We WON'T Be Doing This Today

Austen got loads of Play Dough for his birthday and I swear it has gotten us through the winter days.
He absolutely loves it and asks to play with it every single day!
BUT
Since today is the nicest day we have had in what feels like forever,
I can guarantee we WON'T be playing with it today.
We are going outside.
(With plenty of sunblock because we haven't seen the sun in ages!)

Here are some cute pics of Austen's favorite winter pastime.
They'll have to do until we have some of him playing outside.

I loaded them in the reverse order. Woops......well you get the idea anyway.
Happy Friday!!!

Sometimes Being A Mom Sucks

Sometimes it's really hard. It's messy, it's trying, and it definitely takes your patience to levels you didn't know existed. Sometimes it sucks and I don't feel guilty one bit for putting that out there!

Austen and I haven't really been seeing eye to eye this week, hence the lack of blogging. I didn't really have anything good to say. He's been uncooperative, disobedient, and not so successful in the potty training arena. (Yes we've had a major setback there, so for everyone hating me for how easy it was going and my smugness about it, rest assured, I've cleaned up more human waste than I care to talk about.) The one thing that saved us was that he's at least been sleeping good. Well, that and we finally had a nice day today.

I think he's just really bored and he's 2, so he's pushing the limits of everything! Including my patience......I think he's even a little frustrated too.....

But I can't stay mad at this:

Getting out of the house and letting him run around was all he needed! He's been an absolute angel today! Obedient and everything!

The other day he pulled his tool bench in front of the curio cabinet, climbed on it, and sat there to eat his snack. I thought he was just being silly until I realized why he had done that.

He totally wanted to watch himself in the mirror. Like father like son! They can't get enough of themselves!!!

I'm A Genius

My sister taught Austen to say that yesterday so he's been running around all day yelling "I'm a genius". The fact that it makes me laugh hysterically only perpetuates it.
This kid will do anything for a laugh.
You can just see his little face light up when he makes someone laugh.
Sound like anyone??? His Dad just a little???

On a totally unrelated note....I take baths a lot.
And I usually read while I'm in there relaxing.
Sometimes Brian will bring Austen in to say hi....I'm pretty sure that's where he got this idea:

He emptied out the ottoman, grabbed a book, and got in.
He calls it "taking a bath tub".
This is the face I get when I tell him to smile.
Never gets old!

Monsters Inc

Monsters Inc is Austen's new favorite show. Toy Story has moved down in the ranks.

The other day we were browsing through Target when Austen saw this shirt and threw it in the cart. I thought it was cute that he wanted a "mike" shirt so I bought it for him.

That's mike the monster from the movie.

He wanted to wear it immediately so I did something I NEVER do and let him wear it before it was washed. That was a bad idea. He broke out in hives everywhere, really bad ones too. He had big raised welts everywhere, even on his face. It was so sad, but he was only sad about me not letting him wear the mike shirt until it could get washed. He seriously waits by the dryer for this shirt to come out and then he wants to wear it immediately. So cute that he's starting to pick favorite things!

So Happy He's Back

Brian was gone all weekend golfing and even though he was having a well deserved break, we were missing him a lot!!!

Especially the little man.
Needless to say we were so happy to see him last night!
We're glad you're back!

My cute boys watching youtube together.

I think this is a cute pic even though Brian looks a little stoned.

Prepare Yourselves......

What I'm about to share is life changing!!!

Especially if you are as addicted to cookies and milk as I am.
I'll just preface my new discovery by saying this...
I really like oreo's with milk.
Probably too much.
It is absolutely necessary to eat oreo's only when they have been fully saturated in milk, but this can create problems.
Mainly it's that my fingers get too cold, so I pull out the cookie before it's reached optimum levels of saturation.

Well not any more!!!!

I've discovered that a fork fits perfectly into the filling and now I can dunk away.
No more messy, cold fingers!

Now I can eat twice as many cookies as before!

(I didn't come up with this on my own sadly, I stole it from another blog.)

I've Been Collecting Evidence

Since Austen is such a clone of Brian sometimes I forget that I contributed DNA, but sometimes I catch little bits here and there that definitely come from me. I've been gathering these bits for two whole years just to come up with enough to actually make a list. So here goes......

He always has to have two passas
He likes vegetables
He loves to read books
He talks to himself
He is the world's easiest kid to potty train
and
He is a wild sleeper
(These pics were taken about 5 mins apart.)

Notice how his feet aren't even on the couch and he's still asleep???
And the crazy arm that looks broken.....that's definitely from me.