New Home

Mommy finally got internet access today so she can update what's been happening with Joseph and Audrey. Well, we left Texas the last friday at the end of August. Mommy and Daddy dropped Joseph and Audrey off with Nai-Nai and Ye-Ye in Arlington for a week so that Mommy and Daddy could get everything unpacked. Joseph and Audrey had a good time in Arlington. Ye-Ye took them to the splash pad at the nearby park almost every day. Joseph liked playing ball with Nai-Nai. Both kiddos liked jumping on the trampoline at the house and playing in the backyard. Mommy and Daddy worked really hard to get everything ready before the kids arrived. Mommy and Daddy repainted one of the bathrooms a neutral color because it was an awful shade of blue. The moving van also arrived later than expected because the truck broke down in Dallas. Daddy had to go to work right after all the boxes arrived. Mommy worked to unpack boxes during the day and Daddy helped after he got home from work. On saturday (1 week later), Mommy and Daddy met Nai-Nai and Ye-Ye and the kids in Gainsville, TX at the outlet mall. After some shopping and some lunch at the Cracker Barrel, we all headed to the new house.

Joseph and Audrey took to the new house right away. They enjoy playing in the big backyard. Sushi also likes her new surroundings. She has a big porch to lounge under and lots of space to run in the backyard. Because the new baby is coming soon, Mommy and Daddy decided to put Joseph and Audrey in the same room. Audrey is getting used to sleeping in a room with Joseph. Most nights she crawls into bed with Joseph and falls asleep. Daddy moves her to her own bed after she falls asleeep. Audrey does stay in her own bed sometimes. A couple of nights, Mommy and Daddy caught Joseph and Audrey playing instead of in their beds. Mommy and Daddy put all the toys in Joseph's and Audrey's room so that the upstairs room could be a guest room/library instead of a toy room like at the previous house. Sometimes the temptation to play instead of sleep is too great.

The weather here in Oklahoma has been great! Mommy and the kids spend lots of time outdoors. Daddy also spends lots of time outdoors after coming home from work. It is so peaceful in the country. The yard has lots of big oak trees. Joseph and Audrey like walking around the "woods" and exploring. Joseph and Audrey also enjoy riding their scooters off a small hill in the backyard. They push their scooters up the hill and ride down. One of Joseph's newest activities is to roll large rocks off the storm shelter in the backyard. Mommy told him not to "throw" big rocks so he decided to "roll" what he terms "little big rocks" down the front of the storm shelter instead.

Audrey hasn't sprouted any new teeth recently but she is starting to talk a lot more. She says lots of words. Her favorites are probably "no", "mine", "milk", and "shoes". She definitely loves shoes. Audrey is always putting on other people's shoes. Audrey also has quite a little temper. She has a loud, screechy, kind of gutteral cry when she gets mad and throws quite the little tantrums. Nai-Nai and Ye-Ye says that Audrey acts alot like Mommy did when she was little. Mommy threw lots of nice tantrums as a child. Mommy also liked to torment her Ge-Ge (older brother) just like Audrey enjoys tormenting Joseph. One night Mommy and Daddy heard Joseph crying for help. Daddy went in the room and found Audrey next to Joseph in his bed. She was sucking her thumb with one hand and whacking him on the head over and over again with her free hand. Joseph is actually a very sweet older brother and doesn't ever hurt Audrey even if she is hurting him. Audrey has slapped other children and tries to hit Mommy when she is mad. She is a little firecracker sometimes.

Joseph has discovered the world of cartoons on the new channels that come with having Direct TV. He also decided that he loves video games. Mommy and Daddy have had to deal with a lot of tantrums when we limit the time he can spend watching cartoons or playing games. Joseph does like to do other things that are not so mind-numbing. He loves to draw and color and do crafts. He also likes to explore the house with his flashlight. Joseph plays well with other children and always tells Mommy that he "shared" with his friends. Joseph's new nursery teacher said that he has been very good in nursery and has been a good helper. Mommy and Daddy were happy to hear that he does well in nursery. Audrey has been doing pretty well in nursery since this last sunday was only her second time to go. She was a little emotional on sunday. Church happens to be during afternoon nap time so it is a hard time for Audrey.

Joseph seems to understand somewhat that we don't live in Texas anymore. He says Oklahoma is "far, far, away." Although, at times he does ask to go to places in Texas and doesn't seem to realize that we are far from the old places we liked to visit. Mommy and Daddy will have to find lots of new places for the kids to visit. We are thinking about going to the Oklahoma State Fair sometime this week. We also have plans to check out the zoo, bricktown, and other fun places that we have heard about. So far, we all seem to like Oklahoma.

Summer Update

Mommy has been very bad about blogging. Audrey now has two more teeth on the sides of her two top teeth for a total of 8. Two molars (one on each side) on the top and on the bottom have also broken through the gums in the last month. Audrey is getting a mouthful of teeth. One of her favorite things to do is to brush her teeth.

Mommy and Daddy took another trip to Oklahoma at the end of July/early August to find a rental home. Joseph and Audrey spent a couple of days at Nai-Nai and Ye-Ye's house and did really well although Joseph said that he missed Mommy and Daddy. Mommy and Daddy were stressed out looking for rental homes. Finally Mommy and Daddy were able to find a house. It is in the country and sits on a little less than 2 acres. Hopefully Joseph and Audrey will like the new house. It is a rental since Mommy and Daddy are not eager to buy another house after only living in the house in Katy for a year and a half and enduring the nightmare that it has been to have the house on the market.

