Cutest Baby Contest 2009

Austin is contestant number 70. Please Click Here to vote for him, if you are willing!

Grandma and Grandpa paid to enter Austin into the Northeast Indiana Cutest Baby Contest. Austin is contestant number 70, on page number 3. Currently he has 0 votes, so if you feel willing to drop .25 a vote, please vote for number 70! He's mighty adorable, as we all know :) The grand prize is a $2,000 savings bond, which would be mighty nice for college or a first car!

Attempting to use a Fork!

We've had a great week with Austin. His little personality just keeps changing day by day, and he's starting to figure things out, which is fun to watch. He's starting to make fun noises, like screaming, squealing, and snorting even. It's hilarious to see what new thing he's going to do each day. He's trying to say new words, trying to figure out his toys more, and what things are and how they work. I think he's trying to say Cat, which sounds like Dat, and Dog. I think he's even finally trying to say mama, but it sounds like baba. It's hard telling, because normally he'll try to say something, and be pointing at something else. Oh well, at least he's trying to put two and two together! He's working on more teeth, again, and has been a bit crankier than normal, but he's still generally a very happy baby.

In the last few days, Austin has become very brave. He will pull himself up to stand with something, and then lunge for the couch, or even stand on his own without holding on to anything for a few seconds. He's started to do it more and more everyday....pretty soon, he'll probably just take off walking. He's become very curious about some of his toys and trying to figure out how to use them. The blocks that his great grandma gave him have become a fun object to dump out all over the living room floor and the throw them back into the basket. He loves to throw things, mostly balls and his food on the floor :) I'm thankful at this time that we have two built in vacuum cleaners to pick up after him! Dogs are great!

Jared took Friday off and we spent the whole day with Austin. We went to the zoo, and to take his 10 month pictures. It was a nice, relaxing day. We all had a great time! Above is one of his many 1o month pictures. He was hilarious, pointing at just about everything. In almost every one of his pictures, he had his finger pointing at something. It works out perfectly though, because our goal is to capture what he is doing from month to month, and pointing, is one that he's picked up recently! It was a good start to the busy, busy weekend we had, yet again.

We finally finished most of the painting on the outside of the house. Not that you can tell in most of it, but the trim, shutters, door, light fixtures, and the ugly brass on our screen door are all gone now. We ended up painting the rocking chairs navy blue. The door color was far too bright to paint the chairs the same thing, and our landscaping is so green that we thought the blue would help them be more decorative. It helps them to stand out a little bit. Not a ton, but just enough I think. Overall, I like the colors. At first I wasn't too sure of them, but they are starting to grow on me. One things for sure, our house doesn't really look like anyone else in the neighborhood now!

Another big milestone has finally hit. Austin is officially only eating Table Foods! YEAH!!! We've been working with him for quite some time now, but he's finally eating the foods that we eat. He ate part of a hamburger off the grill the other night and is starting to get accustomed to small bites of chicken. He loves Turkey lunch meat, but hates roast beef. He continues to love his vegetables and fruits still. He's starting to pick up more and more of the fruits and vegetables, but refuses to pick up the meat. I've figured out that he likes it if you feed him with a fork with the food on it. He even likes to give the fork a shot himself. He loves waffles, cheese, yogurt, and fruits. So far, from what I can tell, he's not really a picky eater, and likes to eat somewhat healthy food. I gave him a small bite of a vanilla Oreo the other day, and he wasn't too sure about that!

Again, a crazy busy weekend!

Well, like I've said time and time again, weekends go by too fast. Austin has changed dramatically in the last week.....and so has our house! Austin has been great these past few days....entertaining himself very well, feeding himself, and being in a great mood. Jared and I had a long exhausting week and weekend doing household chores. We ended up sealing the driveway, painting the front door, the shutters, and the light fixtures all in the last few days. It's been exhausting, especially when trying to keep up with Austin. It's true when people say, babies change everything! It's not as easy as just working things for a day. We would paint during his naps, play with him, feed him, put him down for a nap, paint more, and repeat. Imagine that for about 48 hours straight....talk about exhausting!

Like I've said, he's changed a ton. He's finally starting to eat mostly table foods (his favorite, of course, are still cantaloupe and watermelon), but he'll eat just about anything off of our table. Tonight he had green beans, carrots, ground turkey, cheese, watermelon, baked french fries....yesterday he even tried an M&M (I know, not the smartest thing, but it was only one Mini one!). He's officially had about 3 days worth of solid, non-pureed foods. It's great! It's been many months of struggling, but he's finally getting there I think. He still struggles with feeding himself new textures, but he's getting there. The only foods that he will pick up on his own are watermelon, cheese, cantaloupe, and cereals (Cheerios, Gerber Puffs, and his new favorite, Kix). Food aside, just in the last few days, he's started to point at objects, and then at himself (we're still working on what that one means), and mimic us. We tell him what things are, who he is, and so on. He's just starting to put things together, which is really neat to watch. Tonight, Jared would clap his hands, and shake his head "no" then Austin would follow and do the same. It was too cute! He's very very curious, but very sweet. He's started to lye his head down on my lap at times, almost as if he's tired. He follows either of us when we leave a room....it's too sweet. I think right now his favorite toys are probably books. He loves to flip through the pages, point at things, and right them with his hands along the carpet. I'm going to have to go buy him new ones here pretty soon. Even I'm getting sick of reading him the others :) Ahhh, he's growing up too fast.

