New Job!

This past Monday John had an interview for Reach Academy in Roseville. Later that day he was offered the position, and started the next day. We are both very excited for John to be offered a position even before he completed his student teaching. His advisers at Wayne State have been very supportive. Although it has been very overwhelming for John to step into a position at the end of the year and without any preparation, he has taken it on full force and is loving every minute. We are both positive that this new opening will lead to bigger and better things for our family and we are excited for the future and the growth of John's new career.

Walking!

Tonight Austin took his first official steps! He has been standing alone for long periods of time for a few weeks now and tonight, he finally walked. It began with 2 steps and gradually increased to about 6 steps in a row. Austin has been "walking" for a few weeks with his walkers that he pushes around, and tonight he finally ventured out and did it alone. In true Austin fashion, crawling is much easier and when he figured out how much work this walking thing was, he quickly refused to stand up again. With a little more practice, I suspect that within a month he will be walking on his own for the most part. 

In other news, this week Austin went from 3 bottles a day to only 2. He did this with no problem at all. He has his full appetite back. He is off baby food and now eats just about anything as long as it is not carrots or peas. He loves pasta, so we have lots of Gerber pasta pick ups which conveniently combine chicken and carrots in their filling so that's how Austin gets his veggies. He will eat green beans so we have a lot of those. His new favorites are Mandarin oranges (thanks to his friend Nate who shared his snack with Austin one night), cottage cheese, string cheese, lunch meat, and fishy crackers. Austin loves to share anything anyone is eating. He like to share rice crispy cereal in the morning, or chocolate chip cookies with daddy, and push ups on occasion which he refuses to share with anyone. 

This past week, I was lucky enough to stay home with Austin. We had so much fun and I realize how much I miss him during the day. We are crossing our fingers that John will land a teaching position for next year so I can cut back on my hours and stay home more with our boys. 

And yes I said boys. On Good Friday, Austin found out he will be getting a little brother. My parents are now up to 6 grandsons! John and I are very excited. With the two being so close in age, I really wanted Austin to have a brother to play with. 

A day at the park

On Saturday, since it was such a beautiful day, John and I took Austin to the park to play and get some fresh air. Austin had a lot of fun. His favorite thing was going down the slide and walking around since he is such a big boy now.

Austin on the swings. There was a little boy screaming next to him that he kept staring at.

Austin sliding down the slide. He was actually doing really good and didn't need much help

Austin looking at the water

Austin and Daddy taking a walk

In other news, John has only 9 more days of student teaching left! We are very very excited to have him home more often. We took Austin off his allergy medicine because he was not acting right on it. He had no appetite at all and was still throwing up and had a cough. We are now just using over the counter Little Allergies which seems to be helping just as much as the allergy medicine did. It controls the runny nose which at this point is all we can ask for.

Austin is showing signs of walking. He can now walk when someone holds just one hand. He is standing for long periods of time without holding on to anything. Austin has also been sleeping a lot lately so I am sure another growth spurt is on the works. He right now wears 12 month pants and pj's.

John and I are having so much fun with Austin. He is constantly laughing and smiling and doing silly things to make us laugh. If I would keep him one age it would be this one. He is still my cuddly little baby that loves to sit on my lap and snuggle with a blanket, but he is so interactive and funny. He has such a good personality. Austin is now giving kisses when you ask, that is if he is not doing something else. Sometimes, he will just grab your face and start smooching away. Austin is a very lovable child.

Allergies

As you all know from previous posts, Austin has been sick off and on for awhile now. Its seems like he never gets rid of one cold or runny nose. At first we thought it was just teething but after the scare with pneumonia, I didn't want to take any chances. Last week he started to get the same deep cough and runny nose again. I took him to the doctor right away and she said that since Austin seemed to always be congested, that it most likely is allergies. She gave us some allergy medicine that he takes once a day in the morning. It seems to be helping him a little bit but I have not seen a huge improvement. We also bought a really good cool air humidifier that is supposed to reduce allergy symptoms in his room.

Austin is also going through a no eating phase, and for all of you that know our son, he can eat. He is just not really interested in much food right now. He will still eat oatmeal and his bottles and an occasional snack if he feels like it. I am sure it won't be too long before he is back to his normal self of grabbing food off our plates and putting 5 puffs in his mouth at one time.

Gymboree has been going great. Austin loves it and is very comfortable on all of the equipment. Last night we went to a level 3 class to see if it would be better for Austin. All of the babies in his level 2 class are on the young side. Austin is the only one that can crawl and has a hard time sitting for all of the songs. Level 3 was babies that could walk or were just learning to walk. Austin had a good time but he was worn out. It was a lot more playing than in his other class. We are still going to go to level 2 and to level 3 for awhile. Austins favorite time during class is the parachute. He is the only one that will lay on his back under it the whole time and watch it go up and down. He reached for it and squeals as it comes back down. Its such a change from the very first class when he cried his head off. Last night Austin got a special treat and daddy came to class with us.