Monthly Update - 16 months, in pictures

Tuesday, Jun 30, 2009

Catherine turned 16 months this weekend. While she doesn't say much, her expressions speak volumes and it would be impossible to capture them all. Here are just a few I was able to catch!

Bad Mama

Tuesday, Jun 30, 2009

Austen's birthday party

Monday, Jun 29, 2009

Even though we have a few more weeks, we decided to have her party this month, in hopes that more kids would be able to come and wouldn't be on vacation. Having her birthday in the summer and near a holiday is the double whammy. We let her choose and she chose ice skating again! We hired a coach again as well and while last time they spent their time trying not to fall down, this year they learned to stop, bunny hop, figure 8 and skate backwards....kind of. There were still plenty of falls, but the kids bounced up and kept going. 

Grammy brought Austen home after Grammy Camp and also brought a HUGE surprise with her - Aunt Missy!

It was the first time she's been here in almost four years, and the first time she's seen our house. It was a very short visit with both of them, but Austen and I were happy to have them helping out at her party and we're going to see if we can get together some time later this summer.

Ian's first concert

Wednesday, Jun 24, 2009

Back story: We've moved the girls into Ian's room and vice versa. But it took a few weeks and some stuff was left. Well, Ian found Austen's cd collection and fell in love with the Modern Skirts cd Auntie Mimi had given her. He listens to it every day when he's falling asleep and playing in his room. Well, it just so happens that Mimi knows the Skirts, and set us up with the best hook-up: the Skirts at the botanical gardens.

So with Austen at Grammy and Papa's house and Catherine staying with B and Pop for the day, Ian and I started "Mommy and Ian" day, which had big surprises and ended with the BIG surprise.

First up, we hit the water park with friends from our playgroup:

Then, off to Mimi's house, where we scared the crap out of played with her two cats for a few minutes before heading to the small zoo in town with her and Ms. Shana:

We may have picked up a few new toys on the way, too:

Afterwards, back to Mimi's for a nap, then we picked up dinner at "Welcome to Moe's" before heading to the botanical gardens and having a picnic. Ian pretty much ignored the opening band, and we moved down in front of the stage before the Skirts came on. We didn't tell him anything about what was going on. Just that we were having a picnic and listening to music and waiting for his big surprise.

When the Skirts took the stage, Ian listened to the first song with mild interest, but the second song? He knew. And his reaction was priceless:

He had no words, he could only point at himself and grin. He continued to listen to the song front and center stage in total awe:

When it was over, he ran over to where we were sitting, rolled around the the grass and yelled "THEY'RE SINGING MY MUSIC!!", which got big laughs from the crowd behind us:

He listened and played off and on, stopping mostly for the songs he recognized, but then running around like a crazy man when he didn't recognize one.  Then, the last few songs, a crowd gathered at the stage and Ian took it as his opportunity to try and get ON stage. I talked him off of it, but he stood at the base of the stage and let loose...in front of a few hundred people. He mimicked the lead singer and alternated using a rock he found as a guitar and a microphone. When the crowd would clap, he was sure to take a deep bow.

We headed home around 10 and he quickly fell asleep listening to the Skirts in the car.  It was a great day for both of us - one we need to repeat more often!

I only brought my p&s, but luckily Auntie Mimi had her big camera and took some great pictures. I stole a few, so enjoy these as well!!

Edited to add two pics from the newspaper Web site too!

Wordless Wednesday

Wednesday, Jun 17, 2009

This week, it's just me and the skinny mini, so we had a little post-nap photog fun:

She likes to nap "nakey." And as Mimi said, her clothes are deceiving. Underneath, she's a tiny spud. At 15 mos, she's 20.4 lbs and almost 32 inches tall - 95th %ile in height and less than 10th %ile in weight. 

That's okay with me - makes her easier to lug around!!

See that arm? She's got another to match. They're super long like her Aunt Missy's, but much more graceful (sorry, Missy!). For lunch, she had a 6 oz yogurt, 1/2 a bowl of macaroni and cheese and 1/2 a burrito.

