We celebrated Memorial Day weekend with a crawfish/shrimp boil on Saturday with some friends in College Station. Joanna and Richard bought about 30 pounds of crawfish but half of them ended up dead before we could eat them! We exchanged them for some shrimp so we boiled those, too. They were delicious. Thank you, Joanna and Richard, for having us!
The kids had a blast with their blow up pool and little bounce house. This was the second year we went to Joanna and Richard's for Memorial Day. We missed a couple other families but we still enjoyed the company.
Taylor started out the trend of sliding like this
Do your eyes hurt, yet? :)
Zane
Archer
HIIIII
Avery had a lot of fun posing for me
Zane
Peek-A-Boo!
Go Go Go!
Oldest to Youngest
We've had a stressful beginning to this week for the whole family- witnessing a grandparent fall and a car accident! Thankfully, everyone is okay, but we're hoping the end of the week is a lot less stressful! Auggie hasn't been sleeping well and I'm sure that won't get better any time soon- we'll be out of town each weekend in June except for one!
Gramma, Drake and Kristopher came for a visit last week while Tim was in Mississippi for work. It was great having someone here but man, Drake can talk... and talk... and talk! I guess Tim and I have that to look forward to in a couple of years!
Drake and Auggie
Auggie had a lot of fun with Drake around. He didn't quite play with Drake, but he did play alongside him most of the time. Auggie thought Drake was really funny. He would laugh when Drake talked and Drake would tell him "I'm not being funny. Stop laughing at me." It was kinda funny.
Thanks for the visit Kristopher!
Kristopher isn't too happy when the kids drink out of his drinks or eat his food. We had a good laugh over this, though
Auggie saw Drake do the Sit-N-Spin a couple times earlier in the day. This was the first time I saw Auggie do it!
Tim really enjoyed his trip to Mississippi. He rode up with a fellow Texas Parks and Wildlife employee and SFA alum so they had plenty to talk about. They went to the Southeastern Prairie Symposium in Starkville, MS. If you know anything about Tim, you know he enjoyed it. I'd share some pictures but he didn't take any!
Auggie has been Mr. Independent lately. Over the weekend, he started refusing bottles but eating pretzels and cookies and fish sticks a bit more. We've gotten him back up to about 3 bottles a day and his solid food intake has increased too. I'm really hoping these habits continue!
eating watermelon
eating fish sticks with ketchup
I'm ready for his tantrums to go away, though! When we went to Auggie's 18 month check up, his pediatrician asked about throwing fits... Haha... does he ever?! I know it is just a stage but I know it's a stage that could last for a long while. We've been approached by a few people lately that have commented about how happy he is and he seems to be "in his own happy little world," and that they could just steal him. Well, they'd give him back. Trust me, there are times when he's in his own cranky little world for about 15 minutes where he cries and pounds his fists on the wall or couch. But for all those cranky moments, he's an absolute doll!
When anyone is on the floor, he is instantly tackling and wrestling with them. He's a big fan of jumping up and down on anyone's stomach and standing on their side to see what's over the couch. He'll definitely love to run around and wrestle with his cousins when he's older.
rolling around in Mommy and Daddy's bed
Since Tim was out of town last Monday, I took Auggie to the park to update his picture. The last photo we sent out was from his 12 month photo shoot. I took him to the same place but the trail was overgrown. I was really disappointed about that. It would've been nice and green with a cute little wooden bridge. Instead, Auggie played with lady bugs. He had fun pushing them along and picking them up. One even crawled onto his finger, up his arm and up the back of his neck and hung out in his hair for a bit. He thought the lady bug was hilarious. He signed "bug" quite a bit in his own cute way.
My, oh, my, how time has flown by! Well, it seems like it has today! Other days, I'm not so sure! My Little Bear is 18 months old today! A year and a half old! 6 months until his SECOND birthday! Scary! Maybe I should start planning it now. Hahah.. just kidding! We have lots of time to enjoy our little 18 month old. :)
I have been so bad about keeping up with my Tuesday-Thursday posting schedule so I am going to start posting once a week. I'm going to switch it up a little and start posting on Wednesdays. We don't have a lot going on on Wednesdays so it's a good day. :)
He was smelling the flowers
Saturday, I drove to La Porte with Auggie to see family. My Aunt Louise was in town from Toledo and then Jamie, Zoe and Nathan were in town from Krum, so it was a great time to go visit. Tim was working all day so it made it even better.
Sunday evening, we went to Giddings to see Sherwin and Jane. Auggie got to play with Jacob for a bit and got to ride with PawPaw on the Gator! He loves riding around with PawPaw. Wednesday we stopped in Giddings on our way home from Austin and Auggie said "PawPaw"! It was so cute hearing him say it when Sherwin would walk away or when they pulled up in the driveway. He's getting more and more vocal every day.
Auggie has some weird sleep positions Sunday May 6
Wednesday, Auggie had his speech assessment in Austin with the speech therapist through his Craniofacial team at Dell Children's Hospital. We've had this appointment scheduled since November and we've been looking forward to it. At least I know I have been! Ashley, the speech therapist, was really nice and had toys for Auggie to play with so he could get comfortable in the doctor-like room. He had been very talkative the past few days so we were really hoping he'd continue it. He did! He was so good about imitating our words and following directions. His nap was cut short because the appointment was at 1 but he was very well behaved.
