Austin's work

A day in the life of Austin's "work."

He works in Helelena which is 30 minutes away. He's been working there all the day, for 20 days. He has a microwave at his work. There are toys at his work to play with. He works at a destruction site. Papa is there and all of his friends. Papa is on the backhoe. And Dede and Nea and Nonna are all on a bulldozer. And DeDe is on a front-end loader. All of his friends watch the destruction mans work.

Hermey

An elf came to visit us last year at Christmas named Hermey. Hermey did many mischievous things while staying with us. One night he pulled all of the pillows off the couches and he was sitting in the middle of the pile in the living room. Another night, he snuck into Austin's room and pulled all his underwear and socks out of his drawer and threw them around the room.

Hermey also wrote Austin a few letters. With the arrival of Andrew, I figured now was a great time for Austin to receive some mail from the North Pole. In the letter, Hermey told Austin how he had heard he had a new baby brother and that he was going to have to ask Santa for something for Andrew since he can't talk yet. He also told Austin that he should be good at home and at school because Santa is always watching him.

Hey, it's not to early to start playing the Santa card. I'm looking forward to Hermey's visit this year. I wonder what he'll get into!

Big kahunas

My good friend from high school, Chea, bought the boys matching pajamas. Since Andrew is so big (and now wearing 6-9 month onesies), I figured I should go ahead and let him wear these and take a picture of the boys.

Sittin' pretty

Andrew sitting in his Bumbo...

Just a little syrup

What do you get when you let the 4 year old put syrup on his pancakes?

This...

Pool-side ghost

Minie moe

Every night at dinner we go around the table and talk about our day. At first, it was just asking Austin about his day and what he did at school. It has evolved into us all taking turns telling the specifics of our days.

Tonight, Austin said he was going to do "minie moe." He went around the table doing minie moe, leaving out the enie meenie parts, to figure out who was going to go first telling about their day. Austin's version includes the ice cream truck.

Old man noises

Andrew makes old man noises. He grunts, snorts, farts. And for no particular reason. Just thought I'd share.

Team cheer

Recently, Austin has taken to repeating everything that we say. And I mean everything.

Tonight, Gene wanted to have a little fun with it. So, he asked Austin to repeat after him. He said, "Go Dawgs! Sick 'em!" and then barked. Austin repeated, "Go Dawgs! Sick them! Woof, woof, woof." Of course, I told him to repeat "Roll Tide Roll" and he did. Gene said, "Go Blazers!" and then made what was supposed to be a dragon breathing fire noise. Austin repeated "Go Blazers!" and then made a noise that sounded more like the devil than a dragon. Not quite the perfect team cheers, but pretty close.

Goodies

Tonight, Austin and I were sitting in the recliner watching the women's marathon on the Olympics. Austin asked me, "Why are they not wearing shirts?" I told him that they were wearing shirts. They were really wearing something like a tank top or their bathing suit. He said, "I see their goodies!" I asked him what he was talking about. He lifted his shirt and, while pointing to his belly button, he said, "Their goodies."

Of course

Sometimes Austin will say words or phrases in context that we had no idea he knew.

Tonight at dinner, Austin was telling Gene what we'd been doing while he was gone at night this week, watching the Olympics. Gene asked him, "Do you like the swimming?" Austin said, "Of course." Gene asked him, "Do you like the gymnastics?" Austin said, "Of course."

8 ounces

People are shocked when I tell them that Andrew eats as much as he does for such a young baby. And that was when I told them he takes 7 ounces of milk in one sitting. Last night, he ate cereal, drank a 7 ounce bottle, and then nursed a little before conking out for the night. Now, that's some eating.

Today, I fixed 8 ounce bottles for him. He sucked them all dry. He will more than likely be the one that eats me out of house and home when he's a teenager. Austin, on the other hand...

Stage 1 bananas

Yesterday, after Andrew's first day of day care (school as I like to call it as to not feel so guilty about working), we all came home. Gene was at band camp late so I had both boys. Alone. It's hard enough to get things done after a full day of work with just one child much less two.

Anyway, it was time for Andrew's cereal. I came at him with the bib in one hand, bowl in the other and he grinned from ear to ear. Maybe he was grinning at me, happy to see me. But I think he was smiling at the food. I fed him the cereal and when we were done, I took the bib off. He freaked, I think at the thought that there was no more to eat. So, I gave me a little spoon full of stage 1 bananas. He seemed to enjoy them.

I mixed a little in his cereal tonight and he gobbled it all up.

