Fun on the trike

Austin enjoys riding his trike up and down our driveway and sidewalk and is becoming a pro at steering and peddling. He knows how far to go down the sidewalk before turning around and coming back. He rides for a little while then, when he's tired, walks around (with his helmet still on) watching and following his Daddy around as he's working in the yard. On the day this picture was taken, Austin had asked for a red jacket to wear outside, but I finally convinced him to wear this vest I got him over a year ago, looong before he could fit into it. It's reversible so I put it on the red side since he wanted red. It fits just right now. :)

Time for potty training?

This morning, when I went to get Austin from his room, told me he went "poo poo" (which he didn't, I think he probably meant "pee pee"). So, I asked Austin if he wanted to sit on the potty. To my surprise, he said "yes." So, I took off his diaper in his room and said, "okay, lets go sit on potty!" He then said he wanted his shirt off too, but I told him it would be cold so let's try with it on first. I went to the bathroom and called him. He was still in his room and started crying that he didn't want to take a bath. I guess it's time to have him sit on the potty at more times during the day rather than just before bath time.

I guess boys will be boys

Since it's my 9/80 day off today, I thought I'd give Willis a break and take and drop off Austin. I usually take care of Austin pick up so I enjoy the occasional Austin drop off. He was a little hesitant at first this morning, (maybe because he didn't go to sleep right away and was talking away in his dark room last night so he had a hard time waking up?) but I slowly coaxed him out of bed, changed, into the car, into the classroom and jacket off. (It was so cute, as soon as we entered the classroom I heard a number of little voices shout, "Hi Austin!!") I didn't really have convince him to sit in his chair for breakfast, he happily sat down next to Brad and started eating. I went to hang up his jacket and when I got back, Brad had scooted himself right up close to Austin. :) I gave Austin a quick hug and kiss and he was back to enjoying his cheerios and raisins.

When I picked up Austin in the afternoon, I was talking with one of the teachers and found out that Austin and friends are now at the age where the boys hang out with the boys and the girls hang out with the girls. Now I know why when I ask him what he did at school, his answer hasn't been "Lucca" in at least a couple of weeks now, it's been "Tyler" and "Javier" (aka Kyle and Hawwiet in Austin speak). (He used to say "Lucca" just about every day since he could answer my questions about his day) I was glad to hear that he does still hang out with his buddy Brad.

On a side note, I had a fun day of running errands in the morning then having lunch and spending the afternoon with Nanda and three-week-old baby Mila. The weather is back to being nice and sunny during the day and tonight was a clear night with a super bright wolf moon, the first full moon and the biggest and brightest full moon of the year. (Source: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/01/29/biggest-brightest-moon-tonight/)

He's not even a teenager yet!

On the way home from day care, I asked Austin, "What did you do today?"
He replied, "Nothing."

Yo Gabba Gabba!

Austin eating grapes and watching Yo Gabba Gabba! at Fresh Brothers Pizza last night. (Note: He wore those bandaids on his blister fingers all day, they were packed with sand when he finally took them off. Also, his right eye is still a little puffy and bruised from falling on his train shed three days ago)

I'm still not sure how he knows Yo Gabba Gabba! so well. At the very slimmest glimpse he exclaimed, "Gabba Gabba!" He's only watched it at our house once because we can only get it on OnDemand. At the time, he was afraid of the orange haired guy, but that was a while ago so I guess he's gotten over that fear. There was no sound but he was still fixated. I guess he sees it at day care?

Blisters again

We got a note from Austin's teachers yesterday informing us about a yellow blister on his index finger. He still sucks on the index and middle fingers of his right hand to soothe himself (for the most part, only when he needs comfort or is trying to fall asleep). I regularly check the tops of those fingers since that's where he had a blister before, but I haven't thought to look at the underside. He's been teething lately (Extra fussiness, especially when time to eat, and a complete 360 in mood when given teething tablets is usually a good indication). It's a pretty big blister. My guess is that his teething pain is causing him to bite down harder on his fingers.

Before we left, I was talking with one of the administrators about the blister and said, "that's not good." Austin repeats,
A: That's not good? (in his high pitched question voice)
Me: That's not good.
A: That's good? (holding out his blister)
Me: No, that's not good.
A: That's good?

