walk: the act of traveling by foot; "walking is a healthy form of exercise"

Well, as you can all guess by the blog's title today, it's official. Austin is now a walker! He's been practicing for a few days, taking one or two steps at a time. Last night, however, he made his way all the way across the living room. Now, keep in mind, we do have a fairly small living room, but still. It was too precious! He's still very wobbly, but he's getting there. This is a picture of him in action......GOOOO AUSTIN!

Austin has officially been off of his bottle for about a week and a half with no complaints yet! He hasn't even cried for it yet. It sort of happened all on it's own last Monday, when I gave him a cup of formula in the morning. He didn't really seem to upset about it, and actually drank all of his formula from it. So, I decided to run with it and took him off of it completely. I'm starting to give him whole milk at lunches, which he seems to be liking a bit more than his formula. Let's hope so anyway!

Austin has also started to crawl up onto things. I have a feeling he's going to end up being a climber! He managed to climb up on this chair in our living room all by himself. I'm going to be in big trouble soon!

Austin also recently discovered our pots and pans, so I decided to get him some spatulas, spoons, measuring cups, bowls, basters, and pot holders for him to play with of his own. His favorite, is a ladle at this point. Have you ever seen Peyton Manning caring around a ladle? We have! He loves it. It keeps Austin entertained for a long time, far longer than most of his toys do for that matter. It makes a huge mess, but what doesn't with this child??

Austin has started to play peek-a-boo with us on a regular basis. He initiates it most of the time anymore by putting a blanket or a cloth diaper on his head and pulling it off. He's also started to hide behind the couch and peek his head around. It's too cute. This is him playing peek-a-boo with Jackson. Austin was cracking up, however, Jackson wasn't too sure about it. The dogs are both so good with him though, and they put up with just about anything that Austin throws their way. Austin has also started to give us kisses frequently...they are all open mouth, and on his terms, but we wouldn't have it any other way!

Here is Austin in his 11 month pictures, which we just around to taking last weekend. It's hard to believe that our baby boy will be a year old in about two days. Where does the time go? It seems like yesterday we were able to hold him and give him a bottle and he'd just stare into our eyes. It wasn't that long ago we were anticipating all of the firsts that we would get to share with him....he's just so big now! Now, he's all over the place and i'm lucky to hold him for a minute without him moving all over the place. He's such a joy, and a blessing to have in our family. He's been such a great baby, and hopefully he'll continue to be a great kid!