Happy Father's Day (2.4 years and 9.75 months)

Since we have been home, Brian has been busy starting to build the swing set.  Austin loves to help Brian with it.  Most nights they are in the back yard working on it.  They have dug holes together.  It rained the other day and the holes got water in them so Austin helped get the water out of the holes.  Austin loves to bring Brian any "mouse-ka-tools" he needs like levels, a tape measure, etc.

On Father's Day weekend, Brian and my dad cut wood and built the first tower.  Then on Sunday, they placed it into place.  I helped with that since it was so big and heavy.  It was a lot of work.  I felt so bad that Dad and Brian spent all day Father's day working on it.  They did not get a day to relax.  My parents stayed at our house until 7 pm helping.  Brian continued to work until 10 pm because he wanted to get in concreted into the ground since it was perfectly level.  I even put the kids to bed that night.  Usually Brian puts Austin to bed every night.  They were so busy we never gave Brian his Father's Day gifts.  Hopefully we will do that tonight.

Austin is growing up so fast.  He has gotten noticeably taller.  And his vocabulary has taken off.  He can say 5-8 word sentences easily.  He can repeat everything you say so we have to be very careful with that.  Luckily he has not said a bad word yet.  We usually don't curse but every once in a while one comes out.  Austin can also ride a tricycle.  We have gotten him 3 bikes.  One bike we still have not put together, one bike is still too big, and the other bike he can petal all by himself.  It is crazy that he can ride a bike already.  He's has gotten so big.

Sydney can really move around now.  She can crawl fast and even crawl up all of our stairs without any problem.  She loves to stand and is starting to furniture walk.  She wants to walk so bad but has not figured it out yet.  She can stand alone for about 10 seconds now but if she moves her feet she will fall down.  She cannot crawl down the big stairs yet because she continue to insist on going forwards.  She can go down our 1 living room step forwards fine.  She reaches her arms out and does great but she wants to do that for the big stairs too.  That will not work too well.

Last week Austin and Sydney both had ear infections.  Sydney got her's first.  It was weird because she did not really have any cold symptoms.  There were 2 sleepless nights so I took her to the doctor and she had a right ear infection.  Austin complained of left ear pain one night and would not lay down in his crib to sleep.  He wanted to sleep sitting up.  So Brian took him out the the car so he could sleep in his car seat.  Brian made himself a bed in the back of our Ford Escape next to Austin so he could try and get some sleep too.  Brian took him the the doctor and said he had the start of a left ear infection. There were also questions about Austin's ear tubes (whether they had fallen out and were still in the ear canal or not - Brian has seen them in both ears still although one doctor claimed the one was gone and the other was there while another doctor said the complete opposite about which ear was missing the tube).  Brian and Austin slept in the car for two nights and then he felt better and began sleeping in his big boy bed again.

We are enjoying summer.  We play outside every day that its not raining.  The kids have a lot of outside toys.  I love that we play outside because it keeps my house clean.  :)  We have lots of kids in the neighborhood that come to play too.  Most of them are older but they still enjoy playing with Austin which is nice.

We have had a birthday party and graduation party this month.  We had a lot of fun going to them. I am starting to plan Sydney's first birthday party.  I am excited about that.  We are going to have it at our house.  Since it is summer we can have it outside at our house.  We are going to get a tent and chairs too.  I really hope it doesn't rain that day!  Hopefully Brian will have the swingset done by then too.  It will be so much fun.

Trip to Myrtle Beach (2.35 years old and 9 months)

We left Saturday at 1 pm for Myrtle Beach.  Since I worked Thursday and Friday, I did not have any packing done  so we had to do it all Saturday morning.  So we got everything ready and then left at nap time so the kids would sleep some in the car.  We were not even driving 2 hours and Sydney woke up and she was not happy.  She did not like being in her car seat for that long.  It is hard since she is rear facing and there are only so many toys she can play with that entertain her for more than 5 minutes.  There were times she would cry for at least 30 minutes at a time.  It was awful.  Austin was fantastic in the car.  He would play with his toys and Kindle.  He is a great traveler.  Sydney is just not at a good age for long road trips.

