Father's Day 2010

I'll try to catch up on blogging about our trip to Colorado when I have some time this coming weekend. Until then, here's some pics I took of Amery for Jon's Father's Day gift (his are framed):




Sorry they're so small. If I try to make them bigger Amery ends up looking like the Elephant Boy.

Flashback Friday

Amery in June 2009.

New Favorite Meal

We had a very exciting dinner the other night - Amery learned how to dip. Ok, so maybe not so exciting for the rest of the world, but I think it's cool. His new favorite meal is organic strawberries (why they're organic), Earth's Best French Toast Sticks with a drizzle of syrup (also known as "Elmo Sticks"), and YoBaby 3-in-1 Meals yogurt with apple and sweet potato (for dipping of course).


Cause food pictures are artsy.


Going in for the dip (notice the different plate since we had this two days in a row).


Toddler success!

Grandma and Grandpa's Visit!

We had a nice long visit with Grandma and Grandpa. Here are some pics of what we did:


Checked out the Austin duck tour.


Got Amery his first pair of boots.


Found a hat he can't take off.


Bought a new lightweight umbrella stroller with a few accessories. So much lighter and easier to tote around than the old travel system stroller. Oh, grandma got him some new kicks, too.


Went to the Cameron Park Zoo in Waco. Two thumbs way up for this zoo. Some of the enclosures are on the small side, but the animals look well taken care of and there were only a couple per area. Lots of indoor air conditioned spots along the trail too. We got through the whole park without feeling rushed in about two hours.

Wordless Wednesday

Everybody's Workin' for the Weekend

One of the reasons I haven't been blogging as much is we've just been too darn busy on the weekends. But it's good busy. I need to get caught up so I can start new with all the fun we'll have when Grandma and Grandpa get to town on Wednesday, so here's a cheater post with a bunch of pictures of all the fun we've had so far this spring (almost summer).

Easter morning at home and at Grammy & Grampy's house.

The new bubble mower is serious business.

It's already in the 90s almost daily here in Austin, so pool playdates with buddies are a must.

Amery-to-English Dictionary

Sorry everyone! I've been promising more pictures from Laura's trip to Austin and I just plain haven't had time to upload them to the blog. So, since I still have no photos to share, we're going to have a little lesson on Amery Speak. This blog entry will serve as a translator to anyone conversing with our one-and-a-half year old.


Ameryspeak: mikka
Translation: milk



(Image copyright of Disney, i.e., don't sue me)
Ameryspeak: Mucka Moo
Translation: Mickey Mouse



Ameryspeak: daddy
Translation: vacuum (Jon is "Papa" so luckily this isn't all that confusing)


Ameryspeak: Mama Me or Meemaw (over and over and over)
Translation: I want to watch Mommy & Me or any other annoying DVD you'll let me watch

Ameryspeak: Neena
Translation: Kona

We've been busy

But I promise to update soon with all the fun stuff we did when Auntie Laura was in town!

Hint - It was at LEAST this much fun:

Children's Museum

Amery made his first trip to the Austin Children's Museum on Sunday. We took advantage of the free hour offered by the museum from 4 to 5 pm every Sunday. That hour exceeds his toddler attention span by a good 45 minutes so that was plenty of time. Turns out everyone else in Austin takes advantage of the free hour, but we still had fun:

Checking out the wind tunnel.

Taking after mama.

Hanging out with papa.

Building stuff.

Eighteen Month Check Up

This is going to be a pretty boring post because there's not much to say - he's completely healthy! Considering he had one continuous ear infection from November through February this is the best check-up we've had in a long time. His height is 32.5 inches (51st percentile) and his weight is 23 lbs 14.5 oz (21st percentile). He's tall and skinny and perfect.

Amery's favorite words right now are: Neena (Kona), mama, papa (usually said in a whisper, your guess is as good as ours), Dukel (for both cats, not just Feral Dukel), hi, bye, eat (using the sign for 'eat' and said more like eeeeeeeeeeeat), and of course, mine. He says other words, but these are his faves.

We hung out at the park with some friends today:



And that's all we got.

Bluebonnets!

One thing you learn pretty quickly after moving to Texas is that it is tradition to take your kids, plop them down in a field of bluebonnets, and snap as many pictures as possible before they start eating them or throwing a major temper tantrum, whichever happens first. We were lucky to catch Amery on a good day and he seemed to rather enjoy the experience.

Easter Egg Hunt

We met up with a whole bunch of mamas and babies at the park today for an Easter egg hunt. It was Amery's first and I wasn't sure if he'd be into it. He was into it.


Hey, what's this thing?


Whoa, here's another one.


You mean I get to keep 'em? Sweet!


I think I can fit a few more in here.

Don't worry, I gave a few of these to the littler kids. They pretty much crawled around and drooled the whole time. Not like I ever did that.

He was pleasantly surprised to discover that there was stuff to eat inside the eggs.

Your Basic Awesome Weekend

We had a great weekend! Lunch and shopping with Grammy on Friday, the Mamacents sale with my friend Lynda and Luke's first birthday party on Saturday, and a canoe race, family festival, and crafting get-together with some girlfriends on Sunday! Whew, we're tired. This is the BEST time of year to live in Texas. The weather is perfect, the bluebonnets and wildflowers are out, and there are so many free events in Austin right now. Free is good.

Well, the Mamacents sale wasn't so "free" by the time I was done. I justify my spending by stating that I walked away with half a summer wardrobe, an awesome Playskool bus toy, a poseable Spongebob (aka "Bob-Bob"), and this little gem:


We had to pry it out of his little toddler hands to get him in the car, in the high chair, in bed.

On Sunday morning, Jon participated in the First Annual Colorado River Ramble 10-Mile Race at Lady Bird Lake in Austin. Jon and Stacie are used to the 250-mile Texas Water Safari, so this race was walk in the park for these guys. They won first place for their boat class. So what if there was only one boat in their class. Now they have bragging rights for next year.


Jon, Stacy, and Warren before the race.


Hanging out on the shore and cheering for papa.


Jon (front) and Stacy (back) on the lake.


Way to go, papa!


To top off the festival, our friend Collin won a brand spankin new kayak!

**JUST ADDED** There was a professional photographer (Billy Moore) at the Family Clean Water Festival after the canoe race who took this nice photo of the three of us.

I finished off the weekend at a crafting get-together with the ladies, and made these for all the kids at Easter. I figure they'll get enough candy from the Easter bunny. Don't worry, I won't start giving out raisins on Halloween.

Flaskback Friday

I was inspired by Ruby.


St. Patrick's Day 2009

Happy St. Patty's Day!

We tried to get a picture of him in his green shirt this morning, but The Fonz here refuses to take his jacket off. At daycare, he wears it all morning. They can usually coax it off him around lunch time, but if he sees it in his cubby later in the afternoon he will insist on wearing it again.

Go Fly a Kite

This past Saturday we made the trek to the annual Zilker Park Kite Festival. We met Grammy and some other family members there for lunch. The weather was gorgeous and there had to be a thousand different kites there.

A nice couple handed us their bumblebee kite on our way in and we graciously accepted as we showed up to the Kite Festival with no kite. We named the kite FreeBee.


Amery was very into everyone else's kite. It turns out free bumblebee kites don't fly very well.

Here, lemme help you with that.

Amery, Mama, and FreeBee.

Not a single person we know in this picture, but it gives you an idea of how many people were there.


See, lots of people and lots of kites.