New photos:
2010-04 - photos of the new playset, Austin and t-ball, misc stuff
Family mini-vacation to the SC RR Museum in Winnsboro, Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia
Blue Angels performance over Charleston Harbor, April 2010
A cool rainbow in front of our house, April 27 2010
In other news, Jonas spent much of the first week of May (including half of his 3rd birthday...poor guy) sick with a really high fever, but no other symptoms. Even the doctor mostly shrugged his shoulders. It went away after about a week. A few days ago Devon picked up a similar illness and has been mega-cranky as a result. I was hoping he was getting some teeth or something? Still hanging on to that hope, but fadingly so.
Austin's almost done with kindergarten, this is his next-to-last week. I'm more than a little bit sad about this. He loves kindergarten so much and I know he'll miss his teacher (as will I - she's a fabulous teacher). I hope a lot of his current classmates make it into his 1st grade class, as he likes most of them. They're going to the beach this Wednesday as a field trip, which I volunteered to chaperone...can't decide yet if I'm brilliant or insane for doing so. :)
That's really all for now. See you next month.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Finally up: February and March 2010 photos
Family photos for February and March 2010 are finally up:
+ 2010-02
+ 2010-02 - snow!
+ 2010-03
+ 2010-03 - Austin school play
+ 2010-03 - Devon first bday
It's 12:30am and I should've been asleep at least 2 hours ago, so that's all I got for now. Updates on the kids/family next time I get a chance. For now, just enjoy the photos.
I've also got some videos, most of which were taken by our new digital camera--problem is they appear to be in proprietary format, and I haven't figured out how to get them offloaded and into a version that I can put on youtube. I might have that figured out by, oh, 2014. :)
+ 2010-02
+ 2010-02 - snow!
+ 2010-03
+ 2010-03 - Austin school play
+ 2010-03 - Devon first bday
It's 12:30am and I should've been asleep at least 2 hours ago, so that's all I got for now. Updates on the kids/family next time I get a chance. For now, just enjoy the photos.
I've also got some videos, most of which were taken by our new digital camera--problem is they appear to be in proprietary format, and I haven't figured out how to get them offloaded and into a version that I can put on youtube. I might have that figured out by, oh, 2014. :)
Thursday, March 4, 2010
February photos postponed
Due to a convergence of events making my life really crazy, I haven't had a chance to upload February 2010 photos. I'll do it as soon as I can. We got a new digital camera recently, so starting in March photos should be of much higher quality. Our 8-year old Canon Powershot Elph S110 has served us well, but it passed into obsolescence a long time ago.
A quick update on the kids, though:
Austin: Austin can read and write now!!! It's pretty incredible. He can read beginner books and is able to sound out most unfamiliar words, even large ones. His teacher has taught him to write phonetically--I can't remember the technical term but the point is to get him to write words, even if they're misspelled. So we get some interesting spellings but he LOVES to write--we get "cards" and letters all the time. They're adorable, and he loves to make "fancy" letters with little spiraled stems and stuff. I'll have to scan one to show you what I'm talking about.
He's lost 2 teeth now, but none of the others have started to loosen yet. Well, maybe one of them but only a tiny bit. Also he's started to wear his glasses more, although I'm not sure if he wears them in school yet. I think maybe now that he can read and write, he's figuring out that he can't see from a distance well enough to read? Or maybe he just wants to wear glasses like daddy, I dunno. He claims the former, but part of me just thinks it's a convenient excuse. :)
Jonas: Jonas has started to potty train and is doing pretty well. Originally we were just going to let him train at his own pace, but we want to put him in 3K classes next fall and they all require potty-training. He took to peeing in the potty very quickly, it only took a few days--he still doesn't do it consistently (2 days ago he didn't do it at all, for example) but it's getting there. No real progress on going #2 on the potty but he'll do it occasionally. We have till late August to get this accomplished so there's no huge sense of urgency yet.
Speaking of pre-schools, we got Jonas into our #1 preference of preschools (Bethany). It's a different preschool than Austin went to, but has a better reputation. We're thrilled. He'll be going 2 days a week this year, and next year he'll automatically have a spot in the 5-day 4K if we want it (which we will). Score! I'm also thrilled because this preschool is significantly cheaper than Austin's (St. Luke's). We loved St. Luke's, but (1) the opportunity to get into Bethany couldn't be turned down, (2) it was way more expensive, (3) Austin's old teacher (who we absolutely loved) is retiring.
Devon: Devon is walking now. It's still slow and tentative, but he walks as much as he crawls and is getting faster by the day. He can't quite make it across a room unaided yet, but will probably be able to by this weekend. He's so cute toddling around!
