Mr. Personality

Austen is VERY serious about his likes and dislikes. He can not be talked into trying something if he doesn't want to and he isn't a maybe kind of person. It's yes or no and that's final!
For example, he hates eggs, and anything with pasta noodles, but he hasn't ever actually TASTED either. He just decided he wasn't going to eat them and he hasn't backed down yet, despite my very best attempts to get him to think otherwise.
The same goes for long sleeves. They "bug" him and that's exactly what he says to me while he's pushing the sleeves up where he thinks they belong. I'm hopeful he'll get used to them or it's going to be a cold winter!
He is also very serious about the stuff he does like too.
Cleaning is one thing he loves!!! He obviously got this from his Dad....
He loves to help me do laundry and he thinks dusting is his job.
He gets excited to vacuum and will often tell me something is dirty just so he can go get a cloth and wipe it down. Lately he's been cleaning his toys with a cloth because he thinks they are "dirty".
Along with every toy being dirty, they are now also "hungry".
(I think he got this from feeding all the animals at Farm Country.)
He loves to get a bowl and a whisk and pretend to make dinner. Once he's mixed it all up he'll take it around to his stuffed animals and feed them. It's seriously cute!!!
Last night he was telling me his belly button was hungry so I told him to feed it. He stuffed a piece of cheese in there, but he wasn't really loving that. He immediately took it out and made a hilarious face of disgust!

Here he is in a basket of clothes that had just come out of the dryer. He hops in and says "warm" while he cuddles.

He seriously loves to do this.....I can barely get all the clothes in the basket before he jumps in.

Cleaning for fun. Give this kid a squirt bottle and a cloth and he entertains himself for hours!

The Proof Is On The Potty

Well technically it's in the potty, but I won't make you look at that!
How about the proof is in the picture???
I don't know.
Anyway, some of my loyal blog readers (again, I won't name names) are having a hard time believing that my child "goes" in the potty, so take the following picture as evidence.
If you need more, feel free to show up at my house around noonish and you can see it for yourself.
I think the thing that's been working in my favor with this is that Austen thinks he's an adult.
Adults go in the potty, then so will he!
...
He's been wanting to everything by himself lately and if I don't let him, he has a meltdown!
He wants to feed himself, dress himself, and even clean himself up after he eats.
I thought this independent stage didn't happen for another year or so, but apparently he's getting an early start. I'm going to try and think of it as a good thing and arm myself with some extra patience!


He's been really into eating peanut butter off a spoon, but the funny part is that he likes to do this while sitting in the cupboard.

Austen thinking he's one of the big boys.

See, he really has no idea he's not 30.

I took a little break from blogging again, so bear with me while I play catch up!

Last Saturday I ran and finished my first 10k!!!
It was perfect weather and a beautiful course. My time was 68 min and 13 sec. I had some anxiety issues through one leg of the course, so I didn't get as good of a time as I wanted, but I still finished with a respectable time.
I was out of energy by the time I got close to the end, but just as I was rounding the corner and heading for the finish I got the best surprise ever!!!
Brian was standing there with Austen cheering for me.
I was so shocked to see them there that it took a second for it to register, but it was just the boost I needed to sprint across the finish.
I don't think I'll ever forget that moment.

Austen has been doing a bunch of new stuff of course. I swear he changes daily.
First of all he is going through a hugging phase where he wants to hug everything!!! Literally!!
Yesterday on our family walk he hugged every light pole, sign post, and fire hydrant on the way home. If he sees a tractor, he wants to hug it, or a sign, or which ever is his favorite toy that day. You get the point.
It's very cute. He'll hold out his arms and say "hug".

While the hugging phase is cute, he is also going through some not so cute phases as well.
Like the getting into everything phase......not my favorite!!
I can not leave this guy alone for one sec and I'm not over exaggerating either.
The gate at the end of the hall is a savior in some ways, but he thinks that if I'm on the other side of the gate that he has license to get into whatever he wants on his side. Some days he tests my patience so much that we just have to leave!!
I love his curiosity, I just don't love it ALL the time.

In other Austen news, he "went" in the potty one day and he's done his business in the potty everyday since then with the exception of one day.
So that makes 6 less poopy diapers I've had to change!!!
I don't know if he'll keep this up or not, but so far it's been pretty easy.
(I'm sure we'll have a setback and one day in the future I'll read this post at laugh at my naivety.)

Some cute pics of the little man with his own ice cream cone.

Ice cream is currently his favorite thing.

Because I Need An Occasional Reminder

Just when I think Austen is finally starting to have some self control when it comes to stuff that's off limits, he reminds me that he in fact isn't quite there yet.

I wouldn't classify him as naughty, just very curious.

