September

Some new words we noticed Austin using this month were rain, wet, walk, step, mine, elbow and knee. He loves to show you where his elbow and knees are once Justin taught him that. Out of those words though, “mine” is definitely my least favorite. It has opened up an entirely new can of worms! I know it is a stage and that every child goes through the “mine” phase, wow, it can be so annoying.

Telling us “no” has also continued to be a problem. Sometimes he even says no when he really means yes! I think he’s just realized the power of the word and likes to use it whenever he can. We’re working on it though, and sometimes I have to turn my face away from him when he says it because he just says it in such a cute way that I can’t help but smile and laugh!

He still loves to tell us “no bite” when we are putting our mouth on him when we tickle or give kisses. I guess he just got so used to hearing it that it is his automatic reaction when your mouth is anywhere near his skin! I can’t say that I blame him though. As much as he was used as a chew toy at his old school, I’d probably be the same way.

I’m amazed every day at his vocabulary. I honestly can’t even keep up with his new words anymore because he is constantly saying new ones and surprising me with them. He is now doing really well with using three word sentences (his first was “no bite Daddy!”). The things he can come up with are hysterical at times, and it’s funny how Justin and I can understand him and typically know what he’s trying to say, even if he isn’t saying it properly or clearly.

He’s obsessed with playing in our room for some reason, so when we come home in the afternoons, one of the first things he says is “Momma’s room” (which totally offends Justin :)). Then when we get there, he says “TV on” and then “Mickey” typically follows that.

He LOVES him some Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. It is really the only thing he’s ever “watched”, and we have always had it on in the background while we were getting ready in the mornings pretty much since he was born. I guess because even when he didn’t watch it, he could hear it, so it is just something he has grown accustomed to. Now he knows the characters, he says “Oh Tootles” when they tell you to say it (the first time he did it I thought I would melt it was so cute. The way he says “tootles” is adorable) and it is the only thing he actually requests to watch. We’ve always been reluctant about letting him watch TV/cartoons, so we limit how much he can watch. He really only sees about 10-20 minutes in the mornings and if he watches it in the afternoons at all, it is only while he is in the highchair eating. We definitely don’t let him watch it whenever he wants, and honestly the amount he does watch already concerns me! But, I’m sure I watched cartoons at his age and I turned out okay (I think!).

We had a couple of nights this month where Austin was waking up constantly throughout the night and would be in a puddle of drool. He would be moaning as if he were in pain, so we assumed that he was going through a bad teething spell. We never got any teeth out of it, but it was a rough few nights and I felt terrible for him.

We started football season (finally) and luckily our team is off to a great start! Justin turned the big 3-1, we had a get together at our house for the Arkansas game with friends and we got to go to Tuscaloosa (our true home) to see Panic at the brand new amphitheater that is right on the river. We went with a group of friends and had a really fun time. Overall, September was a great month that FLEW by! Hard to believe Austin is 20 months old. Time to start planning ANOTHER birthday party!!!

August

August had a rough start, for personal reasons that I cannot go into on a public blog. I’ll just say that we were and are still grieving a loss. Prayers are needed and welcomed.

Austin turned 19 months in August. So hard to believe how fast the time flies. Our month wasn’t really that busy and we didn’t do much except wind down the end of Justin’s busy summer work schedule. August to me always feels like the calm before the storm. It’s the end of summer, school is getting ready to start again (not that it matters to us yet) and football season is right around the corner. It always seems that as soon as we have that first kickoff of college football, the next four months fly by quicker than any other time of year. I guess the saying is true, time flies when you’re having fun.

Some new words Austin learned in August were open (although he says “opie” which might be a tad bit cuter), baby, Bumbo (he has a new-found obsession with his Bumbo seat), coffee (we moved up from coco) and happy. Every kid he sees is a baby to him, no matter how small or big. He sees kids on TV, at daycare, in pictures and anywhere we go and he always says “baby”. He is still obsessed with books and Elmo and he loves kissing the animals and babies in his books.

