We have a baseball player on our hands

I think Kevin is ecstatic with John David!  John David is 16 months and throwing better than Austin is at 28 months!  See for yourself below! 

I think it's time to start making his promotional video for the major leagues ;-)  When did they start throwing? Maybe he'll be a pitcher?  or if Kevin has his way, we will need to beef him up some more so he can be a QB!  For Michigan ;-) Ha!


Not much else going on with the Artinghelli Clan.  Boys are great!  They amaze us each day and are beyond fun!  There is never a dull moment, that's for sure.  

Oh and in case you were wondering if I got cuddles from Austin yesterday.  You bet I did!  When Kevin was playing "baseball" with John David, I was getting extra cuddles and hand holding from Austin while watch Little Einsteins.  Take that, Alice! ;-)

Stop it, Mommy!

 Austin is quite the talker these days.  He repeats most things you say and adds his Austinisms to them.  As you know he says butterfly but calls it a budderby, school bus is ool us and ire uck is Fire truck.  It's great to have a conversation with him.

With that said, I do not like his most current saying, "Stop it, Mommy!"  Most recently, he said it to me last night as I was trying to cuddle with him. Austin can be quite the cuddlier, when he wants to.  He loves to give kisses and hugs!  Actually he always says "One more"  numerous times for hugs and kisses!  So I'm all about getting in the extra cuddles.  But for some reason, last night, he didn't want to cuddle with me.  He actually said, "Stop it, mommy!" :-(  Austin is also sweet on a girl named, Alice at daycare!  How fitting, Alice! :-)  So maybe he doesn't want the extra cuddles from me since he's saving them for Alice!

Let's see how tonight goes!

Pumpkin Farm

Today we went to Edwards Apple Orchard in Popular Grove, IL and Goebberts Pumpkin Farm.  It was a long day, that's for sure!  Boys did well for the most part. We packed it up and were on the road by 8:40 and got home after 3!

We went on a wagon ride.  Austin was amazed by the horses that pulled us.  His new word is horsey and he tells us what a horsey does, neiiighhh.  Too stinkin cute, I'm going to need to keep the video camera on me at all times, that's for sure!

 After the wagon ride, we went on the ponies.  Morgan was so excited to ride the ponies and we thought it would be a good idea to have Austin and John David ride too!  Austin loved the ponies, John David, not so much!  I actually had them stop so John David could get off.  He was much happier watching, maybe next year we will try again.

There was so much to do there, pony and wagon rides, animal feeding and watching (which Austin loved!), playgrounds, climbing on tractors were a few things we did.  They had apple picking but we decided not to participate, I'm not sure the boys are quite ready for that, maybe next year!

We took this chance to see how "tall" Austin is.  What would you say?  Almost 3 feet?  We will have make this a yearly picture so we can watch him grow!  We will start the tradition with John David next year.  He was very content with watching from the stroller, and I didn't want to jinx that!

The one thing the apple place didn't have was pumpkins, so we went to Goebberts.  This is my favorite picture of the day!  Grandma took it (thanks!)  and I think it's great.  Must be his blue eyes!  Don't you just want to squeeze him?!?!!

So both boys, only got about 30 minutes of nap time!  They wouldn't nap when they got home and have been sleeping since 6:30.  Let's hope they sleep in for mommy and daddy tomorrow.

Here is a picture of me and Kevin riding the tractor!  Hey, the parents gotta have fun too!

And maybe tomorrow, I'll post a picture of the apple cider donuts that were a MUST!

Weekend Fun

It's been a great weekend!  A busy one at that, which I like!  Saturday morning, I took the boys to the park right by the house.  We decided to take the trail behind the park, where the frisbee golf course is, it was beautiful.  I can see us doing a lot of walks back there.  Their was a mom and her son feeding the ducks in the pond.  So cool.  Here are some pictures at the park and a video of Austin with some of his new words.

 John David sitting on Grandpa's bench.

 Austin pushing John David.

 Austin and John David going down the slide together!

Austin riding the dinosaur!

Kathy, Sean and Vince came over.  Sean sure made the boys giggle, he has a way with getting them to laugh.  On Sunday, Grandpa came over to watch the Bears game and brought the boys a truck and a taxi.  Austin loved calling it a "tuck"

I'm looking forward to next weekend.  A visit to the pumpkin patch and possibly a visit to the movies so Austin can see his first movie at the movie theater!  He loves to watch movies!

Screaming, Screaming and some more Screaming!!!

 What a morning....

So I got up and got ready for work. I went to get the boys ready, opened their door and JD popped up, Austin was sound asleep. (Note, not a typical morning, both are usually up to something and laughing) I picked JD up and proceeded to get him dressed, he started screaming. Screamed through everything. I kept holding him and he would scream, thrash, big tears, etc. Thought it was a tantrum so I continued. After awhile, it didn't seem right, he's never like this. Thought maybe he was in pain. Everything I did, didn't help. Finally I brought him into Kevin and asked for help, he took JD, I went back to get Austin dressed.

