Austin meets the Easter Bunny

This past weekend we took Austin to meet the Easter Bunny. He did look at him a little confused but never fussed or cared. He was such a good boy after a long day.

Austin Conquers the Stairs!

Last night, Austin learned how to crawl up our stairs. He has been pulling himself up on them but, until last night, has not figured out exactly how to go up. We were all in the living room and he crawled over, pulled himself up, and crawled up the first 2 stairs. Right now he can get himself up on the landing and that is it. All the way up the stairs is too much work for him right now. I am sure it won't be long before he is crawling up them with no trouble. He loves to crawl over everything now. John was laying on the floor and he was trying to crawl over him like it was the stairs. I love when he learns new things because he gets so excited about it and does it over and over again until he masters it.

He has completely mastered pulling himself up on everything. His favorite toy right now is an Elmo table that plays music and sings songs. He loves to stand at it for a very long time just pressing the buttons. Austin is getting so much fun and will now crawl to you when you call him. I can call him from the kitchen and tell him to come and eat and he will speed crawl into the kitchen. He loves to wave and will wave hi to his daddy over and over again. He is also starting to play shy and will put his head to the side or on my shoulder.

Austin has basically moved on from baby food, although he still prefers it. I still buy it for when he is at the babysitter's and we are out just because it is easier. He still does not like to sit and feed himself. He gets bored very fast and would rather play than eat. Right now he usually gets oatmeal with fruit or pancakes for breakfast. We found out he does not like french toast sticks. For lunch, he will usually eat a jar of stage-3 food, pasta with butter and parmesan cheese, or green beans. He does not like carrots or peas. At dinner he will usually eat whatever we are eating. He loves pasta like noodles with butter or mac and cheese, also pizza is one of his new favorites, cheese crumbles, or anything mommy puts on his tray. Food right now is not his priority and usually he likes to eat and run. Last night I was eating a bowl of noodles and he would come up, grab a handful and be on his way.

Austin is also showing signs is getting rid of his daytime bottles. He only has 3 bottles a day and he uses his sippy cup so much now I think he would be ok without his afternoon bottle. In about 4 months he will be ready to get rid of formula and switch to milk. I hope by then to have him only on a night time bottle, if any at all.

Austin learns to stand!

I know I have been posting a lot of updates lately but, it seems that each day Austin is learning or experiencing something new. It is so exciting seeing him discover new things even though most of the things he wants, he is not supposed to have. He has now learned how to get out of trouble. When you say no to him, he looks at you and gives you the biggest and cutest smile possible. It is very hard to scold him when he looks at you with those big blue eyes and huge smile.

Last night Austin learned to pull himself up to a standing position. I am so excited about his new talent. We put him down to bed at about 8:30pm. Since Austin has been sick, he has been refusing to go to bed until about 10:00pm. John noticed on the monitor that he was standing in his crib, but, he sat himself down right away. A few minutes later, I went into the room to lay him down again and when I walked in he was standing there will a very proud smile on his face. Of course we made a huge deal about it and got the camera out and had a mini photo shoot. We have been practicing standing on his own and he has gotten really good at balancing himself for a few minutes. I am sure walking is not far away -- which is good because our little man now weighs about 19.5 lbs and is getting hard to carry around!

Health Update!

I am happy to announce that the antibiotics seem to be working and Austin is starting to show signs of feeling much better. On Friday, I stayed home with him and he was crawling all over the place. I think that he was so happy that he was feeling better that he didn't want to slow down. I had to calm him down every hour or so and he would pass out in my arms from being so tired. He didn't understand that even though he felt better, he was still sick and had to slow down. On Saturday, John and I took Austin to a Gymboree class and he loved it. He got to crawl all over the place and go in and out of tunnels. We were very surprised that he was not afraid to go in them. He also had fun singing and dancing. Austin was not a fan of the parachute though, but, I am sure with time he will get used to it. I am taking him to another class tonight and hopefully this is something we will be able to do weekly. Austin's appetite isn't all the way back yet. But, he has only thrown up twice in a the last couple of days which is a huge improvement.

