Austin is 2!

Last Sunday, this little boy turned 2! Caleb tells me frequently that he thinks Austin is the cutest toddler ever. His speech has picked up a ton these last few months, and it has been so fun!

He has been my hardest kid in terms of attachment to Mommy and being so needy all the time. The hours after his afternoon nap, when I'm teaching piano (only on 2 days) and typically prepping dinner, he is the most cranky. Since he can talk up a storm now, it has improved some since he can communicate better his needs/desires.

He has also been the most difficult in terms of eating. He is a very picky eater and doesn't like to try new foods that I put in front of him. Often he will take one pinch of a bite, put it in his mouth, and immediately spit it out saying, "Disgusting!" His favorite foods are macaroni and cheese, broccoli (yay!), popsicles, and cereal (Cheerios and Rice Krispies). He's not a big milk drinker--when I offered it to him after quitting nursing, he refused to drink it.

Austin's favorite activities: 

Swinging!

Wagon rides

Playing with/holding babies

(This is his new cousin, Benson)

And helping Mommy in the kitchen

Another favorite activity of Austin's is reading stories. We read lots of stories every day!

Austin opening his birthday presents:

He got this chick that hops out of an egg from Grandma and Grandpa. The chick makes pecking noises until it pops out. Austin loves to scream, "Yes! Yes!" when the chick comes out. He's had a lot of fun with it.

Austin also got this turtle that crawls on the ground and can go in the bathtub as well as a Nemo fish that will swim in the bathtub as well.

Blowing out his two candles

At his 2 year check-up, Austin continues to measure very small for his age. He is under the 20th percentile for his height, so he is going to be short and small like all my other boys (except maybe Carter who tends to favor me the most).  One continued painful problem since he was an infant is his bowel movements. He has a difficult time and always comes up to me and says "Bum hurts. I need medicine." (I will rub some diaper rash cream as a placebo.) It is kind of heart-wrenching every time. We've started adding Metamucil to a beverage every day per the doctor's suggestion to see if that helps.

After a careful examination of his teeth the other day, what I thought was a lateral tooth is actually a 3rd front tooth,  just like Bryson. :(

Lately, when Austin is trying to get my attention and I don't respond right away, he will switch from calling me Mommy to Mrs. Haley, which is what the preschool kids call me. It's really funny. Austin is getting better during preschool; he's also been my toughest in this area as well. He is starting to sit on a carpet and do the activities with the kids, which helps a lot!

When you ask Austin for a kiss, he will lean his head forward so you can kiss his head. He loves his older brothers and copies their words and behaviors. Sometimes the boys like to have too much fun with that. He loves to give hugs. If anyone gets hurt, he likes to run over and give them a hug. He also likes to "hug" animals or people in books.

Austin sleeps and naps really well. He is my first child that will wake up and stay content in his crib for awhile. How nice this is! Due to our previous baseball schedule, he goes to bed at 8 pm every night and wakes up around 7:30 am every day. He takes an awesome 3 hour nap most days in the afternoon. That helps me gear up for the crankiness when he wakes up!

Despite any challenging moments, we are all in love with Austin and so glad he's a part of our family!

Hurricane Harvey

When we got news that Hurricane Harvey was headed our way, we were mostly concerned about losing power and flooding in surrounding areas. Our neighborhood has survived really well in past torrential rainfalls that caused flooding, but we have never been tested with 50 inches of non-stop rain. Friday, the district cancelled school so that people could prepare for the storm, even though rain wasn't supposed to start until Saturday evening. 

Sunday morning I woke up to get ready for church, and there was quite the thunderstorm going on with heavy rain. I was playing the organ so I was up early to allow time for me to leave early and play prelude. At 7:30 am, the call was finally made that church was cancelled (for an 8:30 am church). We still had power, so did some church activities as a family to wait out the storm. We were mostly concerned about Matt's parents who live in an area that has flooded in the past. Sure enough, by Sunday afternoon, the streets outside their home were flooded and they were stuck in their home. Our neighborhood continued to drain well, but we did lose power for about 3 hours Sunday afternoon. We thought we were in it for the long haul and were surprised when the power came back on. The rain did let up on Sunday, which was a much needed respite for the draining. We got a notice Sunday that school would be cancelled for the next few days as Hurricane Harvey wasn't finished.

