Today is a special day.
So I'm gonna tell a story about this day last year. I woke up sore but I didn't have time to dink around. I got up, scrubbed the bathtub and toilet- Mom was coming in the next day. Got Shane ready and headed out the door. He spent the morning at a friend's home while I went in to physical therapy, trying to teach my back to deal with the strain of lugging around a preggo belly. Yikes!
I was having occasional contractions, but was sure that if I just got to lay down for a second, they'd go away. At noon-ish, I took the friend that had watched Shane for me, out to lunch. The kids ran amok and I timed the contractions that weren't going away. I mentioned to my friend that I was thinking the baby was coming that day and she was ready to jump up and take me to the hospital right then.
After lunch, I headed to the big furniture sale that was going on. By the time I got there and called Brett to come look at a few things, my friend had called another friend (who was set to watch Shane while I was in the hospital), who had called Brett to find out what was going on. he of course had no clue since I hadn't spoken to him yet.
We spent a couple hours trying to find just the right dressers- we were unsuccessful as evidenced by the fact that we still don't have a single dresser that isn't broken at least once.
Brett went home to sleep- he was on the midnight to 8 am shift- and Shane and I headed to the grocery store to make sure we had plenty of stuff for Dad to survive with Shane and no Mom. It took a bit longer than usual because the contractions were making me pause now.
At home I finished cleaning up for Mom's visit. She called while packing and I had to tell her that she was going to miss all the fun. I sat and read and watched the clock for the rest of the afternoon.
Around 9 I decided that it was time to take Shane and head out. Brett didn't want to wake up, so it took a while to get our jammies man, (and Shane) out to the car. We dropped Shane off at our friend's house- they wouldn't let me stay to help get him settled and he screamed the whole time. But it was probably for the best that we didn't wait around.
Brett dropped me off at the entrance of the hospital and went to park the car. A lady that smelled very strongly of cigarettes and something else held the door for me and insisted on helping me to the nurse's station. After they got me all settled, Brett asked permission to run home and get a few things, like the video camera and some gum (he had food breathe). I told him he had a half an hour. It was 10:15 by this time and we were just waiting on the doctor.
15-20 minutes later, he'd shown up, ran across the street to his office to make sure he had my birth plan and was walking back and forth between me and the doors looking for Brett.
I could no longer wait to push, just as Brett came down the hallway. They were teasing him that he almost missed it- next time I just might let him.
After a couple pushes they paused- (do you know how hard it is to pause during labor?!) to break my water. A couple more pushes and another, longer pause to suction out the baby's face and TA DA! Austin Tucker Banks October 8 2007!
It took some adjusting on everyone's part but eventually our family was gelled again.
Today Austin turned 1!
The official cake and ice cream will be on Sunday. Dad won't get to be there, but that's another story. After running all over town trying to find some present to get for Austin. Something not too expensive, that we didn't already have, that he would like... ugh! We were literally all over town and both the boys were real troopers about the whole ordeal, so we decided to have a little party of our own. We got a Thomas the Train balloon and some mini cupcakes from the store.
Austin had 2.
Shane had the frosting off 3.
After being strippes Aussie went to play and is a happy guy.
Dad turned his carseat around a couple days ago and the more we try to wait on the milk thing the more he steals Shane's sippy cup, so he's forgone the usual day's events.
Shane opened Austin's present from the library- a Happy Birthday book on beginning sign.
His doctor appointment is tomorrow and there's been quite the hullaballoo on the chicken pox vaccine- I don't know what we'll do just yet.
I love my Big Boy.
I love my Big Boy.
So If you don't mind, you hecklers, lay off and let me get my western fix!
As you can see- the hair keeps migrating to his face. 
Austin fell asleep on me yesterday. Brett fetched me some scissors and I akwardly removed all Austin baby fuzz hair! At times I was doing it one-handed, and Brett found a few spots to tease me about- but all in all I thought I did an ok job.
And afterwards we gotto have a bit of fun! Shane watched me cutting Austin's hair and he wanted to give it a go. But of course, that wasn't going to happen. So I had a stroke of genius, if I do say so myself. I stuck all Austins hair clippings into a plastic play cup and handed Shane the scissors. In hind-sight, I should have saved a lock to put in Austin's baby book- I thought I had but now it's AWOL. Shane practiced his cutting and snipping and had tons of fun.
He was very careful to keep the scissors away from all important body parts- they were rather sharp. And he tried very hard to keep all the bits of hair in the red cup, and I appreciated it. He was also careful not to touch any of it, asking me to do it on the rare occasion some landed outside the cup.
This time the cat got away, by the loss of a few extra hairs. 
But Kat remains playful and mostly friendly...
