Translation:
“Dear Santa
I want a tractor.
Austin”
For a three-year old? I’m impressed. (it is traced – but still…)
Rumor has it he may get just that. If he is good.
He came home from preschool with this letter:
I smell peer pressure. I’ve never heard Austin mention a transformer…not once. He is spot on with his daddy wanting a truck…but the sled and boat? No idea. At least it is a big, big sled. A small sled would be pathetic.
We got our tree on Thanksgiving. I’m posting about it today. Yep, right about on track!
Picking a tree elicits a range of emotions:
I nearly dropped Wes attempting to get a shot of me+boys+tree. Those two are so darn heavy! No wonder I have no need for shoulder pads.
Austin wanted to take a photo of Wes+Lyndo+I. If only he could hold still for the 1/78 of a second it takes for the camera to take the photo…he has decent aim!
Keeping Austin away from the saw is nearly impossible:
And, unfortunately for Lyndon, the boys aren’t much help carrying the tree to the car. Come to mention it, neither am I – gotta love camera duty!
A tip to the wise – keep your tree baled until you get it all set up in the house. We had to vacuum up exactly six needles!
The boys totally look like they are kneeling to the tree gods.
The final product? I have no photo as of yet. And any photo would be unimpressive, since I decorated the tree is approximately 20 minutes total, done with an ankle-biters hanging off each leg. All ornaments are placed 5 foot or higher off the ground. It is all sorts of weird. But it brings me so.much.joy. I wish it was OK to have a tree set up year round!
Austin was home sick on Tuesday. He missed his “Holiday Party” at school (he goes to a very PC school), home with a fever. I took pity on him and let him laze around and watch tv to his heart’s content. What good is being sick if you don’t get to watch curious george 2 at least 4 times?
So, when he woke up perfectly healthy on Wednesday, it came as a bit of a shock to him that he no longer had free reign on the TV.
Austin: “Mama, can I watch curious George?”
Me: “No – we’re having a TV free, family evening.”
Austin: “But I WANT TO WATCH CURIOUS GEORGE!”
Me: “Sorry, play with your toys instead. Lets build a fort!”
Austin: “But I should get to watch Curious George because I’m cute.”
Where does he get this stuff?
Apparently not cute enough, buddy. No Curious George was watched. Score one for Mama.
Now….how do I go about gracefully asking the school back for the book we submitted for the book exchange at the Holiday Party?…or at least where Austin’s portion of the “exchange” landed?
I think my children would be excellent actors on a sitcom, or even a reality show, designed to promote abstinence. Or at least safe sex.
I’m not trying to be dramatic here. Every last ounce of drama available to this household is soaked up by those possessing both the “X” and the “Y” chromosomes.
Case in point #1: yesterday morning, I needed to get back in bed for 10 minutes. Just 10 more minutes! I had already fed both boys pancakes – made from scratch – dressed them both, watched Curious George 2 with Austin, and cleaned up the kitchen from breakfast #1. It was 7:30 a.m. And I was just the teensiest bit hungover from girls night out with friend.
I crawled back into bed with Lyndon (who had been snoozing this entire time – lucky!) and begged the boys to play on the floor in our room, or just stay out of trouble, while mama rested her head for 10 little minutes. I mumbled for Lyndon to keep an eye on them – his side of the bed faces out the door – and rested my eyes. For about 2 minutes. At which time I was poked in the side by a completely naked Austin, looking like a scene from Lord of the Flies.
He was covered from head to naked toe in lipstick. And so was our carpet.
(which begs the question-Rash or Rouge? Teehee…)
Case in Point #2: Wesley is getting more and more words every day. His latest? “Uh-Oh.” Which I do believe is becoming a self-fulfilling prophesy.
Now, every moment is recognized as a chance to say his new word in context. Eating? Drop your food on the ground – “Uh-Oh!”
Drinking? Throw your sippy violently so that milk has to flies out everywhere- “Uh-Oh!”
Playing with Play-Dough? Stick it up your nose and in your ears and most definitely in your hair….you get the picture.
Case in Point #3: We took the boys to the indoor water park yesterday. It was really just an expensive attempt to make the boys really, really tired in hopes to get a bit of extra sleep on a Sunday morning.
You know the standard “lazy” river? Yeah. Not! Austin can now touch in the river, so we spent at least an hour RUNNING around, and around, and around…lazy river my ass!
But I thought it would make for good sleep, right?
