Spring is coming!

Well, it is finally starting to look like spring is coming! The sun has been out, the snow is melting, and we're staring to see temperatures in the 40s and even 50s. The other day, it was 51 degrees when I got home and our neighborhood kids were out playing, so we took Austin outside to play with the kids. He had lots of fun running around, trying out Sam's tricycle, and trying to run into the road. At one point, he was running along the sidewalk and stepped off the edge into a big mud puddle. He tripped and fell full out into the mud puddle and since he was partly on the sidewalk at an angle, he rolled sideways and ended up laying in the puddle. So he was soaked and muddy from head to toe, front and back. I snatched him up out of the cold puddle and he started bawling, so we scooped him up, headed home, stripped him in the foyer, threw his clothes in the washer and him in the bathtub. He loves his baths, so he was perfectly happy to have some extra playtime in the bath!

We've otherwise been having a pretty good March! I'm on an outpatient rotation, so I work more normal workweek hours with weekends and evenings off and no on-call overnights. However, I am the backup on call person, so when my colleague's wife had a baby and he took his whopping 2 days of paternity leave, I had to cover his 30 hr call in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit). I almost got called in again today (Saturday) when another colleague got sick, but she apparently got better and was able to go in to work today.

Anyway, things are going well for the boys in the family too. Steve's been doing some work from home for his accounting firm here in Rochester, and that has been working out well for all involved. Austin has been keeping us busy! He manages to get into things we didn't think he could get into. For example, we have cabinet locks on the cupboards under the sink that contain our recycling, our garbage bags, and our kitchen cleaning supplies. The door opens a little bit and then you push down on the lock to get it to unlatch. Well, apparently the little bit that the door opens is enough for Austin to get his arm in and pull out a bottle of cleaning solution! Luckily, it was the all natural veggie and fruit wash stuff, and he abandoned the bottle on the floor as soon as he pulled it out. He also is now tall enough to reach the kitchen counter tops and the kitchen table, so we have to be careful what we put near the edges. He does have his own cupboard in the kitchen that contains baking supplies, measuring cups, sprinkles, straws, an ice bucket, etc. that he enjoys emptying onto the kitchen floor multiple times a day. What a cutie! He also has learned some new words, including "cup", "love you", "please", "bye" and something resembling "cracker" which he says for his graham crackers at snack time. He can also point to pictures in books if you ask him where something is...like "where's the puppy?" or "where's the banana?" He smiles really big and is quite pleased with himself when I praise him for doing it.

We're gearing up to travel to Texas next week to visit Steve's family! It should be a very fun trip, but I am a bit worried about how well he'll do on the plane and how he'll react to the dogs. He is sooooo active now that it is difficult to contain him for more than 2 minutes, so 2.5 hours on the plan should be interesting. However, in the past 2 weeks, he's really shown a lot more interest in books and will bring me a book he wants to read and then plop down in my lap and sit quietly while we read it together. We're hoping that this interest in his books will save us on the plan ride and we plan on bringing a big carry on bag full of books! The other worry is the dogs. Last time we visited the Cronks, Austin was about 6 months old and was curious about the dogs, but they didn't really seem to bother him at all. However, now whenever a dog gets anywhere near him, he starts crying and trying to climb up me to get away from the dog. He went crazy when one of our friends' wiener dogs licked his leg! It could be interesting to see how he reacts to the 4 dogs at the Cronk house, one of which is a brand new Dalmation puppy! Maybe being around them for a few days is just what he needs to make him not so scared of dogs. We'll see...

Jon Byrer came to visit today and he and Steve are currently reliving their childhood days of playing video games until their fingers fall off. They even conferenced a game with Joey and Kurt in Tennessee.

Ann came to visit today, too! What a treat! I miss seeing friends when life is so busy. She has a little baby belly now and it is so cute! I got to send her home with lots of maternity clothes, so now I don't have to find a place to put them. I'm so excited to meet her little bundle of joy in September!

On a similar theme, welcome to the world baby Henry Collura and baby Kylie Poling! Katie's baby and the Kits' Baby XY are both due in about 7 weeks and Baby Schahl will hit 30 weeks soon! How exciting!

Not too many pictures to share this month because Austin pulled my mom's camera down off the end table and broke the lens, so we have been using our nice little digital camera, which is not nearly as nice as my mom's super duper nice camera. We should get the lens back from the repair shop on Tuesday, so there will be more pictures to follow (though we'll still bring our little one on the trip to Texas).

Here are a few pics for now...

Playing peek-a-boo with his giant Pooh Bear!

 

Hangin' out with Pooh.

Austin with the remote control. We don't let him watch TV, but he still thinks it's hilarious when he gets the remote away from us and pushes a whole bunch of buttons.

 

Discovering shadows as he plays with swatches of light and shadow from the blinds in front of the sliding glass door.

Carrying around the camera bags. He likes to find bags (camera bags, my bag for work, his diaper bag, duffel bags, etc) and carry them around the house.

Hmm...a very long post this time. Can you tell I have a bit more time this month? Not that there aren't plenty of things on the to do list that I put off to do this. Oh well. Have a great week! I'll put up an update when we return from our adventure in Texas!

1 comment:

Flakymn said...

Thank you for the shout out Lisa! We are very excited! :)