Austin Lately

I thought I would do a little update on our little man while I wait for him to quit crying and take a nap. Yeah. More on that later!

I was just thinking today that I can't believe how fast time flies. Not to mention that I can't believe our sweet boy weighed 7 pounds once upon a time. It's amazing how much he has grown and changed over the last year and a half. He's at such a fun age right now but also more of a challenge. It seems like he is just starting to realize the concept of independence and boy does he like to see how much he can test it. I will say that he listens when we tell him no for the most part, but sometimes his curiosity gets the best of him. In fact, I feel like he is just a little sponge right now, soaking up all of his surroundings. I really want to make the most of this and encourage him to discover as many new things as he can. But with this curiosity and "learning spurt" comes a complete disgust for napping. He does not want to miss out or slow down for anything! Although, on the rare occasion that he doesn't get a nap, he's what Luke and I like to call a Grumpy Gus.

On that note, let me tell you about this new phase that we've entered. Not long ago, I could take him up for his nap, and he would fall asleep while I rocked him. I'd put him in his bed and off to dreamland he would go. These days he does not stay asleep when I put him in his bed. In fact, he can cry for 20 minutes or more before he finally gives up and goes to sleep. The frustrating thing is that we have to let him cry it out because if we go in at all to rock him more, comfort, or tell him to lay down, he just gets wound up all over again. The worst part is that we have no idea how long he'll cry. I keep telling myself that "this too shall pass" but I would greatly appreciate any advice you might have.

When he's fully rested, however, he is such a joy. He is saying so many new words like car, hi, and banana. Also, Britt taught him the sign language for "please" while she and Jon were in town. I found a website that has more signs on it and thought I would teach him some more stuff so he can communicate with us better. We've also noticed that he loves the fact that when he says "mama" or "dada" we respond. Car rides are usually filled with the sound of "mama? dada?" over and over again. But our favorite new thing that he does happend just the other day. On a whim, I decided to see what he would do if I said, "smile, Austin." He immediately scrunched up his little eyes, turned his face upward, and gave us a little smirk. We died laughing.

He is a blast! I love the fact that if I tried to write down all the fun things he's doing I would never finish this post. I am so thankful for our little man and look forward to all the fun things we have yet to discover about him. :)