Austin’s 9 month doctor check up stats:

Weight: 18 lbs 9 oz (10-25th %)

Height: 29″ (75th %)

A full 3 pounds heavier than Ethan was at this age and a pound heavier than Addison was.  I’m getting worried that all the handmedown clothes aren’t going to fit during the right seasons anymore.  AHHH!  We’re screwed if that happens…

Everything else looked great for him.  Happy to have a healthy baby!

Dear Austin,

9 months already! And you’ve grown so much over the past month that I’m wishing time to slow down.  You had your doctor’s checkup today and got a clean bill of health.  YEAH!  And you’re tracking right on schedule with all your physical and oral developments. 

This past month you’ve mastered a few new skills.  You are a master scooter. You army crawl all over the house, and are pretty dang fast at it too.  You do know how to crawl on all fours and I see you do it from time to time, but you prefer the army crawl if you are needing to get somewhere in a hurry. 

Another big accomplishment is pulling yourself up to a stand.  You started to do this a few weeks ago and you continue to blow me away with how fast you’re learning.  You are a dare devil with absolutely no fear.  You pull to a stand on anything and everything, no matter how stable it is.  And you are even taking steps while hanging onto things.  This is leading to lots of bonks and bruises.  You’re a trooper though.  You will cry for a minute after getting an owie and then be ready to get back at it.  In fact, today you got your first fat lip.  I think it was more traumatic for me because each time I’d look at your little face that fat lip was puffing out, breaking my heart.  You need to be more careful!  “Careful Austin, that’s not very stable!” is a very common phrases these days around here.

You have learned how to clap.  It’s been so fun to see you learn this fun way to express your excitement.  You love to clap.  You clap when you’re watching Ethan and Addison play, when you’re playing with Mommy or Daddy, when you’re eating your food, when you’re standing up all on your own.  It’s my new favorite thing that you do, it’s just so sweet.

Your eating habits continue to boggle my mind.  The amount of food you put away at each meal is just not normal!  You love to eat your baby food but are starting to eat some table food too.  I have a feeling you’re going to be moving more towards big people food over the next month or so.  You’ve inhaled anything I’ve tried putting in front of you.  And you’re pretty good at drinking from a sippy cup too.  Such a big boy!

Last week I taught you how to share.  Now you are so eager to share any toy you are playing with.  You carefully hand the toy over, looking up at me for encouragement and praise.  I give you a huge “THANK YOU” and play with the toy for 2 seconds and then hand it back.  We play this game over and over, neither of us ever tiring of it.

I can’t believe how fast time is going by.  I just wish I could slow things down.  I am loving this age that you’re at and find every single thing you do cute.  I just can’t get enough of you!  You have such a sweet temperament and you find sweet ways to show me how much you love me.  I treasure each day that I have with you and love being your Mommy.  Thank you for making me feel so blessed and special.  I love you Austin.

Love,

Mommy

We had a quiet but very nice Father’s Day this year.  DJ got to sleep in while the kids and I prepared him a french toast casserole, wrapped his presents, and made him some Father’s Day cards.  Here they are eating Daddy’s breakfast together.

And here they are displaying their freshly wrapped presents and special cards.

After lunch we chaotically scrambled around and got ready for church.  Getting out the door to church is NEVER a simple thing.  I substituted in nursery, so DJ very kindly took Austin through the second and third hours.  I think he actually slept for an hour in his arms too, which is very unusual. 

When we got home DJ and the kids watched a movie up in the media room while I busied myself in the kitchen making DJ’s requested meal: pot roast, mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole and glazed carrots.  Oh, and I made him a triple berry crisp too.  We ate VERY well that night. 

Here are the kids “helping” Daddy open his presents.  Lots of grilling accessories for his new grill.

And here is the final attempt at getting a picture with Daddy and kids.  This is a pretty typical dog-pile on top of Daddy, so I thought it would be cute to try and capture the moment.  Didn’t work out as I had hoped, but they had fun anyway.

Happy Father’s Day DJ!  You’re the best Daddy and husband a family could ask for.  We love you very much!

A couple of months ago (I forgot to write it down and just now remembered) Ethan and Addison were playing and Ethan started to toss his puzzle board around.  He’d toss it up and then whack it like a volleyball.  After a few tosses he said, “Addison, look, this is SUPER COOL!”  Addison replied, “Yep, SURE IS!”

Tonight DJ took E&A outside after dinner to help him spread bark.  I peeked my head out to see how they were coming along and it smelled strongly of fertilizer/manure.  I made a comment to DJ about it and he said loudly, “Sure does stink!”

To which Addison replied just as loudly, “Just like you Daddy!”

Two weekends ago DJ was planning on taking E&A over to the Wheeler place for another property work day. But we found out the morning of, that everyone had come down with the flu so the work day was canceled.  We made a spontaneous decision at that point to head out to my parent’s place.  Kahly and my Grandma Ulmer were already planning to go out there, so we were happy to have the chance to all go hang out as a family.