Through a few questions and observing Auggie, Ashley figured his expressive language was at 24 months, receptive language was at 18 months and his speech was at 15 months. The expressive language took into account his 52 signs and approximately 12 verbal words. The receptive language took into account how to follow directions and understand simple commands like "where's your nose?" or "where's the ball?" The speech section pertains to how he makes certain sounds. Ashley was concerned about how he said his D's, B's, P's and SH's. Some of his B's sound like M's (sometimes it sounds like "mye-mye" instead of "bye-bye). His D's aren't as defined as she would like. And then the SH sound comes through his nose. The SH sound is best heard when he tries to say "fish." She tried to hold his nose while he said it and he actually couldn't get the word out while his nose was plugged. She recommended trying to correct it that way now instead of later. I was really surprised he lets us plug his nose! She referred us to a private speech therapist in town to help us with the speech and to get him in a more structured environment. She thought the environment change might help with his tantrums- he had a pretty good one while we were there.
We go back in November for a follow up assessment. We'll also see the other members of the craniofacial team then. Ashley thinks Auggie is behind in those sounds because he may not have been able to hear them correctly with the loaner BAHA he had originally. It could also be caused by a submucous cleft palate (
After the speech appointment, we walked over to Dell Children's Hospital. We let Auggie walk around for a bit and then stopped at this cute motion sensor projector. Tim and I were entertained by this quite a bit when Auggie was in the NICU. It was fun to see him being entertained by it, too.
On our way home, we stopped in Giddings again. Jane and Sherwin's front field is full of beautiful Black-Eyed Susans. Of course, I had to get some pictures in!
I have been having such a hard time getting Auggie to nap this week. I understand Saturday was a strange day since we were in the car... But Tuesday and today were regular days! He ended up not napping on Tuesday and then had a hard time going to bed for the night!
We met up with Shannon and Gavin (from the Mom's group) at Bee Creek Park this morning. There was an elementary school field trip there, too. Auggie enjoyed running around with the big kids. He didn't want to sit and enjoy his apples with Gavin so he ran around instead. I don't think he even noticed I was there most of the time! By the time we left, Auggie was definitely ready to fall asleep. And here it is, 45 minutes later, and he's talking to himself in his crib... instead of sleeping!
I'm not ready for no naps! ;)
While we were at the park, Auggie signed "bicycle" as a guy riding his bike went by. It was so cute! I'm glad his signing and words are progressing more and more. He has an appointment next week with the speech therapist at Dell Children's to assess his speech. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for good news!
Our volunteer sunflower bloomed on Tuesday!
Up later than usual watching "Paul"
We found a turtle on our way home from the park Wednesday
At the park Wednesday morning
**EDITED 5/3/12 2:15 pm**
I updated Auggie's list of signs. He has a total of 52 now! I can't believe it! He's doing so well with them!
Auggie is already down for a nap since he screamed for 10 minutes after Tim left for work. Then screamed some more because he couldn't get his car through the chair.... So I won't get into any more details about today...
This is the car he tried pushing under one of our dining room chairs.. Don't think that fits, Little Bear!
Auggie is getting better at signing. He signs "hot" when we're messing with the microwave, stove, oven or toaster. He's also signing it when we have steamy food. Tim taught him "grass" and he's recognizing a crescent shape as "moon." This morning during his appointment with Melinda, he signed "cookie" then "eat"! He's only signed two signs together a couple of times. We're getting there! YAY!
Auggie signed "cookie" then "eat" after he heard the microwave go off with Tim's breakfast. Melinda noticed it and then we all kinda came to the same conclusion. I'm sure he wanted a waffle but he got a graham cracker instead. (our toaster broke sometime between breakfast Sunday and breakfast Monday) The other night he grabbed a snack pack out of the cupboard and actually wanted to eat it! We gave him a spoon, sat him in the high chair and the video below shows how well he did! Most of the time if he grabs something like that, he just wants to play with it.
ahhh... all done!
We went to the pool on Sunday. It was a little breezy so it made the water feel even colder. The water felt great once you warmed up to it but once you got out... BRRRRRR! Auggie wasn't too sure about it at first but when it was time to leave, he was not having it! We're planning on getting a family pass to the pool down the road from us so we can go anytime.
Auggie likes to stand with his hands behind his back
Tim had to work all day Saturday so I took Auggie to Liz's wedding shower in Sugar Land. We left during what was supposed to have been nap time... but of course, that didn't work out. There were several times during the 1.5 hour trip when I looked back and saw his eyes almost closed and then something would catch his attention. By the time we got to Sugar Land, he was ready to be out and I was so worried about how his attitude was going to be once we got to the country club. But my worries were useless... Auggie was absolutely perfect! He loved the attention from all the women. He even showed off with his signs and even ate some watermelon and bunt cake! He was asleep in the car by the time we got to First Colony Mall.. For those of you who don't know Sugar Land... the mall is like 2 exits down from where we were! He slept most of the way home including the 45 minutes it took me to find a decently priced gas station and a Walgreens for money for the toll road. I was so happy the day went well... I didn't get to talk as much as I wanted but that happens when you're chasing around an almost 18 month old!
Auggie wanted to help with the presents
Such a tired Little Bear
Auggie absolutely loves being outside. I know that is probably one of the reasons he was so upset when Tim left this morning- he couldn't go outside. He saw a helicopter when we were out earlier and he got very excited. He heard it at first and kept looking around to find it. Once he found it, he signed "airplane" but I showed him "helicopter." He signed it after I did.
Cars and trains... and, well, anything he can roll have been his go-to toys lately. He likes to push them around outside, around the edge of the coffee table and even on the back support of our futon. He even started pulling pull toys (a wagon for his wooden blocks and a pull toy dog).
It sounds like Auggie is actually up so I will leave you with some pictures until Thursday!
I ♥ when he sits in his bucket like this
Mommy's a comfy couch
Big Bear!
We watched "Rio" Monday afternoon. Auggie got scared when the birds were caught by the poachers
