Another Busy Weekend!

Saturday was Jared's Birthday, and Sunday was Father's day....which led to another extremely busy weekend. Last week, Austin started to say da-da just in time for Father's Day. I was actually trying to get him to say ma-ma, but he said da-da instead. Just in the last week, he's changed so much. This past week has probably been one of the most difficult yet. His teeth were really bothering him, so he was cranky, not napping well, not eating well.....I felt so bad for him. He almost has 6 teeth now, and it looks like it will soon be 7. Austin has recently started to feed himself Cheerios. He hasn't quite figured out how to feed himself other foods yet, but we'll get there. I think sometimes the chewing motion is bothering him a bit because he's been screaming when we give him chunks of food. Hopefully, these teeth will break through soon and we can have a bit of a break!

On Friday, Austin and I gave Jared his birthday/Father's day present. We bought him all of the things that he needed to hang pictures on the wall in his mini studio and a picture to hang on up in his room. We hung out on Friday at home, and Austin enjoyed a few minutes of playing with Jackson on the floor with one of his toys. Austin seems to think sometimes that this toy is his, and Jackson disagrees. We are quick to get it out of his hands.

Saturday we went to the zoo and had a cookout with Jared's sister. The zoo was hot, but it was fun. It was great to see our nieces enjoying themselves at the zoo. Here are a couple of pictures of the kids at the zoo.

Last night, we had my parents over for Fathers Day/their Anniversary. After dinner, Austin hung out with all of us for a bit and then he quickly got tired. Jared and I took Austin upstairs for bed, and he was having a difficult time falling to sleep on his own. I went upstairs to check and make sure that all of his limbs were inside the crib. I opened up the door to his bedroom, and Austin was standing up, in his crib, holding on for dear life to the side of the crib. I think he got himself up there and couldn't figure out how to get back down. It was so cute to go in there and see the look on his face. Not only did he start pulling himself up to a standing position this week from sitting, but he also started to sit himself up when he's on the ground rolling around on his own. He's getting so big so fast.

Car Washing Time!

We had another crazy weekend of not doing anything really. On Friday, Jared took the day off to build a support for our hammock so that we can actually use it this year. Well, so far, so good. Jared and Matt got the support up on Friday and it looks great. It managed to hold both Jared and Matt, plus Austin and Jackson! It was a full seat, but all of the boys relaxed in the sun for a few minutes before getting back to work and back to a nap. Notice Austin's cute muscle shirt.....he looked adorable in it!

On Saturday, we relaxed and hung out at home. Nothing too exciting. We went to Target and bought Austin a new toy camera since he's obsessed with ours. We also stopped by Menards to get some weed killer and sprayed the weeds in our yard. Ah, the joys of home ownership. Here is a picture of Austin and Jared playing with his new camera. Austin was laughing in the picture, which he's starting to do more and more everyday. His little chuckle is adorable. He's ticklish in a lot of different places, but mostly his stomach, his baby fat on his legs, and if you sniff him like a dog around his face it usually gets him to laugh. I know it sounds weird, but I'll do just about anything to get to hear that little baby giggle....it's so precious!

On Sunday, we hung out at home and hate a big breakfast of blueberry pancakes made by Jared. He makes the best pancakes in my opinion, and we shared some with Austin. He had them all over his face and his high chair tray, but man, was he enjoying them, without the blueberries for now though. He's getting really good at chewing his food up, and hopefully I'll have him most of the way off of the jarred baby food shortly. I've tried to make my own baby food, but he doesn't seem to like it. He likes chunks of food more, but if we gave him only that, it would take him about 4 hours to eat his dinner and his butt would be permanently glued to his high chair. If you look closely at this picture, you can see all 4 of his teeth that he has right now....nice, big, and pearly white!

After breakfast and a short nap, we decided to wash cars. Since we had just sprayed the weed killer, we set Austin on a sheet in the front yard so he wouldn't break out in a rash like his mom does (I break out in hives if someone sneezes around me for the most part, so hopefully he doesn't take after me). He enjoyed the sun, taking off his hat repeatedly, and hanging out with his two friends, Jackson and Allie. Austin has continued teething and has had his good moments, and many bad lately. I think he might but cutting several at the same time right now.....3 or 4 to be exact. One of the 4 has finally cut through a bit, but the other three haven't even started. His gums are really swollen and seem to be bothering him quite a bit. And Tylenol and teething rings are about the best I can do for him! Luckily, he has continued to sleep through the night through all of this, which has been great for Jared and I. After him waking up pretty much every night for 7 months, it starts to wear on you a bit! I have to admit though, I sometimes miss seeing him in the middle of the night!

