Hey Hey I'm a Monkey

and my daddy says I like to climb around, I'm too busy climbing to ....

You get the drift.

As it turns out, the child will tell you when he is hungry, as he did tonight when he went over and LITERALLY climbed into his high chair without any assistance.

and then decided it was time to eat his dinner - we offically cannot turn our back on this kid for 1 second!! Whew, and we thought life was tough before!!

This other picture is him attempting to smile with his paci in his mouth - if we could just get him to give up the paci life would be great - but he still is teething and tends to bite when his teeth hurt and the paci keeps him from biting others. But he sure is cute!!

That's all for now, just remember we have ourselves a MONKEY!!

Sgt. Major Grandma

YIPPEE!! Sgt. Major Grandma is officially retired - doesn't she look fancy in her dress greens!!

This is not the official picture, they had a professional photographer who took a great picture of the whole family, but us little picture people were not able to take pictures during the ceremony and we were in the big picture. Austin looks confused in this picture but he did great during the ceremony.


In this picture, he is trying to explain to his Uncle Patrick that it is not polite to show your belly in formal places and that Uncle Patrick should quit trying to get him into trouble...



And then there is this picture, which may go down as one of my most favorite pictures that I have of my boy. You see, Austin has, for his age, really small feet - like he can wear 6-12 month shoes. So in this picture, due to the angle it looks like he has HUGE feet!! For once, people won't comment that he has small feet. This picture was taken in Dad's truck while we were waiting to get into the Army base. We had to have our vehicle searched (as did everyone else) and during that time AC just slept. One of the inspectors asked us if we were ready for Oct. 6th, and in our semi-nervous state, we said "what's happening on the 6th?" and the guy was like, Uh, Hello the UT/OU game... oh yeah!! Anywho, we obviously found a fellow UT fan all the way out in Georgia working at the Army base.

Well, that's all for now, AC is sleeping believe it or not. Hard to believe since his father fed him chocolate cake at lunch - sometimes you just gotta wonder what he's thinking.....

Proud of grandma,
E,L & A

Invasion!!

We have been invaded by ANTS - little sugar ants, but they are ants none the less - ick, ick!! It seems the empty Kool-Aid container was the initial culprit and now it is every little morsel of food that Austin has ever thrown/dropped from his high chair - it is now a DEATH MISSION - and I will win!!

Otherwise, things are quiet here today, Eric & his dad went fishing this morning in a kayak - for those of you who have met my father-in-law you are getting the visual now, for those of you who haven't, he is 6'4" and weighs at least 350 lbs add my 6' 190 lbs husband and it makes for the most interesting of pictures - I just hope they wear life preservers!! But it will be a good day of father/son bonding nonetheless.

Tomorrow is a big day in our world, Eric's mom finally retires from the US Army after serving 35 years - she will be 60 in February & thinks it is now time to hang up her BDUs and focus on being Sgt. Major Grandmom!! Funny thing is that tomorrow at the ceremony only Austin will be shorter than her, she is only about 4'10" but she is in a high ranking position, no matter her height. (why do I keep talking about how tall people are? complex Lynn?) Anyways, we will be sure to take LOTS of pictures to post for all to see. It will be a very proud day.

We also think Austin is starting to show signs of intelligence, when you tell him we are going for a ride or going outside he goes to get his tennis shoes; when you say it is nap time he goes to the stairs to go up to his room, and finds Pooh, and then goes and 'tries' to climb into his bed; he has almost got the wave thing down, finally - he has been waving for months, it is just a delayed reaction, but we are now almost on cue; he also loves the telephone he will get my cell phone and just walk around with it up to his ear - funny thing is that I don't even talk on the phone that much and neither does Eric. Anywho, those are just a few of his new tricks - now if he would just start talking a little bit more - oh well, we are enjoying some silence while we have it!

This is another picture from a year ago - he is just a big ol' tub bucket - hehehehe

Tired, tired, tired

Somehow Eric & I just seem to wear the boy out!! During my standard Wednesday morning conference call, Eric & Austin played outside in the front yard for about an hour. At the end of that hour, they came inside to convince me and my bosses that we had talked for LONG ENOUGH!! Minutes after they came inside, Austin went to where his frog was laying on the floor and yes, that's right he again fell fast asleep - ON THE FLOOR & cuddled up with his frog. Don't you wish you were this young again and could nap anytime you wanted? Oh wait, some of you are retired and get to do this anyways...ah, the good life!!

