So, it's been a busy few months, as usual. I've been bad about writing posts lately, and honestly, they are getting much more difficult to write. Although Austin continues to change by leaps and bounds, he keeps me busy, which doesn't allow me as much time to write anymore! Soon, our lives will be much busier. For those of you who don't know, our family is expecting another little bundle in September. Austin even talks about it, although he's requested that he wants a baby brother instead of a sister! Everything during this pregnancy has been going well so far, and is very much like my pregnancy with Austin. I've had no morning sickness, no weird symptoms or cravings; I have just been really tired (although I attribute some of that to getting up most nights to take Austin to the potty or change sheets!). Im just now occasionally starting to feel the baby move some, but hopefully, soon, it will be more frequently. I'm measuring great, gaining weight as expected (only about 6 lbs, so far!), and the baby has a good strong heartbeat. We're almost at 18 weeks now, and will have an ultrasound coming up the end of April. And no, for those of you wondering, you won't find out the sex of the baby, because no one will until September, again :)~ I feel like I look bigger than I did last time at this stage, but i've been told that's normal. Even at the doctor last week the nurse said I didn't look pregnant yet, and I just told her I was at that stage where you can't tell if I'm fat or pregnant yet!
This year Austin has been busy playing, a lot. Everything he does is play! Even when you ask him about preschool, he says he plays. He's learning so much through everything though, and he's getting very smart. He's using words like comfortable, ridiculous, actually, predator, nectar, and many others properly in sentences. It cracks me up to hear him say these words, because he's 3.5! He's constantly asking "Why?" to everything, and even asks you to go into more detail most of the time. He loved playing outside this winter, and begged us to go out at any chance he got. We froze, but luckily we only had a few cold winter days this year, and only snow a handful of times. He loves going to preschool, and has many friends there. In our latest report from his teachers he's learning and trying all the things they feel he should be and mastered almost all of them. The only thing he's lacking is sharing abilities (I wish he was better at this, but they attribute it to him being an only child), and he sometimes pouts when he's corrected for doing things wrong. Although his pouting is adorable, we're trying to crack down on it by disciplining him more when he does it. So far, it's working, somewhat. He's got a very sweet personality and demeanor, and is very caring, loving, fun, playful, and happy. So far, he's just a wonderful little boy!
We recently got a chance to go down to Cincinnati to see Austin's cousins and Aunt Taunja and Uncle Jim. Jim and Jared were putting in a wood floor, so Taunja and I took the kids to the Children's museum. Austin LOVED it there. We have to take him back soon, because he still talks about it and begs to go to the museum. He loves dinosaurs, and this is a fossil of a head of his favorite; the T-rex. He swears that "Once he gets bigger, he'll grow into be a T-Rex!". It's pretty cute, but he was so excited to see the fossils at the museum. He loved running and chasing his cousins, playing in the water, and building things at the museum. It was such a cool place to go! We would have thought he would have passed out that night, but not Austin! He never sleeps well when we travel, hopefully that's something he grows out of at some point!
We've had some awesome Indiana weather lately, which has allowed us to spend most of our time outdoors, cooking on the grill, riding bikes, swinging, and playing in Austin's Jeep! It's been great to spend so much time outdoors. Austin loves playing "tag racing game" that he learned at school from his friends. In these pictures, he was even trying to hide from the camera so Jared couldn't get him. He loves playing outdoors with the dogs, checking out our newly planted garden (we decided to give lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli, radishes, and carrots a try), and even eating dinner outside. We can tell just by watching him play outdoors how much bigger he's getting and how he's starting to become a boy and less of a toddler. He's becoming (very slowly), more independent, he's running like a big boy now, jumping, getting dirty, playing with bugs, touching worms, etc.
Austin had his very first dental check up back in January and passed with flying colors. He did better than the dentist, hygienist, and myself expected. I was told that his teeth were excellent and that he has next to no plaque, which they said was surprising for his age. There were no tears, and he actually listened to everything they asked him to do. He's even using big boy toothpaste now and spitting, and rinsing out the sink! Which is a good thing, because he has the most genuine smile, I want to keep it that way!
Right around Christmas time, I can officially say that Austin is potty trained. Now, he's been in underwear since he was 2, but he hasn't told us consistently that he had to go until around Christmas. Up until then, it was my job to remind him, take him to go, etc. I helped out in preschool one day and talked to him about how some of his friends told someone they had to go to the bathroom and something clicked with him. He's been doing it every since! He's had a handful of accidents since, most of which were BM that he couldn't control enough, and I can't fault him for that! Austin has also recently decided that he doesn't need to wear diapers at night. Now, this was something we weren't quite ready to give up yet, but he's done really great. When he was wearing Pull-ups at night, he would go dry for several days, and then have an accident, so we didn't think he was ready yet. He told us though that he was, and we don't want to discourage him any. He still has his fair share of accidents, which we expect, but most nights, he keeps his bed dry and wakes up to go potty in the middle of the night. He seems to go through rough spells where he'll have accidents for several days, and then he goes for a week or two with none. I wish it were a bit more consistent, but I have to remind myself that he's only 3.5, and he'll get there in time. I think for his age, he's doing great, and we keep letting him know that!
Since we are going to be going to Georgia to visit our wonderful friends over Easter break (only 4 days until we leave!), we colored our eggs this week and are going to do an Easter Egg hunt at home and celebrate Easter this Sunday with Grandma and Grandpa. Austin loved coloring the eggs, and Jared and I even mentioned how amazing it was to watch him because last year, he sort of threw the eggs in the dye, and this year, he gently set them in. It's something small, but it's so amazing to watch and see him develop in these ways. He changes every day, and every day I can say he makes me smile more than most adults can. It's amazing that a child has that sort of pull with someone, but this is what people have always told me about kids; and they were right! This little boy is our life, and we couldn't ask for more, or be a happier family!