We stopped in Wytheville Virginia around 7 pm.  It is about half way from home to Myrtle Beach.  Brian got a really good deal on a motel there.  They did not have any cribs but it worked out okay because Sydney slept in the pack and play and we put the other double mattress on the floor and Austin slept on that fine.  We  went to Waffle House for dinner.  I have to say it was not that good.  I know many people like Waffle Houses but I was not a fan.

Then we left the next morning around 8 am and we arrived at Myrtle Beach at 2 pm.  It wasn't too bad but we were really glad to get out of the car.  On Sunday, Melissa, Jonathan, and Camden came over to Nana's house.  Melissa was having a rough day.  I totally understood.  I have been there and its rough at first but I reassured her it will get better.  It was great to baby Camden.  He's so small.  He was only 6 pounds 13 ounces when he was born.  Austin and Sydney were never that small.  I loved holding Camden but I was also glad to give him back to his mommy and daddy.

We had a lot of fun in Myrtle Beach.  Austin got to drive Nana's and Grandpa's golf cart and he LOVED it.  He likes to pull our cars out of the garage so for him actually driving the golf cart was the best thing ever.  They would drive around the neighborhood.  They have a playground, pool, and ponds with turtles in their neighborhood.  So Austin would go visit those fun places.

One day we went to Alligator Adventure.  Austin liked looking at the alligators.  It was neat to do something different like that.  Also one night we went for ice cream.  Austin got his own cone with blue ice cream.  Austin loved it.  His tummy was even blue though his shirt.  He really enjoyed his ice cream.  He also got to make homemade ice cream in a coffee can.  It was really cool to do that too.  He liked rolling the can in the driveway.  He really liked eating the ice cream too!

One day when I was with Melissa, both Austin and Sydney went swimming.  They love swimming so that was fun.  Austin also enjoyed playing on the playground.  Nana and Melissa live in a great neighborhood for us to come and vacation in.  I did not get to spend as much time with Melissa and Camden as I hoped.  It was hard because Melissa needed to feed Camden all the time and try to get some sleep.  I needed to be with Austin and Sydney to keep them entertained.  Next year will be better for Camden because he will be out with us playing.

Nana and Grandpa have an extremely nice house.  When I walked in I was so nervous.  All I could think about is my kids are going to destroy this beautiful house.  We brought the kids portable high chairs but they need to go on actual chairs.  I convinced them that needed to cover their nice dining room chairs and the floor or it was going to get ruined.  They thought I was crazy at first but by the end of the week they were thankful of that.  Austin and Sydney are really messy at dinner time.  Most nights we take Sydney's clothes off during dinner because she is so messy.   And I have to say, Austin and Sydney did really good.  They did not break anything!  Thank goodness!

Austin really enjoyed playing in their big pantry that has a light that turns on everything you open the door.  It was like the bathroom on the cruise ship for him.  He loved playing in there.  Austin also spent a lot of time outside.  So it worked out well.  Sydney would stand next to the bar chairs or play on the floor.  She was fine and very happy not to be in her car seat.

We went to the beach one afternoon too.  I was happy we made it there.  We knew it was going to be a mess but it was worth it.  We have our beach tent shade that works nicely for the kids.  Nana got the kids a lot of beach toys so they could play with them in the sand.  It was really nice.  Austin does not like the sand. He got use to it a little bit and did like playing with his toy bucket with water hose.   He does not like to be messy.  Sydney loved the sand and she really liked eating it.  She kept putting handfuls of sand in her mouth.  She would cry when we stopped her.  We put our feet in the ocean.  Austin was not a fan but Sydney did not mind it at all.  It was fun.

On our last day there, Brian spent most of the day installing baby camera system for Melissa and Jonathan.  I  was with the kids.  It is hard when we are not in our own environment.  I had limited toys and Melissa's house is not baby proof yet.  It will be soon.   She has a really nice house too and I could just see Austin throwing and breaking something.  I tried to play outside with them as much as possible.  Austin was playing in the golf cart so he was happy.  He would pretend to get doughnuts.  And that morning we really did take Austin for doughnuts.  He enjoyed eating one.

We had a great time in Myrtle Beach!  We left at 4 am on Friday morning to get home and relax a little bit.  It was an extremely long drive.  It took us 13 hours to get home.  But we had to stop for breakfast, lunch, and a poopy explosion break.  We were glad when we made it home.  Vacations are wonderful but it's always nice to be home!