Peyton's Practicing

At almost 15 months, Peyton still refuses to walk full time by herself. She went from crawling to taking a few steps at 12 1/2 months to now walking on her knees. Seems like that would hurt and take longer, but she doesn't seem to mind. I'm beginning to wonder if she's going to be 18 months and still practicing her walk.

Speaking of practice, Peyton has also been practicing drinking from a cup. At school they don't believe in using sippy cups and they break them from the bottle at one year. So Peyton went directly from sippy cup to regular cup. She's getting better at it but practice makes perfect! Here's a shot of her showing off her skills...

Austen Writes His Name

Austen has really been working hard at school on his numbers and letters. He comes home every day with a new work that showcases his practice on writing/knowing his numbers and letters. We've learned he knows letters really well too if they are in his sister's or his best friend Gavin's name...which is kind of funny.

So yesterday, Tom and I were getting him to sign my mom's birthday card. He wanted to practice on a piece of paper first, so I whipped one out and let him sit down in his room to practice. He did it so effortlessly and perfect that I was amazed. Now I have seen him write his name before but he was having a little trouble with the u and the s as of last week. I can tell he's been practicing at school every day because now it looks perfect!

Also, funny story...I told him I wanted him to write his sister's name on the card and that I would help him but just then Peyton woke up from her nap so I went downstairs to get her and Tom was in the bathroom shaving. When I came back up, Austen had written Peyton perfectly too! I thought Tom had helped him but when I asked him, he told me that he thought I had helped Austen. Although neither of us helped him it made sense because Austen knows how to spell Peyton's name, I just wasn't sure he knew how to write all the letters in her name. But he did!

Here's Austen showing off his writing skills...

We're Ready for Summer

So two weekends ago we pretended it was summer and slipped into our bathing suits to enjoy some pool time. No we didn't venture to Mexico again. Not sure we could have withstood a three-hour plus flight again this soon! But, this time we were smart enough to get a suite and we even had a full kitchen too which made this trip a lot more enjoyable than our recent beach vacation.

Austen enjoyed all the big water slides and enjoyed swimming in the pool with his life jacket (all the kids under 42 inches had to wear one). This life jacket gave him the freedom to jump into the pool and show us his kicking, paddling and floating skills that he's been working on in swim lessons.



Peyton liked the water too but was a little unsure of the three-story water slide that I took her on with her brother. We were in a raft so we were completely safe and the life guards recommended it for the little ones but her eyes were so big as we were going down that I was just hoping she didn't freak out. She didn't but she wanted to get out of that raft as soon as we hit the bottom!

We also enjoyed an afternoon of games and Austen played his first round of miniature golf - one of my favorite childhood family activities. Peyton rode the carousel and I challenged Austen to a game of air hockey. He beat me...with Tom's help!

I'll Have What He's Having

I finally understand the big deal about making sure you get two of everything. Even though my kids are three years apart, Peyton definitely now takes notice of what Austen is eating. If he has something she wants it. And, she won't let me off the hook until I give it to her too. Of course this usually happens with food. So if Austen is eating something in the car, then I better make sure that Peyton has something as well and it had better be the same thing. So no eating anything too small that she can't have.

Her recent favorites that Austen has introduced her to are Rice Krispy Treats, Pop Tarts and cookies. Food that Austen can't eat in front of her because she can't have include fruit snacks (choking hazard) and candy (not going to start that this early).

Now if I can only get her to eat all her vegetables like Austen, we'd be in good shape!