Austin took forever to wake up, he was just lying there, breathing so I wasn't worried. Finally, he woke up. He was not happy. Then he started asking for lovey, couldn't find lovely, screaming for lovey. Kevin came back in, both boys are screaming! Looked everywhere for lovey, finally found him. Austin still had a difficult time getting dressed with Kevin. Both are still crying, I decide to give JD ibuprofen since he has all of those teeth coming in (2 molars and his 2 upper front teeth). After I gave him that he calmed down. Austin didn't. I let him bring lovey in the car since he was freaking out about it.

They are fine in the car. Austin has lovey and his movie on. He is making JD laugh, I think all is good.

We get to daycare and I won't let Austin bring lovey. (Normally we leave lovey at home, sometimes the car, but NEVER to daycare, I can't afford to leave it at daycare so I won't even let him bring it in). Shit hits the fan. He falls and hits his head. I comfort him. He thrashes as I carry him to the door. Crying when she answers. He's inside, and balling. I had to leave him balling. I feel AWFUL!

I called to check in on them and of course all is fine.


Later that evening, we were going to go out to dinner with Gigi, Uncle David, and Grandma since Uncle David was going back to California today.  We get there.  Boys are unloaded, drinks ordered, pizza ordered.  The milk comes and JD takes a sip out of the straw (while I'm holding the cup) and then he starts screaming.  I'm thinking it's because I won't let him hold the cup, since more than likely he will throw it on the floor and then milk with splash everywhere and well we can't have that!  The screaming gets louder and louder, take him to the front of the restaurant, still screaming, take him outside, scream.  Nothing I can do!  I finally had to leave the restaurant and take him home.  He screamed all the way home.  I fixed him up a peanut butter sandwich, some oranges, milk and a dose of ibuprofen.  Talk about a gourmet meal ;-)  I thought he needed "soft" food.  I no longer thought this was a "tantrum" but that those teeth were giving him a hard time.  He finally calmed down after he ate.  Side note, he did have some bread on the table at the restaurant and wanted nothing to do with it!


This morning, he woke up happy as a clam and we did not relive the Screaming fest of yesterday morning!

Austin is a talking machine!  He repeats most words that you ask him to say.  We went for a walk and he repeated everything, mommy, daddy, I love you, lion, roooaaarrrr, monkey, ooohhh ooohhh aahhh aahhh, dog, woof, woof, cat, meow (it's the cutest), Butterfly.  It's just amazing at how much his vocabulary has spiked.

He is also a master at putting his shoes on.  He won't let me help, even if he is having a hard time.  He says "I do it!" Okay, buddy, I have 5 extra minutes ;-)  He doesn't like me to help him brush his teeth either.  He is such the independent kid!

The cutest thing that he is doing now, in my opinion, is asking for kisses and hugs when I'm putting him to bed.  This is how it goes.  Put JD to bed, bring Austin in and lay him in his bed, turn his musical toy on, make sure lovey is with him, ask for a kiss and a hug.  Then as I'm walking out the door, "mommy", (me) "Yes, Austin" "kiss", (me) go and kiss him and start walking out the door), "mommy", (me) "Yes, Austin" "hug (me) go and hug him and start walking out the door) "mommy", (me) Yes, Austin, you see how this goes, until I say night night!


John David has 3 teeth coming in at once!  And he is doing surprisingly well with all of that.  A tad more cranky, but I would expect much worse.  His laugh is contagious!  He laughs constantly and I love it!  He is loving fist bumps and explodes with daddy and yells booooom each time!  So cute!  They have moved him to one nap at daycare and I hate it!  I will keep giving 2 because I still feel that he needs it.  On days that he comes home from daycare, I feel like he is ready for bed by 6 p.m.!

Kevin is loving his job at All State!  He is cruising along with his e training and going on ride alongs.  Pretty soon, he will be on his own!  He has been very happy with Michigan football!  Even heard on the radio that they have a very good chance of going undefeated!  Wowsers!  Go Blue!

I'm well!  Work is busy as it typically is end of year!  I can't believe we are already at the end of the year!  My allergies are still kicking my butt, but I'm hoping for some relief soon.  I go for my weekly fix (shot) this afternoon!  Lovely.  My arm still hurts from last week.

Buster is taking a vacation for the week with John.  It's been nice without him.  The boys can have dinner and snacks in peace!  Although I do miss my Busterboo!

First Haircut

We took John David to get his first haircut yesterday.  We went to Sharky's in Algonquin.  They have these cars the kids can sit in and they can watch movies while getting their haircut.  John David wasn't too happy about getting his hair cut, he didn't cry, well until the end anyway, he just wasn't happy about it.  We opted not to do the clippers on the sides since that might have set him over the edge.  Baby steps!  He cried at the end when I was trying to get a smiling picture, by that time, he was just done.  I'm sure he was tired and hungry.  Austin was there for moral support, although he didn't offer much, he sat in the car next to John David and watched Cars. 

 Getting ready and not so sure!

 This is where he was DONE!

If you look closely, you can see they tried to spike his hair.  Hard to tell with my blondie.