One night I woke up to the strangest noise. It was one of those moments where you can’t really figure out if what you’re hearing is real or if you’re still halfway asleep and imagining or dreaming the sound. It sounded like Austin at first but it didn’t sound like crying. I finally determined that he was singing and went back to sleep. The next morning, Justin asked if I heard Austin during the night. I explained what I heard and he heard the same thing, and also thought Austin was singing. There is a song on the radio right now that we sing to him and there is a part where it just says “la, la, la” and that is exactly what he was singing in his sleep. How cute is that?!

He now says “quack quack” for a duck and “moos” for a cow. He randomly started saying what sounded like “row, row, row” one night. I thought maybe he was trying to sing Row, Row, Row Your Boat. Sure enough as soon as I started singing it, he started rocking back and forth like he was rowing a boat! We also watched an Elmo sing-a-long DVD recently and I was amazed that he knew most of the songs on there! He was doing hand motions to “Wheels on the Bus” and everything. It made me realize just how much he is doing and learning at his new school, and I’m so thankful we made the change when we did. The amount that he has learned in the last few months is incredible in comparison to what he was getting at his old school.

Tooth #10 came in on the bottom left side next to the center tooth. He now has four coming in at one time, two of those being molars. He is handling it pretty well so far though, so I am not complaining!

Austin amazes me with his manners sometimes. He says “thank you” and still signs for “please” but he knows exactly when to say them and even if he forgets, all we have to say is “Austin, what do you say?”, and he says it. He has started to say “no” to us though, which is kinda funny and cute but also irritates me. Sometimes he gets confused and says “no bite” instead of just “no”. I guess after all those times of hearing “no bite”, it finally sunk in!

My child is obsessed with Lady Gaga. I mean, obsessed. He picks up magazines and sees her pictures and screams “Gaga!!” He hears her songs and yells “Gaga” and knows her songs immediately. We started watching her concert on HBO one night months ago, and at that time Austin was not interested in TV at all. But a Lady Gaga concert? He was all over it!! He sat and watched probably 30 minutes of it before it was his bedtime. We couldn’t believe that he actually sat and watched something for that long, but ever since then he has loved him some Gaga. He even puts his hands up in the air when she says “put your paws up”. I guess it fits that I have always called him my little monster. Guess he’s Lady Gaga’s little monster too!

Last but not least, Austin pee pee’d in the potty!!! Lately he has been showing interest in our bathroom habits and loves to watch Justin go. He runs into the bathroom and yells “pee pee!!” every time. A few weeks ago, he disappeared for a minute and when I found him, he was in our bathroom standing in front of the toilet, his shorts were off and he was trying to pull his diaper off. When I realized that he was trying to go to the bathroom, I put him up on the seat to see what he would do. Since he couldn’t really relax on the seat, as I was holding him so that he wouldn’t fall in, he never did go. But by August 29 he had his first pee pee in the potty. The next day I went and bought him his own potty seat and the day after that he finally used it! Of course, that was the one and only time it has been used. So…….it’s a work in progress!!

Hanging with Uncle Jeff

Austin and Alex

Silly guy

The kids had so much fun banging on this ball!

We love us some Hand family!

We love us some Hand family!

Austin and his Elmo

Hid doctor hat he made at school

Saying hi to Pink

He wouldn't take his shades off to eat!

Nana and Grandad

July

At Austin’s 18 month checkup on June 30, one of the things the doctor asked us was how much Austin was being read to. Trust me, as an avid reader and lover of books, I have tried and tried to get my child into books. He has just shown zero interest and will never sit still long enough to hardly get through a few pages, much less an entire book. The doc suggested reading to him while he was in the highchair, or letting him sit in his crib while I read to him. So that night, I tried reading to him in the highchair while he ate dinner. No dice. I tried again after his bath, right before I put him to bed. We rocked in the glider like we do every night, but this time he actually sat still and let me read an entire book to him. Better than that, he actually liked it!! I was SO excited! The next day, he requested a book (“boo??”) as soon as he got in his highchair to eat dinner. He ate every single bite, probably without even realizing it, as I read a book to him. Since that first night, the boy has been obsessed with books! Score one for Mom!! We bought him more books over the weekend and they are now all over the house, as he is constantly taking them wherever he goes and will randomly just plop down and open one up. If he sees you sitting down on the floor, he runs to go find a book and then backs up into you and plops down in your lap for you to read to him. He even turns the book around if it’s upside down. He says “book” all the time now, and when I finish the book and say “the end”, he ALWAYS tells the book “bye bye”, which makes my heart melt. He points out different pictures in the books and says what they are, like cats (which he calls Lola and always kisses the cat in the book), dogs and bikes.

