Sorry no pics, camera broke :(

My "new" camera fell the other day and the battery door broke. I brought it in today, not thinking to upload pictures before I did. It has to be sent out, approx "6 - 10" weeks to fix!! Ugh, it is great Don got the warrantee, but sometimes it seems that if it is under wanerntee it takes SO much longer! So I need to break out the old digital to get the pictures I have off of the memory card, but no new pics after those for awhile :((

When I get them up there is a cute video of Bell changing a diaper on her doll. When we were playing it back yesterday she said, AND signed "change doll". Yeah, two word sentences!!! She is actually talking so much these days with lots of new words. She calls Austin "bruber", and will stand on something she knows she is not supposed to and says "sit owen" with a smile on her face!

We went to the YMCA this morning for our first Tot Parent swim class and she saw this little girl walking along with her mom. She started running after them saying "irl" and signing girl! It was so cute. We had a great time in the pool and Bell is much more comfortable in the water than most of the other kids (two friends from Mothers and More are also taking the class with us). After the pool I put her in the Kids Zone, and she had fun playing with the other kids. The Y has a great kids drop off area which as a member you can use for 1.5 hours a day for free. We are not members yet, but soon...... When she was in the Kids Zone I was finishing filling out my paperwork to work in the Kids Zone 1 or 2 mornings a week (3 hours at a time). My friend Jill runs it and finally had an opening to get me in! So I am getting a job at the Y (takes a few weeks as they need to do a background check and all that stuff first), not for the money (which is not a lot), but for the benefits!! Family membership is only $24 month (as compaired to $78), kids zone babysitting is free and all kids programs and classes are half price and adult arobic / water arobic classes are free. So figure that what I make will cover the cost of the membership and classes - so it is all good. The best thing is that when I "go to work", I bring the kids with me!! Don has really wanted to get back into working out and loved the Y when he did a free trial membership in January, so this is going to be a great thing for the whole family.

Of course Don needs to actually have some free time to get there! He was covering a shift from 6-10 PM yesterday for one of hte guys who is taking a certification class (AFTER a full day of work), and spending the night at the hotel. I called him about 11:30 PM, thinking he would just be settling in at the hotel, but he was still at his desk catching up on paperwork he did not get done during the day. With two guys out on disability, he will be running on overdrive for at least the next month.

We went to an awards night at Austin's school this week for the first and second marking periods. Austin got Honors Roll certificates and pins for both marking periods! He is really doing so well in school. He just switched specials and is now in Design Tech. They make cars, airplanes and at the end of the year a rocket which they launch during school. They of course learn the mechanics behind them and the tools use to make them as well. He seems to really like this class and when we went to open house Don had a great time talking to the teacher about it!

Not much new here with me. I did go on a new topical and an antihistime day before yesterday, so I am hoping it helps the itching some in a day or two! Otherwise I am feeling good and starting to get BIG! I did get to breifly meet our new (soon to be) neighbors this week. Te house next door has been empty since the end of November, and we miss our friends Brett and Steph (Hi over there in Guam!!). Our new neighbors have three kids: 10, 8 and 14 months, so hopefully that will be fun. Of course Austin's first question when I told him was "do they have dogs?", which I forgot to ask! The reason I met her was that the dogs were barking their heads off (which is not unusual), so I went out to check on them and saw her over there, but we only chatted for a few minutes as it was cold out and Bell and I had no coats on.
Gotta go clean the house, enough goofing off....
Karen

This and that...

Austin was home from school today. A trip to the doctor says he has strep throat. I guess it is good that it is a long weekend so he only has to miss the one day of school.
I also went to he doctor today. I have had a rash for the last week +, had the same thing when I was pregnant with Austin. Head to toe and itchy as all get out!! This type of rash (PUPPP) lasts until the baby is born, so I was not going to be like this for 15 or so more weeks, so she gave me a topical med and I should be good in a few days = yeah!! Otherwise I am feeling good, baby is moving and kicking all of the time!
We packed Don off this afternoon for a weekend of work! Ugh, three nights of 6 pm to 6 am night shifts. He will be home sometime Monday AM, probably to sleep for the whole day, and go back to work on Tuesday. I can tell you he will be very happy to have Harold back and eventually Marty (the guy who broke his hip!). No one ever said being the boss was fun. Well, at least he should get some playstation time in at the hotel (I don't think Austin knows yet that he took it!).
Don is officially part of our churches parish family. This past week was the annual auction they hold each year. Last year we went to it and this year they asked him to work at it. It is a lot of fun and you never know what you will find there. But they have a tradition called the chicken hat. Some woman from the parish makes a new one every year (it is a BIG chicken atop a straw hat with fake hair and ribbons hanging down it), and they auction it off. But the key is whoever buys it gets to choose who to give it to and that person has to wear the hat all night long (and then gets to take it home). Well Don bid on it, but this guy Mike ended up winning it, and promptly turned around and gave it to Don!! So he had to wear the chicken hat all night long. So funny, I wish I had had the camera with us. Bell thought it was great and kept saying (yelling actually) Daddy and signing hat and bird. It is quite an honor to be chosen to get the chicken hat (which is now up in the attic).
Bell is doing great, She learned to open the corner cabinet in the kitchen that spins around and took out all of the spices today. I let her do it, and then we made a game of one by one her bringing them back (she had brought each one over th me at the table and laid them on the floor) and putting them away.
Well, that's all for now - night all!

They grow up so fast!

Everyone says it "they grow up so fast". But it really is so true!
It is hard to believe sometimes that my little baby boy is almost a teenager. He has always been such an independent one, when he was small I used to put the bowls, cereal and some spoons on a bottom cabinet shelf and the milk in the bottom shelf of the fridge. When he woke up on Saturday mornings he would make his bowl of cereal on the kitchen floor and go watch cartoons. Now he does his whole morning routine and some mornings he only comes in to say goodbye if I am not out of bed yet! (But most mornings I am up with my "boys" to see them off for the day!!). So when he asked me on the night before Valentine's Day, "mom, am I allowed to have a girlfriend?", he almost knocked me down! My little boy is growing up!!
Bell is also growing into a real toddler these days! She loves to play with her dolls and asks to carry her doll like mommy carries her all of the time. Hopefully this will help her transition when mommy has a new baby to carry! She puts on her doll and plays, walks around and then stops to pat it on the back and signs and says "doll". She knows probably 50 signs now and can really comunicate so much with us, and everyday almost is saying new words (or what passes for words from a 15.5 month old). We know what she is saying anyway. She has yet to come up with a word for her brother, but calls his friend JD (who is here A LOT), "AD". Right now she is walking around saying "y-et" to the dogs. This means quiet, which she hears mommy say to the dogs when they are barking a lot. So when they bark, she says Y-ET, loud!!
They really do grow up so fast!!!

Snow Babies

No school

So I was awoken this morning at 6:30 by a 12 year old jumping up and down singing, NO SCHOOL, NO SCHOOL. Snow day in Delaware today, with about 5 inches on the ground.
Will post pics of the kids playing in the snow later I am sure, but first that same 12 year old needs to go SHOVEL!!
K