He has 7 teeth now with another one ready to break through any day. He's still a good teether, you'd barely know he had any coming in. He's in a wonderful mood lately, especially after we got him on medication for two (!!) ear infections that we had no idea he was suffering--he never showed any symptoms other than general crankiness, which we attributed to teething and a cold. Anyway his mood is markedly better these days and he's an absolute sweetie to be around. He is trying to talk, and has "uh-oh" and "woof woof woof!" in his vocabulary but that's all so far. He's improving though, and is able to repeat many sounds with remarkable accuracy. He can growl and "monster roar" and often does so when playing with Amy, me, and his brothers. He'll also "vroom vroom!" when playing with cars.
Devon's birthday is later this month; we've been slackers about planning it, but will probably have a party at our house for family and friends. We're both too tired these days to think about it :) but have to got to get on the ball soon.
That's it for this update! More when the photos get put up.
A quick update on the kids, though:
Austin: Austin can read and write now!!! It's pretty incredible. He can read beginner books and is able to sound out most unfamiliar words, even large ones. His teacher has taught him to write phonetically--I can't remember the technical term but the point is to get him to write words, even if they're misspelled. So we get some interesting spellings but he LOVES to write--we get "cards" and letters all the time. They're adorable, and he loves to make "fancy" letters with little spiraled stems and stuff. I'll have to scan one to show you what I'm talking about.
He's lost 2 teeth now, but none of the others have started to loosen yet. Well, maybe one of them but only a tiny bit. Also he's started to wear his glasses more, although I'm not sure if he wears them in school yet. I think maybe now that he can read and write, he's figuring out that he can't see from a distance well enough to read? Or maybe he just wants to wear glasses like daddy, I dunno. He claims the former, but part of me just thinks it's a convenient excuse. :)
Jonas: Jonas has started to potty train and is doing pretty well. Originally we were just going to let him train at his own pace, but we want to put him in 3K classes next fall and they all require potty-training. He took to peeing in the potty very quickly, it only took a few days--he still doesn't do it consistently (2 days ago he didn't do it at all, for example) but it's getting there. No real progress on going #2 on the potty but he'll do it occasionally. We have till late August to get this accomplished so there's no huge sense of urgency yet.
Speaking of pre-schools, we got Jonas into our #1 preference of preschools (Bethany). It's a different preschool than Austin went to, but has a better reputation. We're thrilled. He'll be going 2 days a week this year, and next year he'll automatically have a spot in the 5-day 4K if we want it (which we will). Score! I'm also thrilled because this preschool is significantly cheaper than Austin's (St. Luke's). We loved St. Luke's, but (1) the opportunity to get into Bethany couldn't be turned down, (2) it was way more expensive, (3) Austin's old teacher (who we absolutely loved) is retiring.
Devon: Devon is walking now. It's still slow and tentative, but he walks as much as he crawls and is getting faster by the day. He can't quite make it across a room unaided yet, but will probably be able to by this weekend. He's so cute toddling around!
He has 7 teeth now with another one ready to break through any day. He's still a good teether, you'd barely know he had any coming in. He's in a wonderful mood lately, especially after we got him on medication for two (!!) ear infections that we had no idea he was suffering--he never showed any symptoms other than general crankiness, which we attributed to teething and a cold. Anyway his mood is markedly better these days and he's an absolute sweetie to be around. He is trying to talk, and has "uh-oh" and "woof woof woof!" in his vocabulary but that's all so far. He's improving though, and is able to repeat many sounds with remarkable accuracy. He can growl and "monster roar" and often does so when playing with Amy, me, and his brothers. He'll also "vroom vroom!" when playing with cars.
Devon's birthday is later this month; we've been slackers about planning it, but will probably have a party at our house for family and friends. We're both too tired these days to think about it :) but have to got to get on the ball soon.
That's it for this update! More when the photos get put up.
Monday, February 1, 2010
December 2009/January 2010 photos are up
Sorry these are late in coming, but December 2009 (including Christmas) and January 2010 photos are uploaded. The January 2010 folder includes some post-Christmas Hauck Christmas Cookie Decoration party photos, as well as a couple shots from Austin's "Terrific Kid" assembly/awards ceremony last week. (We are very proud of him!)
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Mo Teef
Quick post this morning. Devon's top 2 teeth have broken through in the past few days. He's been accordingly cranky and clingy, but I'm hoping that will pass now that the teeth have actually come through the gums.
We've also discovered that Devon adores stuffed animals. He'll hug and squeeze them, and laugh and giggle and put the biggest smile on his face. It's as close to utter elation as I think I've ever seen a baby. Who knew that stuffed animals could do that? Neither of our other kids ever had that kind of reaction.
