Sunday, May 25, 2008

Where have you been Mr. Austin?

Okay, so it has been 2 months and two birthdays since our last blog. Needless to say we have been a little busy planning for our new addition ( who will be here June19th), working, finishing the nueropsych class from HELL and of course trying to keep up with a two year old. Still, that is no excuse for our lack of responsibility as parenting bloggers. Here are a few catch up photos... Austin was actually getting dirty in the backyard. He is picking up some of his Dad's habits with regards to cleanliness so getting little boy dirty isn't high on his priority list. Just yesterday he was cleaning his bike with a wet rag. I may never get out of this house alive if the next one is this tidy.
Austin has been doing great in his "big boy" bed. We have only had 2 middle of the night "fallouts" and both times he got right back in bed and went to sleep.

This hat is our wardrobe must-have every morning. During the winter we struggled to match things to his orange beenie, now we have a summer hat to contend with, and don't even think about accidentally forgetting it at day care.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

32 years come and gone...

Okay, so being 34 weeks pregnant and celebrating your 32nd birthday is not exactly glamorous. Adrian bugged me and bugged me, "what do you want to do for you b-day" and in my most irritable and overly pregnant tone I responded, " I just want to chill, I don't want to do anything!" Well, thank goodness for Adrian's persistance because we ended up going to the cabin in Bass Lake on a weekend where the Central Valley was breaking heat records.

Thanks Adrian:-)
This is Austin prior to his potentially brain damaging fall on the agregate surface. (did I mention the Nueropsych class from HELL that taught me all about Truamatic Brain Injuries? If I wasn't a freak enough before I sure am now)
This is Austin's cousing Paiton (10 months) enjoying a little lake time
This is Paiton's wild side.
Dad and his boy getting their feet wet.


And of course, what is the reason you take vacations? To indulge in sweet treats like missle pops.

Thursday, May 01, 2008

Two years has come and gone

We had a small back yard barbeque for Austin's 2nd birthday. Pappa J came to the rescue once again keeping our guests happy with a little bit of red meat 'qued up properly. And contrary to what Adrian would like to think it was a coincidence that only girls were invited to Austin's party. Austin and Xochitl dining on the some gourmet hotdogs. Xochitl has a little sister coming in June also.
The Strickland ladies joined us for our bash too.

Okay, these next photos you have to look at in order. This is Papa J doing some facial strength trainig with Austing. I guess this will come in handy if he decides to pursue a career in boxing...
And of course, what good cookie monster mom wouldn't order an appropriate cake.

Monday, March 24, 2008

What didn't we see for Spring Break???

Well, the fun started with an early morning drive to San Diego. First Stop... The Famous San Diego Zoo. That place is huge, I don't think we made it through 10% of the entire zoo in 3 hours (which is an eternity in Toddler Talk)
Then, after our nap (yes, that is plural for a reason), we stopped at the Firehouse Museum in Little Italy. This is highly recommended for inexpensive entertainment for the little Fire Truck lover in your life!! We literally had to drag Austin out kicking and screaming. From there we walked down to the SD Harbor and checked out the boats. We don't have pictures, I think he was still mourning the loss of the fire trucks.

The next day we started early again and we went to the park in Little Italy and of course, what is a trip to SD with out venturing to Horton Plaza. I feel like we should have bought Austin one of those T-shirts that says, "My parents drug me to San Diego and all I got was 4,000 snapshots of me and this stupid shirt from the mall."
After all the fun in SD we didn't think we had driven enough so we loaded the family up and drove to Brawley to see Grandma and Grandpa J. They were putting on a horse show so we went by there so we could check out all of the horses and cows. I am telling you, if it weren't for the price of gas this would have been a pretty cheap trip... you gotta love easily entertained toddlers.
I don't know what is up with the tongue thing... I think he had been watching the holsteins a little too long. With the next day being Easter we had to break Austin in to the idea of searching for eggs. He wasn't too jazzed until he realized that these were special eggs that had fresh strawberries in them. (Makes you wonder what they feed those hens in Brawley, they must be drinking that New River water...)




Here is the Fam' Easter morning, no I am not hiding the super egg in my shirt, that is Morgan bursting at the seems already:-) And that shaded character in the back is Tio PBJ incognito.Austin found this little hill in my parents backyard and he thought it was hilarious to stand up there and shout and grunt like his Tio had taught him. Aren't they precious when they are in this little sponge phase!!

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Camera Shy, but still photogenic

Well, here she is for her pictorial/Blog debut; Morgan Cienna Garcia. She was very camera shy and fought to keep her arms and hands over her face during the "photo shoot" but we were able to sneek a few shots in. She should be here sometime between the 19th and 26th of June.


Monday, March 17, 2008

Cookin' with Pappa "J"

To continue his fascination with cooking Austin has decided to take his cullinary education to the barbeque, and what better coach than Pappa J? Pappa J walked Austin through every step of seasoning a good New York all the way to barbequing it just right, not too rare but not well done. Keep learning little sponge!!!

Big Brotherhood, Here we come!!!

In anticipation of our little sister coming in June Austin decided it was time to upgrade from crib to official big boy bed. This is him trying out the "goods". By the time we set the crib up in the other room it will be so covered in pink that he won't even recognize his old digs.
You will notice the posse of Cookie Monsters is growing...


Monday, March 10, 2008

Look mom, no hands!!

Austin is working on perfecting his spoon skills lately. We are not exactly going to go out and order tomato soup, but he is doing pretty darn good if I do say so myself. Plus, the dogs think it's great that we are pushing his motor skill development, they think we should have started sooner:-)





Sunday, March 09, 2008

SHNACKS?

One of Austin's favorite words is, "SHNACKS". If you open the cupboard where his snacks are be aware for the SNACK SHARK. The funniest thing is I think that he thinks we don't hear him sometimes so he gets really close to us, even face to face if you are sitting down, and he will repeat SHNACKS? SHNACKS? Over and over again. Adrian proclaims that he has gone on like that for an hour, I have yet to see that much persistence.

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

What has Mr. Austin been up to these days?

Another day at the office. Every morning we have to have our 2 cookie monsters and sometimes Chongo too before we head off to day care.
Austin's cousin is 7 months and about the happiest baby on the block!!! Meredith asked when Austin gets to ride the motorcycles...well this is it!!! No motorcycles in the future for him, I have been learning way too much about Traumatic Brain Injuries to let that happened.
Maybe he will be the next Food Network star instead of Indian Larry.
Wanna ride?
Here he is posing as a little Don King. You can tell Dad is not the one who has to clean the soap scum off the tub...Mom doesn't do bubble baths, and I think Adrian is trying to make me out to be the "boring" parent already.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Outside Time...


Raumi and Shortee enjoying a little front yard time... This is Austin's best impression of begging to stay up just a little bit later at the cabin. Needless to say it didn't work!
Grammy and Grandpa Mike came by after cruzin' around town. Austin LOVES the motorcycles.
This year he is finally big enough to play on his big boy swing set.


A change in the weather this weekend brought shorts and tee-shirts during the day. It has been great to get a break in the weather.