The kids’s loved the ferry ride again.  This time we had packed a lunch so we ate sandwiches on the ferry as we watched boats go by.  The kids were more interested in watching boats, so the sandwich eating wasn’t a huge success.  But it was a lot of fun despite that. 

We had a great day of visiting, eating, sitting out on the deck enjoying the sun and the ocean, playing ball up on the grassy area and going out on the boat.

Eating lunch on the ferry.


Enjoying chocolate chip cookies on Grandma and Pa Pa’s deck.

The tide was fortunately out when we arrived so my Dad and DJ took E&A down off the side of his dock and they got to explore the ocean bottom for awhile.  Crabs, barnacles, rocks.  Ethan was a lot more into than Addison and he even got to hold a little starfish.  I think Ethan would have stayed down there with DJ the whole day.  Addison was happy to get some new “shelfs” though (shells).

They LOVED the boat. This is the first time they’ve gone that the life jackets don’t overwhelm them, so it was more about having fun than being eaten by a giant life jacket.  When we got outside of the bay my Dad punched the gas and we were really hauling, plus the water was a bit choppy so it was a rough ride.  It was a huge adrenaline rush for the kids and their faces were a mix of ecstatic joy and complete fear. Priceless.

 
Then the real fun began and my Dad let them take a turn driving the boat.  We were just in the bay at this point so the water was very smooth and there weren’t any other boats around.  There were, however, big wood pilings that stuck up about 20 feet out of the water.  They’re left over from an old logging port.  There was one in particular that seemed to be a magnet for the kids.  My Dad let them actually steer the wheel without his help and most of the time would just drive us in circles.  Round and round we went and they would get us close to that piling each time we went around.  And without fail, each time we came around to it again they would say “ANOTHER ONE ETHAN! or WATCH OUT ADDISON, THERE’S ANOTHER STICK!”  It was the same one they had steered away from about 30 seconds earlier…

  
Lazy time on the grass playing botchy ball, puzzles and baseball.

An attempt to get a picture of all of them with Great Grandma Ulmer.  We had such a fun visit with my Grandma. They were so so so sad to see her go and talk about her still and pretend talk to her on the phone all the time.  We miss you Grandma!

Here are some way late pictures from our Wheeler get together on Memorial Day.

A little game called “pass baby Austin from one person to the next”…

And it wore the poor kid OUT!

It was actually warm enough to play in a freezing cold kiddie pool.  That RARELY happens in May.  The kids were quite cold, but had a great time anyway.  They all get along so well and have so much fun playing outside with everyone.

Eating our traditional Dutch Oven dinner outside. Austin got his first taste of cornbread too. This picture was obviously taken pre-food.  The post-food scene was a bit messy…

Marc and the kids throwing rocks into the lake.  And Ethan and Makayla watching on as Emma jumps into the lake from the paddle boat. BURRR!!!  It was NOT warm out at this point in the day.

So I’ve signed up to be a co-author of a blog with a good friend of mine that lives in California.  The blog is called “Simply Clean Living”.  Here’s the bio of what the site is all about:

Simply Clean Living is primarily a resource for home cleaning and organizational tips. But you’ll also find easy recipes, parenting tips, craft ideas, and product reviews – we want to share our ideas on what works for us to keep our homes running smoothly, and we love to read comments with new ideas from our readers!

There are actually several co-authors so it will be neat to get all kinds of tips and advice from mom’s all over the country.  Come check it out sometime or add it to your blogroll!

http://simplycleanliving.blogspot.com/

Addison is really into girly things these days.  She always has been, but it’s even more so lately.  She gets so fixated on certain knick-knacks.  For a few days she’ll be attached to a couple of toys and won’t part with them.  She carts them around the house morning and night.  They are the first thing she gets excited about after waking up from a nap and I have to force her to put them on her dresser at bedtime.  And then they fizzle out and it’s onto something new.  Most of the time these toys are dress up related.  She especially likes the spare make-up bags I’ve given her.  They are her “purses” and she fills them with treasures and opens and closes them repeatedly.

I took a couple pictures of the selected items was dawning the other day.
She’s such a sweetheart.  I just love her so much!

My Grandma Ulmer was here last week and the kids had such a wonderful time with her.  She is so patient with them and will play with them all day.  One morning I decided to get the paint out for them to paint on their easel.  We’ve never done paints on an easel before so it was a very fun morning.  My Grandma stood out there with them while I got some things done inside.  She said that at one point, Addison was having some kind of issue with her paint and then Ethan turned to her and patted her on her back and said “it’s okay Bud”.  We call Ethan Bud all the time, so it was quite cute of him to turn it around and use it as a comfort to his sister.