Austin's School Injury (3.6 years and 2 years)

We took a day trip to Idlewild park in Pennsylvania.  We left early in the morning and got there when the park opened.  It was a few hour drive.  Austin and Sydney do great in the van now so it's fairly easy to travel with them.  It had lots for rides for younger kids.  We spent the entire day just playing and riding on different things.  Austin really enjoyed riding the log ride.  Sydney was not tall enough.  But there were lots of rides she could ride on.  

Sydney's highlight was Danial Tiger.  They watch Danial Tiger so they were excited to meet him.  The park also has story book forest which is a path you walk along and it has all the nursery rhyme characters.  Most are just statues but there were a few real ones.  It is definitely something to do while they are young because I'm not sure how much older than 8 would enjoy it.  It was a nice family day for us.  

While Austin was at school last week, he got hurt.  I was driving home from work and I was on the phone with my mom.  I say the school was calling and I knew I had to take it.  A call from the school is never a good time.  The owner told me that Austin fell on the playground.  He hit his head badly and it was bleeding.  They were having difficulty stopping the bleeding and wondered if I wanted an ambulance called.  I said I would be there in 10 minutes.  I called Brian and rushed to the school.

When I got there I could not believe how deep the cut was above his right eye.  We definitely needed to go to urgent care.  I left Sydney at school and drove to the urgent care center.  Brian ended up right beyond me.

Austin was calm during everything.  He was scared but wasn't really crying.  They gave him 8 stitches.  When Austin was getting the stitches they told us we had to hold his hands and head.  It turns out we didn't need too.  He was great.  He held still and let them do it.  They obviously numbed it first.  I had a hard time watching the stitches.  I was under the light and got extremely hot.  I felt like I was going to pass out.  I was hungry too.  I always get nauseous when I am hungry and something gross is going on.  I had to step away for a while.  Austin did great and just look at Brian.  Austin talked about getting ice cream the entire time while the stitched him up.  He wanted to go to Menchie's. He talked about his ice cream and topping.  

We were in urgent care for about an hour.  We were supposed to go to high school band practice that night.  They kids were going to play on the field with them.  After the injury I thought we wouldn't be going.  Austin was upset that we were not going to go.  He was insisted that we still go.  Brian ran to Wendy's and got dinner.  We came up and picked up Sydney (Meemaw went and picked her up from school so we could be at the hospital with Austin).  We rushed to band practice and we arrived just as the kids were going out on the field.  

Austin loved band practice.  He played his instrument.  He danced on the field.  He was so happy.  Sydney had fun with the pompoms.  She would dance too.  It was so much fun.  We are so happy Austin made us still go.  After band practice, we took Austin for ice cream as promised.  They enjoyed their ice cream.  

All of this happened on Brian's birthday.  It was not exactly how Brian was planning on spending his birthday.  But it all worked out.  We celebrated Brian's birthday on Tuesday.  The kids and I made him a cake.  They are good helpers with cooking.  Austin and Sydney painted him a picture on canvas.  They really enjoyed doing that.  They made a card and spelled out happy birthday Daddy with stickers.  Sydney just wanted to play with the stickers (she loves stickers) but Austin was interested in spelling it out.  

We decided this year to walk the Metro Park Fall hiking spree.  Brian did it as a kid with his mom and grandparents.  Then in high school and college we did it together.  After Austin was born we stopped because you can't really push a stroller though the parks.  Now the kids are old enough to walk a lot of it so we decided to try it.  They love it!!!  Austin runs and walks over half the trails.  We need to carry more but she tries to keep up with Austin.  

It's cool because each trail is different.  Looking at the trails in the kids eyes is inspiring.  It's the simple things like a bridge or train tracks nearby that excite them so much.  Austin found a caterpillar on one of the trails.  He likes his bugs.  He's gentle with them and lets them crawl on him.  Sydney doesn't really want to touch it (I can understand that).  Austin always wants to know when we are going to walk another trail.  It's one of our favorite things to do right now.  

Last weekend we went apple picking for the first time this season.  The kids liked being on Brian's shoulders and picking apples up high.  They like picking apples so much that we ended up with 20 pounds of apples.  Brian brought us an apple peeler and slicer so it would be easy to make applesauce now.  Brian and the kids used the apple slicer last night.  Austin loves it.  He probably peeled and sliced 20 apples.  Sydney tried it too.  It was hard for her to do after a while.  The applesauce was yummy.  We are looking forward to picking more apples this season.  

