Spankings don't work here

The other day, the whole family was in the car running errands. Austin was kicking the back of my chair (attention seeking!) over and over, and I finally snapped and threatened to send him to his room for the rest of the day (not rational, I know!). Aidan piped up from the back seat with his opinion, "Austin, just get a spanking instead. Then you're not in any trouble. You just get a spanking and then go back to playing. It doesn't even hurt."

Looks like Supernanny is right. Spankings are not effective.

Austin's Party

We celebrated Austin's birthday with his friends in Blue's Clues style. We rented the local children's gym and had about 20 of his play group playmates help us celebrate. Everything turned out so great (I'm especially proud of the cake and cupcakes!), but Jared and I learned a big lesson: Never plan a party that close to a Disney trip, especially on the morning of Halloween! Even though I forgot the cake on the way to the party, and the wind blew the top of the cooler off as I made my mad dash in the truck, the party was a hit! :-)

I was pretty proud of myself for making this cake, but I think being a cake artist is not in my future. :-)

These were a lot of work, but the kids LOVED them! :-)

Our poor little Austin is quite shy, and when we put the cake in front of him, he started crying. He didn't want anyone to look at him and sing. It was so sad (and sweet!).

Disney 2009

Some pictures

I need to do a big Disney update, but life is hectic at our house with Austin's upcoming birthday party, Halloween and our trip to the pumpkin farm. Then we have one weekend off before FOUR weekends IN A ROW where we have to travel out of town! We're traveling to Atlanta for a wedding, Gadsden for a wedding, Atlanta for Thanksgiving and Kentucky for my grandmother's 100th birthday. Luckily, the trip to Kentucky will be a flight! :-)

Our little princess has a head cold. It has been affecting her sleep a little bit, but she is still as happy as ever.



Aidan got his first report card. Academically, it was flawless, but his teacher had some negatives about his behavior. Apparently, our sweet Aidan is a bit of a class clown and likes to make the ladies laugh. :-)



Austin is struggling with being "only" three. He keeps telling everyone that he's five. Poor sweetheart isn't old enough to do anything that he wants to do. He wants to go to school and play sports just like Aidan, but his late birthday is keeping him from being able to do anything. He shows amazing promise in sports, so we're excited to see what he can do when he gets the chance.

Ramblings from Aidan...

Aidan was just telling me a story that he was making up as he was going. In it, he said there was a spaceship that was bigger than God. He interrupted himself to explain to me that he knows nothing is bigger than God but that this was just a story. Then he shouted up to the sky, "Sorrrrry, God. It's just a story." :-)

He explained to me that God is bigger than an Argentinosaurus. (I thought he was making that dinosaur up, but it really exists. Thank you Dinosaur Train.)

And a few more...

When it rains it pours with these blog posts, huh?

Quick updates...

Here's a quick update for what's going on in the kids' lives...

Aidan

• Apparently the honeymoon is over with Aidan at school. He is repeatedly getting bad reports about being too hyper and talking too much. I have absolutely no idea where he could be getting this from. ;-) When his teacher talks to me about things Aidan is doing wrong in class, it is those moments that I feel too immature to be a parent. I constantly find myself holding back laughter at the things that she tells me he's doing. He's a comical child that loves to entertain. Apparently, she doesn't see the value in his entertainment. :-)
• He's playing soccer again this year. It's going (only slightly) better than last year. The grass picking is much less, and he actually scored a goal two games ago (for the other team, but the effort was there!). The good news is that we found out that Aidan can repeat the "Under 6" division next year since he only qualified to be on the team this year by four days. Since his birthday is less than a week from the cutoff, they allow the children to play in the younger league as long as they aren't a ringer (which is SO not a problem in our case - sorry, Aidan!).
• We have just begun working on riding a bike without training wheels. We've only had one lesson, so we need a few more before he's got it. With as much as it hurt my back trying to help him, that lesson will only happen when he remembers to ask me.

Austin

• He is making huge strides with recognizing his lowercase letters. Poor Austin's education has taken a back seat in the past year, and I have only just begun sitting down with him and working on things. He gets bored of me trying to teach him new things quite easily, but he is a very fast learner.
• He is a constant ball of energy that wants to go from the trampoline to the bike to the Wii. I really think I've lost a few pounds solely because I jump on the trampoline with him every day. If I could just get him to go the gym with me! :-)
• I have yet to beat Austin at Wii boxing. He's amazing at it and LOVES to play it. The child loves to hit, but we have finally made the connection that it is not okay to punch "in real life." Hitting is a different story, but that's normal, right?

Anna

• She is completely crawling now and is very fast.
• She loves, loves, loves to eat paper. If she sees any type of paper around, she's off like a flash. In less than 30 seconds, she got ahold of my Netflix return envelope and rendered it unusable. I had to ship my movie back wrapped in typing paper.
• Her newest trick is pulling herself up to stand. It makes me extremely nervous because she's so unsteady at it. I have to watch her like a hawk in the video monitor because if she stands up in her crib, I have to go back in and get her.
• On that same note, she is still not sleeping through the night. I have come to terms with the fact that my children don't sleep through the night until 12 months. I figure I only have 4 1/2 months to go. :-)
• She is a pro at picking up food off her tray and feeding herself. We have started feeding her a few table foods now, and her favorites are broccoli and Rice Krispies.