He loves kissing your booboo’s (and his booboo’s too!). All of a sudden, he started calling Justin “daddy” instead of “dada”. So stinkin cute!! His voice sounds so sweet when he says it, with a slight inflection of his voice with the Y sound. He says “bless you” when you sneeze, which he did for the first time just the other night. I about died, it was so cute. At first I was like, did he really just say that?! Then I sneezed again and sure enough, he said it again! He has been a constant sneezer all his life and we have always said “bless you” to him, so I guess he has finally picked it up himself. He also says thank you, Caesar, milk, eat, outside, light, hot, hair, teeth, toes, shoes, cookie, water (or wawa), and he uses sign language to say “please” (something he learned at school). For the longest time, Justin and I have always laughed and said “ewwww” whenever Austin poots. He would get the biggest kick out of it and just laugh and smile every time. Well now, he says it to us when we poot or he says it after he poots. It is hilarious when he does it, but I decided it’s time to teach him “excuse me” instead! I can’t have him saying ewww to other kids at school when they poot!! So that is our next thing to work on.

He just had his first bout of thrush this month that he picked up from someone at school, and we are on Day 3 of antibiotics. Luckily it was caught early, and he only had a slight white film on his lips, cheeks and tongue. He didn’t have any bumps in his mouth or on his throat, so luckily he has been acting like he feels perfectly fine. Even after the first day of the antibiotic, you could barely see it anymore.

Austin LOVES to say “Oh My!” I have yet to figure out where he picked this up, but the way he says it is just hilarious! He uses that phrase instead of “uh oh” a lot or when he hears a loud sound or something like that. He just says it so seriously and so matter-of-factly that it just makes me giggle every time. He also says “elmo” and sleeps with his Elmo that Aunt Jenn Dial gave him when he was born. It’s so cute to see him snuggle up to it and cuddle it under his arm, just like I did my favorite teddy bear. He has to make sure he kisses Elmo goodnight and that we kiss Elmo and tell him “night night” too. He also says “eat eat” when he’s hungry and he’s OBSESSED with Nutri-Grain Bars, or “fruit bars” as he calls them. He would eat an entire box in one sitting if we let him. He loves all the flavors but his favorite is apple and when you ask him what kind he wants, he screams “apple!!!!” By month’s end, Austin had popped out three more teeth all within three days of each other. Two top molars and the bottom tooth next to the center on the right side. Yay, we’re up to nine!!!

I still can’t get over what a beautiful boy I have. I stare at him every night in the bathtub, when his hair is wet and back off his face, and I just can’t get over what a beautiful, perfect face he has. His features are so perfect and he’s got a melt-your-heart smile and the biggest, prettiest blue eyes with gorgeous eyelashes. I am so in love with him. I am still in awe that Justin and I created him. We talked recently about his birth, and what a complete miracle it was. I can’t believe how strong I was throughout the entire thing and I am so proud of myself for going through what I did to bring him into this world. I can’t imagine life without my little dude. Our lives haven’t been the same since January 4, 2010 and I couldn’t be happier about that! :)

