One Of Austen's Favorite People

Austen REALLY likes his Grandpa.... a lot!!!
It might have something to do with his really awesome tools.
Or
It might be his seeming endless supply of M&M's.
Either way, Austen thinks Grandpa is the coolest.
He pretends to talk to him on his cell phone all day,
and he recently informed me that Grandpa can fix anything.

Oh, and Grandpa always lets Austen help with projects even letting Austen use real power tools.
and
He lets him do things that I don't, like play in the sink.

Happy Happy Birthday!!!
We love you!

(Isn't a whole blog post better than a birthday card?)

Potty Training 101

I am kind of clueless about the whole potty training thing. Housebreaking a dog, well that I know.......doing it with a little person is totally foreign. I just have to say that Austen is actually the one teaching me how it's done. He is practically potty training himself!!! He went a whole 24 hours without going in a diaper......he held it all night even though he had a bunch of water before bed.

That being said, I had no idea it was going to be this exhausting. He has to go every 10 or 15 min and in between I'm constantly watching him for signs that he has to go. I had a million things on my to do list yesterday and even though we did not leave the house once all day, I didn't get any of them done. In fact, I only managed to put away 1 measly load of laundry and empty the dishwasher.

That stuff isn't as important obviously, but it's just surprising how time consuming it has been.

I've discovered a few things along the way.

1. If he says he has to go, he means it! Even if he just went.
2. Pants take a long time to get off.....it's better to just skip the pants.
3. Bribing with skittles might not be the best thing with him. (He has realized he gets a skittle every time he goes in the potty which makes him think he has to go A LOT!)

Here he is in his big boy pants.....how cute is that?

This morning he put on some of my running gear so he could go run too.
With no pants it's extra funny.

I'm so proud of my little guy!! He is doing so well with all this and it makes me realize how grown up he's getting. I am seriously the luckiest mom ever!

I Hope I Don't Jinx Us........

I've been trying for three days to get Austen to pee on the potty with no success. He's only had one accident in the big boy underwear, so that was encouraging, but when I set him on the potty he would get stage fright and not be able to go. Until today!!!! He just went for the first time. He was so shocked, proud, and excited all at the same time. He was practicing making it stop and go, stop and go. I think he finally gets it!!! I know it's a process and he isn't potty trained yet, but it's a good start and exactly what I needed to reassure me that I hadn't started too early.

He just came in and told me he needed to "pee so bad" so I took him in and he did it again!!!! I am super excited!!!!

Not to mention that boxer briefs on him are seriously cute!!!

Yay Austen, Mommy is so proud of you!!!

A New Favorite Food and A Traumatic Event

Austen had his first hot dog the other day and he absolutely LOVED it. I grabbed him one as we were leaving Costco along with a root beer and I'm pretty sure it was his favorite dinner ever!!! He ate the entire thing (they are huge). I'm considering entering him in a hot dog eating contest.....I know he could at least beat me. I asked him what he wanted for dinner last night and he said "hot dog and root beer". I tried to tell him that's a special thing and we can't eat it all the time, so he settled for hot dog and milk, but he pretended his milk was root beer.

Yesterday I dropped Austen off at the childcare place at the gym while I did yoga. It was his first time being left anywhere like that. (I very rarely leave him and when I do it's with my mom or my sister.) He was fine and totally happy when I left, he never even looked back once. I even went back and checked on him before my class started and he was just having a blast with all the new toys. Apparently that didn't last long....they had to come get me from my class to come get him. He was crying and crying and they couldn't distract him. He was so sad and I felt awful for leaving him with a bunch of strangers. He stayed mad for a good 2 hours after we got home......I thought he'd never forgive me!!! He eventually did forgive me, but he kept talking about it and even told Brian about it when he got home from work. I think he was a little traumatized!!!