Well, instead of rising at 6 a.m., he slept till 6:26. Money well spent? You decide.
Case in Point #4: I’ve had to write this entire post on a laptop without a reasonably functioning “a,” “j,” or “y” key, or SPACEBAR. Every time I’ve needed one of the aforementioned keys, I have to pound like hell and try not to dislodge the battery. Which has already happened twice. Can you guess who goofed up the keyboard? I’ll give you a clue. “Uh-Oh!”
I wish tonight was more of the wine and cheese sort, instead of the former.
That is all.
I’ve been scrolling through past posts lately to try to get a picture of what Austin was like when he was at Wesley’s age. It was just about the time I started this blog, and, despite the best of intentions in using this as my own version of a scrapbook, I’m not finding what I’m looking for. No clear picture of Austin’s antics at the time. Bummer.
The boys are a trip right now – and both changing so rapidly. So here they are, right now:
Wesley is finally talking. Finally. Suddenly, in the past week, he has a teeny tiny vocabulary – “Moma” and “Daddy” (said with perfect diction, I might add), “Dah” for “duck,” “Bawl” for “Ball,” “kee-cue” for “thank you,” “Hi!” complete with the perfect little hand wiggle, “ni-nigh” for “night-night,” and “ aw-see” for “Austin.” He also confidently – and constantly – names his favorite body parts – eye, ear, and nose, with the occasional attempt at teeth.
It is such a relief to finally have some communication from him, besides his usual “uuuuh….” with an outstretched arm. Not that the “uuuuhhh” doesn’t happen the majority of the time…but at least it is occasionally interrupted by an occasional “Moma? Ball!”
While the speech has been slow to come around, he is doing really well with his little puzzles and blocks. He can make quite the tower, if I do say so myself…and his is an expert at his little Melissa and Doug shape puzzles.
He is also a little peek-a-boo master, one heck of a climber, and quite the little dancer – when we wants to be.
He has also picked up on his brother’s habit of dragging a chair into the kitchen during dinner prep, attempting to “help.” He is loving imitation these days, from vacuuming to chopping veggies. If only he was slightly more developed in his fine motor skills…
I am loving the chance to watch his little personality develop. He is more and more fun each day!
He and Austin are starting to start to play together a little bit. Wesley will be my helper when it is time to find Austin in a game of hide & seek – not too hard, as Austin can’t stop giggling when it is his turn to hide.
Aah, hide and seek. We can’t escape it these days. Austin wants to play constantly, when he isn’t asking to make a paper airplane, attempting to glue something, or…pretending check his email. He has no clue what that means, but he loves to sit up at the desk and type away on the keyboard that isn’t connected to anything.
He continues to say the funniest things – his is such a little man. Phrases like “I don’t prefer that” and “Actually, lets try this…” are not uncommon, and every day he amazes me with a new version of a grown-up phrase tumbling out of his toddler mouth.
He is too much fun right now. Fascinated by Christmas lights, completely enthralled with Santa (I hear him singing “he sees you when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake, he knows when you’ve been bad or good so be good good good good…”), and he is constantly, shamelessly, singing his little “there’s a bathroom on the right” versions of songs. Shamelessly.
He is still a cuddle bug – much more so than his brother. His first words in the morning are “can I have my warm milk and then snuggle in and watch a show?” He still starts every morning, and ends the evenings, with a sippy of warm milk. And I love it – the smallest hangover from his baby days.
If only he hadn’t moved on to the TV addiction stage. He asks – all too frequently for my liking – to watch a show, and it drives me nuts. There really isn’t that much TV in his life (we only have netflix and DVDs, so the TV is never passively on), and sometimes it is necessary for all of us to have him chill for a bit with Bob or Thomas. But with Austin, one (of anything – not just a show!) is never enough. And although this drives me nuts about him, I also know it will serve him well in the future – Persistence! Perseverance! Determination! Ironically, these keys to a successful future also play heavily in the toddler designation as “annoying.”
He is such a people person, remembering names of folks he has only met once, and completely comfortable introducing himself to them and then asking them to play hide and seek with him. Then, weeks later, he’ll ask me about “Sarah who was at Great Grannas and played with me” and I will have to think (HARD) about who he is talking about. A persistent, determined little salesman.
These two are a blast right now. An exhausting blast.
Thank you for enduring my time capsule – Austin 3 years 4 months, and Wesley 19 months. To be opened again next December 
