dinner with Austin

Dinner with Austin is never fun. Last night I made a really kid friendly meal (sloppy joes, ff, corn) and he still refused to eat, but this is every night. So I implemented a new rule, if anyone doesn't eat they must go to bed. I dont necessarily want him to clean his plate but I want to sit and eat dinner with the family,which we have always done. So last night it started when I started to cook dinner. He says things like I don't want dinner, peanut butter and jelly (which has become his favorite). We sat down and he had to go potty, so Rob took him as he was done he said all done dinner, at that point I said then go to bed. That is exactly what he did, Rob went to check on him and he said I go to bed, no dinner. Eventually he did eat but I had to feed him. I can't wait to get past this stage.

movie night

Austin and Valerie on Saturday night, relaxing, winding down for bed watching the movie Pirates of the Caribbean.

candy land

Valerie has a DVD version of candy land which Austin has just discovered, it is for ages 4 and up, but he seems to love it. It helps him with his colors which he knows, but helps reinforce them. And it keeps him active by jumping from mat to mat.

baby number 3

Today we had our ultrasound, Austin was excited to see the baby. He did pretty well and sat through the entire thing of course he had lots of snacks though.

The results....ITS A GIRL!!

Her are some pictures. We actually saw her sucking her thumb.

daffodiles

To all those who bought daffodils from Valerie, they came in on Friday. Because it is impossible to get them to you we thought we would take pictures and let everyone see how nice they look. We appreciate your donation are enjoying them here.

new camera

I finally got my new camera so I took Austin to his new favorite play place, the mall to practice. And then home to play outside with sissy. It is clear that I need to work on the focus aspect but I think it takes much better pictures.

gender complex ??

Valerie sometimes takes Austin outside to play when I have to get things done and can't go out with them. I check on them constantly, but they still get into things and do things I don't know about until the next time I go out with them. This time Valerie has been letting Austin put on her old pink barbie skates and "skate around" while she tries her roller blades. Austin has gotten so use to using Valerie's old things he just doesn't care what they look like or what's on them. He has to have a baby to push around, a baton when she is practicing and he even plays tea party. Daddy is starting to get a little worried.

So today the kids pulled out all the ride on toys for the first time this season, they had a blast, enjoying the weather. Here Valerie is riding her Razor and Austin riding his bike for the first time. He actually can pedal down hill or on a straight a way.

Valerie's 1st baton competition

Today was Valerie's 1st competition she was really excited and did very well. She competed in 4 categories and took home a trophies for 2 of them. 1st place in marching for her age group, and 2nd place for solo routine for her age group. She can't wait to do another. It was a long day for Robbie and Mr. Huch who came up to see her. They arrived at 10:30am and and it was not over until 5:00pm, I unfortanitly had to work, so they won the best dad and grandpa award for the day, sitting on school bleachers for 6hrs. Rob took video and as soon as we figure it out we will post some. Yea Valerie, we are proud of you.

Mama's little helper

Because of our kitchen floors being tile, I have to do the floor on my hands and knees. I only do this about once a month, and use the swifter the rest of the time. Austin loves to help me, or so he thinks he is helping me. He has to have his own bucket and everything, he can even tell if I don't put any cleaner in the water. Here are some pictures, the floor is always like a big puddle when he is done. It does make it easier to do if he helps instead of crying.

What a day

So Monday I had to wake Austin up witch is unusual, he usually gets me up, I didn't think anything of it. I put him in the car and off we went to take Valerie to school. About 3mins into the trip (5 min total ride) Valerie starts screaming he's choking, he's choking!! I look back and see him getting sick but choking on it. There was no shoulder to pull over on so I started yelling at Valerie to get him unbuckled until I could get pulled over, then she started having a panic attack because she was so worried that she couldn't get him unbuckled (maybe 10 seconds here). I finally get the car pulled over help Austin, then calm Valerie down, and tell her she did a good job. What a start a kid choking, a kid with a panic attack and a dog trying to eat the... you know what all in one car. But it didn't stop there. After his episode in the car he was acting fine running, yelling, being a 2yr old. So I let him eat lunch. Then we had to pick Valerie up early for a doctors apt, so off we went. We get there fine, walk in and while I am checking Valerie in she screams again, here Austin was at my feet (I had no clue) getting sick again. All over the carpet. Of course it had to be carpet, not tile. I have never wanted to crawl under a table so much in my life. I could do nothing but watch everyone clean it up, when I felt I should be the one doing it. But then right after, there is Austin running around being his normal self. Lets just say I didn't let him eat dinner!

Jr. choir

Valerie has decided to join the Jr. Church Choir. This past Sunday was her first performance with them. We took some video to share with everyone, however we have to wait to finalize the disc in order to download it. So as soon as we put more video on we will share the clip. All in all she did pretty well, and she is getting better with her stage fright, she just fidgets a little but at least she participates. We are very proud of her. So stay tuned.

40 but feels like 80 degress to the kids

I had this great video of Valerie jumping really high, however I have been trying to download it all night and I have finally given up and decided to post some pictures of her playing instead.

kids playing outside

Today it was 4o degrees outside, but if you looked at my kids you would have thought it was 80. They went outside to play after Valerie got home from school and it was hard to get them back inside. There hands were red and ice cold with runny noses and refused to put winter coats on.

Poppy on the potty

We have been potty training Austin for about 3-4 weeks now, all is going pretty well except for #2. We have even upped the anti, we tell him that if he pops on the potty he gets a popsicle, so all day he runs around saying Pop on potty I get a popsicle, then he pops in his pants. So on Saturday we decided no pull ups, no big boy pants, nothing, all day he was walking around passing gas so we knew he had to go. But when we had to leave to go to Lillys birthday party we had to put clothes on him. We even had to leave Lilly's 1st birthday party because his gas had gotten so bad every couple mins. we thought he went in his pants. Sure enough when we got home he was watching a movie and he got up to sit on the potty all on his own and did his business. I know it was only one time, but much progress here in the Ickes/Huch household.