I Didn't Mention It On Purpose

I sort of skipped over the fact I've had yet another birthday on my blog because let's face it, it's just another day. I'm only mentioning it now because it has created a funny idea in Austen's mind. See, because Christmas comes and then the next month it's his birthday followed by my birthday the next month, he thinks opening presents is a frequent occurrence. I'm not quite sure how to help him understand that there aren't anymore presents to open.

I have considered just wrapping some of his toys and letting him open those. I'm not sure if that's just perpetuating the problem or eliminating some boredom. I'm still undecided.
So, back to my birthday. My super sweet man got me the best birthday gift. It was a really cute dress that I have been wanting for a while. He was apparently listening when I mentioned it in passing a while ago. I guess now I can't tell him he never listens.......
In other Austen news he has started saying uh-huh a lot which is really cute, but my favorite new thing he says is "Mom, ridiculous". It's too funny! Also, he's started getting into physical humor. He'll throw himself around and do silly things with his body to get a laugh. He is such a comedian.

The (un)Domestic Goddess

I have a new food obsession.....one that is actually healthy so I'm not ashamed to admit it. (Unlike like my constant craving for cookies and milk and Ben and Jerry's cookie dough ice cream.)

I found these wraps that are so yummy. La Tortilla factory low carb wrap. They are high in fiber and protein which is nice because I'm not a huge meat person so I never get enough protein. (Yes, I know there are plenty of other sources.) Anyway, I put mustard, cheese, turkey, and every veggie I can find in my fridge on it. (Carrots, onion, red pepper, cucumber, avocado, tomato, and spinach usually.) It is so good that I eat it every day for lunch and the best part is that it keeps me full forever. You should try them!!!

See, doesn't that look good?

And that was a day that I didn't even put on that many veggies.

I have come a long way when it comes to cooking. Before I moved in with Brian, I rarely cooked because there's no point when it's just you. I jumped right in and started trying though. Most of the time I'm pretty successful, but every now and again I make something VERY gross!

I recently tried to make a corn chowder from a recipe that I had heard several people say was really good. It took FOR.EV.ER and made a giant mess!!! It didn't turn out like it was supposed to and ended up tasting like disgusting bacon flavored glue paste.

Brian requested little franks in sauce for the Superbowl which I had never even heard of let alone prepared by the way. I went to the internet for a recipe and I noticed most of the recipes called for grape jelly and chili sauce. So that's what I made. I dumped everything in the croc pot and let it cook. About an hour in, it started smelling really gross!!! I went back online to see if I had done something wrong. I found another recipe that clarified what kind of chili sauce to use and it wasn't found on the mexican food isle. I had to dump it all out, rinse off the little smokies and make another trip to the store for the right stuff. They turned out really good when I used the correct ingredients, but it took a little while for me to get there.

I've also made some really disgusting inedible beef fajitas, but what the one I'm most famous around here for is my meatloaf fiasco.

I had never eaten meatloaf in my entire life but Brian really wanted it, so I found a Paula Deen recipe and got going.

This is how it turned out.

Looks gross right?? I don't know what happened, but as soon as I dumped it out of the pan it just sort of exploded.
Sweet Brian said he didn't care what it looked like and dished some up to eat anyway.
About 3 or 4 bites in he found a big frozen chunk of raw hamburger.
He didn't want to eat anymore of it after that.

Luckily my Grandma gave me an easy and delicious recipe for meatloaf and I can safely say I have mastered it!

Mommy Mom

Mommy Mom is my new name. Apparently that gets my attention better than Mom or Mommy alone. Also, Austen's started saying "oh, what's that?" constantly. I thought I had a little while before the questioning started, but nope. I'm always saying he's curious after all, so I don't know what I expected.

On a side note, he thinks it's really funny to call Brian Brian instead of Dad.

Here he is posing with his beloved Buzz and Woody.
I'm expecting to wake up one morning to a missing Woody because Brian is convinced it's possessed.
(It talks all by itself when no one is even around.)

He likes to take all his toys for rides in our ottoman lid.

Then he gives me this innocent face.
How can you be mad at that?
I haven't figured it out yet!