Some other updates on Austin: he is now sleeping on his stomach. The minute we lay him down in his crib he rolls over and starts crawling around. He will usually play for about 30 minutes and then pass out on his stomach. It is very cute to see him laying on his stomach with his butt up in the air. I am glad that he has no problem sleeping on his stomach otherwise I would be in there all night turning him over. Austin has also decided that he is now going to go to bed at 9-10:00pm instead of 7:30. I am not sure if this is a phase or not but, I sure hope so.

Austin is now eating a lot of solid food. For breakfast we have been giving him french toast sticks which he is starting to like a lot. Its nice being able to hand him one and he can feed himself. He likes holding stuff in his hands and gets very mad if you try to take them away. On Saturday, we had a birthday party and we gave Austin a whole piece of bread to keep him happy. We were very surprised when ate the whole thing without a problem. That night I think he ate about 3 pieces of bread.

John is almost done with his student teaching and I could not be happier. We are counting down the days. I recently have changed positions at work. Although this position change came with a large pay cut, the stress that I have had from my old position was not worth it. John and I decided that I would be much happier back in the office then I was being a teacher and having to deal with all that drama. So happiness does come with a price but, for my family and me its worth it.

Prayers for Austin

Austin had his doctors appointment today and unfortunately we found out that he has pneumonia. The doctor said that is has not reached the serious point but that it needs to be watched carefully. She gave Austin a prescription for an antibiotic which is supposed to speed up the process of clearing it up. He is still throwing up which makes me nervous that he will get dehydrated so please pray for Austin and for us that we are doing the right things to get our sweet little baby better. Right now he is so miserable and has no voice from crying. 

Sick Baby

Austin has been a very sick little guy for the past few days. It all began on Sunday when he woke up in the middle of the night burning up with a fever of 102.6. We stripped him down and gave him medicine and it seemed to help a little. On Monday he was still very warm and the fever never seemed to come down much no matter how much medicine we gave him. I had to come home from work early and try to get him to drink something since he wasn't really eating or drinking anything. Finally on Monday night his fever seemed to come down and he seemed to be getting a little bit better. He was still very clingy and didn't want to eat much but at least the fever was back to normal. On Tuesday he went off to Aunt Anne's and was ok all day, no fever and an ok appetite. When we got home on Tuesday I fed him some fruit for dinner and when John was holding him, he started throwing up. We thought maybe it just didn't agree with him because he had been ok all day. The rest of the evening was fine. He went to bed at the normal time, not taking much of his bottle but I figured he was just tired. At at 2 a.m. I heard him coughing and it didn't seem to stop so I went into his room and he was just sitting there coughing and crying. The coughing sounded like it hurt. So I scooped him up and decided he could sleep with us. Well from then on he was coughing so much that he threw up 3 more times. Between pajama changed and changing the sheets on our bed, the three of us were exhausted. We finally all got to sleep at about 4:30. I decided that I was going to stay home with Austin and call the doctors to see if I could get him in. The poor little guy was so tired he sleep until a little after 9 a.m. I called the doctor and unfortunately they could not get him in until today. I spent the day doing whatever I could to make Austin feel a little better. He would play for a few minutes and then it was back in my arms crying and rubbing his eyes. Most of the time he would just pass out in my arms from being so tired. Hopefully today the doctor can help, even if its relieving the cough at night so he can sleep.

On the upside... We think the fever was from teething because he cut his two upper teeth at the same exact time so now he has 4 teeth. Along with that he now has a runny nose so that is making really hard for him to breathe with the cough and stuffy nose. Our poor little guy. Its bad enough having to go through teething but now being sick on top of that.

On the Move

Austin officially learned to crawl last night. John and I were so excited. Austin on the other hand was not and thought that this crawling stuff took a little too much work. Although he figured it out, he still prefers to push himself backwards. When he really wants something (usually something he is not supposed to have) he will go forward without a problem.