First Steps!

Austin took his first steps yesterday! I keep waiting for it to happen, since he has been standing very steadily on his own, here and there, for a couple weeks now and is very confident with his walkers. Of course, I didn't get any of the three times on camera. The first one happened while Karissa was blessing our food at lunch and I heard the slow, steady sound of feet walking on the floor. I took a peek to see him take about three more steps to the chair he was aiming for. Last night, when I was with Karissa at her swimming class, Jason said Austin took a few more steps in front of our garage and then again in front of our neighbor's house. I am determined to get him to do it again and I have the camera close by today. Here he is this morning showing how well he can stand alone, but he wouldn't walk. I'll keep you updated!

Summer Activities

This was the first full week of summer vacation and I made sure to keep it busy and fun so we wouldn't get too bored. Some of our activities included:

-Victoria's swimming class

-the library and the start of the summertime reading program

-the Supervised Playground Program for Victoria (This is a 7 week long program where she meets at the playground at her school from 10-1 on Tuesdays and Thursdays and plays on the playground, participates in games, and learns about "saving the earth". There will be three field trips over the summer to the roller skating rink, bowling ally, and High Velocity Sports. It's supervised by college kids and only costs $20 for the entire summer! She has loved it so far, and so have I!)

-Karissa's swimming class (It's a parent-and-me class, which is good since it is her first swimming class and she was stiff as a board! She is not very fond of the water like her sister is. Hopefully she'll get more comfortable in it as the class goes on.)

-playgroup at the splash pad at the park (Victoria was at her playground program, so it was just Karissa and Austin. Of course Karissa was not fond of the water spurting out of the ground and tunnels, but Austin loved it!!)

Check out the water spraying right in his face! He loved it!

-a bar-b-que class for Jason and I (This was part of Jason's Father's Day gift. We went on a date and learned some great grilling tips, got some yummy recipes, and ate very delicious food, all while outside on the perfect evening with the music-at-the-park concert in the background. Think: Brazilian restaurant, but you get to learn how to make the food yourself on top of eating some of the best grilled meat and veggies ever!)

-zoo with Ben and Abby

-swimming in our pool, bike rides, games at home...

So, after this successful week of summer break, I think we will survive the summer without getting too bored!

Happy Father's Day!

Typically, on Father's Day we have a BBQ so Jason can use his great grilling skills to make one of his favorite types of meals. This year, we went out on a limb. Jason wanted me to make Baked Crab Cakes with Red Pepper Chipotle Lime Sauce, from my friend Rachelle's sister-in-laws' blog. I wasn't sure if the kids would eat them, but we did and they were fabulous!! They weren't hard to make either.

Victoria and Karissa made lots of pictures and books for Jason and we got him a nice, new backpack that will work better for his laptop. The best present of all, I think, was just being able to be together for the weekend with no study interruptions. Yesterday morning we went to the church Stake bowling and arcade activity, where the kids had the "best time ever". We had some extremely slow balls rolling down to the pins, but some good cheerleaders. Last night, Jason took Victoria to see the local fireworks that occur every year over the first weekend of summer vacation here. She hasn't seen them in two years, since they start after 10. By some miracle, she actually fell asleep around dinnertime yesterday, so staying up past 11 wasn't as bad for her as it could have been .

Here's a picture of the kids with their dad. Austin was too worn out from church-during-nap time to smile for the camera. He was quite the character in church, though. The whole congregation took note of his speed-crawl under five pews to get up the stairs to the flag on the stand. He also laughed out loud every time anyone laughed during sacrament meeting and during Sunday school!

Happy Father's Day!

Proud Mom

One of the other moms in our carpool drove to school and volunteered today, the last day of school. She talked with Mrs. Morrison, Victoria's teacher, and told her that Victoria is the most detailed student in the class. It always takes her a moment to get started and she is sometimes a little poky getting going (that sounds familiar), but once she's working, she stays very focused and does the best, most detailed work of anyone. Of course, that means she often finishes after everyone else, but I am very pleased that she puts good effort into her work. It's been a great year!

P.S. This is my 100th post!!

School is Out!

After nine grueling months of juggling work and school, Jason is done with classes for the summer! Not only do we get to see him every night, but I don't have to mow the lawn now and I can focus on maintaining the landscaping. In September it all starts over again, but at least there's only two semesters until he graduates.

This week is also Victoria's last four days of school. She told me today that she will miss Mrs. Morrison and her friends at school, but I reminded her that she said the same thing last year about her preschool. Overall, I think putting her in the Fantastic Fives program at the charter school was the right thing for her. Now she can go to kindergarten feeling confident, which she will, since I think her class now is not far behind what a kindergarten class does. I also loved the fact that she had to wear a uniform. I never had to worry about her wearing matching clothes, and now she knows how to match her clothes, so we're set for next year!

My advice: charter schools are awesome and if you live in a state where the school deadline is in December (there's not too many of them), then really consider holding your fall-birthday-child back, it's definitely worth it!

One Year!

Austin is now a one-year-old and he has "graduated" in many areas. He now sits in a front-facing car seat, which he loves! Right now he's in between his sisters since his is the only seat that will fit between theirs. When school is out, I will put him up in the middle row, though he sure does like sitting in between his sisters and hearing them sing their hearts out to the High School Musical sound track!Mostly to save on space, but also so he'll feel more like a big boy, Austin now sits in a booster seat at the table. He likes being able to reach for his sippy cup from the table.

Speaking of sippy cups, Austin enjoys drinking from his sippy cup all the time now, except that he wants nothing to do with whole milk, which makes the weaning process more complicated. Never fear, though, I have had experience with a reluctant weaner before, except Karissa would not even use a sippy cup, or anything else, until she was about 14 months. Kefir was the ticket for her. I bought some Kefir for Austin and put it in his sippy with a dab of whole milk. The first few days he refused to drink it from the sippy, only from the 1 quart container it comes in, which was hilarious to watch him drink from that huge container (unfortunately no one was around to take a picture and I couldn't as I was holding Austin in one arm and the Kefir in the other). Since then (three days ago) he's been taking about one sip more of his Kefir mix each day. And after a two day food strike, he has been eating better again, but not as many table foods, mostly baby food. I'm still nursing him morning and night and I guess I'll be doing that for a little while still until he starts drinking his milk better.

At his well-baby check-up he weighed 20.8 lbs. and was 30 and 1/4 in. long. That puts him in the 10-25th percentile for weight and the 50th for height. I'm not surprised he went down in percentiles, since that's what most nursed babies do and odds are against him for being the biggest kid on the block. The doctor actually had him weighed again, though, since she thought he looked bigger than that, but the second weight was the same.

Besides getting into things (see previous blog), he loves to walk with his walker all over, crawl around pushing his trucks or a ball, the swings at the park, climbing up and down stairs, and watching trucks or anything else that makes noise. He can say "hi" and it sounded like he said "Daddy" one time.

We celebrated his birthday on Memorial Day with some friends and had a bar-b-que. He ate some beans and tortilla chips, tons of watermelon, and his slice of lemon poppy seed cake.

We love our big boy!