Dean opening his big gift...

Dean was really sick on Christmas morning, but he was still happy to get his train table.

Santa's Visit

Christmas

Christmas morning...

Christmas Eve

Christmas was so much fun this year with Dean. We hosted a Christmas Party earlier in the month with our playgroup and Santa made an appearance. Dean did not want to be alone with Santa and take a picture so I had to go with him to get his present. Santa came back again on Christmas Eve and Dean only warmed up to him when we walked him to the front door to say good-bye. He did say bye to Santa and Thank you. Hopefully next year I'll be able to get a picture with the boys on Santa's lap. My parents were here from NY for Christmas so they got to enjoy watching Dean open presents from Santa. Dean had a really bad chest cold for Christmas so he couldn't talk too loud, but he was happy anyway.

Christmas Eve there was 4 of us assembling Dean's big present until 10pm. We had to hide it under a sheet so that Dean could open his smaller gifts without being distracted. He loved opening presents and just kept grabbing whatever was under the tree (didn't matter who it was for) and just started opening. Here is Dean's big gift, a train table. Unfortunately he messes the track up quite a bit and I have to spend a lot of time reassembling it.

Austin was cute for his first Christmas. This is one of my favorite moments when he was looking at one of his presents. He is such a joy to have around and gives so many smiles to everyone everyday.

One kid napping, the other enjoying a Christmas movie...

I'm sure you can guess which kid is doing what. Time seems to be flying by. After our Thanksgiving trip to Chicago, we decorated the house and I can't believe it's almost mid December already! I have yet to bake cookies...which will hopefully happen one weekend. There is so much going on each weekend, it's hard to find the time to do anything. That includes posting on the blog. Pictures will be coming soon!

Just having fun

Eating his Halloween candy

We gave Dean a piece of his Halloween candy. If he thinks something is really delicious, he always calls it ice cream.

Calling Daddy "Kevin"

Tis the Season...

for getting sick that is. Everyone in the family has caught a cold so it's been a long week for us. I've been trying to find the time and energy to post more, but it's been difficult with 2 kids to take care of and Kevin works late all the time. He's even been working weekends too, so it's been really busy around here. I'm hoping that today is my last day with this cold. Austin was really good even though I know he wasn't feeling well with the cold. Dean was very sick for about 24 hours and just had the sniffles for a couple of days.

We're headed to Chicago for Thanksgiving this year so it will be fun to see all the kids...some of which we haven't even met yet! There are 13 cousins now. Dean will be delighted. Hopefully once we get back Kevin's work will slow down a bit and I can catch up on some zzz's.

Here is a picture of Austin on his 2 month birthday...he's almost 11 weeks old! Time is flying by. He's been such a good baby for me. He smiles so much at me every time I look at him.

Loving his car seat...

Here are some new pictures of Austin.

Here is a video of Dean on the phone with his Daddy. Dean is running away from me as he's afraid I want to take the phone back.

So little time...

Just trying to get in a quick post before the kids wake up from nap. I finally got Austin to stay in the swing (as opposed to my arms). Things have been super busy. I can't believe how much easier it was to have just 1 toddler to take care of. Especially since his nap is so predictable and there is no predictability with a newborn. Austin turned 8 weeks old yesterday and is getting big. My favorite thing is when I say hi to him he smiles at me. Dean has been keeping busy with all his cars when we're at home so it's nice that he can entertain himself when I'm taking care of Austin. I took a picture of Dean with some of his cars on his table. Yes, that's right, that's only some of his cars. Here is a video of Austin. He's not doing anything, but I thought it would be nice to have some footage of him when he was this little.

Rainy Day

Grandma will be missed

This is Grandma's last week here. She leaves on Saturday. I know the boys will miss her and she will miss them. I will miss her too. She's been a HUGE help to us while she was here. I know it was tiring, but she did enjoy her time with Austin and loved hearing all Dean's words and the funny things he says on a daily basis.

Here is Dean showing us his counting skills...

My precious baby

Cute Pictures

I haven't been posting much as the days seem to fly by with so much to do. Not to mention the sleep deprivation. Dean has so much energy, I always have to make sure he gets to go somewhere to work his energy out. My mom is here for just 2 more weeks and we'll all be sad when she leaves. Kevin works so much that I'll be on my own for most of the time once she's gone.