Like I said, we painted the shutters and the door. Here are some before and after pictures. The door turned out a little brighter than I thought it would (the color was Arizona Sunset...which looked more red on the sample but ended up sorta a nice orange color). It's starting to grow on me. We painted our light fixtures also (they were starting to rust a bit, and we wanted to nip that in the butt before it got worse), painted the trim a few weeks ago, mulched a few areas that were bare, and can't decide on a color to paint he rocking chairs. If anyone has suggestions, let me know. We are debating, Navy Blue, the green that is the color of the shutters, or leave them white. I don't want our house to look like an Easter egg, but at the same time, it's all so green and white! We also got a new door handle and lock set (not a big deal to most, but it's not brass!) that Jared picked up at the employee sale. It's much nicer, and makes our house more us. It's amazing how those small touches add so much!

To Muncie, Again!

On Saturday, we made the trip down to Muncie again to see Aunt Judi and Uncle Jim, Uncle Bob, and my cousins, Jeff, Chris, and Lauren. This time the drive wasn't so pleasant. I think Austin was just getting sick of sitting in the car, so he was crying quite a bit more than he usually does. He wasn't happy until we arrived in Muncie and he got to play and explore. Austin had a blast, and made Aunt Judi and Uncle Jim's house his own. He played with his cousin, Lauren a lot, and they rode pillows around on the hardwood floors. He also played drums on Judi's bench with Lauren and Chris. They all giggled quite a bit. It was too cute!

Lauren even helped Austin to walk a bit, of course, he was pushing a baby doll stroller! It was too cute, they both seemed to have a great time and kept each other entertained for several hours.

Austin even found his reflection in their Grandfather clock, and was either trying to kiss himself, or eat himself. I can't decide which of the two it was. Either way, he left his fair share of fingerprints on things.....sorry Aunt Judi!

Here's a picture of the three siblings.....it was nice to see them all together again, and we all had a fun visit.

On Sunday, we took a day off from our usual Sunday gathering with my parents. We decided that with all the traveling this week and being away from home, we could use a "butt day." It was nice, we sat around all day long and played with Austin, and that was about it. He even got to go swimming! He splashed around in his pool for about a half hour and then we ate dinner. He's been doing a lot better feeding himself lately, and has really started to enjoy ground beef, lunch meats, and even steamed broccoli last night. His favorite, of course, is still watermelon. He still makes a huge mess when he eats, but that's part of the fun! He's started to drink out of a cup very well lately also. Our doctor recommended not using a sippy cup, which I thought was crazy at first. But, we figured we'd give it a shot, and see how he does. He's really doing well with it. He doesn't hold it on his own, but he barely pours any of it on himself. He's growing up too quick!

He's also starting to point at just about everything that he walks by. Since he's started to do this, we tell him what objects are. He's even starting to recognize some things (we'll ask him where mama or dada is, or his puppies Allie and Jackson), and he'll point to those things sometimes. This morning, he acted like he was trying to kiss me back while he was taking a bath. Right before he pooped in the tub, even with the water in there. Some call it aqua dumping! As nasty as this was, I had to laugh, because I used to do the same thing in the tub when I was little. Right after his moment of sweetness with kissing me, he did that. It made me smile, even though it was terrible to clean up! I guess what goes around, comes around, huh mom and dad?

Yeah, it's been awhile, again.

Like I've said in the past, summers are always too busy. Last weekend, it was packed with doing some much needed painting, yard work, and cleaning around the house. This week, it's been traveling down to Muncie and Springfield, OH. I feel like we've been in the car most of the week, but you do what you have to do! Last weekend, Austin spent some time with Grandma and Grandpa, so that Jared and I could paint trim outside, clean the carpets, mow the grass, fertilize the yard, and work on some other things around the house. Doesn't sound like much, but man, it was hard work, and took up the majority of the weekend!

On Monday, Austin, Grandma, and I traveled to Muncie to visit his Great Grandma and Grandpa. Great Grandma B gave him some wooden blocks to take home with the alphabet on them. We make towers with them and he loves to knock them down! The simplest toys are the best ones for him. Blocks, boxes, cups.....those are his favorites. He is really starting to enjoy books also. He flips through the pages and is starting to point at things in them. We tell him what things are so he's starting to put it all together. We have started to ask Austin where his puppies are, and he's starting to point at them. It's neat to see things finally come together with him.

Unfortunately, Jared's Aunt Connie passed away on Saturday evening after a short battle with Pancreatic Cancer. Yet another life lost to a terrible disease far too soon. We traveled down to Springfield, OH and Cincinnati, OH on Tuesday and Wednesday for the Funeral. Jared got to see many family members that he hasn't seen for years which was nice, but not ideal. It was very sad, and Aunt Connie will be missed by so many.

Now, we're back at home, trying to get him back on track. This is always a battle after throwing off his schedule. We're getting there though. Give me a few more days at home and in a routine, and we'll be getting there. Something good happened last night....he ate mostly table food for dinner.....YEAH! I've been trying to wean him that way for quite some time now, so hopefully, we are starting to make progress! Wish me luck!