Putting in the Work

The boys and I did a little bit of imitation practice after breakfast this morning.  Colin has somewhat progressed beyond the game we play in this video, but it's still good practice.  Using legos as 'bait,' I make a sound, and he has to imitate it in order to earn the block.  This exercise does a great job of showing how well he listens, because the sound I make does not correlate visually with the object I'm holding.  He has to use his ears and only his ears.  Also our Pooh Bear J.J. (in the pink shirt) is getting the hang of these speech games himself.

As far as actual words go, we'd like them both to be talking more, but it's not that uncommon for boys under two to be a little slow with words. Currently Colin says pretty clearly "All Done," "Mama" "Dada" "Up" "Cheese" "Uh-oh" and "Round and Round."  Not as clearly, he says "Truck" "Dog" and "Star."  He also makes all kinds of animal sounds, but in the speech world he's too old to get credit for those now.  J.J. has started saying that all-time favorite toddler word, "No."  Brian and I are going to be elated when Colin starts saying it too.  We actually practice it, along with "Mine."

In other news, we are still keeping a very close watch on his left ear, the one currently using only a hearing aid.  It is still not out of the realm of possibility that we will end up implanting that ear as well.  There's a lot of technical stuff that will go into that decision, and I'm sure at some point I'll do a deep description of all that on the blog, but right now it's making me tired just thinking about writing it all down.

Almost Nine

Searching Amanda's room for a pair of scissors she swiped from my desk, I came across the following.

Of the candy chart, she offered, "I was thinking that if I wrote down all the candy we got, I could come up with a pretty cool math problem about it."  Bless Her Third Grade Heart.

Of the Birthday List, I know why she wants the remote control helicopter: to disassemble it with her Harry Potter Fan Club (that's another post in itself) and try to turn it into a Golden Snitch.

Oh, dear almost nine year old, may your room always be filled with such innocence.  Birthday lists and candy charts and stolen scissors forever!

Summer Round Up

Well folks I did it again.  Summer's over, and this blog has very little to show for it.  Luckily real life has not been so barren.  Quite the opposite, in fact.  Here are some highlights.

Camp Ozark.  I still can't quite believe I let Amanda go.  For two weeks.  "But one week isn't long enough," she argued.  One week seemed plenty long to me, but I caved.  Her summer project was to write an essay about her trip that I would post on the blog.  She hasn't finished it yet (like mother, like daughter...).  Suffice it to say, she had the time of her life.  I know that's true because the only letter she found time to write her poor old parents was the measly mandatory postcard we got two days before we went to pick her up.  This, despite being sent with pre-stamped, pre-addressed envelopes and enough stationary to keep a Victorian busy for weeks.

Then it was July, our month of total freedom.  There was a lot of this:

Then we went to Florida!  What was supposed to be a 9 hour drive turned into a 14 hour crawl, but our children were rockstars through it all.

And then we got there and forgot all about it.

Oh I almost forgot about Ben!  We also had a special houseguest this summer, Brian's cousin Ben.  He is an Aggie (but we love him anyway), and had an internship in Houston this summer.  Our kids loved having him around, and so did we.

And then, before we knew it, summer ended.  Back to School Pic Coming Soon!

Imitation Games

Here are some new videos of Colin kicking the sh*t out of hearing loss.

He's graduated, in a sense.  He used to be able to earn a toy simply by verbalizing in any way.  That's not good enough anymore.  Now he has to imitate.  See below.

(While J.J. may seem to be somewhat bump-on-a-log-ish in these videos, it's because without the benefit of speech therapy, he doesn't understand the payoff of playing along.  Also the poor guy is dealing with a little bit of a bug so is not his usually jolly self.)

Team Parenting

I realized I haven't posted any snippets of Brian and my conversations lately.  Here's a glimpse into our texting relationship.  Monday night was Elizabeth's softball team party at a local kid-friendly restaurant called Little Matt's, and Brian stayed home with Amanda, Colin and J.J.

Softball Season on the Disabled List

Like that first sunny, 70 degree day in early March, Elizabeth's softball season started out full of promise.

There were practices, wins (I think; they don't keep score), losses (probably), cheers, hits, at bats, rain outs (lots of those actually) and, most importantly, post game snacks.

Shamrocks.  A Fearsome Bunch.

Her season came to an abrupt and unceremonious end on the Thursday before Good Friday when she broke her elbow.  "Subcondular fracture of the humerus, mom," she would correct me.  Slippery wood floors, socks, and sprinting kindergarteners don't mix, it turns out.  Brian and I were upstairs with the babies when it happened.  We heard shrieking; thought nothing of it.  Her dad went downstairs to investigate and returned with a "she's fine."  Amanda came up twenty minutes later and said she did not think her sister was fine.  So I went downstairs to check on her.  She had tears in her eyes, was refusing to move her arm at all, it was starting to swell, and when I suggested a trip to the doctor, she said, "yes mom I think we should do that."  That's when the alarm bells went off.

