My Little Michael Phelps

A few weeks ago, I signed up for Mommy & Me swim classes with Austin. We're taking classes once a week. Jack and Rebecca come too, which is so fun! We splash around in the water and sing songs that get them used to it.

Austin loves it! I thought he would after seeing how excited he gets in the bath tub, but I thought he would possibly get upset with going under water, but he didn't. Hasn't cried once! He's not crazy about water in his eyes, but I think he's getting used to it quickly. The instructor was really impressed with how good he did. Especially with going under water and his floating. He's more relaxed than most kids his age, I guess!

Rebecca's momma came along for our 2nd class last week to take video and pics! Thanks Phyllis!


Doggy Paddle. He didn't do this the 1st week but he's gotten so good at crawling in the last few weeks, I think he figured he could do it in the water too!



See how good he floats!


My little splasher & squirting Jack with a toy


In this exercise we send him back and forth between me and the instructor. It gets him used to putting his arms out and moving forward in the water. This was the 1st time she put him under the water like that and he did good.


Splashes and Jack practicing his "Humpty Dumpty's" and floating.


Hokey Pokey


Ring Around the Rosey


Standing on the shelf by himself


All four swimmers


Getting dried off


You can see more pics on Rebecca's blog (www.penniesinmycouch.blogspot.com)

It's Still June - It Still Counts!

Actually I still have a 2 day grace period in July too that counts. Austin is still technically 8 months old until 8am Friday morning, so these pics from his 8 Month photo shoot are not late yet!

Didn't Rebecca do a great job?? I swear she gets better everytime. Either that or my kid gets cuter everytime. Or both. Definitely both!








Austin also got his first job! He's doing a print ad for Disney tomorrow. I'm very excited. I'm sure he would be too, if he knew what that meant. I'll let you know how it goes afterwards.

What A Good Little Helper!

Austin likes to help me do laundry. He needs a little work on his folding skills, but he does have fun!

I'll Take "Uncomfortable Sleeping Positions" for $200, Alex

Who Needs A Rubber Ducky??

About a month ago, I moved Austin to his big(ger) boy bath. He had discovered splashing and was making a mess of my kitchen. Plus he really didn't fit in the infant bath anymore. When his feet are hanging out under the faucet, I guess it's time to admit that he may have grown a smidge since we first started using it! Look how cute and tiny he was!




His first time in the blow up tub was so funny. He didn't quite know what to think of all the water and all the space, but most of all, he didn't know what to do with all the toys. I put about 5 floaty toys in there and he was determined to hold them all, all at the same time. They kept floating away and he kept scooping them back. It was too cute!

Then he discovered splashing. He thought he'd discovered splashing before, but this was a whole new world. He really really gets going as you can see! (Yes, there are lots of videos & pics, but that's cuz I just can't decide on a favorite. And since it's my blog, I'm going to post them all! So there!)

1st Official Father's Day!

I enjoyed Mother's Day so much, I didn't realize it would be possibly to enjoy a day that wasn't in celebration of me more! I think it's possible that I actually looked forward to Father's Day more! It was so fun to get to celebrate Brian and what a wonderful Father he is. I'm so excited to get to see Brian finally get to be a daddy.

He is so good at it too. He and Austin have so much fun together. I don't think there's anything better than seeing Austin's face light up when he sees Brian! It just melts my heart to a big ol' pile mushy mush. And even though he doesn't get to spend as much time with Austin as he'd like to, Brian is such a good daddy by working his tail off to provide for us and allow me the opportunity to stay home with Austin. There's nothing more I could ask for!

Thank you, Babus, for all you do for Austin and me! We love you lots!

So how did we celebrate? What would Father's Day be without the traditional golfing presents. (Brian doesn't have to wear a tie to work, so he'll safely avoid that traditional present) Austin and I found him an attractive, yet somewhat loud, kinda silly golf shirt. Brian came this close to getting really really ugly golf pants instead, but Jemery wasn't positive Brian would wear them. (Although Brian just informed me he would have! Now I know what to get him next year!!)

Brian also got a gift card for a couple rounds of golf, so he can shake off work stress with some good male bonding time. Uncle Jemery has an equally loud golf shirt, so Brian will have someone to look silly with!

After presents, we got some yummy lunch at Rocky Cola Cafe.


Don't they look cute together??

And then Brian had to get to church to practice with the band. After church we stopped at my parents' house to wish my Dad a Happy Father's Day and my mom a Happy Birthday.


Happy Father's Day, Papa!


Happy Birthday, Nani!


And one more cute pic of Father & Son, just for good measure!

Clap! Clap!! Clap!!!

Okay, so he'd probably clap if I just said one "clap" but it's way more fun to say "clap, clap clap!" Try it! I promise it's fun!

I heart Austin's clap. It's so silly just like him! He holds one arm still and claps with the other one against his forearm mostly. Sometimes he actually hits his hand. I think it looks like he's giving an enthusiastic "Bravo! Bravo!" instead of actually clapping.



You can see he gets super silly and loud when he's tired!

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Also, please be praying for Stellan again. He is back in the hospital. They have been trying to control his SVT with medication since he's been home, but he's been growing increasingly resistant to it. At first they had to up the dosage every few weeks, then it was after one week, then a few days. And then he was at the maximum dosage for his little body and not breaking out of SVT. He had 9 hours of SVT yesterday and is on 4 (yikes!) meds right now. But that's looking like a short term solution. They're giving it the weekend and will reevaulate next week.

