Life Lately

These posts have become my favorite.. I love having a place to dump all my random pictures, and when I look back at them it's fun to see all the random stuff going on in our lives.

So here is what has been going on the last few weeks...

-Owen has become really interested in my phone when I take pictures. He's starting to "get" it and instead of sitting or standing still for a picture, he'll see me trying to take one and immediately come around to see what I'm seeing on the screen. What I've gotten of him lately is either blurry, or in selfie-form since he's checking out the other side.

Sorry you have to look at this bad picture of me... but this is Owen being so curious about this camera thing!!!

-Owen has also developed an obsession/curiosity with faces... he is always touching and reaching and grabbing... 

Ooh... brudder's teeth!!!

-You know how adults always tell you that the best toys for kids are the things that aren't toys at all? Like how we all grew up playing with spatulas and Tupperware. It's so true. My boys' favorite toys are: fly swatters, oven mitts, pans, cooking utensils, and the couch pillows. That's all they want to play with, I swear. 

Pillow fights! Down goes the baby... 

-Speaking of "down goes the baby" we have to really focus on getting Austin to show compassion. Is compassion inherent, or learned? I feel like in boys, it has to be learned. Girls seem to have it naturally but boys... well if they knock down little brother and make him cry... well, sucks to be him. They shrug and move on. So there are a lot of talks, arguments and "you need to go see if your brother is ok and give him a hug and check on him" going on in our house lately. 

-Austin is just such a "boy" and it amazes me that I made him. He's into bamming toy cars into other toy cars or other things... makes up stories about dragons eating the animals on Old McDonald's farm, sticks toy swords in the waistband of his shorts and wants to go fight the bad guys, told his little friend Emma that she was a princess and he was going to protect her (with said toy sword in the waistband of his pants) and is forever playing in the dirt. Yet... he loves the show Princess Sofia, thinks Barbies are cool, puts tiaras on his head at school for dress-up and loves to play house. He's awesome. 

- Austin has started picking out all his own clothes for the day. We used to present him with options but decided to just put a bar low enough in his closet so that he could grab what he wanted to wear. It's funny because I wake him up, tell him to grab clothes and come downstairs. More often than not, down comes this little kid, buck naked, clutching his clothes for the day. He takes off his jammies and underwear in his room then comes downstairs to get dressed. We've had a eclectic array of outfits... red mesh shorts paired with a Beavers jersey and orange knee socks... red striped pants paired with a blue striped polo shirt... and Neal's old elementary school shirt that he kept all these years and found it's way into Austin's closet. 

The shirt reads "Tualatin Elementary- Class of 2001"

- Tensions have been high in our house lately... the Cubs are in the NLCS (that's National League Championship Series... National League because their pitchers take turns at bat, while the teams in the American League don't have the pitchers take turns at bat... ok, I digress from the baseball soapbox)... and the boys just happen to be SLIGHT Cubs fans. They have to win Game 4 tonight to stay afloat! Go Cubs Go!

- The hot seat in our house lately is the kid's armchair... battles have ensued... tears have been cried... pushing and shoving... all for the coveted seat. We probably should just buy a second.. but if we do, how much you want to bet they will still fight over this one? Whoever is in the chair.. the other one wants in. 

-No thanks to whatever genes he got from me... Austin has turned into a pretty good little artist. I can't even draw a decent stick figure, but here is Austin's drawing of a bike.. I'm biased, but not bad for a 3 year old! I'm surprised he drew this in purple because 99% of his drawings from school are in brown crayon. Seriously. It's his go-to color for some reason. He must have felt a wild streak this day and decided to deviate from his norm. Ha. 

- Almost 15 months old.. and this kid is just now getting another tooth. Hello teeth... any day now!!! We are over the drooling and crankiness!!!! Finally another bottom tooth has broken through the surface. In the meantime, Owen has wandered around, contemplating life and why his teeth are so late to the party...