herself onto her tummy! What a feat at four months although they said she scared herself and started crying! So I'm not sure she'll do that again for awhile.

She's also starting to grab for objects. She likes her little security blankets and puts them by her face to fall asleep. She's also getting good at grabbing her rings on her playmat and picking up some toys. She is truly just a happy kid which makes me a happy mom.

We Got the Whole World...

in our hands. At least that's the way we feel these days with two great kids and a pretty near perfect dog.

Austen has moved up to the next class at school so he's with 3-6 year-olds now. He has his own locker on the upstairs floor of the school and is doing great. He definitely likes to roughouse with the older boys but he doesn't like to get in trouble when the teacher pulls them all aside and tells them no more! He also likes to imitate the teacher. One day, Mr. Mike was throwing fruit up in the air and catching it much to the chagrin of the other teacher who knew the kids would be copying his behavior. Sure enough a few days later, Austen was throwing up a piece of fruit and catching it much to Mr. Mike's delight and the other teacher's dismay. Mr. Mike was just impressed with Austen's hand/eye coordination!

Peyton is doing well in school too. She's in Austen's old infant room and has three of his old teachers. They all love Peyton and say she is happy most days and likes to smile up at them, especially when they change her diaper! She has also just started to sleep through the night consistently too so we are very happy about that. She was about six weeks behind Austen in that regard but she seems to be a little more laid back than he was...or maybe we are!

As for Adler, she's adjusted to me going back to work and having her house to herself all day again. She's catching up on her sleep. However, I know she misses Austen and Peyton during the day as she usually steals a stuffed animal off of Austen's bed and picks one of Peyton's out of her bouncy seat to sleep with her on our bed during the day. That's usually where I find them...licked to death!

I Jumped Off a Dragon!

On Friday, we got a call from Austen's school. When they call, they always identify themselves first but are quick to then say "Austen's okay" or "it's not an emergency, but..." Well, the "but" on Friday was that Austen was at the park/playground with his class and decided to climb on top of a three-foot high dragon and then decided to jump off. Now, I'm sure all the older kids were doing it but now that Austen got moved up, he is one of the younger kids and a three-foot jump is probably a big drop for someone his age/size. Anyway, when he jumped off, he landed wrong on his ankle. Instead of crying in front of the big kids, he hobbled away and continued playing, not wanting them to see he was hurt and probably more so not wanting to miss out on playtime with his new classmates.

One of his teachers did carry him back to school and put an ice pack on it and called us to come pick him up. He was limping around most of Friday but in good spirits. It looked a little swollen but no real bruising. On Saturday, he had a little bit of a limp but he went to soccer and you couldn't tell he was injured. Today, he was running around at the park with no thoughts of his ankle or jumping off another dragon.

Here's a few seconds of what our little big shot has been up to aside from jumping off dragons!

Peyton's First Easter

Not that she knew it or that she got to enjoy the many Easter egg hunts lined up for Austen or all the Easter baskets she received, but it was Peyton's first official holiday. She looked so cute in her sunflower dress and canary yellow bolero sweater and matching yellow bow!

We started out the day at home. Austen could hardly wait to go through his Easter basket this morning and go on his Easter egg hunt. Of course, he already spied much of his loot when I brought it home from the store. I thought I could get it in the house without him seeing anything but one bag happened to fall over and out popped his chocolate bunny holding a basketball. I had to pry it out of his little hands much to his dismay and tell him that it was for Easter. The next 10 minutes was met with a lot of whining and telling me that he wanted the Easter bunny with the basketball. I heard that a lot over the last two weeks. I think I lucked out though because he didn't know it was chocolate yet. Speaking of chocolate - Austen decided to open all his plastic eggs and eat all the candy before and after breakfast. Good thing we were going to my brother's so he could run off that sugar high in a real backyard! When he was tired, my brother pulled him and his cousin, Luke, in a wagon around the yard.




Peyton got a lot of attention from both sides of the family. Everyone wanted to hold her and she let them:)








Austen and Peyton cleaned up on Easter baskets from both their Grandmas. Aunt Maria and Uncle Bob had an Easter egg hunt all set up for Austen complete with cars that looked like Easter eggs (Austen thought that was cool). And, Papa spoiled them rotten too with cards and presents for their piggy banks.

Phew...I'm tired but it was a fun day to see Austen and Peyton hang out with their grandparents, aunts, uncles and of course their cousins!