Be praying for an SVT free weekend and good response to the medication and wisdom for what the right course of action is.


How cute is Stellan!!!

Give Me Five

One of Austin's new tricks is giving "high fives." He gets very excited when you ask him for one too. It perks him up even if he's tired or cranky. His aim isn't always good, as you can see in the video and we're working on him doing it with his right hand too. Since he mostly learned it with his left hand he gets confused some.

One time I was holding him with his left side against me and Brian went to give him a high five on Austin's right hand and Austin got excited and started smacking me in the side of the head with his left hand. He's getting it figured out though.

Army of One

Austin isn't fully crawling yet, but that doesn't keep him from getting around. He can army crawl pretty quick - he can be wherever he's not supposed to be pretty quickly. (Like pulling on the DSL cable or the XBOX cable or the laptop cable...sensing a theme here??)

His army crawl is very cute. I call it the "Wounded Soldier" crawl because he only uses his right leg to push, never his left. So it's like he's been shot in the left leg and can't move it.

First Hair Cut

I finally caved and cut my baby boy's hair. He had an audition for a Gymboree photo shoot (no, he didn't get the job. :( Hopefully next time!) and I didn't want his crazy hair (you know this - his long sideburn...his Padawan Learner braid...his Hasidic Jew peyot) to keep him from getting a modeling job.

I've been putting it off because in my mind when I cut my baby's hair, he ceases to be a baby. I think I was right. He looks really grow up to me! Waah! Would it look weird if I glued it back on??


(Yes, it was getting very long!!)


(Auntie Suz helped - it takes 2 people to cut a wiggly kid's hair! Plus a third to hold the camera!)




(See! Doesn't he look all grown up??)


At least now no one can tease him for having weird hair. You know other than for his excessively poofy hair all over the rest of his head.

Stuck

Austin has to get his blood drawn every 2 months to check his thyroid levels so we can make sure he has the right dosage of medication. So far they've drawn his blood by sticking his heel and squeezing out enough blood for the 3 tests. It takes forever, but he usually does okay other than the actual poke.

This time they attempted to find a vein in his arm. They failed. Lots. At one point they actually got his vein and got some blood but then he moved and they lost the vein.

So they tried the other arm. And failed.

Watching someone dig around in your child's arm with a butterfly needle trying to find a vein is an experience that I hope I don't ever have to repeat.

So then they just did his heel and it went really quickly. Should have just started with that! Unfortunately he was pretty ticked by this point and screamed the entire time his foot was being squeezed.

But my cutie pie survived. Of course as soon as they finished, he was all smiles again! And he sported his bandages like a trooper.


Hopefully next time he gets stuck, it will go better!

Where does Teething Hurt?

Everywhere


Who does Teething hurt?

Everyone


Teething can hurt.


Momma can help.

8 Months

Austin turned 8 months old last Wednesday. I would have gotten his Pooh pics up earlier but we were out at a fun weekend and they just had to wait!





Austin is getting a little chubbier, but he's still a little peanut. He lost a little bit of weight one week when we were both really sick, but he's recovering and then some!

He is learning so much though. I feel like this last month I could have recorded something new each day.

New things this month...

• I thought he was close to crawling last month, but I was wrong I guess. But I will go out on a limb and say he's really close now. He's army crawling all over the place now. From one side of the room to the other. He looks like a wounded soldier crawling cuz he only pushes with one leg. I'll post video of this soon. It very cute! Even just over the weekend he made huge progress.
• He can give high fives. It's horribly cute!
• He can clap. Although it's a very silly clap. He moves one arm and keeps one still mostly. It looks more like he's saying "Bravo, bravo" sometimes. He will occasionally do it on command (when you say "Can you clap clap clap?") but it's still a little hit and miss. He just doesn't like to perform on cue.
  
• He's not sleeping as good as he used to, but we're starting to get better again. Now that he's so so mobile it's just hard for him to calm down in his crib. He makes laps in there for a long time before settling down. I'm hoping that when he gets the crawling down the sleeping will recover.
  
• He has a name for Daddy. It's Bah. He will look for Brian where he would expect him to be, like at the computer and "ask" for him. This is not to be confused with what calls Boomer and other doggies. Those are "Brah" (just a hint of an "r"). Mama is still pretty clear though and he calls it very very clearly when he doesn't want to be sleeping. I'm teaching the next kid "Da Da" first!
• He's discovered Puffs, otherwise known as Baby Crack. He would eat an entire container of these in one sitting if you let them. Well, he'd attempt at least. He has about a 70% success rate of actually getting them in his mouth and if you put too many in front of him at once, he tries to eat them all at once.
• His new toy for the month was his Learn & Groove Activity Table. It was his Christmas present from Nani & Papa. It's very fun. But the darn thing eats batteries at an amazing rate. They're dead in 3 days! We've switched to rechargeable!
• He loves to sing. At least I think he's singing. He's very loud and high pitched but it's very funny.
• He graduated to a bigger boy bath. He was making a mess of my kitchen. So we're in an inflatable baby bath in the bath tub. He loves it! I have video of this coming soon too.
  

I'm sure there's more, but this list is getting long enough already!