Not surprising....

Austin was more interested in the candy & fruit snacks (also candy in my book) that he received today than his new tidy-whities (just kidding, he only got sweaters), and Justin was more interested in the trash from the gifts. I can only hope and pray they will always be this easy to satisfy.

I forgot to post a week or so ago that Justin can climb our entire flight of stairs now. Great! NOT!!

Austin latest conversation piece deals with heaven. He will tell you that when he dies he will go to heaven to see Jesus. When you reply in any way, he then tells you he doesn't want to go to heaven. Then starts the conversation of why he really DOES want to go t heaven ONLY when he dies and so on and so forth. It never seems like what comes out of my mouth was clear to him. But when you start to make it TO simple for him, the true meaning is lost. And so, we will continue to have these "over his head" conversations for as long as he is interested, and eventually, it won't be so over his head. I have already realized he understands and picks up much more than I think, or wish sometimes. But this would be a good thing to "pick up".

A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL OF OUR DEAR READERS (the 3 of you know who you are).

We're walking!!! Well, maybe....

Tonight Justin started standing behind a toy that you can push, and walking behind it. Daddy helped him a lot. Justin would begin by standing behind it and pushing it against the couch. Then daddy started moving it out to the middle of the room and Justin would take one or two steps and then drop to his knees and push it that way. But daddy persisted in picking him back up each time so that he would continue on his feet, and he would. After about ten tries he was able to push it the length of the laminate floor and carpet that daddy had decided was his course for the evening. What is so surprising to me is that I have been watching him closely as he pulls himself up onto everything...watching for any sign of shifting feet. And there has been very little. Until tonight.

Just some funny stuff.

This is an every day occurance. Justin empties out 1 cupboard of cereal and some other stuff, then moves on to the mixing bowl-filled cupboard to completely empty it out. This happens several times a day.













Do you recognize this Charlie Brown tree? Thanks to Mrs. Prince, we were able to enjoy this fun game, Decorate Your Dad Like A Christmas Tree, at Matt's family Christmas party this year. The kids have a blast, the dad's are very patient.

Another success!!

We call this Justin's 'hop & scoot' method of travel. THANK YOU GRANDPA GARY!!!

This was a test, and I think it worked!!!!!

This is a video of Justin & great grandpa Paul playing with blocks. It is pretty cute. Thank you Gary May for helping me through my computer illiteracy (for a minute).

Standing......

I was going to post that today Justin pulled himself up to a stand on the l.r. couch and in the basement on the gate. But when I was telling Matt all of this, he said that last night Justin pulled himself up to a stand using the coffee table to get Austin's drink cup, and later pulled himself to a stand using Austin's legs to get at Austin's cracker. So, Matt saw him do it first...good for daddy!

Bunches of stuff....

Lets start with Justin. The day after his 1st b-day he finally figured out how to go up the steps. Oh boy! Time to start closing the basement door or gating it. 1st pic is of him realizing he can get up the step. 2nd pic is of me thinking he is going to fall, so I bailed on the pic to save the boy. 3rd pic is of him happily sitting on the step before HE realizes he can't balance himself for very long.





Today, as he was crawling on all 4's across the floor, he would periodically straighten out his back legs in the air...a weird bear crawl if you will. And tonight he went to sleep on his belly for the 1st time. I was wondering how long it would last. He moves a lot, and we have a sheet and a heavy comforter on the bed that he regularly gets caught up in. It lasted 1/2 hr. When he started crying and I went in to check on him, he was out of all the covers and sideways on my pillow....and he doesn't sleep on a pillow.


Now, on to Austin. For the past week he has said "no diaper" at night. Scary, since he sleeps between Matt & I. Well, not only have there been no accidents, last night he woke up at 4am and crawled out of bed. I asked him if he had to go potty, and he said "no." However, he walked into the bathroom and asked for help. I quickly got up, helped, and praised him endlessly for being a big boy and getting up to go potty and not pot-tying the bed. I resumed the praise this morning when he/we woke up. I then got up to go to the bathroom, and Austin proceeded to tell me that he was proud of me too. If he only knew how proud of me I was for making it to the bathroom! :)

Back to Justin for a sec. A quick update on his vocabulary. When you sing him the song Ring Around the Rosie, as you get to the "ashes, ashes" part, he says it first. If he is nursing, he stops to be sure he gets to say it at the right time. Very funny! It sounds like he is saying "Austin." It sounds like "aw-sin." On his b-day it was pretty clear to me and most everyone else that he was trying to say "happy b-day." It sounded like "ha-bee."

He is 1 year old today, and he's only just beginning (Lord willing).

Tonight we had a great time celebrating Justin's 1st b-day. Altho I know he didn't really get it, he seemed to enjoy himself just fine. Austin was quite the big brother as he helped me open cards and gifts, each time saying "what is it?" before it was even opened. I made banana muffins instead of cakey cupcakes. That way the baby could gorge himself on something healthy, Matt will have a special treat to take in his lunch, and I was able to use up more of my abundance of ripening bananas. Justin was blessed w/many family members in attendance, and many many pieces of clothing. Of course there were a few toys that were much more interesting to him and Austin.

He's almost 1 year old!

Justin will be 1 on Monday. Where has the time gone? Into a clean house? Uh, no. Into teaching Austin chemistry, or maybe just how to identifiy the letters he sings so well in the ABC song? Uh, no. Into making sure I am nice and healthy for another baby (as the midwives demanded at Justin's 6 wk. check up)? Uh, no. Maybe into decorating the house more-better this year than last year? Uh, no. So, where DID it go? Well, other than into a minimum amount of cooking & cleaning & showers & laundry, it mostly went into hours and hours of enjoying my kids being LITTLE kids. These times and years won't last, and I want to suck up as much of them as I can before they are gone, like a fine mist of water that disappears before your eyes. I hope there will be time to clean more, cook more & better, and teach the kids (kinda important since I plan to homeschool). But for now, I am perfectly content to sit with my 2 beautiful boys and just watch, listen, laugh, and sometimes even learn.

Since I spent 3 weeks w/Austin on identifying the letter's A & B, he has had 3 more weeks to practice because we haven't gotten back to preschool. I hope to resume with him after the 1st of the year. His cousin Savannah plans to come over and learn too.

Justin was scooting/hopping on his behind before he learned to crawl. I assumed he would quit after the crawling started. Nope! He really enjoys bouncing himself around. It seems to work best on non-carpeted floors. He is a riot to watch. I would love to get a vidoe of him dong it.

This one was for you sis! We love you and we miss you and we pray for you and your family!!!!