Rain drops

I remember as a kid staring out the car window on a rainy day. I would watch all the rain drops run together on the window and see which drop made it to the bottom the fastest.

Today, it rained. Heavily. On the way home, Austin and Andrew were in the backseat and Austin was looking out the window, watching the rain drops. All of a sudden he said, "Go get 'em, guys." I knew exactly what he was doing. He was watching the rain drops race each other and he was cheering one drop on to beat the others. Funny how little things like that remind you of something from your childhood.

Let's roll!

Andrew's been rolling from his tummy to back for a few weeks now. Every day or every other day he'll roll from tummy to back.

Today, he has rolled twice from his back to his tummy! He's been working on rolling over for the past week or so. He's been rolling onto his side and he'll get 1/2 way rolled over but would stop there. Today, he finally did it!

Favorite thing

"My favorite thing in the whole world...my strongest contest."

Contest is pronounced more like conquest. This "strong contest" includes picking up and throwing his Pottery Barn Kids chair across the room, running at full speed into said chair and knocking it over, talking to oneself saying "Everybody ready for my strongest conquest."

Put the feed bag on

Andrew loves to gaze at people, but mostly me. (I don't quite remember Austin loving to look at me as much as Andrew does.) He smiles and coos and laughs out loud these days about all sorts of things. The ceiling fan, tickling under his chin, doing patty-cake with his hands.

But perhaps his most favorite thing to do is (surprise!) eat. His thighs are about as big around as my forearm. Maybe I'm exaggerating, but they are pretty big. As for solid food, he's only eating rice cereal. He does fairly well with the spoon and only spits a little bit out. We'll start other solids when he's 4 months old when "they" say that he should start solid food. If he gets excited over a bottle, I can't imagine how overjoyed he will be when he gets to eat "real" food!

Does this match? Not quite.

Prior to our outing this morning, we sent Austin upstairs to get dressed. I knew something was up when he went to his room and shut the door. About 5 minutes later, he emerged. Wearing this.

No, it didn't match. AT ALL! I couldn't even argue that there was red in the shirt so the shorts sort of went with the shirt. But, that was a battle Gene and I didn't want to fight. So, we took this child to public places sporting a T-shirt that reads "My favorite color is camo" and red shorts. I'm sure we got all sorts of looks. But, unless you're a parent, you don't know that, when it comes to the independent 4 year old who constantly says "I can do it all by myself," it's best to let him take pride in the fact that he picked out his own clothes and got dressed all by himself.

Boys versus girls

We went out today to do a little shopping before Gene starts band camp next week. We ran to Academy and WalMart. As with most shopping trips, it all starts with reviewing the rules with Austin. No running, no climbing on things, no touching things we're not supposed to, stay with Mommy/Daddy at all times, no acting like a wild man in the store. Seems like there are a lot of "No's" in our house. If rules are not reviewed on a regular basis, Austin just runs wild. Is this being 4? Is this being a boy? Or both? Anyway...

While we were at Academy, we were looking at sunglasses for Gene and Austin saw the nice watches in the case. Of course, he wanted one. I told him those were for really big boys and that, if he followed the rules, we could get a watch especially for him.

At the end of the trip, he was quick to point out that he'd been a good boy. So, we picked out our new watch. He chose Spider Man. In the car he put it on and said, "Boys like Spider Man. Girls like princesses."

What grown ups do

Sitting at the dinner table tonight, Austin started asking questions about what we do after he goes to bed at night. We told him that we each take baths/showers and brush our teeth and go to bed just like him. He said, "Grown ups stay up all night in the crazy and spooky downstairs."

Funnies from all over

• Gene asked Austin if he wanted him to turn on the ceiling fan. Austin said, "No; it will hurt."
• Austin was staying at Nonna and Papa's house. He got up one morning and said, "I've got to go outside." Nonna asked Austin what he was going to do outside. Austin said, "To tee tee in the grass." Austin went outside and came back in holding his pajama bottoms and underwear in one hand.
• "I can only tee tee outside at Nonna and Papa's and DeDe and Nea's house.
• "What are we having for dinner?" Chicken, rice and green beans. "Again..."

A snowman...with muscles

Today's happy story was quite different from any others Gene or I have told. This one involved a snow storm, which occurs so frequently in Alabama. In the story, Austin went outside in a snow storm and built the biggest snowman ever. It was bigger than the house. Below are Austin's additions to the story.

