Pages

Friday, April 3, 2009

One Half Year

In about one minute my sweet baby boy will be six months old. It's probably too late at night to be writing this because just thinking those words makes me tear up. And if you know me at all, you know that it takes a lot to make that happen. I can't believe how quickly the time is going by. I want it to slow down, but at the same time I can't wait for tomorrow because I know that somehow it will be even more fun than today was.

I took his six month Winnie the Pooh pics a day early because I have to work Friday. But I figure it's darn close enough. What a difference a few months makes! He's huge! Well, he's still a peanut, but he's huge compared to his 4 day old picture.




Austin, This is what you're up to at 6 months old
  • Your sweet little giggle has evolved into the best belly laugh. When you're not tired, you laugh when your tootsies get kissed, when Momma attacks your belly or when you get thrown up in the air. When you're tired, you laugh at absolutely everything! Your laugh is the best sound in the entire world!

  • You've recently discovered Peekaboo and think it's absolutely hilarious to watch Momma and Daddy bounce around the couch.

  • You are really really close to sitting up all by yourself. You can teeter there for a little bit, but you tumble over eventually. You can sit longer and longer everyday. You look horribly proud of yourself when you do sit though.

  • You're not crazy about rolling over. We know you know how to do it, but we think you just choose not to. We can't tell if it's because you're generally very content about where you are or if you're just lazy like Momma.

  • You have to hold whatever Momma is holding. The remote control, spoon, camera, cup, etc. You frantically flail your arms out until you get your prize and then you promptly attempt to eat it.

  • You are such a good sleeper! Momma is so thankful for that! You usually wake up from naps happy and just lay in your crib talking to your mobile until Momma comes and gets you. Then you greet her with the best smile ever! Sometimes, though, it would do you good to speak up a little after your nap because sometimes Momma doesn't know you're up!

  • You adore your Daddy so very much. Even when you're cranky, your face lights up when he comes home from work. You'll stare at him no matter what he's doing in the room until you catch his eye and you flash him the best grin!

  • You are so good with your fingers. You love to carefully hold your toys in just a few fingers and examine them intently, slowly turning things over and spinning them. You always have a very intense look on your face while you do this. You're really good at getting your pacifier back in your mouth too.

  • You don't have an official eye color still. They are sorta blue, sorta green, sorta gray. Some days "chrome" is the best way to describe them. Auntie Becca says they look like mirrors. Regardless of the color, they are gorgeous.

  • You're getting a little better at scooting towards your toys if they're out of reach. You can go scoot in a circle really good now. And you're an ambi-turner. Daddy was afraid you could only go right, but you occasionally started going left.

  • You yell at Momma to put you down for a nap when you're tired. Usually you don't say much, but when you're tired you get really loud and shrieky and start scolding Momma, but somehow you do so while still happy! And sure enough, the moment you get in your crib, you snuggle down with your Night Night Pooh and your snuggle blanket and go to sleep.

  • You have pretty broad shoulders and long feet! Most likely you're going to be tall and strong like your Daddy.

  • You haven't officially started eating solid food yet, but that hasn't stopped Daddy from giving you a bit of his lemon girl scout cookie, or Momma from giving you a taste of her lemon, which you wanted more of, instead of making the sour face she was hoping for.

  • You know which toys you like and which ones you want to play with when they're offered to you. If you don't want it, you'll push a toy away but if you do want it, your arms spring up frantically and your face shows your excitement.

  • You haven't quite learned that some toys hurt when you bang yourself in the head with them. You've started really shaking them around and given yourself a few good bruises. You've been demoted to softer toys for the time being.

  • Your hair is awesome. It poofs up just perfectly and has such personality. It only lays flat if it's wet. Otherwise it sticks up all over the place.

  • You giggle sometimes when Momma sings to you. She tries not to take it personally.

  • You're very bendy and have decided that toes are just as good to suck on as fingers are. You're particularly fond of your right big toe.