On the way home, he sucked on his fingers. He briefly tried the left hand when I asked him to switch, but went right back to the right hand. At home, I cleaned it with rubbing alcohol and put a bandaid on the blister. He asked for a bandaid on the middle finger too. He liked the colorful Peanuts Gang bandaids. He got a little upset when I took them off after washing hands but eventually calmed down when I told him I would put new ones on after bath time.

When it was time to go to sleep I was wondering what he would do.. Ask to take the bandaids off? Suck on the bandaids? Not suck on his fingers at all? To my surprise, he calmly sucked on his left hand without saying a word.

Quote of the day

Austin was looking through a book of colors last night. I asked him what color was on the first page and he said, "umm, blue." The next page was orange, I asked him, "what color is the pumpkin?" He said,

"It's umm, a kind uv owange."

We went through each page and color and each color he said, "umm, [color]" and at the end of the book there are all six of the colors on paint cans. He pointed to each one and said,

"Dat's a kind uh gween. Dat's a kind uv purple. Dat's a kind uv eyow.." etc...

Whea are you?

I'm sitting in the office as Austin is finishing up dinner at the table. I hear,
"Mamaaa.. Whea are youuu?"
"I'm right here."
"Oh"

The return of my shadow

Last night was Willis' basketball night so Austin and I spent the evening together. As usual when it's just the two of us, he was my shadow and followed me all over the house. He played on his own as I did a little cleaning and putting clothes away, but he made sure he was always near me. As I went back and forth to get clothes from the living room to put away in his room I always heard his footsteps or him lugging his toys behind me. He makes me smile, I love our times together. :)

Eventually, he seemed bored so we went to draw pictures together. I finally opened up the triangle crayons my sister got for him last year. He drew four pictures (he even drew on two papers at the same time with a crayon in each hand ) and each picture he said was an elephant. As I labeled each picture he said, "write Austin on it."

Quote of the night: As I was putting clothes away in his room, he read his "Honolulu Zoo" book then he read his "My Big Boy Potty" book. When he finished the Potty book he said, "I yuv dis book!" then looked at the Zoo book and said, "I yuv dis book too! Dat's a gweat book!"

Matt and Gia's Wedding

Matt and Gia experienced quite a crazy whirlwind leading up to their wedding. The actual day was also a very exciting whirlwind, but in a good way. I spent the night in Gia's hotel room along with the other three bridesmaids. We woke up and began hair and makeup at 6:30am. Then, we cleaned up, got dressed and prepped the hotel room for the tea ceremony. I enjoyed watching the ceremony and contributing in a small way as we, the bridesmaids, prepped the tea cups for each guest. I think this was the first time I've ever witnessed a traditional tea ceremony.

When the photographers arrived, I was surprised to see the main photographer, Sarah's second shooter for the day was Kenny, a high school classmate of mine! Funny coincidence! (Btw, on Kenny's blog, you can see a shot of the wedding card box I made. I was really happy with the way it turned out and pretty proud of myself, even though the spray adhesive didn't quite work as well as I had hoped so I had to tape the sides.)

After the tea ceremony, we helped Gia change into her gown and we walked around for photos in the gardens of the Langham Hotel. (Very pretty grounds. I had been there once before, back in high school when it was the Ritz Carlton and I went there to take staff pictures in the garden with the yearbook committee. It brought back some fun memories.)

A limo shuttled the bride and the bridesmaids to the ceremony at Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills. The ride started out nice, but sitting sideways or backwards in the limo didn't really agree with us. Luckily, the fresh air cured our queasy stomachs when we got out. It was cool, but still a sunny and beautiful day. We couldn't have asked for better weather, especially after the storms of the past week. We also loved that the bridesmaid dresses Gia picked had pockets (I was able to carry around my iPhone, Gia's iPhone, some gum and a hanky all day).

Everyone predicted that Matt would cry during the ceremony and I think he lost it at the very beginning, as soon as he went to get Gia from her Dad's arm. It was super touching and their personalized vows required me to pull out my hanky from my pocket to dab my own tears.

We walked around for some more photos after the ceremony with family, friends and bridal party. Then, off to the reception at Lunasia Restaurant in Alhambra. It was another rocky ride in the limo, but I tried my best to sit facing forward and it wasn't as bad.

Even though I couldn't take my camera with me everywhere, I somehow still ended up with 300+ pictures that I will eventually need to download and look through.

In the meantime, here is one of the newlyweds that I took with my iPhone just after the ceremony.