Grandma and Dean always chase the garbage trucks around the neighborhood on Fridays (which is garbage day). Dean always says "catch them" to his Grandma and makes her race around the block. Dean was watching a Wiggles video where they were fishing and someone on the video asked "what did you catch?" and Dean responded "Garbage Trucks" and his Grandma couldn't stop laughing. No one else heard it unfortunately.

Austin started smiling today. He's mostly smiling at his Grandma and she's loving every bit of it. I can't believe how the time has flown by. Austin has an adorable smile and hopefully he'll be showing us lots of them from now on.

Say Cheese!

Grandparents

Dean and Austin were lucky enough to have 3 of their 4 Granparents visiting at once. Kevin's parents came into town for the weekend and I got some cute pictures of them all.

Brothers

I got some cute pictures of Dean playing with Austin. Most of the time Dean ends up waking up Austin when he touches him.

Baby Austin

"Baby Austin" is what Dean always calls his brother. Hopefully he continues to be gentle with him. Dean has been testing me to the limits with everything. If I tell him not to bang his cars on the table, he does it more. He is breaking a record for time outs this week. Not to mention I take every car away when he bangs it, so his stash is dwindling.

Austin turned 2 weeks old yesterday and has slept the entire day today. I am writing this dreading what lies ahead of me this evening.

Football Season

In honor of the start of college football season, I wanted to post pictures of the boys in their ND gear. Kevin only has a few years before the boys are actually interested in the games. For now, Austin just wants to sleep, eat and poop and Dean just wants to watch Dora the Explorer. Thank goodness we got an extra tv for the living room for Kevin to camp out and watch his team play.

More pictures of Austin...

Dean meeting Austin for the first time at the hospital

Austin Blake Dunwoodie

Austin was born on 8/31/09 at 1:06pm and weighed 6lbs 11 oz. He now weighs 6lbs 6oz but I'm sure will gain his weight back really quickly as he is an excellent eater. He is also an excellent burper and sleeper. I just wish he didn't poop so much as he hates his diaper changes. But as long as he is a good sleeper, I won't complain. Our first night home with Austin, he was up all night. Just like his brother was. After that, we had two really great nights where he slept all night and just woke up for feedings. I'm hoping that continues, but babies change so much in the first couple of weeks.

Dean has been an excellent big brother. He's so gentle with Austin and calls him "baby Austin". We didn't even have to tell Dean "no touch" with the baby's bottles and other things, we just caught him pointing to what he's seen the baby with and saying "no touch, baby's" so I think he knows what belongs to the baby.

Last post before baby...

Just wanted to put in my last post before the baby arrives. As of now I'm supossed to go in on Sunday night for the induction. Hopefully that is still the plan after my doctor's appt. tomorrow. Tomorrow should be a busy day running errands and cleaning the house, doing laundry, just trying to get things done before everything gets crazy!

I'll post pictures of the baby as soon as I can!

This Morning at the Park

We took Dean to the park this morning to play in the water kiddie area. He had a great time and I took this video of him. It was great weather for it and I was thankful that Kevin had to chase him around the big playstructures and take him down the big slide while I sat on a bench. I'm also thankful that Kevin took Dean to the hardware store so I can post on the blog and have a break. Of course he didn't want to do it as Dean is crazy at the stores, but if I do it all the time, I'm pretty sure Kevin can handle it.

Two Years Ago...

No this is not our new baby...I wanted to post some pictures from 2 years ago when Dean was a tiny baby. I can't believe what a big boy he is now! I'm getting excited to see how he is with his new baby brother. I'm getting induced on August 30th, so will likely deliver the baby on the 31st. I'm sure the baby will also have a full head of hair just like Dean did. Dean had his first haircut when he was only 2 weeks old.

Dean is finally pointing to my belly when I ask him where the baby is. His favorite words are "blue truck"...it doesn't matter what color the truck is. If he sees a truck, it's always "blue" to him. I even ask Dean to tell me he loves me and his response is "blue truck". His Grandma is coming next Saturday so that will be fun for him to get some extra attention when she gets here. I'm a little worried about how he'll be when I'm in the hospital as he has been super attached to me since he turned 2.