  • And most of all, you are so incredibly loved! You have brought more joy to your Momma & Daddy than we thought was ever possible. We have enjoyed every day with you and feel like we're having more fun with you than we should be allowed.

Thank you, Lord, for this blessing!

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Monday, March 30, 2009

Technically still 5 months

Every month I let my friend Rebecca experiment with her photography on Austin. She rocks! and is getting better with every photo shoot. Well, we've been doing it about 1/2 way through the month, but this month we got a little behind. So really Austin is way closer to 6 months old, than 5 months, but it still counts!

Here are her beautiful products!





And my absolute favorite!


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


If you want to see what all the rest of the months have looked like.....







Thursday, March 26, 2009

Lions and Tigers and um...Kangaroos?

Austin officially had his first visit to the LA Zoo on Monday. I wouldn't say he was blown away by the experience, but I would say he enjoyed it about as much as the average 5.5 month old would. Although it could have been my descriptions of almost everything as either "kinda like Boomer" (Auntie Suz's dog) or "kinda like Kirby" (Uncle Ryan's bird) or "kinda like Herb" (Our sorta-ours cat) that kept him from getting horribly excited and probably confused him thoroughly. (Yes, we sorta have a cat named Herb. Sadly it's a girl cat. Brian named her. After he named her, his naming privileges have been limited to naming toys.)

Austin wasn't captivated enough to stay awake the whole time though. He slept through the giraffes, which I was bummed about because they're some of my favorites! They even had baby giraffes. And really I wanted Austin to see the real-life versions of his toy, Steve. (I told you, Daddy has toy naming rights)

The only other downside to the day was that a good number of the animals weren't out for display! We weren't sure if it was a Monday thing or what, but we didn't get to see orangutans, gorillas, otters or the elephants except for a brief glimpse of one's backside from a long distance away. But we had 2 for 1 tickets into the park, so we got our moneys worth. Had we paid an arm and a leg, we might have been more upset about it.

All in all, it was a great trip. It was an absolutely gorgeous day. We had fun with our friends - we went with Rebecca, Jack and some Northern California friends, Erin, Craig, their son Zach & Erin's little brother & sister. And I successfully took my child out on a hot sunny day and he returned without a sunburn!

Here are some cute pics from the day...

Austin and his new hat


Austin petting a really exotic animal


Austin, Jack & Zach


The whole crew - Me, Austin, Matt, Rebecca, Jack, Ceci, Erin & Zach. (Craig behind the camera)


A Beautiful Blue Eyed Boy, Zach


A cute giraffe & a kangaroo playing dead


And my worn out little buddy at the end of a good day


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Please, please, please still be praying for Stellan. He has been in SVT for the entire week, coming out of it only briefly a handful of times. So far all the meds and techniques have done very little. He's doing good considering what he's going through, but his little heart can only take this pace for so long before it will start to fail.
www.mycharmingkids.net

Monday, March 23, 2009

Please Pray for Stellan

Prayers for Stellan


Stellan is MckMama's youngest child. He's just one month younger than Austin. I've been following (okay, addicted to... okay, okay, obsessed with!) MckMama for almost a year now. She is an amazing, hilarious writer with ridiculously adorable kids. She has 4 under 4! And makes it look so easy!

I found her blog when she was about 20 weeks pregnant with Stellan when another blog linked to her asking for prayers. Stellan had SVT (supraventricular tachycardia) which means his heart rate was skyrocketing. It was 375 at one point. (Normal is 150) And they were told there was really no way he would make it. They put MckMama on heart meds and a HUGE following of people prayed and it worked. Not only did Stellan make it full term, he was born with basically no signs of a problem. They thought at the least they would have to put him on meds or do surgery when he was born. So he's her little MckMiracle.

Last night they took him to the hospital because he had a bad cold and one of the treatments they gave him sent him back into SVT. His heartrate has been in the 300s since last night and nothing they are doing is working. Please, please be praying for him.