3 Months Old

This past week, Austin turned 3 months old. It's hard to believe it's been three whole months since he joined our family. He is holding up his head with great reliability enough for me to try out the Bumbo seat today. He really enjoyed "sitting up", but I didn't let him stay in it too long for fear he'd get worn out.



Is is just me or does Brenna look so much older in this pic?

As you can see, Brenna has not yet tired of him. She loves him and wants to hold him and be in his space even though he has taken away much of the attention she used to get. I wish I could do justice to how she describes her personal space and Austin's personal space. The hand movements really tell the story. It basically boils down to her space is vast and limitless, and his is tiny and encroach able. Just you wait Miss Brenna until he is mobile and thinks his space is vast and limitless!

Last week also marked the end of my maternity leave and the beginning of Austin's days at "school". He is attending the same day care as Brenna, and she loves having him there with her. Brenna's teacher, Holly, is wonderful, and they went down to his room and checked on him every day. His first day was pretty rough, but the rest of the week went well and he has been classified as a easy going, happy baby. Whew!

I have to agree with Austin's teachers. He is a pretty easy going little fellow. The only time he really raises the roof is when he's hungry, tired or needs a new diaper. The rest of the time he likes to hang out in his bouncy seat (or where ever I happen to put him) and gum his fingers or bib if it happens to be in between his hands and mouth. He loves to watch Brenna and try to figure out what that crazy girl is up to. He is quick to smile or laugh. He is certainly an awesome addition to our family, and I wouldn't trade him for anything...not even more sleep! Yeah, the sleeping all night long streak ended over the weekend. Sigh.

The weather this weekend was amazing. Here are a few pictures I took in our front yard while Brenna rode her bike and scooter and "gardened". Now if I could only get her to really pull weeds instead of moving mulch around.

Turning Five & Disney's Animal Kingdom

This is a post I started while we were at Disney World. I guess we got busy and I never got around to finishing it. Ah, the best intentions...

Monday, May 4th was Brenna's 5th Birthday. The day started out with the tickle monster (aka Daddy), Mommy, Austin, Grammie and Grandpa singing "Happy Birthday" to her in bed. After getting dressed, we packed up all the required stuff and headed off to Animal Kingdom.

Our first stop was the Safari Adventure. Brenna was still pretty tired from all the fun at Magic Kingdom the day before, and while waiting in line for our turn, she kept saying "I don't like animals". Brenna is an adrenaline junkie and only wanted to go on rides, but not ones that go in the dark. Once we finally got in the Safari Jeep and got moving, she changed her tune altogether. She really enjoyed seeing all the animals up close to the Jeep and the bumpy wet "road" through the jungle and "Savannah". Click here for a few that we saw on our trek.

Next, it was on to the rides. She rode Expedition Everest, a roller coaster with a pretty significant drop and high speeds, and loved it. If we hadn't needed to go back to the condo to rest up for the evening's festivities, she would have ridden it over and over. After we got back home to Utah, she said that was her favorite part about Disney World. If you look closely at the bottom of the picture below, you can see her holding on for dear life as the roller coaster plummets to the bottom of the steepest drop.

Brent is in the lime green shirt with his hands up and Brenna is next to him.

The final bit of festivities was dinner at Chef Mickey's in the Contemporary Resort. Five different Disney characters visited our table at least once to wish Brenna and her cousin, Kassadie, Happy Birthday. Both girls loved the attention and partied like rock stars until 10:00 p.m. all amped up on sugar and adrenaline.




The most memorable thing besides the attention from the characters was the candle blow out. Brenna took some extra time making her wish, and Kassadie blew out the candles without her. As you can see from the photo below, she was really concentrating hard on that wish. Needless to say when she opened her eyes and saw the candles were out, she was pretty sad. We had the waiter light them again, and Brenna got her shot at candle extinguishing.




Well, I hope this whets your appetite for Disney pictures. Between Brent and I we captured over 500 photos, and we expect you to wade through them all! Ha! As if I had time to upload 500+ photos. I will be posting more in the days ahead, so be sure to check back.

A Pink Boppy, Really Mom?

Hmmm, I'm not sure pink is my color Mommy

I am trying to teach Austin early that pink is NOT just for girls. I'm not sure if Brent will be on board with this plan. Grammie (aka Polly's Mom) brought this Boppy pillow to Florida, so we could avoid checking yet another bag of baby stuff. Color becomes the least of your worries when you have to pay $25 a bag! Hopefully it won't scar him for life.

Something about Life, Lemons and Lemonade

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!

Under the Sea

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.

Countdown to Mickey!

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!

Bonding Moment

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!