Is it spring yet?

We've been keeping very busy lately.  Work has been busy for both Steve and I and the kiddos are getting stir crazy being inside with the winter weather.  With the warmer temps over the past couple days, we're hoping spring is on the way soon! 

I forgot to add previously...Sarah had her 1 year old checkup with Dr. Judy a couple weeks ago.  She was definitely more clingy and nervous about this visit than she has been previously, but that is normal for her age.  Her measurements were just as expected...still high up on the growth curve.  Her height was 31.9 inches (99th percentile), which is the average height for a child at about 19 months old!  Her weight was 24 lbs 8 ounces (91st percentile), and her head circumference was 18.9 inches (98th percentile).  That's my growing girl! 

Some updates and fun photos...

 Sarah showing off her new shades.

 And showing she's ready to play some football.

We got Austin out to sled last weekend when the temps finally got well above zero.  He had a blast. Sarah wanted nothing to do with it. 

Nanny giving Austin a ride.

The snow is still too deep to get the sled to slide down the hill well, but I sat on the sled and scooted down bit by bit to make a trough for the sled to go down and it worked pretty well for Austin after that.

 Full of smiles!

 Sarah showing off some of her new outfits she got for her birthday.

This cute one from Kevin and Keng.

And this one from Michelle and Brian.

 We also got to take Austin to a show at the Stages Theatre Company in Hopkins.  It was "If You Give a Moose a Muffin."  Austin loves that book (and all the similar stories, including the original "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie"), so we thought it might be a fun first live theater experience for him.  He loved it!  Here are Daddy and Austin posing with the Moose cut out at the theater.

On to Valentine's Day...

Sarah "reading" her Valentine from Gramma and PopPop.

 And Austin pretty excited about his too!

I also had a reunion with the Laurel Drive crew.  These 3 ladies and I lived all in a row on Laurel Drive 15 or so years ago.  I haven't seen them all since we moved from Eden Prairie to Bloomington when I was about 14 years old.  We reconnected on facebook and managed to coordinate our schedules to get together for lunch at my house.  How fun!

Left to right: me, Carolyn, Anne, and Jenny.

Now with the kiddos too.  Anne has an 8 month old cutie.

 Story time!

Sarah loves reading books, just like her big brother.  She now pulls a book she wants out of her bookcase and brings it to me, then climbs up on my lap for me to read it.  Here she is reading with Daddy.  She gets very excited!

Austin is now starting to read on his own a bit.  He is sounding out words and recognizing familiar words in books and in the world around him.  Here he is reading on his own while Daddy was reading to Sarah.  My big boy!

 "Daddy Hugs" book with Daddy!

We had a birthday gathering to celebrate the February birthdays (Michael and I on 2/10, Dad/Grandpa on 2/11).  Mom made a delicious dinner and we enjoyed hanging out with family.

Austin and Brian ready for supper.

Nanny and Sarah full of smiles!

 Sarah showing Michelle that she's all ready to go shopping!

Sarah has started making a "cheese" face when I point the camera at her to take her picture. She crinkles up her nose and smiles showing me her teeth.  It makes for some really hilarious pictures at times.  This is a bit of her "cheese" face.

She looks so big in the last picture, but so small in this picture when she is sitting in Grandpa's big recliner chair.

And now for some fun videos...

Sarah can eat with a fork now!  I am really quite impressed by this, because as developmental milestones go, eating with a fork is a 2 year old skill and she just turned 1!  She also scribbles spontaneously with a pencil or pen (18 month old skill) and can point to her nose when asked (18 month old skill).  My smart baby!  Here is a video of hear eating with a fork. It started when we were eating out and she got mad and I couldn't tell what she wanted.  She got hold of my fork and just started eating with it.  She did great with an adult size fork, so I started giving her a kid-sized fork with meals at home.


Nanny and Austin were being silly together one day and Nanny called Austin a "bo-bo".  It stuck and she and Austin call each other "bo bo" when they're being silly.  Sarah picked it up the other day and sounds really cute saying it.


Austin loves to watch a PBS show called "Super Why."  It is really a great little show and teaches problem solving, reading, writing, and "moral of the story" type lessons.  It is also cute and not really annoying for adults like some kids' shows are.  Anyway, I digress.  At the end of the show, when they have solved the problem with the "super readers," they sing a little song..."Hip hip hooray! The super readers saved the day!....."  We don't let Sarah watch TV as much as we can help it (gotta practice what I preach - no TV before age 2), so she usually will play with her toys or run around in the kitchen playing with tupperware while Austin watches an episode of Super Why.  Whenever the song at the end comes on, she gets up and dances along with the characters on the show.  It is very cute!