• We gathered rocks for the snowman's muscles
• His scarf was blue
• He had no hat
• He turned into 4
• He had teeth
• He liked chicken fingers, french fries, and ketchup for dinner with chocolate milk and a swirly straw
• The snowman spent the night and Austin shared his toothbrush, toothpaste, and bathtub

Yet another happy story

Coming up with a brand new happy story every day is a challenge. While I love Austin's imagination when it comes to his recent obsession with making up stories, it gets tiring and at some point you run out of new ideas of what "big boy Austin" can do in the made up story.

Yesterday morning, on the way to my first day back at work (sniff, sniff), I came up with a good one. Every story starts with "Once upon a time, there was a big boy named Austin." This time Austin was a race car driver. His car was red, like Lightening McQueen's. He decided he was tired of racing around the track, so he went up on the interstate. A police man started chasing him because he was driving too fast. Of course, the police car popped all his wheels and had to go to the shop. Austin continued on his journey and headed to, where else, but the beach. He took everything he needed in the trunk of the race car: a cooler with drinks and snacks, an unbrella, a blanket, sand toys. The police man made it to the beach too (after getting his tires fixed) and Austin shared his drinks and snacks, umbrella, toys, and blanket.

This is where the story ended yesterday morning. This morning, Austin added this to the story.

The police man followed Austin home and spent the night. They each took a bath and brushed their teeth and played pajama party. The next morning, they got up and splashed in Austin's swimming pool and then went to DeDe and Nea's house to go swimming in the big pool. They had hot dogs for lunch with cheese puffs. They took a nap and then spent the night.

THE END.

12 weeks old

Andrew is 12 weeks old today. It's hard to believe that 12 weeks ago we added a new son to our family to carry on the Fambrough name (and good looks, I might add). It's hard to believe that 12 weeks ago we started our life as a family of 4.

Based on our very primitive and very inaccurate bathroom scale, Andrew weighs 15 1/2 pounds. We'll have an official weigh in at his 4 month appointment in a few weeks.

Happy 12 week birthday, Andrew! We love you so much, you sweet boy.

Coming inside

Austin went outside after we got home this afternoon. He was out there for about 5 minutes when he came inside. I asked him if he was hot. He said, "No. The buzzing was too loud." I asked him, "What buzzing?" He said, "From the mosquitos."

Accidents happen, but not on purpose

About a month ago, Austin came downstairs carrying a new pair of underwear. I asked him if he had an accident. He said no, he just wanted to change his underwear. I told him that we didn't just change our underwear unless he had an accident. So, in the middle of my living room floor, pee he did. Gene and I just looked at each other in disbelief. Did he really just stand there and pee on the living room floor right in front of us ON PURPOSE? Of course he did.

I guess I asked for it by putting the idea in his head. But, who in the world would think, "I'll stand here and pee in the floor so I can change my underwear?" Obviously, Austin did.

Fat and happy

Andrew is getting bigger and heavier by the minute. He's not really fat, of course. He just LOVES to eat. You can set your watch by him. He eats every 3 hours on the nose. I've tried to push it to every 4 hours, but he just gets upset so why bother.

He's so hungry that we've started cereal early. I know, he's only 3 months and "they" say you're supposed to wait until 4 months to start solids. But, "they" have not been to my house and heard my hungry baby fussing.

We've set up the booster seat in the kitchen so he can sit in it when we eat dinner. Here's Andrew after eating his nightly cereal. I guess it was good because there's a little on his chin. Isn't that the sign of good eatin', when you get it all over your face?

Little photographer

Last night, we celebrated my dad's 50th birthday. The whole family went to Iguana Grill on Lorna Road. It's excellent food and a great atmosphere for all. Austin especially loved it because there were lights everywhere, huge hanging baskets which Austin observed looked like the planets, and, of course, the gumball machine.

We all took our cameras and took pictures of everyone. Austin got in on the act too. He held our camera and took this picture. I think it's the ceiling, but I'm not completely sure on that.

Not quite Olan Mills.

Volcano's and lava

A few times a week a stack of artwork is put in Austin's cubby at school to take home. Most of the time it's scribbles on a piece of paper. The only things that we keep are things that either Austin's written his name on or things that have his finger/hand/foot print. If we kept everything that was sent home, we would need a filing cabinet for the stuff. AND we haven't even started kindergarten yet.

On Friday, I gathered up all of the artwork to bring home. When we got home, I started sifting through it and found this. It's a pretty good likeness of a volcano, huh? Do we have a little artist or what?