Dean at the Farm

We decided to take Dean to the Little Farm yesterday to feed the animals. I want him to have some fun outings with us before the new baby comes. He had a great time petting all the animals. It took a while before he was willing to feed the cows, but I took this video of him finally doing it. He wouldn't let go of the lettuce when he would give it to the cows so we had to pull it out of his hands for him.

This is Dean wiped out on the way home.

A long week

Dean and I have survived a long, lonely 9 days on our own. The first 4 days, Kevin worked really late every night and didn't get a chance to see Dean. Then he saw him one morning as we dropped him off at the train (a 10 minute drive) so Kevin could head to the airport for his 5 day trip to Chicago. What a tease for Dean! He was so upset when Kevin got out of the car...I can't blame him b/c he loves his daddy and hadn't seen him all week. It was so sad. He also saw Kevin's car in the driveway everyday so he constantly asked "Dada home?" and of course I had to explain that Dada is not home. Kevin finally gets home tonight and I'm looking forward to having some help again (if Kevin doesn't have to work late). I know that Dean will be thrilled to see Dada as will the dogs.

Yesterday my friend invited us to a park that we have not been to and it was a great distraction for Dean. It wasn't like all the other parks we go to. This one has water features that sprays water out of the ground at different places at different times and it looked liked Dean was having the best time ever! We'll have to visit there again. He just loves the water! I should have brought my camera, but I was more concerned with bringing food, diapers, change of clothes, bathing suit, etc. for Dean.

Time - Out

Dean loves time outs. This is something I never expected. Of course we hold him in our lap and count aloud for the time out so I guess it's appealing to him. He also loves the discussion when time out is over explaining to him why he got a time out and then he gets a hug and a kiss. I always ask him to say sorry too, but he has yet to do it. He usually just smiling too much looking at me. So whenever he's doing something bad and I tell him no and to stop a couple of times. He doesn't actually stop until I say "Do you want a time out?"...now normally kids would be threatened by this, but Dean literally stops what he's doing runs over to me and grabs my hand and pulls me to a time out area. He then sits there patiently (usually smiling) until time out is over. Right now this is working for me as I'm so big I don't want to wrestle him into time out, but I think we'll have to adjust our strategy in the future. Not to mention, it always makes him stop whatever bad behavior he was doing that caused the time out and does not return to it afterwards. In fact he plays very nicely afterwards. Yesterday when time out was over, he even went back to the time out area and counted to 10 by himself. I guess he'll be learning to count to 60 in no time since his time out is only 60 seconds right now.

The Nursery is done

Here are some pictures of the nursery. There is so much stuff in the room and the huge closet, I don't know how we lived in a 1 bedroom apartment when we had Dean. Only a few more weeks and the nursery will be occupied and I will be very, very tired and probably post on the blog even less than I already do. I keep telling Dean about the new baby coming, but he really doesn't get it. He cracks me up everyday with his new words and the funny things that he does. Earlier this week my friends here in California threw me a small baby shower. It was a complete surprise!!

Trip to the Doctors

We ended up having to go to the pediatrician yesterday as Dean got another staph infection. It's been a long time since his last one and I was hoping he outgrew them. He's so cute at the doctor's office. He always cuddles with me and has his eyes closed hoping they won't know he's there. He ended up falling asleep on me while we waited and I haven't had him fall asleep on me since he was a little baby. It was a little uncomfortable as he isn't a little baby anymore and I have less of a lap for him to be on with my pregnant belly. I did enjoy staring at him sleeping though. I woke him up when the doctor came in and unfortunately he was in for some big "owies" as the doctor put it as they had to open up the infection. He cried of course (who wouldn't!) but once it was all over he was a big boy and started playing with his toys that I brought. I was so proud of him for being a big boy and letting the doctor torture him (and believe me it was torture!). After some antibiotics he should be all better.

Yard Work

Dean helping his Daddy clear out the yard.

Row Row Row Your Boat

Say Cheese! Yes the camera is backwards.


Just a picture of Dean watching his favorite movie "Cars".






This is a cute video of Dean trying to sing Row Row Row your Boat. It's not bad considering he hadn't heard it before.