Life Lately

It's been awhile since I've done a good old phone pictures dump on here.. obviously our summer has been busy and scattered with house selling and buying, but we've had some other fun things going on too.

-My relationship with Austin has been fluctuating lately. Maybe it was the arrival of Owen and how attached Owen is to me, maybe it's because he's a boy, maybe it's his age.. but some days.. well... he can be pretty mean to me. I've been told to go away, that he only wants Daddy, and that he doesn't like me. I try so hard to talk to him, play with him (even when I grit my teeth and play hockey), be affectionate with him, but he still very much prefers Neal over me right now. It's been tough. And I hope it's a phase.

-I've taken just Austin out for some "dates" to hopefully build our bond back.. ice cream for the win!

-We talk in the car everyday on our way to and from school. Play games, make jokes (so seriously.. why doesn't the kid like me????) and Austin likes to go through this book and describe the animals and have me guess what they are. He says every single one has a "long sticky tongue" though.

-And then there is moving... Ugh. You know the saying that things have to get worse before they get better? That's how I feel about moving. You have to pull out every single thing you own. make huge messy piles and then can finally sort it and organize it and make sense of it.

We downsized our mugs. How does a family where only 2 people use mugs.. have this many mugs??

Ugh.

-The day our offer on our new house was accepted... we allowed ourselves to get excited and took some pictures in front our our townhouse as a "goodbye townhouse!' salute.

Attempt #1- oh shoot, Owen is pretty hidden

Attempt #2- Really? that's my smile? Obviously Austin is like "WTF Mom?" about that.. and Owen helped Neal with something stuck in his teeth

Attempt #3- Owen is obsessed with his brother.. and his brother is a bit weird

Attempt #4- Good enough! 

-And we had a few more ice cream outings.. this was actually frozen yogurt but we told him it was ice cream because he "doesn't yike yogurt!!" he had a blast picking out toppings.. other than trying to reach into the toppings bar with his hand!

-The amount Austin has "grown up" this summer is incredible. I swear he is more and more a "kid" everyday. He wants to pour his own milk now, and for the most part does a good job. He's very capable, and independent. Most of our struggles with him are over him thinking he can do something, even if it's dangerous or out of his abilities.. and he won't believe us when we tell him so. This is going to be the kid that grows up to be a man who goes "oh, you don't think I can climb that mountain?? Well, watch me!"

-He is also very into what is "proper" and what is "right" and is a little bit anal in that way. His bedding has to be straight, facing the right way.. things like that. They must also work on this at school too because one Saturday after lunch I look over and he set his silverware out just perfectly.

And if you didn't believe me that WhoZoo the mouse (remember the one from IKEA that was $1??) goes everywhere with him.. well here ya go. He left WhoZoo to clean up the remains of his PB&J

-Along with the challenges we've had with Austin.. we've had some challenges with the whole sibling dynamic. Trying to teach a 3 year old to be kind to a little brother who is getting into his stuff, touching him, pulling his hair, stealing his food.. is tough. I get it.. I wouldn't want to be bothered like that either. So we swing from "Austin, just let Owen check out that car. He just wants to look.. .be kind please" to "Owen! Just leave Austin be. Come over here. Stop touching him." Sigh. But sometimes they get along.... like when Owen is stuck in his highchair and they are both doing the "waffles for breakfast" happy dance.

-Neal has been really awesome this summer with all the house hunting and moving and phone calls and errands involved in this big life change. One day he had to come to my work to get signed papers for our mortgage company and it was a day he had Austin home with him. So Austin got to charm everyone in my office and get some 'work' done!