Did y'all know you can get water proof casts now?  They are awesome.  Quackers, her kindergarten class mascot, got one too.

The cast comes off on Thursday, just in time for summer vacation.  

Another New Walker!

Things are getting downright crazy around here with now TWO new bipeds in the house.

Career Advice

This morning on the way to school...

Kindergartener:  Mom, I have NO idea what I want to be when I grow up. I don't know if I want to be a gymnast, a baker, a dancer, a teacher, or what else?
Me: (Remembering some random parenting advice from a TED Talk) Instead of thinking that far into the future, why don't you think of what you like to do right now, and try to get really good at it?
Kindergartener: I know! I want to get really good at making balloon animals.
Second grader: I'm pretty sure that's only a part time job.

Progress

BOOM.  That's about all I have to say about this 43 second clip.
P.S. I used no hand signs at all with this.  All he had to go on was my voice.

Two Minutes In the Costco Checkout Line = The Entire Range of Baby Emotions

Spring Break 2015: Austin for 6

"But it's South by Southwest this week."  "But it's supposed to rain for three days."  "But don't you remember there's four of them?  And two are babies?"  There are times in life when you have to just gird your loins and go.  We planned (a little).  We packed (a lot).

We went.

 Miraculously, no sudden stops caused that high chair teetering on top of a pile of crap to fly through my car and decapitate everyone.


Lunch on the road.  Kudos to whoever convinced the highway authority to put the Sonic logo on the "food" sign at the La Grange exit.  That sucker was about three miles off 71.


"Why, yes, dear, this Sonic stop is definitely worth memorializing.  Make sure you capture the chipped paint shaped like Eastern Europe."



Big Sonic fans, these two.


We got adjoining rooms.  Brian, ever the optimist, lobbied to put all four kids in one room while we slept blissfully on the other side of a door slightly ajar.  Visions of 3:00 am screaming babies and midnight pillow fights and zombie children during the day ran through my head, but I agreed to try it for our first night, thinking, this will be one of those moments when I will get credit for listening to my husband while also ultimately being vindicated for knowing what is best for our kids, and all it will cost me is one night of sleep.

Well, dear friends, never let it be said that I cannot admit when my dear husband is right.  HE WAS RIGHT!  All four slept like angels all three nights.

Watching Paddington Bear before bed

Austin adventure #1:  An afternoon of play and pizza with the Nogalskis.  These kids played like they were old pals.   And actually, they are.  Luke was one of Amanda's first ever friends!  What a fun time.  And, Jen, thank you for letting my babies destroy your toys!

 Austin adventure #2:  Exploring Barton Creek while dad plays golf

The Barton Creek Resort Nature Trail.  These are the kinds of hikes I can handle.  About half a mile long, and pool time and frozen piña coladas when you're done.

Fitting in a little playground time

Austin Adventure #4:  Playdate with Dana and her twins, and dinner at Phil's Ice House with a HUGE crew.  (Clockwise from Colin (in the gray hat up front), Amanda, Dana, Leila, Niklas, Rory, Jennie (holding baby Eamon but you can't see him), Jody, Elizabeth, me, J.J., (Brian took the picture and Dana's husband Santosh hadn't arrived yet.)  What a CIRCUS!  But we got to catch up with people we love and introduce them to each other which is even better.  Dana and her family are recent Austin transplants from NYC, where she and I cut our teeth together as young lawyers.  

Austin Adventure #5:  Tennis with Dad

Flip flops, dude? 

Austin Adventure #6:  Guerros for lunch.  Despite resolving to avoid Austin proper because of South by Southwest, we couldn't bring ourselves to miss an opportunity to introduce the kids to Guerros on South Congress.  

Not quite sure what Brian is smiling at there.  Maybe it was our drink order arriving...

Austin Adventure #7:  The Fredericks!  The Frederick kids are awesome.  Not surprising...apple doesn't fall far from the tree, and all that.  Amanda and Maggie are such kindred spirits it makes me sad they don't get to see each other more.  

Austin Adventure #8:  Leaving town.  You can't see the license plate in this blurry picture, but it says, "CIVPRO," and is the personalized license plate of the most feared Civil Procedure professor at UT Law.  Brian took her class fifteen years ago.  Somehow, she ended up in front of us as we were heading out of Westlake.  Who says God doesn't have a sense of humor?

And that concludes our latest Austin adventure.  We did it!  (Cue the Dora music...)