More Shenanigans

Austen is still just as curious and destructive as ever!!! He's been into everything......I even had to make my first phone call to poison control after he took a rubberband off the handles, picked the lock of the "childproof" cupboard, and drank some cooktop cleaner. (He didn't actually drink it, but he did swallow some.) His toy golf clubs have become an outside toy because he's learned to use them as a tool to pull stuff down from high places i.e. the countertops. He also uses them to get ice and water out of the ice maker. I'm telling you this kid it way too smart for us!!!

Here's some funny pics of trouble he's gotten into in the past month.....enjoy!

Brian is going to kill me for posting this, but I had to. It makes me laugh every time!!

He loves to open my mascara for some reason and he usually sticks the wand right in his ear, but this day he thought he'd taste it. Notice the black specks on his lips?? That was AFTER I'd cleaned most of it off.

Here's a closer look.

He loves to pull clothes off their hangers.....we're working on it, but here's some pics of a day when he wrecked his closet pretty good.

Tulip Festival

I have been wanting to go to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point forever, but it seems like the weather never cooperates. By the time it was warm enough last year, all the tulips were spent. I decided this year I was going rain or shine! Luckily the weather yesterday couldn't have been more perfect!! It was so nice and relaxing to walk around the gardens. We were there for over 2 hours and Austen was a perfect angel the whole time. Not that that's too surprising.....he's pretty much like that all the time. I got some great pictures of the little guy and the flowers too.

I'm going to enter this one into the tulip fest photography contest.

There are seriously millions of tulips blooming everywhere you look. These pics don't do it justice.

I cannot stop laughing over this one. I love that he's trying to rip a flower out of the ground while he's got his michevious lookout face on.

He found some rocks.....

and decided to put his collection IN the tulips.

He's so proud of his accomplishment! (Where do boys get these ideas?)

Love this one!

Trip To Jungle Jim's

Last month we took a family day and went to Jungle Jim's Playland. It has indoor carnival rides for younger kids. Austen was too small for most of the rides, but there were a few he could go on. He really like the carousel and a motorized motorcycle. Here's some pics.

On the carousel.

This point is always accompanied by a grunt.

I love this pic because this boat thing wasn't working, so when he figured out it wouldn't move he got annoyed and wanted to get back on the motorcycle. His face says it all!!!

He was soooo proud of himself on this one. He felt like such a big boy!

Steering the train.

Excuses, Excuses....

I know, I know......I've totally been a blog slacker lately. I have a million excuses.

It's been warm, so we've been outside.

I've been training to run a 5k.

Austen hates staying home, so we've been to Wheeler Farm, the Zoo and The Aquarium about 1 million times.

I could go on and on, but I won't bore you with that stuff. I'll just tell about my cute cute son.

Austen has grown up so much in the last month! He understands pretty much everything I say and he's really good at communicating even though he can't talk yet. He says no A LOT, that and dada. He also tries to say hello, yuck, boo, and dog, but only I know when he's doing that.....to everyone else it just sounds jibberish. He's also been doing a lot of new sounds too. He's really good at sound effects! It's very entertaining.

He loves to be outside and wants to be out there every second of every day even when it's cold or rainy. He has an obession with collecting rocks. He'll get a handful and then make a little pile on one of our patio chairs. He also really likes to dig in the dirt, but what boy doesn't???

We went to Costco last weekend for a few things and saw a super cute sandbox. It was the last one, so we HAD to get it! It's awesome, with a shade canopy, toy bins, and even a place to have sand mixed with water. It took Brian two days to build and 700 lbs of sand, but it was so worth it. Austen LOVES it more than anything!!! Here's some pics of the building process and Austen finally getting to play in it. Daddy's little helper.

When we first put him in, he wasn't sure if he liked it or not. He wouldn't move his feet or sit down.

He decided it wasn't so bad and started to dig.

He found a little rock and had to show me.

He Talked!!!

No pictures today, but I thought you should know he just said "banana"!!! YAY!!!

He actually said it for the first time a few days ago, but I wrote it off as a fluke thing because it was too perfect. He just said it again though and this time there is no denying it. He said banana in reference to an actual banana.

So cute!! I'm very excited in case you can't tell. It's his first word besides Mama and Dada.

I'm Not Normally Into This Stuff...

...BUT I have a new favorite thing to share.


I can never get Brian to eat any veggies and I probably don't eat enough leafy greens, so when I saw this recipe on another blog I thought we should give it a try.

I was pleasantly surprised at how good it tasted considering it didn't look very appetizing. It is seriously the best thing ever!!! It gave me a ton of energy and made me feel good all day! I know it sounds gross, but just try it....you'll be as hooked as Brian and I are. (Even Austen likes it.)

2 cups fresh spinach

1 cup kale (center stem removed)

1 cup orange juice

Blend together until smooth

Add

1/2 a banana

1/4 cup frozen blueberries

1/4 cup frozen raspberries

Blend together with some ice

Try it and let me know what you think. I've been making it in the mornings for breakfast and I'm totally addicted!!!

Being Made Fun Of By A Baby....Not That Funny.

I'll get to that in a second, but first I just have to say .....I finally got the pictures for Austen's room and had Brian hang them!!! I'm sooooo excited about this! I'm not sure why I waited so long, but oh well.....they're up now.Austen has been doing a lot of funny new things lately. His personality is really starting to show itself and boy does he like to be silly. This kid will literally do anything for a laugh and once he gets it, he'll keep doing it over and over and over and over.....well you get the point.

The other night Brian and I were playing with Austen and I noticed he needed a diaper change. I had already dealt with my fair share of poop that day (we've had a very sick dog) so I was trying to get Brian to change it. I asked Austen, "who do you want to change your diaper?? Mama or Dada?" To this he responded with his arms out and a shoulder shrug as if to say I don't know. We could not stop laughing because neither of us had ever seen him do that before and he did it so deliberately that he had to know what it meant. Now when you ask him a question he does it all the time, unless he knows the answer. It's pretty hard to get a picture of, this one is the best we've done so far.


He's also learned the sign for hungry. It's sooo cute to see him do it!! I love that he can communicate he's hungry or thirsty or done. It's very rewarding to get that back from him considering I'm yapping at him all day.

Austen has a super long tongue. I had no idea of this until recently when he discovered I thought it was funny when he stuck it out. Now he sticks it out whenever he wants a laugh. Here's a pic, but this is only about half way out. The thing seriously goes past his chin.

By far the funniest thing he's ever done is immitate me laughing. At first I wasn't sure what he was even doing, but then I realized he did it everytime I laughed and well it was such a good immitation there was no question. If you know me well, you know that every time I laugh hard I throw my head back and close my eyes. To be honest I didn't even realize I did that, but I must do it often because he has it down. I have a picture of it below, notice his head is thrown back just like I do it and his eyes are closed tight. I'm not kidding, I really think this is by far the funniest thing he has ever done!!! I would probably think it was funnier if it wasn't at my expense.