Joseph is eating much better now and says that he wants to grow big and strong like Daddy. He loves to do puzzles and read books. Mommy took Audrey and Joseph to the drive-in theater in July to watch Wall-E and Kung-Fu panda. Joseph stayed awake for both movies and loved the experience. Joseph is also fully potty-trained...finally. He has done very well since May and has had very few potty accidents. Joseph is reading a little on his own. He recognizes many words. He also enjoys doing workbook pages and practicing writing. Joseph wrote his name on the back of a coloring sheet at Denny's the other day during lunch. Mommy and Daddy were surprised because he has never written his name on his own. Joseph still loves to play games on the computer. He also discovered the world of Pokemon. The "cousins" as he calls Uncle Andrew's kids got Joseph interested in Pokemon. He likes to watch the cartoons and engages in pretend play involving Pokemon characters.

Both kids are growing so quickly. Mommy should be better about posting. Things have definitely been busy this summer with Daddy gone to Brazil for a month and having the house up for sale and getting ready to move. Joseph is excited about moving to Oklahoma. Audrey does not know what is going on, but hopefully she will enjoy the change in scenery.

Trip to Oklahoma

So Mommy has been very bad about posting lately. On thursday, Mommy and Daddy packed up the kids and one additional child (Zoe) for a trip to Oklahoma to look around. Mommy and Daddy wanted to look for places to live in Edmond in anticipation of the upcoming move. Zoe was a little angel a nd cried very little the whole way there and back. Audrey started losing her voice at Nai Nai and Ye Ye's house and was looking rather miserable by the time we started the trip back to Katy. Poor Audrey cried alot on the way home. Joseph was pretty good on the trip up but had lost his patience by the end. He was crying and kicking the back of Daddy's seat on the ride home. Daddy got sick on the trip too and had a fever and chills friday night. All in all, it was an interesting trip. Mommy made a mental note to herself not to travel 1100 miles with 3 kids in 3 days, especially if one or more persons are not feeling well.

On a happier note, Oklahoma seems nice. Also, the traffic is minimal compared to Houston. Mommy and Daddy took the kids to a lake on saturday morning so they could play on the playground and in the lake before the long trip back to Houston. All the kiddos were covered in red clay/dirt and soaking wet but had a great time. Mommy found it impossible to wash out the red from the clothes so the clothes will have to be retired.

As far as developments in the last little while, Audrey got in the two teeth on the side of the bottom two, but no other teeth have been spotted. She has been rather fussy and teething tablets seem to calm her so more teeth will probably be appearing soon. Joseph seems to have gained a lot of attitude as of late. He started saying, "I'm mad at you Mommy!" and "I'm going to spank you!" He also adds an emphatic "NOW!" to all his demands such as "I want fish NOW!" He has also been throwing a lot of tantrums. Mommy and Daddy heard rumors that three may be worse than two and so far, it seems to be true.

911 Call

So this evening Audrey was playing with the phone and must have inadvertently dialed 911. A police officer showed up at the door to make sure everyone was okay. Daddy teased Audrey about prank calling boys already. Mommy and Daddy were a little embarrassed by the whole thing. Good thing the officer was nice and didn't issue any kind of citation. Mommy and Daddy will have to keep a closer eye on Audrey. She loves to play with the phone.

Walking

Audrey has been walking for the last few months holding onto Mommy or Daddy's hands. Until a few weeks ago, she would throw a fit if Mommy or Daddy let go of her hands and tried to get her to walk on her own. At the end of April, Audrey took a few steps all by herself. Last week she just started walking. She is a little wobbly on her feet, but overall, she is doing really well. She is so happy to be walking. The other day Mommy took Joseph and Audrey to the fountains at LaCenterra. Audrey liked the water and took off on her own to explore. Mommy is getting ready for the next step: running. It is already hard enough to keep up with her. Both Audrey and Joseph have so much energy. Mommy sure wishes she had half the energy they have.

Signing

Although Mommy signed with Joseph forever it seemed like, the only sign he ever produced was the one for "more." Mommy chalked it up to the fact that Joseph spoke rather early and even now at age 3 has quite an extensive vocabulary. Despite the fact that he didn't sign, Mommy and Daddy haven't had too many problems understanding what he wants. By twelve months Joseph would point at things and say "that." From 12 months on, his vocabulary grew by leaps and bounds. By 18 months he was speaking in complete sentences. When Audrey was born, Mommy thought she would give signing another try. So far Audrey has been alot like Joseph. She has made the sign for "more" on occasion, but she too points at things and says "that." Today Mommy was very excited because we were at the park and Joseph said he wanted to go feed the ducks. Audrey looked at Mommy and said "duck" and then with her right hand, she made the sign for duck. Mommy is hoping that Audrey will start making other signs. The sign for "potty" or "toilet" would be great though recently Audrey has started resisting sitting on the potty. Mommy and Daddy have been taking her potty since she was about 4 months old and she has done really well. Now it seems like she is exerting her will and saying no, she does not want to go potty. Mommy's plan was to have her fully potty-trained by the time the new baby arrives. Mommy is now thinking that Audrey is intent on foiling her plans. Only time will tell what may happen. Mommy will hope for the best.

Fishing

On saturday Joseph said he wanted to go fishing so we packed up and headed to the ranch. Joseph had a great time. He caught his first fish, a medium-sized large-mouth bass. He also caught a little sunfish. He really enjoyed spending time with Granny and Grandpa. Yesterday Joseph said that he wanted to go back to the ranch to go fishing again and to see Granny and Grandpa. Audrey enjoyed exploring her new surroundings. She was too excited to sleep and was so tired by late afternoon. Daddy and Grandpa grilled some pork ribs and pork loins, mushrooms, zucchini and squash, and potatoes. It was a tasty dinner! Granny had made brownies for dessert too. We didn't get back to Katy til after 11:00pm, but it was a fun day. We haven't been to the ranch in awhile and we may not get to very often in the future since it is looking like we will definitely be moving to Oklahoma City soon.