The Day Before

After the snow-related closure of the 5 freeway at the Grapevine and a detour to the 101 freeway on their drive down from Nor Cal, Gia and Matt, the bride and groom, finally made it safely the Southland. I met up with them at the Langham in Pasadena, bright and early Friday morning for a trip to the FlowerMart in downtown LA in search of wedding flowers. As I drove through downtown to get to Pasadena, it was wet and dark, but the freeway was still fairly empty. I had pulled an all-nighter to work on decorating the wedding card box, pack stuff for Austin for the rehearsal dinner and the wedding, pack my own stuff and get ready for a night away from home. I think I was running on adrenaline, and maybe a little disoriented, but the early morning drive felt like it was still nighttime.

It was my first time to the LA FlowerMart and it is a glorious place. Flowers everywhere! We searched and searched and eventually found what we needed. Back at the hotel, a little behind schedule, we got started on making bouquets and I finished up the Wedding Card Box for the reception. This was my first attempt at a wedding card box and I was pretty proud of how I transformed that Kirkland baby wipes box.

Gia making the first bridesmaid bouquet. I made a couple of those bad boys, it wasn't as easy as she made it look.

The weather during the rehearsal at the Greystone started out clear but cool then ended with rain pouring down on us as we rehearsed on the lawn. It was quite an experience and one more added stress for their very stressful journey to the wedding. Dinner afterwards was at the Boxwood Restaurant at the London Hotel in West Hollywood. Wills and Austin met up with us and we had a great time sitting with fellow bridesmaids, Ellen and XuanThu, and XuanThu's husband, Venky.

Gia and her four sisters (her three brothers are not pictured) and the wedding party standing in the pouring rain (if you look closely, you can see the rain making stripes in the picture)


Austin taste testing the ice cream on my dessert plate

After dinner we returned to the hotel to continue prep for the wedding day. Bridal bouquet and bridesmaid bouquets were done. Remaining on the To Do list: packing the snackboxes, creating and assembling boutonnieres, a bouquet for the flower girl corsages for the mothers and grandmothers and moving the bridal party to the honeymoon suite (where we discovered a leaky roof in the dining room). What a day!


Packing the snackboxes

Finished snackboxes and bride and bridesmaids bouquets (I borrowed a couple of Austin's buckets to keep the flowers fresh - Thanks Austin!)

XuanThu, my photography buddy, taking a pic of the honeymoon bed


Sylvie helping bridesmaids with creating the boutonnieres

Technology

We got Austin his very own "computer" for Christmas, it plugs into the tv and you can get learning games that teach different things along with using the keyboard and mouse. Willis hooked it up last night and Austin got to try it out playing the programs that are built into the system. He has computer time at day care so he didn't have trouble figuring out how to use the mouse and keyboard. He even surprised me by moving the mouse and clicking to select a program all by himself! (I guess it doesn't hurt that this little guy is super observant, pretty coordinated, loves to imitate and can pick up new things fairly quickly)

Look at that concentration!

He also loves getting to play with our little point and shoot camera. He's been able to turn it on, maneuver through pictures and play videos for a long time and took his first picture with it a couple of months ago. He's gradually getting better at taking pictures. He mostly takes pictures of his own fingers covering the lens or the floor or ceiling, but last night he actually got some pics of Willis across the room. I let him play with the camera at the wedding reception on Saturday and he had a blast, taking a whopping 38 pictures!

For some reason Austin loves sitting on my pillow. Here he is sitting on my pillow while taking and reviewing his photos.

Quotes of the day

"Sing wit me!"

"Where's Mama? On'y Daddy, not Mama."

I was away from Austin for two nights and the better part of two days. I missed seeing his face, hugs and kisses and hearing his fun phrases and singing. He must have missed me too because when we were at the wedding and reception yesterday he kept staring at my face and smiling, as if so happy I was actually there, in person, next to him and he just needed to soak in my face. :)

Stalling

Bedtime routine is pretty much drink milk while watching tv, brush teeth, read a book, take his vitamin C, drink some water and good night hugs and kisses. Austin knows the routine and usually goes to bed willingly. But, in the past week, I've noticed every few days or so at bedtime he'll say, "I don' wanna go to bed" or "I don' wanna take a nap." And he's figured out how to stall. After reading a book, he'll play, walk around, try to get another book to read, ask to change diaper again, avoid giving hugs or ask for lots more water than usual.

