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.

Fun in San Antonio

Daddy had to work at a booth at the AAPG conference held in San Antonio last week so Mommy, Joseph, and Audrey decided to go with him. While Daddy was at work, Mommy and the kids went all over the downtown area. We went to the Alamo and Joseph fed pigeons with a little old man. He had a lot of fun feeding the birds. We also took lots of walks around the Riverwalk. Joseph really loved the boat tour ride around the Riverwalk and wanted to go again and again. One night we ate at our friends Faith and Rudy's favorite mexican restaurant, the Mexican Manhattan. Another night we had dinner with Daddy's friend Brad at The Republic of Texas restaurant along the Riverwalk. We had lunch every day at the RiverCenter mall and sat along the river. Daddy and Mommy bought a double stroller just for the trip to San Antonio. It will probably be something useful to have when the new baby comes along in the fall. Audrey enjoyed the sights and the many opportunities to eat good food. On the last day, Mommy took the kids to the Wax museum and to Ripley's Believe It or Not. Joseph really liked Ripley's and keeps talking about all the strange people and things he saw there. They had an interactive floor that Joseph loved playing on. He didn't want to leave and could have stayed there for many hours. Audrey fell asleep since it took awhile to get through all the exhibits. We were all exhausted by the time we got back to Katy, but it was a fun trip.