Stomping Dinosaur Feet

School Pictures!

 Fall means picture time at school.  Both boys got some great shots and getting a professional one of them together is great since my photography skills are limited at best. 

What we've been up to...

It's been awhile - summer and early fall have been fun and hectic in the Inman household.  Here's some of the things we've been doing:

Austin has grown and grown and grown.  He's actually almost 9 months old at this point so I need to take two more sticker photos.  He's doing really well at moving around - he was crawling by 6 months, standing at 7 months and cruising by 8 months old.  He's already trying to stand on his own and we expect him to be an early walker.  He recently started babbling some sounds - mostly "blah, blah, gah, gah" and he still only has his two bottom teeth.  He's eating well, given that there are only a small number of foods that don't seem to give him an allergic reaction, and is about 16.5 lbs.  Still a small guy, but we think that's mostly because he never wants to sit still.  He's sleeping well in his crib and can sometimes give us a 6-6 stretch though he still will wake up most nights between 3 and 4 because he's hungry.  His smiles are infectious and he is already so loved at his new day care.  Cash is still pretty cool with Baby Austin, who he now likes to call "Baby Monster" and play the game of running away from him but it seems to make Austin laugh so we go with it.  Anything to hear this guy laugh!

Cash has been doing pretty well and is being a typical three year old for the most part.  This summer was birthday party season so we spent many a weekend going to parks, play spaces, and gym centers for parties for his friends.  We also had a lot of play dates with our friends Koen and Henry which was fun and lots of beach trips.  Cash is a true beach boy and loves to play in the sand and the waves.  In July, Cash had his adenoids and tonsils out after a year of constant nasal infections.  He then stayed home for a week to recuperate and ate through about two boxes of popsicles but is doing well and has had limited colds since the surgery.  I would also classify this summer as the start of his obsession with dinosaurs - basically we eat, sleep, breathe dinosaurs right now.  All Cash ever wants to do is watch dinosaur movies, play with his dinosaur figures, and read dinosaur books and put together dinosaur puzzles before bed. He wears dinosaur shirts, "eats like a dinosaur" and, fittingly, will be a T Rex for Halloween this year.  He really seems to love learning about them and already has a pretty deep knowledge of their names and characteristics.  He's hilarious when he talks about them and sings songs.  He's doing well at school though is still adjusting to the room change that separated him from a bunch of his friends - he was the lucky one where the cut-off was - and he hasn't been as excited to go every day like he used to.  We think its just an adjustment period and he should be back to loving it again soon.

The last big weekend of the summer for us was September 8th when Austin was baptised at our church in Wilmington.  Grammy and Papa made the trip from Winston-Salem and it was a lovely day.  Austin did really well and promptly fell asleep after the ceremony.  We also finally took our first full family portrait.  Better late than never...

Cash feeds Austin

Cash turns 3!

Our sweet man Cash turned three years old on June 12th.

Cash at 2 weeks

Cash at 3 years

 It's hard to believe that the tiny, sleepy little baby on the left is the same boy as our spunky, funny, full of life Cash.  He has grown and matured so much in the past few months - his speech has exploded and he is completely conversing with us like a normal person every day.  He is making great progress on potty training and I feel like we are starting to finally see the end of the long, dark tunnel that is potty training a little boy.  Finally, he is really doing a great job being a big brother to Austin - he is caring and helpful and wants to play with him and keep him entertained and even likes to help feed him.  I can already see what a great friend and confidante he will be to him as they grow up together.

This was the first year we had a real big birthday party for him.  We invited his entire class from day care (16 kids total) and then about 10 other friends from church and otherwise.  We ended up with about 15 friends and their parents along with Old Grandad, Beep Beep Baba and Cousin Mary Kate, all at Old McFaye's Farm in Castle Hayne.  They got to chase around chickens, rabbits and a peacock, go on a hay ride and a pony ride, and feed an enormous pig.  They also got to climb up and slide down an enormous pile of goat manure but that wasn't advertised in the brochure.

Cash had the time of his life, especially chasing the chickens.  We ended with a giant chocolate chip cookie cake with M&Ms and Cash gobbled it up and then went back to running his heart out around the farm.

Cash, you are the best little boy a mommy and daddy could ask for.  We could not be more proud of you and love watching you grow up.  We love you!

Buddies

Cash is at the age where he is starting to form friendships and actually play with other kids.  He's been in day care with other kids for almost his entire life, but he really didn't start talking about those other kids or proclaiming them his "friends" until about 6 months ago.

It's been fun asking Cash what he played with his friends each day and there definitely seems to be a few friends that are constants from day to day.  We call them his "buddy crew" and love hearing about their exploits each day, usually involving dinosaurs, monsters, trucks and mud.  Here's Cash with his main buddy Koen at a birthday party for another buddy last week.  They are very serious about their friendship (and juice boxes).

Spring Concert

Here's a video of the AAI Pharma Learning Center spring concert.  I was traveling for work this year so I didn't get to watch in person but Ross did a great job with the video.  We've already heard from multiple people that Cash was a great little dancer.  It does this mama proud.