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. :)

This...is not good

We have had a casualty of the recent snowstorms: the awning above our front porch. We had noticed that it was bowing a bit in the middle, then this morning we saw that the metal railings were starting to bend. The sun came out this afternoon, though, and I was hopeful that enough would melt to stop the impending disaster. Nope. We had no idea that there was quite so much ice up there--the sheet that came off was about four inches thick.

Zach has never liked this awning much, although he told me this afternoon (after it came down) that it had grown on him. We are already planning to replace our back porch railings this summer, so I guess we'll just expand that project a bit. But in the meantime, what exactly do you do with a collapsed awning? Any ideas?

UPDATE: Here's what you do: you call your insurance agent who says (good news) this will be covered by our homeowners' insurance but (bad news) we have to wait until at least Monday for someone to come take pictures before the awning can be taken down.

Ten and Counting

I realized as I was writing Zach's Valentine's Day card that this is our tenth V-Day! One dating, one engaged, eight married. I think all but twice we have made a special meal at home instead of going out. Strangely, I can remember what we made two years ago but not last year. I looked back at old blog posts to try to jog my memory and got a good laugh out of last year's cupcakes. Still no idea what we cooked, but dessert wasn't pretty. Thankfully, this year's meal came out much more successfully. We made shells stuffed with pancetta, spinach, and lots of cheese, drenched in a creamy asiago cheese sauce. (It is one of Giada's recipes, so you can find it online.) Oh my. So good. Possibly in the top five meals I've ever eaten, certainly one of the tastiest we've made. And you know what? It looked pretty, too.

Snow Days

Perhaps you've heard on the news...the eastern part of the country is getting a bit of snow this month. Our share: around two feet. That is not so normal. Normally we get a lot of snow, an inch or two at a time. Not two feet within a week. IUP, which hardly ever cancels classes, has canceled the past two days. Bonus time with Daddy! Here's what we've been up to while the snow falls outside.

Enjoying some blueberry chocolate chip pancakes; definitely not a normal Wednesday breakfast!



Playing with trucks...Austin is such a boy!

"Helping" Daddy.

Playing outside while Daddy shoveled the driveway, again. Notice the relative heights of Austin and the snow mounds!

Playing with snow in the kitchen.

Enjoying a warm bath at the end of a chilly day. Having already drawn on the wall with his Tub Tadoodles, Austin attempted to draw on his tummy. Didn't work so well.

Things Austin Does

Austin...

• hums "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" almost constantly. Is doing it right now, in fact.
• says "uh-HUH" (emphasis on the second syllable) in answer to nearly every question, making his actual preference difficult to discern. (I guess it's better than saying NO to everything, right?)
• says almost nothing else. Understands plenty, has a huge receptive vocabulary, but is choosing to keep all those words inside for now.
• likes to pull things out of baskets, buckets, etc. and put them back. Over and over. Example: He pulled my cleaning rags out of the pantry last night and amused himself for at least 10 minutes while I made dinner. Awesome.
• interrupts his blogging mommy and shoves a book in her lap he wants to look at. Screams until she complies. Someone is going to have a bit of an adjustment to make in about six months, hmm?
• happily eats cheese, any kind of bread product, any kind of fruit, usually peas and corn. Oh yeah, and dessert if allowed. Vegetables...not so much. Meat...on a good day.
• likes to throw things and is developing a pretty dangerous arm.
• loves clocks, flags, and lights and can spot them a mile away. If he tries to get your attention out in public, he probably sees one of those things.
• is growing in obedience, although maybe not in patience...yet.
• will nearly always sit quietly to pray with Mommy or Daddy, even in the middle of a tantrum/discipline/instruction session.
• runs across the room at random times to hug Mommy's knees and in general does new things all the time to steal her heart!