The Baby Has Spoken

Austen is changing a lot lately!!! Sometimes I even notice things that are different in the morning from the night before. The other morning I noticed that his eyelashes had sprouted over night. When he went to bed they were normal and when he woke up they were super long and perfectly curled. (Why is it that boys always get the amazing lashes???) Just the other day he would say mama as just another one of his babbling noises and then the next day it was like he figured out what it meant. Now he says mama when he wants me! It's so cute.....well he might be over using it a bit. He says it when he wants to nurse, when he wants to be held, when he gets hurt, and when he's hungry. So it's a lot, but still cute. I'm counting this as his first word even though it's a toss up between Mama and Hi.

Austen didn't really like bath time much when he was new, he learned to tolerate it by about 3 months, and by 5 or 6 months he didn't love it, but he liked it. He would splash around a little, but he was mostly all business. Then one day about a month ago he discovered that he could play in the tub. Now he loves it and I can't get him to hold still while I get him clean. He loves it so much that when I take him out he screams at me and then he scowls the whole time I'm getting him lotioned up and dressed. Here's some cute pics of tubby time.

And here's the scowl I get for taking him out.

When I'm cooking dinner, I used to put Austen in his highchair to keep him contained so I wouldn't have to worry about what he was getting into. Well, that was before he discovered that he could still open some of the kitchen cupboards (we didn't put latches on all of them). Now he refuses to be in his highchair. He would rather be mommy's little helper and do this:

This year I decided to brave the madness and go Christmas shopping on Black Friday. My sisters and I got in line at Toys R Us at 11:15pm and waited in the cold until almost 2am just to get inside the store. We didn't think they were going to have anything left, but I think we all ended up getting just about everything we had gone there for. It was pure insanity. Austen was at home with a tummy ache, so when Brian called and said Austen had been screaming for the past hour and a half I had to leave my poor sisters there to fend for themselves. Luckily I had already put the toys I wanted into our overflowing cart, so they stayed and got my stuff for me! They ended up having to wait in the checkout line for 2 hours!!! I owe them! I got some really good stuff though, so it might have been worth it. I got Austen this super cute activity walker and I was so excited for him to have it that I couldn't wait until Christmas. We ended up getting it out for him the next day, but I'm really glad we gave it to him early because he's at the perfect stage for it. It has a little phone on it and he takes it off and holds it up to his head. It's so funny!!! He's also started doing that with the remote which makes me think I talk on the phone too much!

He figured out the walker part instantly!!! I was so surprised. He had no fear, he just took off. In a matter of a few hours he had taught himself how to control his speed and also how to back up when he gets stuck. He is the ultimate problem solver!!! The only bad thing is that with all of his walking and crawling he's starting to lose some of his squishyness. His rolls are disappearing and it makes me so sad!