Sometimes he just can't resist the urge to get into stuff he knows he shouldn't.

Who can blame him???

The baby gate in the hallway has been working out VERY nicely. It has saved my sanity and it also allows me to do stuff I couldn't do before like put away laundry.

I keep him on the other side of the gate and I know I have a good 5-15 mins to get something done without having to clean up a mess he's made in the process.

I usually turn on a show for him and he'll watch it and forget I'm gone. Sometimes he'll sit at the gate and cry out "I know, I know" which is fine too. Just as long as he's staying out of trouble.

(He got the I know thing from me saying it to him when he would cry at the gate.....now he just thinks that's what you're supposed to say when you're sad.)

The other day I came out of the gated area to find little tiny pieces of paper.

A paper trail that led to this:

Yes, it was his idea to try and vacuum it up. How can you get mad when he cleans up his own messes???
This morning I was putting away laundry and came out to find this:
An entire bag of sugar emptied onto the kitchen floor.
He thought it was just another kind of sand and was using kitchen tools to play in it.
It was a pain to clean up!!!

It's always something new with him....he really keeps me on my toes!

And I don't want to hear anything about not watching my child.......this took less than 5 min.
He's super fast and very creative!

My Little Grown Up

Austen is quite unaware that he is in fact not a grown up.

The other night we went to a football gathering at a friend's house where there were a few other kids and he was treating a three year old girl as if she were a baby. He would bend over and talk in a high voice to her and even go get her toys.

It was hilarious!

He totally thinks he's just one of us.

Yesterday he even helped me unload the dishwasher. He would pull stuff out and put it where it actually goes. I was bursting with pride!!!

His current favorite things are:

Throwing rocks off the bridge at the park to make a splash

Anything sweet

Feeding the animals at Farm Country

Pretending to run on the treadmill

and

Turning the t.v. on and off (a big no no, but he still thinks it's funny)

Here's some cute pics of the little man at the park courtesy of my amazing sister.

Talking to Grandma on the phone
(his other favorite thing)

The Fair

It has been very interesting around here the past few days......and not in a good way.

We are dealing with a new molar AND an awful virus.

Austen was already struggling to deal with just the teeth issues, but this sickness has put him over the edge.

I feel so bad for him, you can tell he's in pain just by looking at him.

I know I'm supposed to be this amazing selfless mother who's only concerned about her sick child, but I'm not going to lie.....it's been rough.

I dare say it's been the worst time I've had as a mom.

He is having meltdown after meltdown and it's not fun when all I want to do is curl up and go to sleep.

Like I once famously said to my own Mom when she was sick "Mom's aren't allowed to be sick".

If I had known then how right I was.....

AND

To top it all off my Grandpa passed and I am uselessly stuck in my house unable to help or be there for anyone.

...

On a lighter note....

I've been wanting to go to the fair with Brian for years, but he was convinced it was packed with only white trash and certain other ethnic groups.

He finally agreed to accompany us after I threatened to go alone.

So armed with his concealed weapon we headed off to the fair.

There was a lot to see there, mostly animals and rides. Even though Austen is too small for most the stuff we still had a really good time.

Austen was not really into the goats, cows, pigs, and sheep though. I guess one too many trips to Wheeler Farm and the novelty is gone.

He was really into watching all the rides especially the Ferris Wheel. When it would stop to let people off he would say "uh oh" thinking it was broken or something.

Gotta love his "smile"

Here is Brian winning Austen a giant crayon.

He also won this little cow.


Austen was so excited about getting up close and personal to a tractor.



Telling daddy a secret.

In other Austen news,

He has discovered pockets!!

He sticks everything in them even food, so I have to check them often.

He'll even stick the t.v. remote in there.

(wonder where he learned that?)

He also picked out his own Halloween costume, but I won't give it away by telling you what it is....you'll have to wait for pictures.

Just trust me when I say it's very cute and very funny!

Bouncin Off The Walls

I just have to say I am so on top of this blog lately that it's practically live!!!

We went to bouncin off the walls mere hours ago and here I am posting about it already.

..toot toot..

(That's me tooting my own horn......don't worry, I'm done now.)

Anyway, Austen wasn't too sure of it at first. He had a hard time walking around in the bouncy castle.

Eventually he figured out that crawling worked better and then he was off and having fun!

(Even though he'd been reduced to crawling.)

His favorite was the tunnel at the end of the obstacle course. I couldn't get him out of there!!

There was also a huge slide that we went down a few times. He wouldn't climb it alone......I think it was too high for him, but I carried him up and we went down together.

(I learned the hard way why they say to wear long sleeves....I have no skin left on my elbow.)

All in all, it was pretty fun and I'm sure we'll be going there again.