Austin sings his ABC's well now.  He still doesn't say LMNOP that great but other than that it's good.  Sydney also sings them.  She doesn't know them all but knows the tune.  Sydney loves numbers.  She can count to 10 easily.  Maybe she is going to be an engineer like her daddy.  

Austin was looking at the Giant Eagle ad on the table.  He would tell us how much things cost.  He knew something was 99 cents and something else was $4.  Austin never uses the word tomorrow.  He always says "After this night".  I'm not sure how he learned that but it's so cute!  

Labor Day (3.6 and 2 years old)

On Saturday we went to Wild Water Kingdom in the morning.  We came home and took a nap then went back after nap.  Austin even got to go down the water slide that you have to be 40 inches tall to ride.  He loved the water slide.  We had so much fun at Wild Water this year.  They kids loved it.  Sydney even thinks she can swim by herself.  There were many slides for them to go down  We can't wait for them to open again next year.

On Sunday, we went to the Taste of Hudson.  We love that even too.  They have several activities for the kids.  Austin worked very hard coloring his wooden monkey.  He can color in the lines pretty well.  Sydney colored for a little bit then she was off and playing with some Little Tikes outside toys.  We had dinner there.  They even had a cookie for dessert.  After dinner, the kids played in the bounce houses.  I thought Sydney was too young/little do it but like always she surprised me.  Austin helped her the first time then after that she could always do it herself.  She is a strong and determined girl.  It was a nice family night.

On Monday, we went to the Cleveland Air Show with my parents.  Austin went two years ago with Brian.  I haven't been there in a very long time.  It was hot and sunny but the planes were great to see.  We were there from about 11am to 4:30pm.  The kids had fun going in planes and helicopters.  They would watch the planes too.  Meemaw even got the kids ice cream so they were very happy.  Everyone had a fun time.

Our holiday weekends are always so busy and fun!  We are a little sad that summer is basically over.  But we do love fall too.  We are looking forward to pumpkin patches and apple picking.

We are still rotating each night on putting the kids to bed.  I get Sydney one night then Austin the next and so on.  It prevents most fighting on who gets who most nights.  Sometimes the kids are not happy with who they are getting but telling them they get that person tomorrow helps.  Austin goes to sleep within 15 minutes once in bed.  You never know what you are going to get with Sydney.  It could be 10 - 60 minutes.

Austin is now pooping in a pull up.  I am very happy about that!  He tells us he needs to go and goes in the pull up.  No more cleaning his underwear.  We are trying to get him to poop in the bathroom but he is refusing.  If we push it, he will just hold his poop in.  I am hoping that he will just want to do it soon!

Sydney uses the potty about 25% of the time.  She likes using it because she gets an M&M's if she goes.  She loves chocolate.  She also does really great a school.  She tries at school 3-4 times a day.  She is staying dry at school some of the time too.  It's nice because she doesn't have a fear of the potties at school like Austin did.

Sydney has grown up a lot in the past few weeks.  She doesn't look so much like a baby anymore.  She is a little girl.  She definitely has opinions about everything.  She wants to do it her way or no way.  She screams way too much.  That is her way to get what she wants.  Most of the times I want ear plugs.  She is much louder than Austin.  However when Sydney starts screaming Austin will follow.  That is one issue I wish we could control.  Brian and I try but it's so hard.

We are using the counting discipline method.  They get 3 chances to stop doing what they are doing or they have to go to time out.  Out time out chair is upstairs in the corner.  They will sit in time out fairly well now.  Austin is learning that 3 minutes is a long time and he doesn't want to sit there so he usually corrects his behavior.  Sydney enjoys going to sit up there.  Brian and I are not as consistent as we should be but we are trying harder at it.  The biggest discipline issues we have are screaming, standing up in their chairs at dinner, wanting the same thing all the time, and hitting each other.

We take them to the stores with us every weekend.  They sometimes have issues there.  They like to run and scream in the stores at times.  Other times they will stay with us and shop with us.  They like to ask for things to get.   They like Giant Eagle because they get a piece of cheese at the deli.  We get lunch meat every week because of this.  They now hold their own cheese and eat it while we shop.  Sydney use to drop it but she's good at holding it now.  I can't believe how fast they are growing up.