Fun With Family and Friends

Austin loves his grandparents, of course. What's not to love about the adults who will push you around in a Cozy Coupe for 30 minutes and give you animal crackers? The highlight of every day of our trip was Grandpa coming home from work. Those two could play outside together for hours, and did.

At this point I have to pause and apologize to my mom; I don't have a single picture of her and Austin from this trip. Of course, I hardly have any pics to choose from, period, because I accidentally left my camera in Oklahoma...


...where I spent a couple of days visiting Ashley, Patrick, and Benjamin. We were there less than 24 hours but it was a great time of sharing, catching up, and marveling at how much our boys have changed in a few short months. I took a few pictures, Ashley took lots. (Most of these are from her.) We miss you, McBrides!

I encouraged Austin to give Benjamin a hug so I could get a cute picture. About a second later, Austin totally (and accidentally) fell on top of Benjamin, who smacked his head on the kitchen floor. So sad.

Our most successful attempt at a group shot--can you tell Austin is really fighting to get down?

Just love this picture. Such an enigmatic look.

Shy little smile.

Little boys love the playground.

Meeting Milo

By far the best part of my trip was meeting my nephew, Milo. He is two months old--so big already!

I just love babies...can you tell?

Austin, on the other hand, was not so impressed. He pretty much ignored Milo. He has no idea what's coming!

To-Dos

I was a little ashamed to look at my blog today and discover that it has been an entire month since my last post! Oops...

Austin and I just got back from a wonderful ten-day trip to visit my family. Being with them is always like a vacation for me--they encourage me to relax and enjoy myself while totally spoiling me and my little boy. (cinnamon-swirl French toast for breakfast--yummy!) But now I'm back at home, where there are certain things I must accomplish. And with baby's arrival not too far off, my to-do list is feeling a bit longer than usual.

I woke up early yesterday and knew I'd never fall back asleep--all these things were running through my mind, so I committed them to paper. All neatly categorized because that's how I operate. :) If I can cross off most of this stuff before the baby is born, I will be quite a happy camper.

I have not actually written "blogging" on the list but I have every intention of making a few posts about my trip over the next few days. Stay tuned.

Pictures, Etc.

We have not been super good at taking pictures for the last...well, year, but April was better, I think. Austin has learned to smile for the camera, which is fun.

"I love my Gran and Pops! And balls. Can I throw this at you?"

Breakfast on the go

Sitting on the couch working on his "laptop"

Austin had lots of fun finding Easter eggs in our backyard

Checking out the contents. We gave him one chocolate egg to try--he took a tiny bite, then quickly popped the whole thing in his mouth with a big grin. Wish we had that on video!

Zach's been doing a lot of work in our little garden patch this month. Austin likes playing in the dirt with him.

So what is Austin like these days?

• He still loves to sing, although the song of the month is now "Ode to Joy." Kind of unusual for a toddler, huh? We are pretty sure he picked it up after watching Beaker's (from the Muppets) YouTube video.
• His vocabulary is growing. Words we hear a lot are up, down, bus, mok (milk...or more...use your context clues), bunny, duck (which could be just about any bird), apple (which is applied to many fruits and veggies), and uh-oh. He still seems below average in this area, though. We have considered having him tested for speech delays and still might...we go back and forth.
• He loves loves loves all the trucks he got for his birthday. He plays with them more than just about anything else.
• Real trucks are pretty great, too. Like so many other moms of toddler boys I know, we now get pretty excited about driving through construction zones--so much to see!
• He loves to be read to. This warms my heart more than just about anything else. He will bring book after book to read, and when we reach the end he often wants to go back to the beginning and hear it again.
• Whenever we hear a siren, truck, plane, motorcycle, etc. he points to his ear and draws my attention to the noise he is hearing. Background noise is not so much in the background to him.
• Zach and I gave him a Little People Noah's Ark set for his birthday. To him, Noah is "no whiney." :)

Hint, hint

You know, if anyone is looking for the perfect Mother's Day gift, he could just click here.

99 and Counting...

I just had to mention that we've hit double digits in the baby countdown! I can't believe how fast a second pregnancy goes compared to the first. We're so excited to meet you, baby girl!

Birthday Fun

Austin's Gran and Pops came up from Texas this weekend to help us celebrate Austin's birthday. We had a small party on Saturday with a few friends, plenty of cake, and lots of fun.

I was going for alphabet blocks. I am not a professional. Enough said.

I may not have mad decorating skillz, but my cake does taste good.

Cake consumption is a much more civilized act at age two compared to age one...

...now we use a fork to put huge pieces of cake in the mouth!

Austin got lots of fun presents. He has spent hours already driving around his new trucks...

...and I think we have a grill master in the making.

What a fun day celebrating our special little guy!

0...1...2!

My baby boy turned 2 on Saturday! Can you believe it? We didn't do much to celebrate on Saturday because Daddy was out of town for most of the day, but Austin got to open a few gifts in the morning and we had brownies with Daddy when he got home. We'll party next weekend!