We had notice that on Monday, water would be released from Lake Conroe so as not to burst the dam. This was bad news for us as the water heads our direction to the large creek outside our neighborhood. Monday at about 1pm, the water on our street stopped draining...and the rain kept coming. It was all fun and games for a little while. The boys had fun splashing in the water and watching cars drive through the water. As a precautionary measure, Matt moved his truck on the big hill across the street from our house since it doesn't fit in our garage.

 The boys enjoyed being outside with Matt who sat with our neighbor and watched about 6 vehicles stall out trying to drive through the deep water. As we continued to watch the water rise and rise in our front yard, I started to get very nervous. We lost power again Monday afternoon, and this time it stayed off until midnight. We shared our generator with our neighbor and ran our refrigerators on it. 

This is our neighborhood ditch, built for potential flooding, full to the top.

While Matt was out Monday evening rescuing some people who chose to evacuate due to the rising water, the boys and I went to work in the house. Matt still didn't think that we would flood, but the water was over halfway up our driveway. I knew that if the rain continued and the water rose at the rate it did during the day, that we would have water in our house that night. Carter manned the flashlights while Caleb and I moved furniture. We moved several pieces upstairs, and when Matt finally came home, he helped with the larger pieces. 

The power coming back on at midnight was such a tender mercy. It gets depressing to constantly be in the dark. Matt woke up periodically throughout the night to check on the water level. I was content to know whatever will happen will happen, and we'll work through it. I should mention that, funny enough, the areas that were close to flooding on Sunday, drained well on Monday despite the rain. We had spent quite a bit of time Saturday night and Sunday morning trying to convince Matt's parents to come to our house, and we got closer to flooding than they did! I was shocked when I watched the water level rise outside our house steadily. I thought the side of the neighborhood closest to the large creek would have to flood before we would, but apparently our street dips lower so all the water came  our direction.

When I woke up Tuesday morning, I really was surprised that the water didn't come in our house. It got 2 feet away from our door and then at 5 am it started to recede. I had been praying all night for the rain to stop!! At that point it seemed we were safe if we survived the two controlled releases from Lake Conroe and the rain finally slowed down. Harvey just sat on top of us and dumped and dumped--the most rain in the shortest amount of time ever in Houston. The flood control district estimated that one trillion gallons of rain fell in 4 days. The amount of damage this storm caused was massive. We had 4 members of our church flood in our ward and since the storm ended, there has been non-stop work to do. Matt spent all day Tuesday helping muck out some homes in our neighborhood. The roads were clear enough on Wednesday that he had to go into work, but most people were off of work for the entire week. School was cancelled until the day after Labor Day. Our weekends consist of me staying home with the kids and Matt gone all day both Saturday and Sunday helping surrounding neighborhoods. Last weekend they went to Beaumont and this weekend they went to southeast Houston where water was finally receded enough to start working. Since the storm, we have only had Sacrament meeting for church each week to allow for as many people as possible to go help.

Because Bryson was asking for it and I thought the other preschool moms and kiddos might be interested as well, I held preschool on Thursday and Friday. Caleb and Carter thought it was so fun to help me, and I really appreciated their help!

Since Matt is much more effective at mucking out homes than I am, I've had to look for other opportunities to serve. He has also been asked to be a crew leader each time he has gone. I got involved with a neighborhood drive to raise money and collect donations to those in our neighborhood that flooded (approximately 35 homes). I left Caleb to babysit while Austin napped so I could sort and deliver those donations. I also have made a meal and helped watch kids, but my contributions feel minimal when there is so much devastation and work to be done.

I am very grateful that our house didn't flood and grateful we weren't without power too long. We did have a boil notice for several days after the storm due to some damage to the pumps.

The boys were excited when they heard they do not have to make up the missed days of school. It was interesting for them to go back since it was like starting all over again. Besides the work on the weekends, life has slowly continued to move back to our normal. Coming up this fall, Caleb will play basketball and Matt is going to coach Carter's baseball team.