Devon is still trying to stand free, and is getting pretty good at it. A few days ago at a friend's house he stood up for probably 20 seconds, so we know he can do it. He also tries to take steps but hasn't mastered that quite yet. :) Soon, though.
Last thing - the other day I put Devon in a push-behind car to tote around our back yard. To my surprise he started going "VROOM! VROOM!!" as soon as he got into the car, and continued doing it on and off for nearly half an hour. He'd also occasionally yell "GO! GO!" (well, it was actually more like "DOE! DOE!")...couldn't figure out if that was a coincidence or not, but I tend to think he was parrotting Austin with both sounds. It was impressive! And amusing to boot. I even have some video of the VROOMing, though it's not the best example of him doing it.
I know I'm weeks late on December '09 photos and at this point will probably just wait till February and do 2 months' worth. Sorry about that. It's been a crazy month.
That's all for now.
We've also discovered that Devon adores stuffed animals. He'll hug and squeeze them, and laugh and giggle and put the biggest smile on his face. It's as close to utter elation as I think I've ever seen a baby. Who knew that stuffed animals could do that? Neither of our other kids ever had that kind of reaction.
Devon is still trying to stand free, and is getting pretty good at it. A few days ago at a friend's house he stood up for probably 20 seconds, so we know he can do it. He also tries to take steps but hasn't mastered that quite yet. :) Soon, though.
Last thing - the other day I put Devon in a push-behind car to tote around our back yard. To my surprise he started going "VROOM! VROOM!!" as soon as he got into the car, and continued doing it on and off for nearly half an hour. He'd also occasionally yell "GO! GO!" (well, it was actually more like "DOE! DOE!")...couldn't figure out if that was a coincidence or not, but I tend to think he was parrotting Austin with both sounds. It was impressive! And amusing to boot. I even have some video of the VROOMing, though it's not the best example of him doing it.
I know I'm weeks late on December '09 photos and at this point will probably just wait till February and do 2 months' worth. Sorry about that. It's been a crazy month.
That's all for now.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Recent milestones
Well, I figure today is as good a day as any for this, so away we go.
Austin
Austin lost his first tooth last night! Amy and I were prepping dinner when Austin walks in with a worried look...the gum around his loosest tooth was bleeding, though it didn't hurt. After getting the bleeding slowed down I looked at the tooth and it was just barely hanging on. I declared it was coming out. Long story short, after about 15 minutes of trying to come to an agreement on how to take it out, Austin simply reached a fingernail underneath the front edge and pulled it out. No pain, not much blood, but a very surprised face. And once he figured out what he'd done he was very excited. :) He got ice cream as a special celebratory dessert, and last night the tooth fairy left him a very special Eisenhower dollar (the tooth fairy chose this coin because Austin's never seen one before, and thought he'd like the size and the design).
More tooth photos here
School-wise, Austin's reading and writing improves all the time. He can now read entire pages of simple books to me, and can work through many words in just a few tries. He doesn't always store what the word is, but that comes with time. He's getting way more confident with it and even parses 2-letter sounds (sh, ch, th and so forth) without a problem. His writing is progressing very well too, and sometimes he'll even attempt new words on his own. He's also practicing writing his numbers; this is going okay, although he still does about half of them backwards. I suspect this is due as much to his lefthandedness as anything.
Austin's speech is improving tremendously--he doesn't start-and-stop much at all anymore, and he's also pronouncing sounds correctly almost all the time. I'm very impressed with how quickly his speech problems were cleared up.
He still loves to draw and will make you a picture at the drop of a hat. He also loves to make cards for people, especially "feel better" (get well soon) cards.
Jonas
Jonas is your typical 2-year old and can be so challenging--very headstrong and willful and stubborn. But he's starting to control his temper better and his protests are getting shorter. Now if we could only breaking him of 3 annoying habits: pulling a chair up to the counter anytime someone is preparing food; making a dash to the fridge/pantry whenever it's opened; and waking up in the middle of the night for no reason. At least he's sleeping in in the morning a little bit later, although this may be temporary--he was sleeping till 7am or later over the Christmas break, and I'm hoping his body got used to it and now needs those extra Z's. It's certainly better than him awaking at 5am every morning and watching cartoons on our bedroom floor while Amy gets dressed.
All that being said, he is still an extremely intelligent child. His speech and communication gets more and more complex every week, it seems. Just since mid-December I've noticed a very distinct "upgrade" to the way he communicates and speaks. You can almost see the wheels turning in his head.