I think Hallmark only makes one card specifically for two year olds. :)

Austin sometimes just reaches out to hold our hands while he's eating. Sweet boy.

Just Awesome

Zach came home from work today and decided to take us out for dinner. We settled on Golden Dragon, a newish Chinese buffet that we LOVE because (1) everything on the (huge) buffet is super-tasty, (2) they have mac and cheese and lots of fruit so Austin is always a happy camper, and (3) Austin eats free for another year. One of our favorite places in town.

But I digress...I didn't decide to blog just to tell how much we love the restaurant. As with most Chinese dining establishments, at the end of the meal you get a fortune cookie. And this is mine.

Just sit back and let the irony wash over you.

"No Whiney!"

Austin has a new phrase...

We think he's saying "No whining," which would make a lot of sense, since he hears that phrase, oh, maybe a hundred times a day or so. :) He's listening to his mother's instruction! Now, is he putting her wise words into action...? We'll get back to you on that.

This is unrelated, but as I was trying to get Austin to say his new phrase he noticed the camera and put on a little show. (Our camera has a viewfinder that can flip around to face the front so he could see himself.) I thought it was pretty funny.

By the way, both videos are really short, but for some reason when I rendered them in our editing software it edited in a bunch of empty space at the end. Not worth redoing the whole project, but I don't want anybody watching a blank screen waiting for something exciting to happen.

Park Outing

We went to a local park for the first time of 2010 last night. We have been enjoying sunny warm weather for the last couple of days--what a blessing! Giddy is the only word I can use to describe how Austin feels about being able to play outside. Every time we go out he runs around, bouncing up and down with a constant smile on his face. So precious.

My pictures certainly aren't of the highest quality but the sun was in my face so much that I could hardly see the images on the screen. Oh well...I think you can see how much Austin was enjoying himself.

Update for Eager Grandmas

I heard from my doctor and he told me that my ultrasound results were okay, but because of the low placenta I will be getting another ultrasound between 32 and 34 weeks. That translates to early-mid June. A while to wait, but we should have a good shot of confirming baby's gender before the birth. So grandmothers, if you can just hold your shopping off for a few months...

Just Couldn't Resist

We went to the mall tonight and bought this little item. Just couldn't help it. If baby is not a girl, somebody will be receiving a super-cute shower gift in the future!

Oh hey, I have a cute kid, too. Haven't seen many pics of him lately, huh? Hmm, I'm not so good at taking them but after taking the above picture, I turned the camera to my little man.

He was running laps around his room. That's a pretty good snapshot of life these days, I'd say.

Ambiguity

We had our ultrasound today, and found out that maybe we are having a girl. The ultrasound tech said she thinks it is but took great pains to tell us that she was not at all sure about that and that it certainly could turn out to be a boy. Baby was curled up in a ball and would not unfold enough to get a clear view down there. She (?) was pretty stubborn.

So this is a pretty tough spot for me and Zach to be in. We have always been so sure that we would have a family full of boys. There are just too many Collins men to think anything else. So we certainly don't want to get our hopes up too much that this is a girl and then be disappointed if it turns out to not be. Not that we would be disappointed with a boy...but you know what I mean, right? Ironically, I feel more up in the air than I did this morning before the ultrasound! Beforehand I was pretty sure it was a boy, and now to be told that maybe it's a girl...rough.

My doctor normally just does one ultrasound. However, the tech said my placenta is a bit low; she thinks my doctor might order another at a later time to check if it has moved up. We are hoping for that. (Not hoping for anything wrong with my placenta, of course; just hoping for enough uncertainly to warrant another look at baby!)

I certainly don't want to give the impression that our ultrasound was a negative experience. It was great in every other way. Our tech was wonderful and really took the time to explain what we were seeing on the screen. I feel like I understood the images much better than I did with Austin. We saw bones, organs, the umbilical cord, even a glimpse of the lens of the eye. (That looked kind of freaky, to be honest.) Baby is measuring a few days ahead of my due date; Austin was as well and look when he was born! (I am making no unchangeable plans for the month of July.) Weight estimate is 12 oz. Everything looks healthy!

Here are some pictures of (maybe) baby girl!

See the little mouth open? Her skull is also very visible (the white outline). And I think that's a hand underneath.

Baby wouldn't really turn her head for a profile shot but this one is pretty good. The dark spot on the left is an organ; the stomach, I think.

Showing off some muscles!

"Don't worry, Mom and Dad, you may not be sure if I'm a girl but I'm happy and healthy in here!"

Quick Funny Story

When Zach came home from work tonight he said he thought he should take me to H.B. Culpepper's, one of our favorite Indiana restaurants. Sounded like a plan to me; off we went. Another young couple sat down in a booth near our table at about the same time. A few minutes later Austin started whining and pointing as the waitress brought drinks to the other table. As far as we could tell, he was jealous of the man's beer because it looked like apple juice to him!

Son, you're a little young. :)