What Has Happened To Me?

Is it the almost empty glass of wonderful French Rose? The inspirational dancing on the SYTYCD finale? The amazing sunset as seen through my new living room window (mountain view!)? The beautiful sleeping boy upstairs, who has recently began saying "I love you too!"? The forecast for a hot August weekend? All of these things leave me sitting here on my comfy couch sappy with happiness.
The new house is wonderful. Every day we chip away at the unpacking, while still trying to enjoy the last bit of summer. Turns out I'm WAY happier here than I could have imagined. The landscaping makes me feel at peace. It reminds me of vacation and we all know that is my fav thing in the world.
Austin started a new school on Aug 2nd, the Monday after we moved. He took it in stride, with nary a complaint. He has thoroughly enjoyed it. Has even made a friend, to our delight. He says he "follows him EVERYWHERE!"
Looking forward to another b-day party tomorrow (Happy Birthday Amelia!) and perhaps a BBQ or something equally festive on Sunday.
Yay Summer 2010!

Breakthrough at Bartells

Today was an absolutely fabulous day. In fact, these days having a 3 year old has been quite fun. Highlights of today and recent days include:

• Here's the big one - he's back in underwear now after reverting to pull-ups due to some major potty training issues. We ran down the street to Bartell's to do a little shopping and I left Austin in underwear (usually he's in pull-ups when we're out of the house due to an intense aversion to public toilets). We were about halfway done when he told me he had to go pee-pee. I took him to the bathroom where I intended to put a pull-up on him, but to my delight he did NOT protest when I suggested he use the public toilet. I held him while he went and he did great. I was in shock. We are very proud of him


• We baked banana bread together. He called it "bread soup" while he was mixing the wet ingredients.


• I asked him how old he was & he said "four". I said 'oh, I must have missed your b-day' and he told me he's old enough to drive now.


• He has discovered his penis. Yeserday he kept taking it out of his pants. When Grandma was leaving he had it out and in his hand. I told him to put it away and wave bye to Grandma driving away. He started waving to Grandma, but had his penis in his other hand and he was smiling saying "hold penis!"


• Ran around the house asking "where the heck is mama?"


• The past couple days he's told me "Sleepy today. Need nap today", which is just so fantastic. Much better than fighting every single nap. When I put him down for his nap today, I said see you at 4 (which is the time I make him stay in his room until) but he said "no, 5."


• I swear he was just a little angel today. Even hung up his coat, took his shoes off at the door, cleaned up his toys, and helped with housework. What is going on??

Little Things I Love About My Family

I love that Austin insists on listening to NPR in the car. Whether it's jazz or talk, doesn't matter. Freaks if you turn the station. This is not something he got from me. He chose that station on his own.

I love that Brian calls Austin "sir".

I love that if you make a kiss noise to my cat, Peyton, he yawns.

No More Binkies!

Yep, yesterday we went through the painful process of stripping him of his comfort item. He still has his blankie so we're not total meanies. Just before bed, we put them all outside and left them there and during the night the binky fairy came and took them away to the babies and left a bike! It was quite heartbreaking. We've talked about it for a long time but I don't think he thought it was actually happen. He basically fell apart at first. Then when it was time to go to sleep he wasn't hysterical, but he had a hard time sleeping. Brian eventually went in there and stayed with him until he fell asleep. At 4:45am Austin woke up crying because his sticker came off his hand. So I'm rummaging around in the closet looking specifically for a cat sticker to replace it. It look a bit of comforting, but I got him back to sleep. Tonight he fell right asleep with no complaints whatsoever. We had an exhausting day though. Fun summer day at a baseball game. I asked Austin what his favorite part of the day was. He said "baseball." I asked what part of the baseball game he liked best, he said he liked drinking water....when the water all gone...filled it up more...held lid.

The Big 3

What a fun few days we've had. I took my big vacation of the summer - a whopping two days off from work. Ran errands and went to the gym on Thurs. Austin played a video game the whole time. The days of tears and screams at the gym are long gone. Friday was his b-day and we opened presents from "vacation gramma" (my mom) and a couple from us. We also went to the zoo. Saturday was his b-day party and once again we had a huge turnout. He had a great time. Today, we played with some of his gifts. He kept dragging out this one gift, a kid computer that hooks up to the TV from Brian's dad. I didn't have it figured out, so we played Candyland instead. I had low expectations; I figured he had a few months until he could understand how a board game works. But he did great! He mastered taking one card at a time, moving his game piece, and patiently waiting his turn. It was so fun.

Today we had a cute conversation about returning some books to the library. I explained the library was closed so we couldn't go in. I wasn't sure he understood, but he proceeded to ask if the doors were locked, and then told me I should bring some keys to get in.

Lately, when he does something he's proud of (including going down a big slide and successfully navigating his way to the pictures on our computer - he can use a mouse now) he says "Did it!" and raises his arms victoriously.

Approaching 3

Things have been a little more challenging recently because Austin's Almost 3 Behavior has been crazy. Everything's a struggle especially getting dressed and sitting on the potty. Actually, he's not really interested in doing anything other than watching movies or listening to music. Apparently, I have a teenager already. He hasn't been getting enough sleep so that definitely has contributed toward it, and he's had a little cold so that's part of it as well.
Some cute stuff that he's done lately:
Today we were in Home Depot shopping; Austin was holding the light switch that we were buying. I saw him flipping the switch up and down and looking at the store's lights to see if he was turning them on and off. He did that for quite a while. It cracked me up!
He's adamant about wearing his diapers lately and not using the potty. He refuses to even wear pull-ups. I tell him all the time that soon he'll be too big for diapers and then what will we do? He says "Sevens, momma, sevens". (He wears size six diapers.) When I told him they don't make sevens, he said "Tens?"
A few days after that, I was trying again to get him to use the potty and wear a pull-up, but he refused and wanted diapers. He pointed to the pile of diapers on the shelf and said "Out of diapers, go potty." I said "Really? When we're out of diapers, you'll start going potty again?" He said yes, so we high fived and that's the plan. I like his negotiation skills.

Great Strides

This is the term the lady at the gym daycare used today. We had our first official No-Cry day at the gym. It makes for a much better workout for me! Too bad the daycare closes at noon and I'm always running late so I only get about a half hour workout. He was playing and smiling when I picked him up.
But the even bigger news is that he pooped on the toilet yesterday! He voluntarily went on the potty and asked for privacy. When I returned he had gone poop. We weren't even working toward this so I was totally shocked. He had a bit of a bewildered look on his face as well.
One funny thing he has been saying lately is "too much" or "not too much". As in "I don't like this hat too much" or if asked if he wants to do something he'll say "no, not too much." I don't know where he picked this up, but he says it all the time. He cracks me up.