Knocking down trees

On Saturday, Austin and I went to his room to get dressed for the day. After picking out his shirt and shorts, he said to me, "I need to get dressed to go outside." I asked him what he was going to do ouside. He responded, "I'm going to knock down a tree with a hammer" to which I cracked up completely. He stomps down the stairs and tells Gene the same thing. Gene tries to convince him that to use one of his play hammers. No dice. The next thing I know, I'm looking out the kitchen window to see Austin with one of Gene's hammers hitting a tree.

The tree did not fall down much to Austin's dismay. There's always tomorrow.

You better eat

Austin is a picky eater. I guess that's to be expected from a 4 year old, a busy 4 year old. He knows what he likes and knows what he doesn't like.

Last week was an interesting week of eating where Austin's concerned. On Monday, I met my mother at the D.Q. to pick Austin up from spending Sunday night at her house. We all ate lunch. Correction, my mother and I ate lunch. Austin picked at his lunch. So, after my mother and I finished our lunches and "I'm full" came out of his mouth, I wrapped up the uneaten chicken fingers and french fries and brought them home for later.

We're trying to explain to Austin about being wasteful. We've told him that he doesn't need to ask for something and not eat it only to throw it away. So, I explained to Austin that he'd see the chicken fingers that he didn't eat at lunch again at dinner.

Dinner came and went with the chicken fingers uneaten. I explained again that he'd see those chicken fingers at dinner the next night. I also told him that Andrew was going to see Dr. Hamm the next day and we'd tell him that he's not eating his dinner. This comment left Austin just distraught at the thought that we'd be talking to his doctor about him and he begged me not to say anything. (For those of you who don't know, Dr. Hamm is the kids pediatrician. We use his name in all sorts of ways to get Austin to do or not do something.)

The next night, the chicken fingers made their final appearance on Austin's dinner plate. Austin was so proud of himself for finally eating them. I'm sure one day when he gets older he'll say, "Remember the time Mommy saved those chicken fingers and made me eat them for days."

He ain't heavy

Andrew is a big baby. Period. Gene, Austin, and I wanted to know how big, so we performed our own measurements at home. As Andrew laid on the floor playing, we used a variety of implements to measure him including a metal tape measure and toy musical inch worm. Our conclusion: Andrew is 24 inches long, almost 3 inches longer than when he was born. Now, that's big. Our measuring was confirmed at Andrew's 2 month checkup. In fact, we were off by almost 2 inches! Andrew is 25 1/2 inches long and 14 1/2 pounds. The doctor showed us his growth chart and, as suspected, he's heavier and longer than over 95% of kids his age. No wonder my back hurts these days.

Funny kids

Austin is 4 years and Andrew is 11 weeks old. The older Austin gets the more funny things he says and does. I want to keep track of them all, or most of them. What better way to do that and share everything with family and friends, right?