On Saturday, Brenna was watching Caillou on PBS Sprout. Caillou and his Grandma made lemonade out of real lemons. Brenna asked if we could make juice like that. We didn't have any lemons, but we had a bunch of oranges. I drug out the juicer, dusted it off and we proceeded to make orange juice. Apparently for Brenna, the fun is in the making and not the drinking. Guess who got to drink the juice? Yep, Mommy. Oh well, at least I got a good serving of fruit that day to ward off cancer. Plus it reminded me of the wonderful juice my Gran used to squeeze for me when I was a child. She had orange trees in her backyard! I told Brenna this and she was unimpressed. Now, if I would have told her that Gran had a Nintendo DS, that would have impressed her. Nostalgia is wasted on 4-almost-5-year-olds.
On Sunday while shopping in the produce department, Brenna spied lemons. She excitedly asked if we could make lemonade like Caillou and his Grandma. I'm a good sport, so I said sure and we purchased a half dozen lemons. Back home, I drug out the juicer (no dust this time) and Brenna got all the juice out of those lemons. We didn't put any sugar in at first and you should have seen the puckered up look on her face. We finally got enough sugar and water in the mix to make it palatable, and again, the fun was in the squeezing not the drinking. Yay! Another fruit serving for Mommy.
Coincidentally, Monday's art project at school was a Lemonade stand. As you can see, it's pink. All lemonade stands should be pink I think! No, that's not her handwriting...I wish.
When I asked her what she learned about lemonade, she couldn't recall. When I asked her if she told her teacher, Holly, that we made lemonade on Sunday, she said, "No, I'll tell her tomorrow." Ah, the joys of short term memory in small children. But just you watch, 6 months from now she'll be saying, "Mommy, remember the time we made lemonade and then at school I made that thing?" I'll have to struggle to remember what "that thing" was, but eventually we'll be on the same page!
That night, Brenna asked if we could make juice from the grapefruits in the fridge. The answer was "no". When she asked why, I told her that she doesn't like grapefruits and I don't like grapefruit juice. And since I'm not going to the office everyday, I can't pawn it off on Pam who DOES like grapefruit juice!
April was "Under the Sea" month at Brenna's school. Here are a few of the art projects she brought home. It's okay if you start humming the song from the Little Mermaid. Come on, I know you want to.
The countdown to Disney World has begun! Today we made a countdown "chain" of Mickey ears (he didn't mind, really). Each day we'll take down one ear until it's time to go to Florida. I'm going to sneakily make it a learning experience. Each ear has the day of the week and the number of days written on it. As she takes it down, we'll talk about the words and numbers. We just went to Kindergarten orientation on Friday, so we're going to have to kick up the learning of letters and numbers a notch to be ready for September 3rd!
Brenna and Austin had yet another bonding moment the other morning underneath the arches of the playmat. I was up in the kitchen and heard laughter coming from the family room. When I peeked around the corner, I found them enjoying the music and lights from the star attached to the top of the arches giggling like they were sharing a super fun secret. The photo should be rotated counterclockwise, but the computer has a mind of its own. Ah technology, my bane and blessing. So just tilt your head to the right and it will all make sense!
Brenna is a devoted little mother. No, that's not Austin all swaddled up, but it is his blanket. Brenna loves to wrap her "baby" up in the Mickey blanket. She also like to put the triangle hood part on her head and run around the house like a super-hero. Ya know, it's hard deciding who you want to be, but who am I to say she can't be both! As she rocked her baby back and forth in front of the TV ala Mommy and Daddy, she kept saying things like, "Ugh, this baby just won't go to sleep" and "Oh, this is so hard. My back is killing me." I don't know where she gets these ideas. Next thing she'll be asking to use the Baby Bjorn and saying she'd like a gift card to Massage Envy for Mother's Day! ;)
Nine and a half weeks has brought us more sleep! Austin has consistently slept for 5-7 hours each night for about a week now. Brent still has the magic touch when putting him to bed at night, but I managed to get him down last night without any fuss. This is a good thing as Brent is traveling to the Phoenix auction for a couple of days. To say that I'm nervous about managing two kids by myself is an understatement. I guess it will just make us appreciate him even more when he gets back. He's such a lucky guy...Phoenix has a Whataburger restaurant. For those of you who don't know what a Whataburger is, it's only the best hamburger out there (fast food wise) and one of the things we miss most about Texas besides family.
Okay, back to Austin. He's smiling a lot and actually let out a spontaneous laugh the other day. He just looked at Brent and busted out laughing. Must have been a joke between the two of them, because I didn't witness anything funny. We are trying to capture these moments on video, but sometimes he's camera shy. Below is a video showing his grin. Brent's family does this tickle game and Austin loves it. The words are fardbinder, eye-winker, tom-tinker, nose-smeller, mouth-eater, chin-chopper, gully, gully, gully. You'll understand it better when you watch the video.
Austin is getting better about holding up his head. He's not as floppy when I hold him up on my shoulder and can keep his head up when you lift him from a lying position by his hands. He can also hold his head up for a good amount of time while he's on his tummy.
We went for his 2 month well-check last week and he weighs over 12 pounds and is 23 inches long. People who hadn't seen him in a few weeks no longer say "he's so tiny". I guess he's getting enough to eat!
Hey, where's the milk?
We were surprised one night this week when he fell asleep on his own in his crib to the lullaby of the mobile. Mommy put him down to help Brenna with something and when she went to check on him, he was sound asleep. Miraculous! Will it become habit? Who knows?
He has discovered his fingers and can regularly be heard smacking on his fist. He can't quite get it in his mouth nor can he single out a thumb or finger to suck on, so he mostly ends up with drippy hands and a drooly chin. But hey, if it makes him happy, who are we to judge?
Austin has found much solace in the his swing this past week. He takes at least one good nap in the swing much to Mommy's delight. The picture below was supposed to show his slumber in the swing, but as soon as the motion stopped, he woke up. Instead we'll call it "portrait of a poopy face"!
One thing Mommy learned this week is if the baby is sleeping, don't move him. Forget about trying to get him to sleep in his crib during the day and leave it to the professionals at daycare in May. Napping in the bouncy seat? Let him sleep. Napping in the swing? Let him sleep! For goodness sake, let him sleep!
When I asked her what she learned about lemonade, she couldn't recall. When I asked her if she told her teacher, Holly, that we made lemonade on Sunday, she said, "No, I'll tell her tomorrow." Ah, the joys of short term memory in small children. But just you watch, 6 months from now she'll be saying, "Mommy, remember the time we made lemonade and then at school I made that thing?" I'll have to struggle to remember what "that thing" was, but eventually we'll be on the same page!
