Austen Loses His First Tooth

A few weeks ago, Austen mentioned that his teeth were hurting him. So I took a look at his mouth and noticed two second teeth growing in behind his two bottom front baby teeth. The baby teeth were loose but hadn't fallen out yet.

It took a few more weeks of wiggling, eating apples and corn on the cob for it to fall out. It happened at school during lunch. Austen said he was eating chicken and all of a sudden his tooth just fell out on his plate. He was so excited. His teacher wrapped up his tooth for safe keeping and put it in his locker.

That day after school, I had to pick Austen up at the park instead of school as his class went to play there. I checked his locker when I picked up Peyton at school and grabbed the little brown envelope I saw in his locker and threw it in his backpack. I had no idea what it was. When I picked him up, I noticed right away his tooth had fallen out. He was so excited but then was worried I hadn't gotten his tooth out of his locker. I assured him I had if it was in that little brown envelope.

He then went home to write a letter to the tooth fairy where he told her his tooth had fallen out during lunch at school and that she had beautiful wings. We placed his tooth on his nightstand in a cute little keepsake box for her to come and get.

Imagine Austen's surprise the next morning when he got money and a championship Blackhawks t-shirt (who just won the Stanley Cup late the evening before). He was all smiles and I can only imagine what he told his class about the tooth fairy that day! 

Our Little Slugger

This week, I was going to give an update on the construction of our new house but progress is moving more slowly than we expected at this point.  Hopefully we'll have some new photos with some framing done for next week's post.

So, this week you'll have to settle for Austen's baseball season in review.  This year, some moms from Austen's soccer team tipped me off to a great baseball league so I signed him up and like soccer, couldn't have been happier. They practice and play once a week, the coaches are great and the kids are all soon to be first graders. Austen has grown progressively better at catching. He's probably one of the best on the team and he's a good hitter too. They play coach pitch. So when kids can't hit the ball after a few pitches, they then hit off the tee. After 9 weeks, Austen has only had to hit off the tee once. That means on average he's hit 26/27 at bats.

He's got a great arm but needs some work on aim. For the most part, he pays attention when they're playing which is hard for even us parents to do since baseball with 6 year olds is so slow! He likes to play first base, second base and pitcher (behind the coach who pitches). Here are some pictures of our little athlete in action:

In the "ready" position at first base.

He hit one over the infielders' heads to the grass in this picture.

Use two hands, his coach always reminds him.

After a hit, running to first base.

Last Vacation for 2013

It seems like the first half of 2013 was all about vacations, especially for Tom and me. We started out in January by visiting Austin, Tx, then Tom went skiing in Colorado in February. In March, we were off to Hawaii and in May, I went to Mexico. So it was only appropriate that in June we traveled to Key West, Florida.  We rented a little house and enjoyed our last true vacation as a family of four before we expand to five in October.

Papa took care of Adler. Thankfully. She would have died in the heat down there. It was so hot! You didn't even want to be outside unless you were in the pool or the ocean. But the kids had fun splashing around in our pool in the backyard; had fun finding and chasing all the geckos in the lush green foliage; enjoyed some ice cream that melted to soup in two minutes; and enjoyed seeing all of the boats. Here are a few pictures from our travels last week:

Rented house above.

Quality dinner time below.

Find the gecko in this picture.

Taking a break from pool time to color.

More pool time.

Posing for some pictures.

Smathers Beach, Key West

Last day picture in front of our house taken by Austen. Peyton wanted to be in it too but then wanted to drink her water.

The Southernmost Point - close to Cuba - 90 miles. Would you believe there was a 10 minute long line to get this photo in the sweltering 90 degree heat. (No cutting for the pregnant woman!)

Austen's Last Soccer Game

 Hard to believe Austen's two seasons of soccer with AYSO 418 (the city league) have come to an end. Saturday was his last game with his Maroon Six teammates.  In the Fall, he's all signed up for our new town's AYSO league so he'll be leaving behind his old team and joining a new one. My heart breaks a little for him as he has really enjoyed playing with this group of six boys. The coaches were wonderful, the parents great and the kids were just a really nice group of boys.

I've really enjoyed watching him learn the past two seasons.  He truly loves soccer and wants to be better which makes him so coachable. This season he's worked on his throw ins, chest traps and heading the ball. He's learning how to take corner kicks, passing and marking other players.

He usually always scores a goal or even two at his games, but what I am most proud of him doing is executing what we worked on during the week at the game and passing to his teammates.  There's no I in team and Austen is most certainly an unselfish player at this age, but one who knows when to take the right shots too. I can't take the credit for teaching him that, he just knows. Although it might be from watching his two big cousins' games.  At an early age, he would sit and observe their play. I'm sure he stored away some of that for his playing days.

I look forward to watching many more of his games rain or shine in the future.

Girls' Day Out

So on Friday, Peyton and I had a girls' day out. Well, really I was supposed to go on a field trip with her for school but that got canceled due to the weather and she was actually feeling under the weather the day before at school so we kept her home.

She ran errands with me in the morning to Target (she got a new Mickey Mouse book), then we went and registered Austen at his new school out in the suburbs. After, we met Tom for lunch.  Peyton was excited when her Dad walked into the restaurant and who knew she was even sick the day before by the way she scarfed down her food!  Then after lunch, we were off for some real girl time.

I took Peyton to Sweet and Sassy where they specialize in kid manicures and pedicures, haircuts, etc. Originally, I signed her up for a manicure and a pedicure but she took one look at the foot tub and said, "I don't want to do that! Mommy, tell them, I don't want to do the foot thing!" I have no idea why she was scared of the foot basin but okay, I relented and she was pleased as punch to have her first manicure. She was a natural.

I hope she's not getting like Grandma Lou because I'm not letting her get her nails done every two weeks! Especially because she picked off most of her chosen purple polish by bedtime!