Water Works

Now that Austin's a little bit older it is so much fun to see him interact and play in the pool. It's amazing because this time last year he was in the pool ONCE but this year he's been in and has slowly warmed up to it!! It's funny because about a month ago he freaked at being in the kiddie pool, but loves being in the "big boy" pool - - go figure!!!

Here are some pics of recent swimming-time fun.

Here's also a video a friend took of Austin going underwater. It was funny because I've been working with him to walk towards me, either on the edge or on a step, lean and and I'll catch him - all before getting his face wet since I didn't think he'd tolerate it well. . . . and quite frankly, I didn't want him to be freaked out of being in the pool!! Well today, we were doing that just fine: walk towards momma, lean in, momma catches, repeat till he gets bored of it. Well he got bored so I sat him back to splash in the 5in. shallow step. Everything was going great until I got distracted for a split second. I turned my head to say something then heard a splash! Apparently Austin didn't want to wait on momma to jump, he jumped in and when I turned my head he was underwater!! Naturally, I freaked out!!! I pulled him up and he was acting like it was no big deal - whatev. Once my heart calmed, I continued to dunk him to see how he'd react - he did amazingly well. He's finally grown into being that swim baby that his family thought he'd be. I was SO SO proud of him. He was a rockstar today :-)

Sandbox Zoo Meetup

Back in July 2007 when I found out I was expecting a friend of mine recommended that I join the What To Expect website. On that site there are loads of helpful information as well as message boards for all the questions, fears, and just listening to us complain about the normal pregnancy aliments. Mainly it's just to share your pregnancy experience with others who are due the same month as you. So I joined and became part of the "WTE: FEB 08" group. In doing that, I have gotten to know MANY women and after talking to some select few for months and months through our pregnancy experience, we formed our own webpage titled: SandBox Babies. Since then I have come to know so much about these amazing women who have bascially became mothers the same time I did. We would share everything together (and I mean everything from the mundane to the TMI - too much information) in the past 23 months. Since our little ones births we have seen them go from being newborn"blobs" to being personality filled toddlers.

Some live near each other and others live states away from their nearest "Sandbox Momma" but if it's possible, we have tried to meet up with each other. I had that opprotunity last year when I met up with Melissa and Maya before they left to move to Germany. This time I had the opportunity to meet up with "Fancy" & her son, Jackson, who are also from Texas as well as Mary & her daughter, Aria (Plus her hubby Dave came along!). We went to the Fort Worth Zoo and here are the photos of our day together:

Mary & Aria (13 mo), Me & Austin (15 mo), Fancy & Jackson (15 mo)

Austin and Jackson warming up to each other:

I gave the boys fig newtons for a snack. Austin loves them but Jackson obviously didn't seem to care for them so he gave it to Austin. So sweet!

"Hey friend, guess what!?!"

"You gotta check that out! It's SO cool!"

The 2 boys found a cute elephant statue. Monkey boy (aka Jackson) wanted to climb it of course while Austin watched, then tried to escape!

They loved looking at various zoo animals and were especially fascinated by the giraffes!

When we went to the "Birds of Paradise" exibit where you can feed the birds, we let our little wild animals run free. It was enclosed so they couldn't escape and they loved it!!

We also rode the zoo train which was a new experience for both Austin & Aria. Jackson was the experienced one of the bunch.

And this picture was the funniest one of the bunch. Miss Aria is scooping out the place while the boys are fast asleep.

Overall it was an awesome day meeting up with friends that I know so much about yet haven't officially met in person. It was such a blast to get together with these ladies (& Dave, Mary's hubby). We are hoping for more meetups in the future.

New things!

I wanted to post a few new things that Austin has found out he can do. Of course that means MORE PICTURES :-)

*He can now walk: forward, backwards, sideways & in a circle. (Of course he can, all that boy does is WALK & nothin' else)


*He is getting better at trying to snap his fingers. His snapping is just silent (haha)


*He will point to a fan, any fan whether it's at Wally World, our home, etc, and blow attempting to make it a) turn on OR b) go faster. Too cute!


*He can now slide down the slide without any assistance. He only needs help being caught at the end


*Loves piggy back rides. If you are lying on the floor, he'll climb onto your back and insist that you get up and get a move on!


*Loves shutting doors, drawers, and cabniets.


*Getting better and better at brushing all of his 14 toofers! Yes, I said 14!!!


*He can now say: Dada, Momma, ba ba (Ball), Bye Bye, Do do (dog dog), Awww Dooo ("All done"), Vroom Vroom, Hi, Jessss ("Yes"). Of course if you ask the grandparents, he can say SO much more.


*He still is a great reader. Loves being read to and reading all of his books. He has quite the collection. (He owns at least 40 books) His favorites are: SO BIG (Elmo Book) & FIVE SHINY STARS


*He's found (& has taken a liking to) his man-part. The men will get a kick out of this picture. Even in the bathtub he'll bend over and "talk" to it LOL!!

*He can now bite off of a nectarine or a peach, which is so nice because we don't have to cut it up. He'll actually eat more of it this way go figure!

Cousins!!

It's SO awesome for Austin to have a cousin that is nearby that he gets to see frequently. It's icing on the cake that Trista is only 2 months older!! Here are a few pictures of a playdate they had recently at my parents house:

Austin (15 months), Trista (17 months) & Poppa (Many Many Months haha!)

Coloring together - So sweet until someone has the color you want. You can only guess who won that battle. . .She's older, bigger and meaner (kidding!) :-)

There will be more to come!

Summertime Fun

A dear friend of mine and her 2 year old daughter, Sophia, met up with Austin and I at one of the nice parks nearby. The two kids are a hoot together. Their interactions are priceless! Sophia calls him "Au-din" and is such a fun, goofy sweetheart and Austin just watches her in fascination! She's a firecraker! :-) It's so much fun to watch the energy that she exudes!


Here are some of the pictures Keisha took. (gasp! my camera was at home!)

Breast Cancer 3Day

Update on my progress I've made:

Total amount fundraised: $1631.50. . . . . so must raise $668.50.

**I'm so estatic about how much I've raised for this amazing foundation and all with the support of my family and friends. You all are rock stars!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**



Total Mileage: 114 miles thus far

**I have so many more hours to train and miles to complete, but I will get there. Thank you to everyone who's supported me in the journey! It's been so much fun and I can't wait for November 6th to get here! Is it weird to actually look forward to sleeping in a camp of thousands of pink tents all in the sole purpse of finding a cure for Breast Cancer? I don't think so :-) **



Below are two pictures of my mom and I (with Austin in tow of course) on our most recent training walk (it was SO hot!):