Two Years of Austin

Another year gone by...but he's still my baby. It has been so fun to watch him learn and grow this past year. Oh how we love our Austin boy.

He woke up in the morning to balloons, which Chet was more excited about than he was. His cousins were still in town to sing Happy Birthday to him in the morning. He was so excited about blowing out the candles that he blew them out before we even finished the song. It was pretty cute.

After breakfast we went out and played in the snow and Austin had his first sledding experience. He loved it and kept saying "mo, mo!" after every run.

By the time he opened his present that night he was pretty emotional. And it didn't help when his siblings wanted to play with his new toy. But we got a pretty good video of him sobbing and playing his drum. Being the third can be hard. 

He is getting such a strong personality. As a baby we assumed he would be the peacemaker in the family because he was such a calm, sweet baby. He is still sweet...but there's a lot of spicy mixed in there too. Maybe it has to do with him being the third child, but he isn't afraid to stand up for himself. We are working on being kind and soft and he is getting better.

 He never wants to be left out of anything that his brother and sister are doing. There are times when Mariah and Chet will go to someone else's house and it is devastating for him.

 He's starting to get into costumes and it is so adorable. He loves to dress up with Mariah and Chet and will focus on the make believe for about thirty seconds...but he's improving.

He's always getting into everything. I dread the sound of a chair being pushed across the kitchen floor. He loves to play in the kitchen sink but if his shirt gets wet it is really distressing for him and he cries and whines until I put a dry shirt on him. We go through lots of shirts. 

Austin loves his trike and will never get on it without his helmet. Once he's done on the trike he usually keeps the helmet on, safety first people. He also loves sunglasses and often has them on upside down.

He's finally starting to talk and it's been so great. Anytime he wants something that I'm handing out to the kids he starts patting his chest and urgently saying, "Me! Me! Me!" with wide eyes.

He loves to give me kisses and I have loved that. He grabs my face and pulls me in, pretty precious.

Every naptime and bedtime I sing some primary songs and each time I finish a song he looks up at me with those baby blue eyes and says, "mo". And it's really hard to say no to that.

When he needs his hands washed he says, "ickle ickle ickle" (also what he says for tickle) and wiggles his fingers.

He's really attached to Tanner and I. If we are all in the same room he goes from one of us to the other. He really doesn't know who his favorite is. After Christmas he was so devastated when Tanner had to leave for work again. He watched out the window as Tanner drove away and then crumpled to the floor in tears. Which is what I want to do when Tanner leaves so it's totally understandable.

It really is such a blessing to watch a child grow. Austin has all our hearts and is such a blessing in our family. Here's to another great year!