Updates

What's been going on with us? Well, Avery is trying his hardest to crawl. He's developed his own version of an Army low crawl that he'll do to reach something close. This morning he "crawled" all the way from the TV to the rocking chair which is several feet. He still rolls a lot though, especially to reach things that he deems too far away. Also, he's working on getting his top two teeth. Maybe he'll get them for Christmas! :-)

Alexis doesn't have too much new going on. She did talk us into going to Chuck E Cheese's for supper last night. The kids' school had a fundraiser going on, if you went last night then 15% of your purchase went back to the school. We decided it was worth it and braved the crowd in order to help out our kids' education. While we were there, she pointed out her best friend's "enemy." She actually said "that's Hunter's enemy." I asked his name and she said "I don't know but we don't like him." What could a kindergartner possibly do to be deemed an "enemy?"

Austin has recently lost his 10 year old teeth. I didn't realize that you loose teeth at 10 but the dentist says you do. He now has 4 teeth missing on the bottom. Its made it hard for him to eat and talk. He's harder to understand than normal. I feel bad because I'm constantly asking him to repeat himself. Hopefully they come in soon. Austin has joined the Philosophers Club at school. He's so funny! He can't ever remember the name so he's decided to give the club a nickname, The World According To The Jockischs Club. HAHAHA! He's also a part of the band and GT math so he keeps pretty busy at school. And, apparently he has a girlfriend again. He won't confess to us though so we aren't for sure.

That's all for now. I'll try to add a video within a few days.

Laughing at Big Brother

This is from a few weeks ago but I wanted to share it anyway.
Avery is laughing at Austin's foot. Yes, his foot.
Austin was pretending to kick Avery and he thought it was funny.
Unfortunately I didn't get the camera fast enough and missed him
when he was laughing really hard. This was the tail end when was
winding down. Its still cute though!

This past week

The happenings of this week....

Alexis had her 6th birthday on Sat. October 18th. We had a birthday party and invited all her friends. We did a Strawberry Shortcake theme and had all the kids come dressed up as their fave dress up clothes. We had a baseball player, 2 Transformers, several princesses and more. The party went well. We played lots of games and had cake and ice cream. Alexis got lots of presents and had a great time.

Austin decided he didn't want to be a part of the party. Too many little kids for such a grown up 5th grader to handle. :-) He stayed in the basement for a while and finally ended up leaving the house altogether. He spent most of the day down the street at his friend, Dakota's. Which was fine because Dakota's Mom, brother and sister where at our house for the party.

Austin has joined the school band. He's playing the trumpet. They learned their first song this week called "Go Groveton." He hasn't played it for us yet but I'm sure we will be graced with it soon.

Avery has been starting the crawling process. He's been pushing himself backwards with his hands and can turn in circles when he's on his belly. He hasn't gotten up on his knees yet but I'm sure its coming soon. His 2 bottom teeth are almost completely in and I think he's starting on some more. He's also learned he can bite pretty good. We now know not to put our fingers in his mouth. Those little teeth hurt!

I may possibly have a baby sitting job. Our friends that live around the corner had a baby sitter who upset them so she won't be coming back. Patrick volunteered my services. Its 2 nights a week for about 4 hours. Nothing I couldn't handle and we could use the extra money. Man, diapers are expensive!

Patrick will be gone for the next 2 days. He's staying overnight at Walter Reed for some tests. They're going to monitor his sleep and do several brain scans. They think he may have something called TBI which stands for Traumatic Brain Injury. They've found a lot of soldiers coming back from Iraq have it. They generally get it when a roadside bomb goes off near their vehicle, the vehicle shakes and rocks back and forth which throws them around and they hit their head. In most cases its not severe, so much so that its sometimes hard to detect without doing some kind of x-ray/scan. If Patrick does have it, its obviously not a severe case. Some soldiers with severe TBI have a complete change in personality, loss of some physical movement and their ablility to think is altered. The mild form can cause mood swings, memory problems, frustration issues, headaches and attention deficits. Patrick has most of the mild symptoms so it wouldn't surprise me if the tests show he has TBI. A lot of those symptoms go along with PTSD also though so you never know if its the PTSD of if he really has TBI. If he does have it, its not something to freak out about. If he has it then he's obviously had it for the past 5 years. Nothing would change, we would just now be aware of it and possibly some of his treatment methods would change. We'll let you all know what he finds out.

Just a little squealing and talking

No, he's not fussy.
These are the sounds he makes when he's playing.

Isn't that sweet

I have a good Alexis story from this weekend: Austin asked a question about the Bible. I don't remember what it was exactly but we started talking about different stories and things that are in the Bible. Alexis, out of nowhere, says "I think God's making a story about Grandpa Eldon." Apparently Dad's getting a spot in the Bible. :-) I thought it was pretty cute!

Giggly Boy

Avery is laughing again.  This time he's laughing at a piece of paper that Austin is throwing around the kitchen.  Oh, the things that amuse babies!

News from the past week!

This is what happen this past week:

Avery went for his 6 month doctor's visit.  He weighs 19 lbs. 13 oz and was 26-27 inches long.  He growing and developing well according to the doctor.  He, unfortunately, had to get 3 shots.  He didn't hold a grudge against the nurse though.  As soon as the shots were over, I picked him up and he stopped crying and immediately gave the nurse a big smile.

 

We found this weekend that Avery has his first tooth coming through.  You can't see it yet but you sure can feel it when he bites!

Alexis has set her first play date of the school year.  This Friday she's going to her best friend, Hunter's, house after school.  She's so excited!

Austin got to have his friends, George and David, spend the weekend with us.  Their parents went out of town so they stayed at our house.  What a difference two extra boys can make!  Right after the boys left, Austin got into trouble.  It was defiantly the last straw...he's now grounded for the week.  

Also adding to Austin bad week, he broke up with his girlfriend Melissa.  He says she's crazy.  He better just learn now that all girls are crazy.  Learn to live with it!  HEHEHE!

Patrick went to the Pentagon again this week.  He joked about it all week, in his best Forrest Gump voice.  He received a coin and an AAM (Army Achievement Medal)  for recovering the colors (That means doing the ceremony of saluting the US flag and folding it and returning it to its case. ) and also all the state flags and the Unit's flag after the Army Intelligence Ball then returned them to the Unit's building.  Not a big deal but apparently a 3 Star General was there and was impressed that the soldier's were taking time out of their weekend to help clean up.  Not that they had a choice, mind you.  They weren't exactly asked, more like told but they got awards for it anyway.

 

Anyway, that's what happened here this past week.  Miss you all!

At Stoneybrook Park

Alexis thought she needed to use the baby swings with Avery.  She a little too big and he's a little too small.  Go figure!