June

We started off the month with a doctor’s visit, as demanded by daycare, for what looked like poison oak/poison ivy. At the doctor’s visit, Austin weighed 22lbs 8oz, so he gained just over a pound in two months. The spots on his legs ended up just being bug bites. This has since happened multiple times, and we’ve discovered that even just mosquito bites whelp up to very large bumps that almost appear to blister. Evidently he takes after his momma and has very sensitive skin and reacts to bug bites this way. Tooth #6 also came in, so he now has the four center teeth on the top and the two center teeth on the bottom. He is still learning animal sounds, and he still whispers “roar” when you ask what a tiger says. He “tweets” for birds and we’re working on barking for dogs. He loves to point out your eyes, ears, nose, mouth, hair, toes and shoes. He will poke his finger directly in your eye and say “eye!!”. It’s cute, but can get irritating when he does it over and over again! When our cat Lola will actually sit still for him, he loves to give her kisses, play with her ears and he also pokes her in the eyes too. He is in the stage where he repeats everything we say (time to watch the language!!), which is hilarious to hear him try to say some of the words we say. He calls my coffee “coco”. His granddad taught him to hold up one finger when you ask him how old he is!! It makes me feel like my son is soooo smart!! One Saturday, we were looking at a touch-and-feel books that has pictures of different animals. We came across a lizard and I decided to teach him to stick his tongue in and out when you ask “What does a lizard do?” To date, I think this is his BEST trick!! He also pants when you ask “What does Caesar do?” (Caesar is my in-laws lab). Panting for Caesar and whispering “roar” always gets a laugh, but the lizard has to be the cutest thing he does!! He has since taught his classmates what lizards do, too. We had his 18 month checkup at the end of June, and he weighed exactly 23 lbs, which is the 30th percentile. He is 31 ¾ inches long, which means he has grown just over a foot since he was born! It’s hard to believe he is almost three feet tall!! Austin is more fun than I could have ever imagined, and I keep hearing that it just gets better from here. Can’t wait to find out for myself!! Splashing in the puddleAustin and Alex :)Fun with the Hand Family!Austin loves Micah!!Getting love from JennaLittle Miss AlexBackyard pool fun!

May

Austin loves to wave at people and say "hi". He does it in the car to the cars beside us, he does it strolling through the grocery store. It's the cutest thing and apparently my kid is very social! He has adjusted to his new school amazingly, and was feeling at home within a few days. I think the transition was much harder for me (as it was last time) but knowing that I was doing the best thing for my child made it worthwhile. He absolutely loves it now and gets excited to go to school, rather than fighting me getting in and out of his carseat like he did the last week at his old school (it's like he was trying to tell me how unhappy he was). He tries to say "I love you" and when you ask if he's sleepy and he is, he nods yes and will sometimes walk to his room and point at his crib. When you ask if he's hungry, he nods yes and walks to his highchair. When he's done, he tries to push his tray away. He got his 5th tooth, on the top left side. He has started leaning over and dipping his face in the water in his bath every night, which is the weirdest thing but so cute at the same time! I have no idea where he learned it or where it came from because it was completely out of the blue when he did it the first time. He comes up just giggling, with water dripping down his face. I laugh with him and say "Do it again" and he does it again, giggling and dripping. It's hilarious! He started wagging his finger and saying "No No", which I guess he learned at daycare. He did it to a little boy at a birthday party that kept trying to pull him down by his jacket hood. He would turn around and shake his finger and say "No No!" I couldn't help but laugh! His favorite words now are "Whoa" and "Wow". He either yells them or whispers, which is so freakin cute. For some reason, he has whispered all his life. When you ask what a tiger says, he whispers his "roar", something everyone seems to get the biggest kick out of (I mean, it is the cutest thing ever..). I don't know why, but whispering is just something he's always done! He loves to press the garage door button to either open or close the garage. That always makes him yell "Whoa!!". He loves bubbles and hearing him say it is adorable. He loves to play outside, which can be annoying at times because he doesn't seem to get near as hot as we do! He stands at the back door and says "side", for outside. He has gotten extremely attached to me though, which is trying and exhausting for me. I want to hold him but I know I can't hold him all the time or every time he wants me to. He breaks into these random tantrums where he just screams for no apparent reason. He can get frustrated very easily, which sets him off into those tantrums. We're working through it but the last two weeks or so have been tough. He loves to give hugs and kisses, and always takes his paci (which he calls “gaga”) out to give you a kiss. He loves to kiss Lola and he loves to kiss your boo boo's (or his own). He gives the greatest, tightest bear hugs that a 17 month old can possibly give. He loves to play chase and he loves testing you and testing his boundaries. He is so loving and so sweet, and overall he's just a very happy baby. He's working on tooth #6, which has caused him to be a little irritable at times and even caused him to bite at school (and yes, I completely freaked out). I was worried that he had picked up the behavior from his old school, considering it was all he saw for four months straight, but it seemed to be an isolated incidence and I was reassured by his teacher not to worry and that they were working on it with him (something his old school never bothered to do). He's about to hit 17 months old. I can't believe how much he has grown and how much he has accomplished. He is such a joy to be around and so much fun.