He's a fish!

Austin's finally swimming!

Ever since Austin was a baby, he's hated getting his face and/or head wet. He would literally freak out, crying inconsolably begging for the towel so he could dry off. Two summers ago, we decided to get Austin some swimming lessons. After 6 weeks, we were really no closer to actually swimming than when we started and we'd had meltdowns like you wouldn't believe. Last summer, no swimming lessons; we had our hands full with just having Andrew. And this summer has just gotten away from us so no lessons this summer either.

We've been practicing every chance we get. It started this summer before we went to the beach. Austin's been begging to go to a water park and we've told him that he has to learn put his head under the water before we can go, that we can't wipe our face off when it gets wet. At the beach, he swam better, using floaties, but still not well enough for us to feel comfortable taking him to the water park.

Today, Austin went to Dede and Nea's house twice to swim. AND he swam with no floaties! Underwater! And was jumping in all over the place, getting his head wet, with no freak out over his face being wet. We are so proud of him!

Does underwear go down the toilet?

Gene and the UAB steel band had a gig at the Sandestin Hilton last night. It was free, overnight trip so I decided to go with him. And Nonna was gracious enough to come over and spend the night with the kids.

Austin was thrilled about his houseguest and has been talking about her spending the night and what they were going to do and eat while she was over. During her stay, Austin had a few accidents which he tried to hide. He threw away two pairs of underwear. The third time, Nonna caught him and made him clean himself up and clean his underwear. He was cleaning his underwear in the toilet and "accidentally" flushed. That's right...flushed the underwear down the toilet. I'm sure it's not the first time we'll have a foreign object flushed.

Walking and pee pee

Andrew's pretty much walking exclusively now. Occasionally, he'll drop to his knees and crawl. He and Austin love to chase each other from one room to another.

On another note, Andrew has discovered his pee pee. He found it a few weeks ago, but is more fascinated with it now. He wants to play with it every time we take his diaper off. He just laughs and laughs when he sees or touches it. And so the fascination with his member begins.

Words spoken (and other updates)

I've been kind of a slacker when it comes to this whole blogging thing in recent weeks. Anywho, Andrew's saying all sorts of words. At least, it sounds like he's saying things. To date, he's said ball ("ba"), more ("mo"), night night ("nigh nigh"), thank you ("da you"), and uh oh. We think he's started saying daddy and mommy instead of mama and dada because that's what Austin calls us. One day last week I swear he called the cat by her name, "babble" instead of Trouble.

Andrew's favorite things to do right now are play with balls (he loves to bounce them up and down and chase after them), read books, and chase the cats. He has no interest in watching any kind of program, which is a good and bad thing. We've tried letting him watch Elmo and he may watch for a minute and then he's off to do something else.

Andrew is already throwing fits when he doesn't get his way or his feelings are hurt. He throws himself in the floor, puts his head down, and cries like it's the end of the world. Yesterday at school, he banged his head on the floor when he got upset. How can this be happening and he's only 13 months old???

Andrew's still a little pig. He loves to eat almost anything. He does not like green beans. His favorite vegetable is carrots and he likes almost any fruit. The other night he ate 1 1/2 bananas and they were big ones. We went to eat Mexican the other night and he ate not only all of his cheese quesadilla, but 1/2 of Austin's, peas and carrots, and peaches I brought from home.

High fever (and new tooth)

On Sunday, we went over to Dede and Nea's house for the kids to swim. Andrew loved the pool at the beach so I was anxious to see how he did in the pool here at home. Well, he didn't like it at all, I think because the pool as a little too cool for him. He laid down for a nap and when he got up he had a 102 fever and snotty nose.

Needless to say, we stayed home on Monday with Andrew's fever going up and down all day. He was still in a great mood though. All day Monday and Tuesday, I kept feeling for a new tooth. Today, I finally felt a the new tooth. Finally! He's even! Andrew has 8 teeth, 4 on the top and 4 on the bottom.