Same as me, but without the yogurt.

How lucky am I? 24 hours for almost five days of hogging this little thing, clothed AND nakey, all to myself!

Fun at the park

Saturday, Jun 13, 2009

Pizza by the slice

Thursday, Jun 11, 2009

Wordless Wednesday: off the P&S

Wednesday, Jun 10, 2009

From the last month-ish, in no particular order.

Adorable outfitness from B.

Our first family bike ride. Ian and I got about 1/2 a mile done before he was finished riding. Chris and Austen and Catha got in 2.5 miles.

Hermione for the character parade at school!

Ian at the Chucksters for his Poop Party.

Catherine enjoys a ride too. Notice the adorable, chic outfit fashion faux pas?

"Camping out" at the drive-in.

How many shots does it take...

Sunday, Jun 07, 2009

to get to the end of my memory card? 5,430, to be exact. Please don't go looking for when I got the Nikon - the number of pictures per day might frighten you...

Here's the last shot on the card. I also cleaned off my card in our diaper bag Canon, so random shots from May coming shortly.  I'll be backing up everything from my Nikon onto the LaCie and we'll be starting over soon! 

Now a third grader!

Saturday, Jun 06, 2009

Insanity, right? Austen finished up the school year going to half day second and half day third, and after talking to the principal, it's been decided she'll do half day third and fourth next year too. The principal pointed out we can only keep this up for so long so eventually we'll have to make a decision to bump her up a grade. 

Austen made it to the school spelling bee but after a dramatic run-in with a homonym, she was out. And very, very upset about it. She spent a good 45 minutes on stage crying, angry at herself, apparently, and when she was finally allowed to come off the stage, she marched up to me and said "I want to go home." I didn't laugh at her, but it took a lot of will-power. Since she's on split days, she's suffered some hits to her status as "top kid" in her accelerated class. The other kids get an extra two hours every day as well as all day Tuesdays when she is at her gifted school, and I think it's been a very good and humbling experience. In February, she was first or second in her grade in math, reading and language arts, as determined by her work level. At the end of the year, she wasn't top 10 in math, and didn't receive an excellence in math award. It's bumped her down a notch, even though her work is still very good, and given her classmates an edge on her with the extra time.

She finished the year with a 98 in language arts (combined 2nd/3rd grade) and a 97 in math (2nd grade only), and is reading on an 8th grade level with math on a 4th grade level. So at least the top 11 kids in her grade are working on at least a 4th grade level in math. I love her school. 

She was a runner-up for her grade for the writing competition this year, and she finished second on the mile run earlier this fall. And, the accomplishment she's most proud of, she more than DOUBLED her Accelerated Reader points this year for a whopping total of 346 points. 

We're going to miss her teachers, though. Her accelerated teacher has been forced into retirement...again. The school board can't keep on what she calls "the 49ers," and we're saddened they're losing such a great teacher. Her second grade teachers have been fantastic as well, and they've spoiled her a good bit. Since Austen's grades were high, they allowed her to go to the library twice a day, when she was in class (which was 3 hours or less!). When the library closed this year, her parapro brought in books from home for Austen to read! I'm convinced they think we totally deprive the child of books at home.  

This summer we have her signed up for camps, and she'll be spending a few weeks with her grandmas as well. We plan to visit the library a good bit and she'll be participating in the summer reading challenge, and we'll also be hitting up the movie theaters for the kids summer movie series. It's only in the 80s now, but with all the rain we have had and the low temps as they are now, I have a feeling we will be paying for it with some 100 degree, high humidity days way too soon!

We are currently looking into preschools for Ian as well. Even though he turns 4 in the fall, he misses the cutoff by three little weeks, so he won't start school for two years yet! Some of his buddies will be riding the bus to school this year, and at the very least we don't want him to feel left out or bored at home while his friends are away at school. And it gives me two more years to adjust to the idea of having TWO children in school!!