Easter Eggs and Tonka Trucks

Spiderman and a Ninja Turtle with Easter eggs in the back end of their truck

David's two favorite things these days are action figures and beep-beeps (cars, trucks, trains, etc.). Since we've been to a few Easter celebrations lately, there are also quite a few plastic eggs laying around the house.

Oops, they got cracked.

When I saw this Tonka truck sitting in the middle of the floor, my first thought was- "How cute! Where's my camera? This will make the perfect blog post."

Bye boys!

So, I got down on the floor with my camera and tried to take a few pictures. David thought it would be a fun time for a horsey ride, which made it very difficult to keep my camera still.


And this is what David was doing while I was taking pictures...

 Well, I finally got a few pictures, and then it occurred to me that David was in underwear.... that he hadn't gone potty in awhile... that he might possibly be wet... Oops

This is the part where I realize David has wet underwear.... oh, the joys of being a mother :)

Pretty good blog material for the day, I'd say.

Austin is 5

Playing with his new train set

My firstborn son is five years old. He has matured in so many ways over the years. Here are a few things I remember from his birthdays past:

Birthdate- September 23, 2006: Austin was so tiny (2 1/2 lbs), yet perfectly formed, at birth. We used to call him our little peanut. (Here's a pretty good synopsis of the week leading up to his delivery at 29 weeks gestation.)

First Birthday- 2007: We had a party outside at the seminary, and it was sooo hot outside. Both sets of grandparents came, and we invited two friends from church. Of course, the first birthday is mostly for the parents anyway. (old blog post here from Austin's 1st birthday, and here is a post I wrote right after we brought Austin home from the NICU.)

Second Birthday- 2008: We didn't have a party, but Joseph's parents came up to celebrate. (see old blog post here) It was at this time that we were able to stop "correcting" Austin's age. Up until this time, the doctors would subtract 2 1/2 months from his birth age when determining if he was meeting his developmental milestones. He seemed to be all caught up, which was a great blessing considering how early he was born.

Third Birthday- 2009: Austin had a party at a local park, and lots of kids from church and from our apartment came. (see blog post here) It was fun, but at the same time we had a lot of serious worries on our minds. Austin had been diagnosed with two neurological conditions- a tethered cord and chiari malformation. I was also 20 or so weeks pregnant and already starting to feel contractions. Praise be to God that he persevered us through the months that would follow as Austin had a successful spinal surgery  (see here) and as our second son David was carried to full term the following January.

Fourth Birthday- 2010: (see old blog post here)We had just a few friends over to our apartment for a playdate lunch out on the lawn. Austin got some Sonlight preschool curriculum from my mom, so we spent a great deal of time reading and learning at home last Fall. At that time I really expected to be homeschooling for kindergarten, but here we are....

Fifth Birthday- 2011: Austin got lots of great toys this year, and I think he is finally at an age to appreciate a good birthday party. Austin had three friends over along with their families (and his adoped "Uncle Adam" of course) for a Super Mario birthday party- pictures to follow in a separate post.

I'll close with this humorous picture of Austin biting his toenails. You may think I'm cruel for posting this, but hey, if he's silly enough to bite his toenails, he's got to face the consequences. Ha!

Austin has a nail biting habit, but he doesn't stop with his fingernails...

I've missed my car

I love my car.

My fuel efficient, reliable, petite little Honda Civic. It's a good car, but it is starting to show its age. Nothing major, just little things that start to wear out over time. I can't complain, though. When I got the Civic, it was three years old and had about 30,000 miles on it. That was back in college. Now, it is over eleven years old and has nearly 150,000 miles!

Anyway, to the point-

A Week of Birthdays

Joseph and I are one year and two days apart, so we've always celebrated our birthdays together. (Joseph's the older one.) One fun thing about having birthdays two days apart is that we get to take advantage of free birthday meals at the same time. Today we went to Captain D's. Austin was in school, so we just had David. He just eats ketchup, so we didn't have to buy him anything. :) Just kidding.... sort of. I was going to share my fries and fish, but he really didn't want anything except my soft drink... and ketchup, of course.

Oats

Yesterday, Austin's teacher said something about Austin and "oats." It was loud, so I didn't catch all of what she said. I assumed she said he was sowing his oats. (I'd heard the expression but wasn't sure what it meant.) Upon googling around, I'm pretty sure she said Austin was starting to "feel his oats." (being playful and energetic) If he was sowing oats at this age, we would need to seriously reconsider this whole public school thing! Yikes!

Status updates I don't share on Facebook

It's interesting how we Facebook users tend only to make status updates that are witty, entertaining or that paint us in the best possible light. I thought I would share some would-be status updates. Some are funny. Some are boring. They are all real life.

- Just found David standing up on the kitchen table. Ahh!

- Austin just got "grounded" for the first time. No toys or tv until tomorrow morning. He had a meltdown at Babies R Us over some toys that we didn't buy. Needs to learn to be grateful for the toys that he does have (which are plenty!).... I can't bring myself to write about the rest of the evening. It just got worse.

- David just ate a red crayon while sitting in my lap at storytime. He was so quiet about it that I didn't know until the crayon was all ground up. What a mess!

- Austin butchered his pig puppet at storytime... I think it's time to let him use scissors. He needs some practice. I don't want him going hog wild again with scissors on his first day of kindergarten.

- David is becoming more defiant. He's still a momma's boy, though. I'll enjoy it while it lasts.

- David likes bananas, cut apples and beans. I've never seen a kid eat beans like David does. He eats them like candy.

- Austin is going through a transition. I need to read Shepherding a Child's Heart again, this time focusing on the older age group. We need to start appealing to his conscience.

- David makes the funniest faces. He can also keep the straightest faces. No free smiles for strangers.

- Austin has picked up some bad habits just being around kids that we know. What are we going to do when he goes to public school? My prayers are more fervent for him than ever before.

- Did I mention that David is a climber? He climbs on furniture and into laundry baskets, rubbermaid tubs, etc. I'm worried he will climb out of his playpen soon. He can almost reach his foot over the edge.

- I think we may have gotten rid of the ants in our apartment. We've never had a problem with ants until this year. There were some big black ones whose bodies were like an inch long. They looked like spiders with their long antennas. Ugh!

- The boys did good at the grocery store today. No cookies from the bakery were even required!

- We took Austin to see his new school. He'd never been to an elementary school before. His face lit up and he said, "Wow!" I think he liked the mural of Where the Wild Things Are that was painted on the walls of the hallway.

- David is a good little boy. He will actually hold my hand and walk through a parking lot without pulling free and running off or sitting down in protest. (most of the time, that is)

worse than a squirrel

David got into the trash the other day. Note the remote control in the middle of the mess. He had it with him when he dumped over the trashcan. It had coffee grinds on it, so I placed it on the table to be cleaned after I rinsed David off in the tub.... Twenty minutes later, the remote turned up missing. Austin said he threw it away because it was trash. (poor judgment on his part) I had already bagged the trash up, so I had to tear a hole in the bag and dig for the remote, which had fallen to the bottom of course. Gross!

wet coffee grounds and chicken fritter crumbs= YUCKY

the little culprit after his bath

You can't fool me with that sweet and innocent face, Dave.