Kiss me I'm Irish

Austin can not wait to celebrate his first St. Patricks Day! Our little Irish baby looks so cute!

7 months old and growing!

Austin is now 7 months old and as I look back at pictures of the day he was born I cannot believe it is the same child and that it only has been 7 months. Its amazing how a child can change that much in such a small amount of time. Each new stage Austin encounters, I find new adventures and new challenges being a parent. Right now Austin is VERY VERY active. He wants to crawl so badly and gets very frustrated that he cannot get where he wants to go. He can get himself around and can go backwards very well but that does not make him happy. We suspect that it will be any day now that he figures out how to get going. That will be our biggest challenge because Austin is the kid that wants to get into everything and although he knows the word "no" very well, most of the time he choses to ignore it. All I can think about is the long nights of having to make sure every little thing is off the floor and put away. Austin also has gotten his bottom 2 teeth and I think that more are on the way. It is very sweet to see his big smile with his two little teeth sticking up. On the downside, he bites and the other night he was on the floor and bit my toe. He doesn't really know that those little teeth are sharp as knives! Austin has also started eating "real" food. For a child that can not crawl, if you have anything that even looks like food, he can make it across the room in a heartbeat. We call him our little birdy because he sits there with his little mouth open waiting for something to be put in it. I have noticed, with me at least, he is not picky at all. He will eat anything that I have. I even gave him some of my broccoli last night and he kept wanting more. I am glad that he is not picky and I have really tried hard to expose him to many foods so he won't be a picky eater. The food issue is a problem though when we are eating something he can not have. Again, he knows the word "no" but wants nothing to do with it. He will scream and whine until you put the food away. Also eating out now is hard because he is not big into sharing and does not feel that you should get any of the food. I do have fun letting him try new foods, last night he got to taste a slurpee, which he did not like because it was cold but that did not stop him from coming back for more and more.

Austin has had a terrible cold ever since we came home from Frankenmuth. He has been very stuffy and has a runny nose and an awful cough. The nose seems to have dried up a little bit but the cough is still there and sounds very painful. He has an appointment next week for his flu shot so we will have the doctor take a look at him then. During this cold he has been so stuffy that he has been waking up screaming and hard to console, so he had to sleep with me a few nights. Although I love cuddling with Austin, sharing a bed with him is another thing. When Austin sleeps with me he has to have his face right in mine and has to be as close to me as possible. He likes to put his little arm around me and rub my arm to make sure I don't go anywhere. Yes it is very sweet but add a little baby snoring, breathing, and coughing in your face all night, and it equals a long night with little sleep for me.

John's student teaching is about 1/2 way done. I am so excited. John has to leave so early in the morning that he usually sees Austin for a few minutes, and that leaves me to getting him and myself ready and out the door by 7am so we can get him to the babysitter's or school and me to work on time. Between my stuff for work and Austin's stuff for the day, it looks like we are going on a week-long vacation every morning when we come out of the house. I can't wait until John can take over with taking him in the morning. In the evening, it is the same thing because John has to work late so I have to pick him up. Our favorite time of the day is when John gets home and I can hand over Austin and take a deep breath. Graduation day for John can not come soon enough!

As for me, work has been very trying lately and I often question why I am even there. If John was not student teaching, I most likely would have walked out by now. I have been praying a lot because I love what I do but the business itself has become unbearable to work for. The administration is selfish and unsupportive of their staff. Each day I push through and remind myself it's a job and I should be thankful because so many people are without. It's just hard because it is so draining that I feel it takes away from Austin. Hopefully next year we might be in the position for me to stay home or work will get better.

Splash Village

This past weekend we took our first official family vacation. John, Austin, and I headed to Frankenmuth for the night. We stayed at Zenders Splash Village which has an indoor water park. We thought Austin would love the pool because he loves playing in the bath... boy, were we wrong. The minute his toes touched the water he screamed like we never heard him scream before. I tried to take him the lazy river and he held on in a frantic panic like I was about to let go. Everytime I dipped a little lower into the water he would scream his head off. After trying the big water park we thought it might be better to go to the little pool. Austin still hated it but, he didn't scream as long as we were holding on to him tight. His only defense was to fall asleep in hopes we would take him out of the water so, thats what he did. He was holding on to John for dear life and fell asleep in the water. We finally did take him out and he held on to me so tight, as we wrapped him in a few towels, and fell right back asleep. We are hoping he will get used to it at some point. Austin loved staying at the hotel and with is new tooth was excited to try tons of people food. Mommy barely could eat because Austin would not let anyone take a bite before they put food in his mouth. We did bring the pack-n-play but Austin decided that sleeping with Mommy in the big bed was much better. So, Daddy had to sleep on the other bed all alone which I am sure he did not mind. We did discover that traveling with an infant is much different and when they go to sleep there is not much to do so, it was off to bed for us at 8:30pm (which is not a bad thing when Austin has a wake time of 6:00am, vacation or no vacation).
Austin also added a new addition to his mouth yesterday and cut his second lower tooth. He is very excited and will bite on everything to test them out.

My first tooth!

Austin cut his first tooth today. You still can not see it but you can feel it. It is very sharp. He is very proud of his new addition and hopefully we can post a picture soon once it pops up more.

Feeding himself

Last night Austin offically fed himself. He has been practicing the pincher grab for awhile but had not mastered it until last night. Within the last few weeks, Austin gets very angry when anyone eats anything around him and they do not share. He screams and stares you down until you give up some of your food. Its fun watching him try new foods but the whole solids thing still makes me nervous. Austin really does not chew the food but swallows it so we have to give him very very small pieces. Last night John has rolls on his plate and of course Austin was staring him down and yelling. He was reaching aross the couch trying to get to them so we started giving him little pieces. Towards the end I would put the piece in my hand and have Austin pick it up. It took a few trys but he did pick up the piece of roll and it got to his mouth. Of course mommy cheered and was all excited. Austin got a big smile on his face. He likes when I get excited because he does something and is always making sure I am watching what he is doing so he can get the appropriate praise. I am excited because now I can start putting a snack down on his tray and he can feed himself. He has been having fruit in one of those mesh food holders which he loves, but now he actually can have little pieces of fruit!

