Austin

I love the grin smile!!!  Austin is growing up too and entertaining him is getting a little more difficult as many of his toys just don't interest him any more.  He still loves to build with blocks....mostly building them into tanks (as pictured above) and then destroying them.

But Austin's FAVORITE thing to do now is play MARIO. He has learned how to play the game and loves to play Super Mario Brothers on the Wii and on his Nintendo DS. He is actually pretty good at it and we enjoy spending some evenings just all playing it together. He will also play Mario Galaxy occasionally and is actually able to beat a couple different levels on his own.

Here is Craig and Austin opening up his first set of trading cards....MARIO trading cards. It was a pretty exciting moment for BOTH of them. All I can say is "Like Father Like Son."

The tricky part of this new hobby is making sure that he doesn't play Nintendo too much. During the day I will tell him that he needs to turn it off and use his imagination now. Sometimes he will wake up in the morning and the first thing out of his mouth is "Mom I wan't to play Mario." For all I know he probably dreams about it in his sleep. 

Luckily the weather is nice now so we are able to spend lots of time playing outside. It really is fun spending my days entertaining these two lovable kids!!

Growing Up Fast

Mikayla is now a big 2 and 1/2 years old....although sometimes she will tell you "I'm 3!"  She is super cute, super smart, and super stubborn. She loves to sing songs, can count 1-10, and can name several colors and shapes, and has learned to ride her pink bike using the pedals.

She tries to keep up with her big brother and will get excited about the same things he does (such as tanks and mario) just so she can fit into his world better. The other day I came home and Kayla was even wearing one of Austin's Mario shirts. Aside from that, on most days you will find her cooking in her kitchen, doing puzzles, playing with her care bears and her Strawberry Shortcake dolls (she can tell you the names of all of them). She likes to play with blankets and will cover up her care bears, or mommy and daddy.

She has started going to Mother's Day Out with Austin. She is always hesitant when I take her and sometimes puts on a pouty face when I leave but I'm told she does really well and is always super happy and excited when I pick her up.

She likes to believe that she is the BOSS of herself and is always trying to prove her independence to us. Sometimes this is challenging and takes a lot of patience. She likes to have things HER way and likes to do things BY HERSELF!!

She likes to be a helper.....always wants to help carry things, help me with the dishwasher, and the laundry.....but for some reason when it comes to cleaning up the toys she is suddenly too busy to help.

This girl is in LOVE with her cereal and her pop tarts. She will ask for cereal at least once a day and for pop tarts at least 3 times a day. Good thing they are relatively cheap.

I did attempt at potty-training about a month ago. She was super excited about the underwear, the stickers, and the candy. She was also very interested while we potty-trained her care bear but unfortunately she wasn't much interested in doing it herself. I've learned that this girl is too stubborn to be pushed into doing something. She usually will do the opposite just to prove her own independence. So it was a good first attempt and will try again at a later date.

She is now sleeping in her bed WITHOUT any safety rail.....we took them off and she hasn't fallen out of bed once. Her bedtime is still unpredicable though because  sometimes it will take her a while to go to sleep and I never know where I am going to find her.  

I love to listen to her sweet girly voice talk and here are a couple things she said that make me smile:

• When I took her clothes shopping for an Easter dress she would point at a dress or shirt and say "oh my goodness look at this!!"
• "That's delicious!!" while eating Arby's french fries
• After getting dressed in her clothes or pajamas she raises her arms up in the air and shouts "Ta-da"!!

• Getting her to play by herself is sometimes a challenge. Most of the time if I only take a step or two away from her she will ask "Where you go'in mom?" However, on occasion she will tell me to "GO AWAY" to which I don't protest.(
• And one of my favorites---When my dad opened up his birthday gift (which was a shiny metal tool) she exclaimed "How beautiful!!"