This Blog Has Been All But Abandoned

But don't worry, if I still have any readers that is......I am back to blogging and have tons of pics and stories.  That happens when you take a month off from blogging.

Austen has been a challenge this last week and by challenge I mean I literally was questioning my mothering abilities.  I think the culprit was some huge molars coming in AND because that wasn't enough he is also sick.  I think we are on the other side of it now because I have my sweet little boy back!  Boy am I glad.....he was a monster!

I am in school like I mentioned before, and that is going well so far.  Austen was out of school for a week and now he has started his summer school which is more like two hour play dates with his friends and his favorite Miss Jan.  He is learning about bugs this month and has all sorts of interesting factoids memorized like that bees have four eyes.  He is doing really well at recognizing his letters and he can even write a few.  He is really into reading books still and he of course loves to play outside!  I also put him in swimming lessons which have been really fun!  Oh, and the other day, he discovered mud!  He loved it......me not so much.  These are the muddy footprints I found in my house.

Playing In The Rain

I am so ontop of this blogging thing.....at least for today anyway!

It is raining so hard right now! Austen insisted that I put on all his rain gear so he could stomp in puddles, so that is what we did.  He is out there right now getting wet and muddy I'm sure, but as long as he's having fun who cares?

How cute is he in his rain coat and boots?

Quick Update

I am back in school.

I may have made an emotional decision to go back, but so far it's working out just fine.....I just have no time to blog because every spare second I have is spent reading or doing homework.

So here is a quick update on the happenings around here.

The birds have finally left!  We have our backyard back, so that is nice and I only had to rescue a bird from our windowell twice.  Dumb bird!

Austen is REALLY into pretending to be things.....fireman, pirate, bird, well really anything.  It's pretty cute, but I have to admit hearing "Mom pretend you're mother bird and I'm the baby stuck in the windowell" gets old on the 3,000th try or when I'm trying to cook dinner.  He has a new favorite show called Fireman Sam and he is seriously obsessed!  He loves to wear his fireman hat around and even told me he wants to be Fireman Sam when he grows up.  I told him he could be anything he wanted to which he replied "how will I get in the ipad?"  He is so funny!  His new word lately has been "terrible" and he refers to everything not favorable as terrible.  He is still being very obedient and listening to me, so I guess I didn't jinx myself by saying anything.  I think we may have turned the corner with him.....all those days of yelling and asking him if he could even hear me were worth it....he finally got the point!

Ollie

We LOVE our bunny!!!  He is so fun and easy to take care of.  I have to say that I am a little surprised by how much he seems to love us back and I really didn't expect much in the intelligence department, but he's pretty smart.  Besides being attacked by the robins, he is also antagonized by our crazy dog.  Brian aka the dog whisperer has decided to put an end to that and has been working with them so they can coexist.  So far it's been going pretty good, but they still require close supervision.  I don't think we can ever get rid of the Sophie wanting to kill the bunny thing......it's in her DNA!

A Lullaby, bathtime, and a new favorite past time

This is a very random post with some cute pictures.

I'll just start off by saying that I think we may have entered a new stage with Austen.  I really hope I'm not jinxing myself, but he has started actually listening when I tell him not to do things.  It's amazing!!! I have been waiting for this day for years....in fact, I had actually given up the hope that it would ever come.  He has been so obedient and good that I almost wonder if he's been replaced by a calmer version of himself.  I'm going to love and appreciate it while it lasts!  My nerves needed a little break anyway.

Austen loves the baby robins and he has decided that they need a lullaby in the evenings before bedtime.  He pulls a little table onto the grass and climbs up to sing to them.  So far that parents haven't attacked him while he's doing this, but I still keep close watch while he's out there.

Austen's newest favorite thing to do is ride his scooter around our neighborhood.  He seriously begs to go all day long.  He especially loves it when there are other kids in the common area.  He doesn't care how old they are.....if there are kids, he's going to play with him.   I had to explain to him what it meant to be shy the other day.....needless to say, he had trouble comprehending that concept.

I have to just go off on a tangent here and say that I have the most amazing partner in the whole world!  He does so much around the house and with Austen that I sometimes feel lazy.  He has taken over bath time to give me some alone time and I love it.  It's Brian and Austen's special time together which they both love, but sometimes they go a little overboard with the bubbles!!!

Attack Of The Killer Robin

The title of this post sort of gives away the ending, but read on anyway.

A cute mommy robin built a nest in one of our large bushes.  In fact I think this is her second year nesting there.....she obviously liked us so much the first time that she decided to come back.  We have been watching the nest and getting excited for the cute little blue eggs to hatch.  Then the other day I noticed a lot of activity by the mom and dad, so I snuck over to the nest while the parents were off hunting for worms and there were three tiny little babies.  Cute right?  Well, that's what we thought until one day the mother robin decided she did not like a rabbit hopping around in her yard.  She started dive bombing the poor little bunny and pecking him with her beak.  Ollie thought she was playing at first, so he would chase her around, but as the pecking and stalking continued he quit thinking it was fun.  Now the little guy doesn't even want to go outside and when he does he just hides under my day lilies and won't come out until I rescue him.  He can't even go enjoy his fresh kale anymore.

And because that wasn't enough for the birds, now they have started to go after Austen.

As my sister said "the birds have hijacked the backyard".

Now we are very excited for the babies to learn to fly so they can leave us alone!

Ollie enjoying his outside time before the robins started attacking.

Ollie trying to enjoy hopping around, but the bird just sits on the fence and stalks him.

She won't let him come out of the bushes.

So Proud Of My Bro

First of all, it's been so long since I blogged that blogger now has a new format and I loaded all my pictures in reverse order, so scroll down and start at the bottom for chronological pictures.

I am so proud of my awesome brother for persevering and getting a job as a "real live policeman" (those are Austen's words).

Here are some pics of him getting sworn in!  I don't know who was more excited about this.....Austen or Aaron.