Austen's Sunglasses

Having a dog in the city means that we have to walk her twice a day since we don't have a backyard to let her out in. So usually if it's warm(er) in the evening, we'll all go for a walk after dinner. One time last week, it was particularly sunny out when we started our walk so Austen wanted to wear his new sunglasses that Grandma had given him in his Easter basket. They were Hot Wheels sunglasses -- black with race cars on the side. As Austen rode his big wheel that evening, I knew he was pretending he was some cool race car driver. Only problem was that early on in our walk, the sun started to go down so Austen hooked the sunglasses to the front of his shirt like he's seen his Dad do so many times instead of giving them to me like his sister did. About halfway through our walk, Austen got this panicked look on his face and started searching his shirt and Big Wheel frantically for something. "My sunglasses! My sunglasses," he cried! Thinking he must've lost them when he was racing around the patio of the local Starbucks, I waited with Peyton while Tom and Austen circled back to the Starbucks, which wasn't that far away. Seeing Tom shake his head in the distance that they weren't there made me think that I had better catch up to them and start tracing our steps back. I had this gnawing feeling in my stomach that this outcome was not going to be good. And, I was right. In the distance at one of the crosswalks Tom spied Austen's sunglasses. Now the story would have had a happy outcome I'm sure if he lost them anywhere else but in the crosswalk of a fairly busy street. There in the crosswalk in plain sight was Austen's sunglasses, smashed. I don't know what was worse, him seeing them smashed into the asphalt or him just thinking he lost them. He blubbered and cried like a two year old the rest of the way home saying "My sunglasses, my sunglasses!" over and over. I bet next time he hands them over to one of us when the sun goes down instead of trying to be cool like his Dad.

Such a Girl

From a very early age, Peyton has been obsessed with shoes. She likes to take hers off and try on everyone else's. Now I think most girls probably do this but it just strikes me as such a girl thing. If Austen has any shoes laying around, Peyton will try them on and attempt to walk around in them even though she is moments from tripping. This past week, I had taken off my heels and was doing various things around the house when I noticed that Peyton had put them on. Such a girl, I thought! I like that she's a little girly - practicing ballet; loving anything with princesses now; taking care of her baby dolls; and trying on my heels. But, I also love that she's not a delicate flower either. She is strong; rarely cries when she gets hurt; and loves to rough house with her brother. Her dad likes her that way - a little girly with a little bit of tomboy in her too. I wouldn't expect anything less from my daughter.

Austen, Austen Gonna Fly To Boston

When I travel for work, Austen always asks if he can come. Usually there's no way that he can since I have to work and there's no one to watch him. But, this past week he had an opportunity to travel to Boston with me since my extended family lives there and they were excited to spend time with Austen while I was working.

Austen was excited to be going on a special trip with just him and me. I knew this because the whole week or so before, he kept asking me how many more days until Boston! I knew I should have told him the night before we were leaving so he wouldn't ask me several times a day.

At the airport, I'm trying to wrestle with his booster seat to fit in my luggage so I won't have to rent one there. Turns out it doesn't fit but in between all this Austen is whining that he has to go poo poo! This, I told him, was why I didn't bring Peyton to Boston. He holds it until we can find a bathroom but he just pees.

He's so excited to get on the plane, watching everything going on out the window of the plane and asking me a million times when he can watch his video. I think that's one of the reasons he was so excited to go to Boston so he could watch his video player. As usual, he does great on the flight. He was always a good flier even when he was a baby.




We get to the airport, find our luggage and spend another 20 minutes waiting for the shuttle bus to take us to our rental car. Just when I think it has to arrive soon, Austen announces he really has to go poo poo, again! So we head back in for a 15-minute diversion to the bathroom. Once finished, we come out and as luck would have it there's a rental car shuttle waiting for us.



Austen was so excited to sleep in a hotel but his favorite part was the breakfast they served every morning and especially the cinnamon rolls. He had to have one every morning. Then it was off to spend time with my aunts. They took him to the toy store, the family farm, and let him eat all the candy and cookies he wanted.



Even with all that sugar, he was still exhausted when I picked him up at the end of the day.



We enjoyed our time in Boston very much thanks to my aunts who coordinated family dinners each night we were there. But, the trip wouldn't have been complete without a visit to Friendly's where we scarfed down some good old fashioned ice cream!

Happy Easter 2012!

This weekend was filled with lots of candy, Easter egg hunts and family time!

We started out the weekend by going to our local grocery store for an Easter egg hunt. There's nothing like finding your eggs in the frozen food aisles. Peyton cleaned up.




Next up was egg coloring. Austen and Peyton both participated although we only had one wire to drop the egg in the food coloring so they were each telling the other to hurry up. I guess we could have used a spoon too!



Next up was our own Easter egg hunt at home on Easter morning along with some pictures outside. Austen and Peyton went from clue to clue hand in hand and even found one in the freezer! Adler decided since we didn't buy her any Easter presents or candy that she was going to confiscate one of Austen's. We had bought him dive rings for him to practice swimming underwater. Notice it under Adler's chin in the picture below.









Then off to Grandma's house for another Easter egg hunt where Peyton and Uncle Mark won first prize. Uncle Mark always has to be first even when he's teamed up with the youngest member of the family which we were sure would be his achilles heel but Grandma Lou who was the ref said he kept Peyton going by feeding her jelly beans!

Then it was off to the other side of the family where Austen discovered that a friend of a friend who was invited was one of the teachers for his swim lessons at the local sports club. He wasn't Austen's teacher but Austen recognized him right away and said something akin to "hey, you teach swim lessons!" That's my very observant five year old who has been like that almost since birth..a definite eye for details!

Kids were both fast asleep by 7:15 p.m. and I'm on my way too. I never realized how Easter egg hunts could tire you out! Or maybe it was just my kids because they went straight through the whole day without stopping.

Tooth and Eye

The weekend started out nice. For once we had no plans...no birthday parties, no place to be and no errands to run. This doesn't happen too often so we were looking forward to a few quiet days. That should have been a hint.

Austen woke up Saturday with an eye that appeared a bit red and swollen so I called the doctor and took him in. He said it was a stye and prescribed some eye drops and told us to put warm compresses on it. So we did. Either the stye got worse or Austen had a reaction to the eye drops because his eye now looks a lot more swollen than before we took him to the doctor!



As for Peyton, we decided to call her snaggletooth after this weekend. While we were out to dinner on Saturday, she decided to take a dive off the couch and chipped her tooth. She also gave herself a fat lip and a good bump on her head. Good thing we have a dentist in the family. Sunday found us at his office getting her tooth bonded. Try to have a 2-year-old keep her mouth open for a few minutes while her tooth was getting bonded! What a challenge but she did great!



I guess even the most low key weekends never really end up that way.