Visit to Great Grandma and Grandpa's House

The weather here hasn't been the greatest this week, so we haven't done too much but sit around the house. This week, it seems as though Austin is starting to do things out of no where. He LOVES to stand up (as shown above), and is practically pulling himself up on his own if he has ahold of my fingers. On Wednesday, my mom and I went down to Muncie, IN, to visit my grandparents. They aren't able to drive up to Ft. Wayne often, so I try to take Austin down there when I can so they can see him. While we were there, I was lying on the floor playing with him and he climbed up on my side and started to stand. My mom looked at me and asked if he'd ever done that before, and my response...."Nope." He's starting to scale things like a monkey, which is pretty close to what I'm envisioning happening with him soon as he's becoming increasingly mobile. He's into everything, and is very curious. He won't sit still long enough for me to change his diaper or his clothes because there is too much going on and too many new things to discover. I am loving ever minute of it though, well, most of the time!

Last night, we were playing with Austin on the floor. He's really into cameras.....and I mean really into them. This shot is of Austin chasing after me on the floor because he saw me with the camera. It's hilarious! At least I thought it was. And for those of you who haven't seen them yet, there's a nice shot of his two bottom teeth. Too bad he won't let me get his top 2 1/2!

As I said earlier, Austin is scaling things like a monkey. He managed to crawl up on the bottom of our coffee table last night to play with my scrapbooks....without help. And I couldn't stop him because I was amazed that he actually did it on his own. Needless to say, he stayed up there for a few minutes and had the time of his life. No harm, no foul, right? :)

Parkview Field

(Click on the image to see it much larger)

Here is a panoramic picture that we took last time we were at a Tin Caps game with Austin. It is looking out of the Do it Best suite along the 3rd base line. We just figured that those who haven't seen the stadium would enjoy the view. On a sadder note, the old stadium is set to be demolished this month.

If you want to see more pictures of what is going on with our family, check out my flickr page: http://flickr.com/photos/jaredhaagen

He's Taking After his Daddy!

I know it's an obsession with all babies, they want what the can't and shouldn't have. Austin is starting to become this way. He loves playing with remotes, phones, cell phones......my camera. Thankfully he discovered my camera, instead of his daddy's 30 pound camera (with all of the stuff he has on it, I'm not joking when I say it probably weights about 30 pounds)! I'm not thrilled with him playing with it because these things are pretty pricy, but I also feel like the more things he can experience now, the better. We figure as long as he's just checking it out, then there's no harm in letting him play with it. Heck, we welcome him to play with a camera any day!

Austin has finally started to laugh in the past few weeks. And he's doing it all of the time now. We still have to provoke him in order to do it, but when we do, it's adorable. Him laughing is about as good as seeing him smile for the first time, it just melts your heart! His vocabulary is also starting to expand some. He is babbling all of the time now. He is still mostly just saying "ba ba ba" and "ahhhhh ba ba ba", but we'll take it! Anything he says is better than saying nothing at all. He's just so much fun right now, I love it!

That's right, I'm standing!

Last Thursday, Austin and I went to the zoo for a quick walk after the rain. The place was dead, because it was about 65 degrees, and as I said, it was right after the rain. It was perfect! We actually got to see the animals. As you can see, Austin actually noticed the Sea Lions this time, and was amazed by them. I'm glad that we got the zoo membership this year, because we only went for about an hour and a half on Thursday, and I didn't feel guilty! It's a great place to get out of the house and go for a walk! On Friday, we didn't do anything too exciting. Grandma and I took Austin up to Fremont to go Shopping for clothes. They didn't really have too good of deals, but we still managed to find him a few things for next summer.

On Saturday, Jared had his first photo shoot for someone other than Austin. After the photo shoot, we decided to take Austin's 8 month pictures. As you can see, he stood up with the support of a table, on his own, for about 2 minutes. Both Jared and I were shocked! He's stood up before, but never for that long, and he's always pretty wobbly. On Saturday, that wasn't the case! Everyday it seems like he's doing something new and different. I figured out today, I think tooth number 5 is going to be one of his top incisor teeth....it looks like it's about to poke through any minute. He just keeps getting one tooth after the other. I would love to have a break here soon with the teething, but at least we are getting a lot of them done at the same time! On Sunday, we took him for his first walk along Ft. Wayne's beautiful Rivergreenway. The Greenway is a series of trails that runs along the three rivers of the Fort. It was probably about a 3 or 4 mile trek I'm guessing, and was awesome exercise. Austin slept through most of it, but he woke up towards the end to check out some of the sites. We'll probably start to do that more frequently, especially since I've finally found a stroller that he'll sit in for a period of time! We recently bought a Jogging stroller, which Austin loves! I'm just glad i've found something that I can push him around with instead of carrying him all over the place!