6 month doctor visit

Austin just got back from his 6 month well visit with the doctor. Thank goodness for my wonderful husband who took him this time. I just could not take watching my baby get 4 more shots. Austin now weights 17 lbs and is 28 inches long! He is in the 90th percentile for his height. He is going to be a tall boy. The pulling on his ear, is luckily just aggravation from teething and not an ear infection. Now begins the next couple of days with Austin being a little sensitive and crabby from the shots. Luckily with a little help from Tylenol he will be ok.

Mmmmm Ice Cream!!!!

Last night Austin got his first taste of ice cream. Needless to say he enjoyed it every much and was not happy with his mommy when she would not share more. What was supposed to be a little taste from my ice cream cone turned into Austin reaching with both hands and pulling the cone to his mouth. Oh well whats a little sugar right before bed!

Austin also now loves to put his little rubber duckies in his mouth when he takes a bath. Bath time is Austin and Daddy's time together. They have fun and take silly pictures.
Austin has also been waking up in the middle of the night crying. Not a little cry but screaming. We are not sure what is upseting him but he enjoys being scooped up and spending some time sharing mommy's pillow. Although its not the ideal situation and I barely get any sleep because Austin is either glued to me and if I move away he moves closer, or he has to rub my face, He is so sweet and peaceful when he is in our bed that we just let him sleep.
We have been letting Austin help feed himself on occasion. Well usually Austin takes matters into his own hands and as you are putting the spoon into his mouth he quickly snatches it and gets a death grip on it and you cant get it out of his hands. Sometimes if we have time we let Austin practice and make a mess.

Austin has also learned to play peek -a- boo.

Three Become Four

Today we found out that we are expecting another baby. Even though I had the feeling that I was pregnant, it still was a shock when we took the test. Although this was not planned, we are very excited at the fact of having a sibling for Austin who will be so close in age, 14 months apart.

Happy Birthday Mommy!

I want to wish Christina a very Happy Birthday. Christina has been an amazing Mom and Wife. Austin and I are very blessed!!

I had the best birthday ever! John let me sleep in while him and Austin made me pancakes. After that they gave me the card that they made and my presents. Because of the holiday, I do not like to go out to eat late, so we went to and lunch/early dinner with Austin at California Pizza Kitchen which is my current favorite restaurant. Austin was very good while we ate, and he even learned how to take his baseball hat off. He was trying to put it back on but has not mastered that skill yet. Austin is always cracking John and I up with the new things he does. His current favorite game playing peek a boo.

After lunch John and I dropped Austin off at Grammy and Papas and went to the movies. It was very nice being able to watch a movie with just John and I. We then picked up Austin and headed home. Holidays are a little different with and infant. The rest of our night was our usual routine until Austin went to bed. And because Austin has not mastered the art of sleeping in, he was that morning at 6 so by 11:30 John and I were passed out on the couch. We woke up at 12:01! Oh well it has been the best year, adding Austin to our family and the best birthday ever, spending it with John and Austin.

Merry Christmas

Austin successfully made it through his first Christmas like a champ. With all the running around and late nights, Austin, for the most part, adjusted well. To start off our holiday season John and I decided to redo our downstairs. With tons of help from my dad, we painted the whole downstairs and upstairs hallway, re-tiled the fireplace and replaced our carpet with wood floors. We also got a new front door as a present from my parents. It was a lot of hard work, more for John and my dad (but having your house torn apart for 3 weeks with a 5 month old is not easy either!). We got through it and the house looks wonderful. Austin was a little upset through the process because it was loud and he couldn't spend time playing on the floor and had to spend a lot of time upstairs but he was good.

Every year John's family meets at Target to do his Grandpa's Christmas shopping. Everyone goes and picks out their gift and John's Grandpa stands at the register and pays for everything. Afterwards, we all go out to dinner. Austin was very excited to pick out his own present this year.

To start our Christmas festivities we had our annual progressive dinner with John's brothers, sister, and parents. It began at noon and ended around 9pm. I didn't know how well it would go with Austin being packed up every hour into his coat and car seat (which he hates), and not having a nap but he was good and by the third house he crashed and slept the whole time. He never even made it out of his car seat and had to open his present the next day.

Austin also debuted his new talent. He is actually very good at this.

(This isn't the full video - for some reason it won't load right. Also, I don't know how to turn the video sideways - sorry!)

On Christmas Eve, Austin went to Grammy and Papa's house. He got to spend lots of time with his cousins, who are very entertaining to Austin. Austin likes to sit and watch all the action as they all run around the house.

On Christmas morning, Austin gave us a present and slept into around 7:00am. Once he was up, he was more concerned with his breakfast than presents. Santa must have known Austin was a very good boy because he left him a lot of presents. To our surprise, Austin actually understood the concept of opening the presents. He may have just wanted to eat the paper, but he enjoyed it.

On Christmas night Austin went to his Great Uncle Bill's house for dinner. Austin loves spending time with John's family and so does mommy and daddy because there are enough people there to hold Austin so we can actually eat dinner together.

Random Pictures:

(practicing his crawling)

(who's addicted to the tv??)

(We started a new tradition this year. On Thanksgiving you get a new pair of Christmas pajamas and a Christmas movie.)

(Austin trying on hats at Meijer. He sits in the front of the cart now which makes shopping much easier!)