But, asked sternly a couple more times and he obliges with the goodnight hugs and kisses (which also includes a family hug and "rub-a-nose") and I pick him up for him to close the door and turn off the light. A rock and song from Mama and right into bed. His favorite bedtime lullaby request continues to be "A,B,C,D."

Quote of the day

I pulled out the Kirkland box of baby wipes, Austin saw it and said,

"I yuv diapers!"

Quote of the day

"He's coming, he's coming! Close the book."

He says this complete with hand motions closing an imaginary book. From a later comment, it seems that he is referring to a big giant that is coming. This must come from something he learned at day care.

Loveys

Austin received all of these "loveys" when he was a baby. He never became attached to any of them, but one of his buddies at day care has a favorite and Austin has the same one. (Austin even noticed it in his room a few months ago and said, "Dat's Brad's.") So, he'll be giving this one to his friend. I brought out the one we're giving away and handed it to Austin.

Me: Austin, we're going to give this to Brad
A: Dis Austin's
Me: Yes, but we're going to give it to Brad tomorrow
A: Oh, Okay. Heah Brad. (holding it out to imaginary Brad)
Me: Not now, you can give it to him tomorrow.
A: Oh

So, that's when we went to his room to look for another one he might like to play with. I pulled them out one by one and asked him if he wanted them. He took each one, said "no" and put it down.

Me: Do you want to hold this bear one?
A: No
Me: How about a blue bear one?
A: No
Me: How about this brown bear?
A: No
Me: Oh! A Winnie the Pooh one?
A: No
Me: A froggy one?
A: No
Me: Okay, that's the last one.
A: (walks away)

I thought now would be a good time to take a picture to remember all of these little guys. I lined them up on the carpet and asked Austin which was his favorite. He said the froggy one (My mom brought him this one from Hawaii) :) "Roary," the blue lion is the one we're giving away.

Quote of the day

I wore my Curves "100 workouts" t-shirt last night, Austin noticed it and said,

"Lemme see.. Ohh, iss cyuute! Yeah, iss cyuute!"

Quotes from today

Austin was jabbering to himself while looking at random things in our office.

"Cindereya. Cindereya.."
(He found a Disney princess birthday invitation from one of his classmates)

"It's peutiful bag!"
(Pointing out a package of green reusable shopping bags)

"It's... Hiii. Dis mine, okay?"
(Finding a Dora birthday invitation from one of his classmates. For some reason he always wants to say "hi" when he sees pics of Dora the Explorer)

Eventually, he came to sit on my lap as I'm sitting at the computer. He watched for a few minutes then said,
"What time is it?"

Kyackk

Austin's pronunciation of "cloth" still sounds like "kyack" due to his inability to pronounce "L" and "Th." We're hoping he'll be able to pronounce these sounds properly someday, but for now it just makes me laugh. We always tell him, "Say cloth." Yesterday, he told me, "Say kyackk, mama, say kyackk!" (Also, his "R" still sounds like "W.")

On Saturday night we were at dinner and I was writing letters out on Austin's place mat to keep him busy before the food was served. I was so surprised at how many letters Austin recognizes now. I'd say he can recognize at least half of the alphabet. A, B, C, D, H, I, J, M, O, P, Q, R, S, U, Z. I can't remember if he was able to name any other letters. But, at the beginning of vacation these are the only letters I knew that he knew for sure: A, H, I, M, O, R.

He's been telling us for at least a few weeks that "A is for Austin and A is for apple." He spots "A's" all over the place. He also enthusiastically points out "R"s and "H"s he sees. Yesterday, he was looking at the laptop keyboard and told Willis, "D is for Daddy."

Happy New Year!

Austin drinking his ozoni and watching the Rose Parade on tv on new year's morning. (He loved the soup and the kamaboko, but picked off the mizuna and didn't even want to touch the mochi. Maybe he'll like it next year?)

Austin woke up this morning and the first thing he said to me when I went to get him is, "I don' wanna hear fireworks." We could hear fireworks last night as the clock struck midnight. Willis and I were hoping Austin would sleep through it since we know how much he hates the loud, noisy fireworks. He didn't cry, but I guess the noise did wake him up. He repeated "I don' wanna hear fireworks" a few more times but was okay after we went into the living room. He had a nice new year's morning playing with his toys, drinking his new year's soup, watching the Rose Parade then riding to the playground on the back of Daddy's bike.