We cannot seem to convince him to sleep on the rug or even the couch when he is this tired, he just wants to crash as close to the frog as he can get - priorities people....

Peacefully Quiet

It is Tuesday morning, and I have nothing to do!! What! Yes, it is true, I have done all of my lectures, power points, grading and have written two exams for this week and therefore I have nothing to do. Now yes, of course I could mop the kitchen floor, pick up all of AC's toys, go through the pile of old newspapers, etc. but that would be no fun. Instead, I am going to write a bit about my little dude. Of course, this also means that he is at school right now and I am home.

He has become quite independent - instead of telling you no as many kids his age do, everything to him is YES, must be the child of a man in the car business..... He loves to touch things that are no touch, and we have gotten quite good at saying, Austin, that is no touch, over and over and over again. He is also starting to show some signs of intelligence, like if you tell him to get Maddie, then he will go over and follow her around, drives Maddie a bit crazy but she tends to play along - I KNOW, I KNOW we are being careful!!!

He has also started to really like his school, he does not cry when Eric drops him off on Tuesdays & Thursdays, and Eric thinks it is because they are a very "loving" school, i.e. Austin gets a hug and a kiss each day when he comes and when he goes. He really seems to like it there, and this has been a huge issue all along. He has always cried when I dropped him off at school, well, from like 6 months until present. But now he is doing great, it is such a relief.

Anywho, this is the middle week of my first quarter at my new university and I think that I am really going to like it here. Things are definitely different than Texas in some ways, but I really enjoy what I am doing. Plus when you only work 2 1/2 days a week, who wouldn't enjoy their work?

I will close with one little picture, and promise to put up some more new ones soon... This is a picture from almost exactly one year ago today - he still looks so much the same - he's our little cutie!!

Have a great week!!

Alright, Alright, here you go...

Here you go, another picture dialogue of life in Austin's shoes...


these pictures are in reverse chronological order from last night. Here he is obviously confused about why he is wearing pajamas, sitting IN his toy box and facing the real possibility of going to bed soon...

I was trying to clean up after him, he did not want to get out of the toy box, so I tried to put him up too - didn't work

this was his response when I told him it was time to put up his toys and go to bed...

this is his new favorite facial expression - keenly observed when sneaking ice cream from his father while his mother is not watching....note he is STILL in his toybox.

his other favorite past time is snuggling with his pet frog that his Aunt Amanda gave him - he sure does miss her ....

expressing sheer delight at having managed to get all of these toys INTO the toy box with himself...

I am trying to decide if this is a cute face or not, seems kinda guilty of something...

all dressed up for church on Sunday with Grandma & Grandpa - BTW Happy Grandparents Day on Sunday to Grandma & Grandpa B & Grandad T & Lynn & Happy Birthday to Grandpa B on Friday. Too much to celebrate, huh!!

his favorite pose when his mother is within 1 foot and has that little silver thing that makes that bright light and her laugh and say, "oh that's a good one"....

still playing with the SUPER cool train set he got from Grandma B

long story short, my bosses are very accomodating to my schedule and often allow me to attend meetings by conference call instead of having to find a baby sitter and go into work. On one of those occassions last week, Austin was very bored with mommy's work and decided to sit down next to her with his frog, wasn't long until he was fast asleep - YES, he is sleeping on the FLOOR, hardwood floors, YES HARDwood floors, I KNOW - I should be ashamed of myself, and to think I call myself a social worker - someone call CPS!!!

Hope you enjoy!!

Pictureless

Well, when Austin looks back on his childhood, he may remember most that his parents have a nasty habit of forgetting their camera when they go places where cameras should be taken. Yesterday was Eric's day off and I had meetings ALL day & class all night, so they went off house hunting, park sampling, and OOPPSS! Lynn we happened to wind up at the ZOO without you!!! POOH! I love the zoo - anywho, Eric forgot the camera but they had an awesome day and Austin even got to pet a goat. He also apparently really liked the flamingos and overall had a really fun time, he promised to take his mother the next time around...

I'll take some pictures tomorrow and get them up, I promise...

Parks, Parks, & More Parks

So we have been park hopping today and somehow in the midst of all of the fun, forgot to take any pictures.

I had a great birthday on Friday, and again, so great we forgot to take any pictures. Thus, this is a boring post. BUT ... we are childless tonight. Austin is spending the night at his grandparent's house, Eric's mom & dad - this is the first time we have been without our son in 14 months. To that end, I am going to have a big ol' beer and sleep until noon. That is the best birthday present EVER, at least until next year rolls around.

Have a great weekend!!!