Andrew's First Haircut

Andrew got his first haircut while we were in Dallas.

Before:


After:

Christmas in Dallas

We had an early Christmas in Dallas since Edward had his 2 week vacation. Had a wonderful time, kids enjoyed seeing family and playing with their new toys, as did Mommy and Daddy.
Opening presents:









We also went to the Children's Musuem with Alex and Aidan:

Self feeding

Andrew has figured out how to feed himself with a spoon. I knew he was getting close as he is also using a fork to stab his food. Today I gave in and gave him his own bowl of applesauce. He managed to get most in his mouth. Next time we will do yogurt since it is easier. I thought this would come a bit later than 15 mths but he likes to be a big boy like the other two.

Halloween and La State Fair

Our Halloween plans were to go to the downtown trick or treat on Friday the 30th and then to go to the Louisiana State Fair in Shreveport on Saturday. No going door to door as last year the kids liked the downtown stuff better. However we have had massive amounts of rain this month and Friday we got even more which ended up knocking the power out for most of the town. I even had to pick Alex up from school at 11am bc the school had been without power since 830am and couldn't serve lunch. So the downtown trick or treat was cancelled. So wasn't sure what to do until my dad mentioned that the Shreveport outdoor shopping mall was having a trick or treat as well. This mall is about as big as our downtown is so thought that would work out nice. We went to the fair Saturday and had a great time. Aidan and Alex rode a ton of rides and played lots of games. Even had their first funnel cake. We left Andrew with my dad for the afternoon since Andrew would not get much out of the fair and it would be easier on us.

After the fair we ate dinner with Dad at a catfish/BBQ place and then headed to the outdoor mall. We were not prepared for the amount of people there-took is 25 mins to get from the onramp to the mall-and it is only 2 miles from the interstate. But we made it, got their costumes on and hoped it was ok. It wasn't. It was packed, none of the stores were passing out candy, they had a few tables set up in the center of the mall and the kids each got about 5 pieces of candy. We left. We felt bad they didn't get to do any trick or treating so we headed to near Dad's work where there are a few houses I know of. Yea, not a good idea either as they were evacuating people b/c of the rising waters-optional evacuation but that was a no go. I felt sad they missed out, so did Edward. So Edward went to walmart, bought some candy, and while they were sleeping we filled their pumpkins and this morning told them that the Great Pumpkin came and filled their pumpkins. We got the Great Pumpkin idea from Charlie Brown :) and Alex really likes Charlie Brown. So they woke up to filled pumpkins and all is right with the world again.

So, a massive amount of pictures to share of Halloween and the fair.

Halloween 2009:











Louisiana State Fair:

Fall Pictures

I got the boys outside and took their pictures today while at my dad and stepmom's house. Planning to use these for our Christmas card this year, unless I happen to get better ones.
Alex:

Aidan:

Andrew:

Fall pictures

I had planned on doing the boy's fall pictures yesterday. Wanted to take them outside but unfortunately it started raining again. So we did Aidan and Andrew inside and will hopefully get Alex's done this weekend.

Our October News

Alex is doing awesome at school. He's had one accident so far, but nothing a change of underwear couldn't fix. Has had a few meltdowns when other kids got a toy he wanted to play with, but that's expected considering he hasn't been in a daycare/school setting before. He is learning a lot which I am very happy about. The 4 yrs he was home with me he learned quite a bit, I taught him tons, but he is not the type of kid to sit down and learn unless in a group setting. He is counting to at least 30 now, which kind of seems bad for a 4 yr old, but I could never get him to count past 10 until he started school. He is starting to sight read some words-like STOP and can tell me how to spell more simple words. And the singing. He never was a singer much, didn't sing the ABC song ever, but now he is singing his ABCs all the time, singing nursery rhymes he has learned. His drawing is becoming a lot more defined, not as much scribbling. You can definitely tell he is thriving in school.

Aidan is doing great too. He goes to Tech for a speech eval on Oct 26 and I believe he was accepted into their speech program. I don't think they will eval him and then tell me he doesn't qualify or they don't have room. I guess we will find out more info when we go to the eval. He is mimicking everything we do-dancing, talking, all kinds of things. He is definitely at a fun, but frusturating age. He absolutely loves to dance to the Backyardigans and Yo Gabba Gabba. Having some jealousy with Andrew but also doesn't realize that Andrew does get hurt. But overall his behavior is getting a lot better-not as much tantrums and frusturation. I made him a book the other day that has cutouts of pictures of animals, toys, foods, faces, etc to help him learn the name to associate with the picture. I am no where near done with the book as I just started it and am trying not to buy magazines to rip only a few pages out, so if any of my readers would like to browse some of their magazines to see if they have anything they could send, that would be great. We are basically doing zoo animals, farm animals, house pets, every day foods, everyday household items, everyday outdoor items, face features(eyes, nose, ears)-I have eyes and mouth covered though, that was quite easy. Oh, Aidan also got tubes a few weeks ago b/c of the constant ear infections. I'm not sure if it is b/c his eustachean(did I spell that right) tubes are just too small-which is usually the case) or if it is b/c he had the implant surgery-seems like he had 1-2 ear infections before his first surgery and then from 1-2 yrs old had maybe 7, and then after his 2nd surgery(in June) has had 3-4 more. So who knows if he would have had it no matter what, probably so, but tubes are in. Has post op the other day, one ear was clear, one ear was filled with fluid. So he is on antibiotics and ear drops. He rarely gets ammoxicillan anymore, I think he has built up a resistance to it so we have to go for the heavier stuff. We go back in 2 weeks to make sure the infection is clear, if it isn't, I have no clue what step is next. Maybe allergy testing to see if that is a reason behind all the fluid/infections.

Andrew is also doing really well. He is 14 mths old now, walks so fast, very close to running. Has 5 teeth with at least 1 more coming in. Finally sleeping throuh the night for the last month, however the past few days has been waking up. He is always trying to copy his big brother, which is so cute to watch, but also scary ad he isn't the big boy he thinks he is. He's a good eater so far, seems Alex is my only picky eater right now, he loves cucumbers, bell peppers, blueberries, blackberries, and a lot of other things.