As part of that improvement he's started transitioning into the "why?" stage. It hasn't gotten to the point where he's asking 35 "why?" questions in a row, but that day is coming. :) Another sign of his increasing ability is that he asks other questions repeatedly now. That can get pretty tiring, but I try to remember that he's practicing not just comprehension, but how to say the words themselves. So when he asks me 50 times (no exaggeration) where the moon is, I have to exercise some patience. He loves to ask "where? where? where? where? where? where? where?", especially if someone leaves the room. "Where mommy? where mommy? where mommy?" It doesn't really matter if you give him the right answer or not, he'll keep asking it until he's satisfied.
Probably best of all is that Jonas gets along much better with Devon now. They even make each other laugh on a daily basis. Jonas can still be pretty mischevious with Devon, knocking him down or yanking his hands off something when Devon's trying to pull up, or yelling in the car while Devon's napping. Yesterday he even tried to pick Devon up by grabbing the back of his shirt and pulling upwards! But overall they get along a lot more peacefully, and safely. I don't feel like I'm putting Devon in danger anymore by leaving him in the room alone with Jonas for 5 seconds.
Devon
Devon had his 9-month checkup earlier this week. I don't remember the measurements themselves (I want to say 20 pounds, 29 inches; not sure if that's right) but I know he gained 2 pounds and 2 inches. Amy said he's in about the 50th percentile for weight and around 90th for height.
He's pulling up all the time and is starting to cruise more regularly now. He'll also let go occasionally, as often by accident as not; he can't stand for more than a second or two normally but every once in a while he'll figure out how to stabilize himself.
He's also changed his sleep patterns lately, going to bed much later than usual--as late as 7:30--and then waking up around 10pm for 20 minutes or so. Thankfully that's almost always the last time he's up. And we think his upper 2 teeth are trying to break through. The gums are very swollen and I thought I saw one parting a few days ago, but haven't seen it since. Hopefully he's indeed teething and they'll come through soon because he's been kind of grumpy the past several weeks.
With teeth comes people food, of course! Devon's trying everything now including chicken, bacon, pork loin, even hamburger. He likes mashed potatoes and rice, and will eat pretty much any fruit you put in front of him. He appropriated nearly an entire apple from Jonas last night and went to town on it while we went to dinner, shaving off little bits and pieces of the apple with his only 2 (bottom) teeth. He ate nearly half of the apple doing that! It was amazing. He was going to town on that thing.
Devon is learning 2-way communication. He loves to wave both spontaneously and on demand; he also occasionally waves in context (going to bed, leaving the house, etc). He knows a couple different ways to wave, though only Austin can get him to wave using his whole arm (versus flexing his fingers in and out). He will parrot the noises you make if he can--raspberries, ba-ba-ba, tongue-clicking, etc. He thinks it's really funny. And he's even trying to talk now--he tries to say "uh-oh" especially if you say it. It usually just comes out "uh!" but it's definitely not random.
As mentioned above, he and Jonas get along a lot better now and Devon loves being entertained by Jonas. And of course he and Austin get along famously as always. That may change once Devon's on his feet and following everyone around, but for now he and Austin are still best buds.
December photos and possibly videos, including Christmas pics, will be up just as soon as I can get to 'em (hopefully this weekend?). I know I'm behind in doing them but things have been crazy since the New Year.
Speaking of New Year, happy 2010 to everyone who reads this! I hope it's your best year ever.
Austin
Austin lost his first tooth last night! Amy and I were prepping dinner when Austin walks in with a worried look...the gum around his loosest tooth was bleeding, though it didn't hurt. After getting the bleeding slowed down I looked at the tooth and it was just barely hanging on. I declared it was coming out. Long story short, after about 15 minutes of trying to come to an agreement on how to take it out, Austin simply reached a fingernail underneath the front edge and pulled it out. No pain, not much blood, but a very surprised face. And once he figured out what he'd done he was very excited. :) He got ice cream as a special celebratory dessert, and last night the tooth fairy left him a very special Eisenhower dollar (the tooth fairy chose this coin because Austin's never seen one before, and thought he'd like the size and the design).
More tooth photos here
School-wise, Austin's reading and writing improves all the time. He can now read entire pages of simple books to me, and can work through many words in just a few tries. He doesn't always store what the word is, but that comes with time. He's getting way more confident with it and even parses 2-letter sounds (sh, ch, th and so forth) without a problem. His writing is progressing very well too, and sometimes he'll even attempt new words on his own. He's also practicing writing his numbers; this is going okay, although he still does about half of them backwards. I suspect this is due as much to his lefthandedness as anything.
