The summer is coming to an end, which is so sad. I don't know what we're going to do all winter long, so I'm going to not think about it. Austin is definitely an outdoor kid. He loves to be outside exploring things. Some of his favorite things to do are to play in his water table, "play" golf, push his crazy couple around, go down the slide, and play with his puppies. As you can tell by the picture, this child plays hard. He gets read in the face and sweats a lot. He loves it though, and we love it also! He even loves to float with us at the lake. We put a life jacket on him and he sits on our laps and throws cans in the water and watches them float up. Aunt Drew even taught him how to say "Cheers" with his beverage. Now he bangs his cup together with anything he can find, says Cheers, and then takes a sip and says "ahhh". He's too funny.
Austin's picky eating is getting a little bit better. He's finally starting to try new things sometimes. We even got lucky one day and he actually tried spaghetti (You can see a bit of the mess on his face in the picture above). He didn't really care for it, but I'm glad that he at least tried. So far, one of his recent favorites is marinated chicken on the grill. He loves it, and will eat about 2 small chicken tenders along with his fruits and vegetables. His favorite thing to eat still are the sweet things, just like his mom and dad. He asks us after dinner if he can have "couple nummies" (he calls M&M's nummies) or "couple cookies" for a treat. We usually give in, as long as he's eaten a good amount of his dinner. And yes, sometimes multiple utensils are required to get the child to eat....but whatever it takes, we'll do!
After close to two years, Austin still has those big beautiful light blue eyes. We have been wondering for quite a while if they would change, and so far, they haven't. They are gorgeous, so hopefully they continue to stay that way. His hair is starting to become a bit thicker, but is still pretty blonde, just like his daddy's was when he was little.
It's been a pretty busy summer, with visits from his Nana and Papa (Jared's parents), and us going down to Georgia to visit our friends Chris, Kristin, and their new bundle of joy, Aubrey. As usual, it takes Austin some time to warm up to people, but once he does, he's in love! He asked for everyone who visited for several days after they left. He recognizes most of these people in pictures, so at least he is starting to recognize who they are since many of them he doesn't see too often.
Speaking of Uncle Chris, Aunt Kristin, and baby Aubrey. Here is a picture of Austin holding baby Aubrey. He LOVED her. He kept asking to hold her and he would hug her and give her kisses. He was so sweet with her, it brought a tear to my eye. I thought for sure he would be jealous of Jared and I spending so much time with her, but he took her right in. He even tried to pick her up a few times (we caught him before he got too far) and would try to play with her and tell her to "shhh" and "wake up" when she was sleeping or crying. Austin calls her Auberry, which is pretty cute. Every time he sees pictures of a baby, he associates it with baby Auberry. Our friends have a wonderful new addition to their family, and we couldn't be more excited for them. It truly is the best thing in the world to watch your child grow.
Here is Austin eating some chocolate "ice cream". It's really pudding, but he calls it ice cream. He loves pudding, but isn't so sure of the ice cream yet. Either way, it's again, something new that he's finally started to try in the last few weeks, but two months ago, wouldn't even touch. It makes for quite the mess, but we wouldn't have it any other way! He's obviously pretty happy when he's messy, and he's got his "chocate ice-scream" as he likes to call it.
In about the middle of June, Austin started to become pretty interested in the potty. YEAH!! So we went out, bought him a potty and some cotton training pants, and here we are! I know it's a pretty long road until we are diaper free, but he's doing really well with it so far. We let him run around naked, or in a pair of cotton training pants (we call them Supermans because Jared doesn't like the word underwear) quite a bit. So far, I can count on one hand the amount of accidents he's had in them. He doesn't realize a lot of the time when he's going yet, but sometimes he does and will tell me he has to go, or run to the potty. Sometimes he'll even say "Oh-no, pee pee" after the fact. So, I think he's getting there, but we definitely have a long way to go. Most of the time if we sit him on the potty, he will go, and then he does his "WOOHOO" potty shout, and says bye-bye to his pee and blows it a kiss as we flush it down the toilet. I have to remember that he's not even two yet, so the progress that he's made so far has exceeded our expectations.
Here he is again in his Supermans trying to open cans of corn (he calls them "popcorn"). He seems to be the most interested in toys that don't make noise, and that he can try to figure out on his own. I would prefer that he not play with a can opener that is sharp, but he wouldn't let go of it, and it kept him occupied for quite a while. He's starting to love to make towers with wooden blocks and then knock them down. He still loves his train table, Cars, and books are among some of his favorite indoor toys.
Here Austin is with Grandma while we celebrate her Birthday. We went to the library last weekend, and picked up a few new books for him. One of these books is called Waddle, and it's adorable. The last page of the book is an Alligator, and it says "You better watch out, the Alligator's gonna getcha". Austin loves running around now saying "Alligator getcha". It's his favorite book from the library this time, and one we might actually have to purchase for him. He loves books still, and loves to learn what is in the pictures. He knows a ton of animal names, sounds, and even vehicles because of the books that he's looked through. What a great love to have.....hopefully it continues with him and follows him for a lifetime.
Here's Austin and dada looking at pictures of "baby". Austin is just this week starting to refer to himself as "Ausin". Until this week, he called himself baby most of the time.
Austin has been in to arts and crafts time lately. He's been painting a lot of things for people, and really loves to color. He's learned almost all of his colors so far, but struggles with the difference between red and orange, and blue and purple. He loves to point out what colors things are though. He's also learning his shapes. So far, he knows squares, triangles (he even calls a nose a triangle, which in a way, it sort of is), and circles. We're still working on stars and rectangles and other shapes, but so far, those are his favorite. Really, his favorite shape is a triangle, and his favorite color is orange. He's also starting to learn a few letters, he calls an "O" a circle, and an "E" a comb. His vocabulary continues to amaze me, and he's putting many words together and realizing what so much is around him. He'll tell cars to "move, get outta the way", he'll say "bess you", he even tells me when things are heavy and bright. It amazes me daily what he comes up with and says. I guess we all have to start somewhere, huh? :)
It's so hard to believe that he will be turning 2 here shortly. It's amazing to see where he is now, compared to where he was two years ago. He's such a smart, loving, sweet little boy, I wish I could freeze him and just keep him like this forever. He's just too much fun, and really is our world.