Austin's speech is improving tremendously--he doesn't start-and-stop much at all anymore, and he's also pronouncing sounds correctly almost all the time. I'm very impressed with how quickly his speech problems were cleared up.
He still loves to draw and will make you a picture at the drop of a hat. He also loves to make cards for people, especially "feel better" (get well soon) cards.
Jonas
Jonas is your typical 2-year old and can be so challenging--very headstrong and willful and stubborn. But he's starting to control his temper better and his protests are getting shorter. Now if we could only breaking him of 3 annoying habits: pulling a chair up to the counter anytime someone is preparing food; making a dash to the fridge/pantry whenever it's opened; and waking up in the middle of the night for no reason. At least he's sleeping in in the morning a little bit later, although this may be temporary--he was sleeping till 7am or later over the Christmas break, and I'm hoping his body got used to it and now needs those extra Z's. It's certainly better than him awaking at 5am every morning and watching cartoons on our bedroom floor while Amy gets dressed.
All that being said, he is still an extremely intelligent child. His speech and communication gets more and more complex every week, it seems. Just since mid-December I've noticed a very distinct "upgrade" to the way he communicates and speaks. You can almost see the wheels turning in his head.
As part of that improvement he's started transitioning into the "why?" stage. It hasn't gotten to the point where he's asking 35 "why?" questions in a row, but that day is coming. :) Another sign of his increasing ability is that he asks other questions repeatedly now. That can get pretty tiring, but I try to remember that he's practicing not just comprehension, but how to say the words themselves. So when he asks me 50 times (no exaggeration) where the moon is, I have to exercise some patience. He loves to ask "where? where? where? where? where? where? where?", especially if someone leaves the room. "Where mommy? where mommy? where mommy?" It doesn't really matter if you give him the right answer or not, he'll keep asking it until he's satisfied.
Probably best of all is that Jonas gets along much better with Devon now. They even make each other laugh on a daily basis. Jonas can still be pretty mischevious with Devon, knocking him down or yanking his hands off something when Devon's trying to pull up, or yelling in the car while Devon's napping. Yesterday he even tried to pick Devon up by grabbing the back of his shirt and pulling upwards! But overall they get along a lot more peacefully, and safely. I don't feel like I'm putting Devon in danger anymore by leaving him in the room alone with Jonas for 5 seconds.
Devon
Devon had his 9-month checkup earlier this week. I don't remember the measurements themselves (I want to say 20 pounds, 29 inches; not sure if that's right) but I know he gained 2 pounds and 2 inches. Amy said he's in about the 50th percentile for weight and around 90th for height.
He's pulling up all the time and is starting to cruise more regularly now. He'll also let go occasionally, as often by accident as not; he can't stand for more than a second or two normally but every once in a while he'll figure out how to stabilize himself.
He's also changed his sleep patterns lately, going to bed much later than usual--as late as 7:30--and then waking up around 10pm for 20 minutes or so. Thankfully that's almost always the last time he's up. And we think his upper 2 teeth are trying to break through. The gums are very swollen and I thought I saw one parting a few days ago, but haven't seen it since. Hopefully he's indeed teething and they'll come through soon because he's been kind of grumpy the past several weeks.
With teeth comes people food, of course! Devon's trying everything now including chicken, bacon, pork loin, even hamburger. He likes mashed potatoes and rice, and will eat pretty much any fruit you put in front of him. He appropriated nearly an entire apple from Jonas last night and went to town on it while we went to dinner, shaving off little bits and pieces of the apple with his only 2 (bottom) teeth. He ate nearly half of the apple doing that! It was amazing. He was going to town on that thing.
Devon is learning 2-way communication. He loves to wave both spontaneously and on demand; he also occasionally waves in context (going to bed, leaving the house, etc). He knows a couple different ways to wave, though only Austin can get him to wave using his whole arm (versus flexing his fingers in and out). He will parrot the noises you make if he can--raspberries, ba-ba-ba, tongue-clicking, etc. He thinks it's really funny. And he's even trying to talk now--he tries to say "uh-oh" especially if you say it. It usually just comes out "uh!" but it's definitely not random.
As mentioned above, he and Jonas get along a lot better now and Devon loves being entertained by Jonas. And of course he and Austin get along famously as always. That may change once Devon's on his feet and following everyone around, but for now he and Austin are still best buds.
December photos and possibly videos, including Christmas pics, will be up just as soon as I can get to 'em (hopefully this weekend?). I know I'm behind in doing them but things have been crazy since the New Year.
Speaking of New Year, happy 2010 to everyone who reads this! I hope it's your best year ever.
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