Austin: 13 Months

Well, that year flew by.  You know that saying, “The days are long but the years are short”?  That was my life for the past year.  And I don’t think the long days and short years are over, but maybe the days will be a little shorter and the years a little longer with Austin being older.

First the requisite apology: I am a major mom failure when it comes to documenting you, Austin, and I’m so sorry about that.  But man, going from one kid to two was so much harder than from none to one.  Being a full-time working mom-of-two means I don’t often have the time or energy for much extra in general and blogging definitely falls in to that category.  But let’s see if I can make it up to you a little.

At a year (or so), you are a much better sleeper, although you’ve had some stints where you wake up and can’t get yourself settled.  Thankfully that usually occurs between 8 and 10 in the evening as opposed to the middle of the night.  We are currently working on weaning you off your bedtime bottle and that’s going…okay.  You were really mad at first when the bottle was empty before you were ready, but you’re slowly coming around to realizing you don’t really need it and you’re ready for bed.  I’m not in a huge hurry to get rid of the bottle because it’s a few more minutes with you each weeknight.  You are in bed between 6 and 6:30 and since we don’t get home until 5:20 to 5:30, I don’t get much time with you in the evenings.  So I’ll take the snuggles while I can get them.

You are into everything.  Please imagine the exasperated tone with which I might say that.  I love watching you explore and figure stuff out, but sheesh, could you just sit still with a toy for five minutes every once in a while?!  You love pushing cars around, throwing the “bah-bah” and having it tossed back to you, and putting stuff in stuff.  You will look at books for a few minutes and I hope we can spend more time actually reading them in the next month or so.

You are a climber already.  You get yourself right up onto anything that’s the right height for you, and you try desperately to get yourself up onto the couch but you aren’t quite tall enough (thank goodness!)  Stairs aren’t even a challenge any more and you climb on up those like you’ve been doing it for forever.  You are better at turning yourself around so you can go down them on your belly feet-first (as opposed to head-first like you used to try), and I love to watch you approach the stairs then back up a bit  and pivot on your belly to get your feet hanging in the right place.

You like to be wrestled with and held upside down.  You are going to be our little daredevil.  Let’s not dwell on that part of your personality…

You are going to be walking any day now.  You are standing yourself up in the middle of the room and you have taken a random step or two recently, but you aren’t off and (literally) running just yet.  However, I expect that by the end of June, you will be walking well and we will rarely find you on all fours.  Yay?

Like Connor was at this age (and continues to be), you are a great eater.  You absolutely love green beans and peas and sweet potatoes.  Baked beans, scrambled eggs, bananas, blueberries, Cheerios.  You like applesauce and Greek yogurt, chicken sausage and breakfast sausage, and the various pasta dishes and casseroles I’ve made.  I hope you continue to have a diverse palate and don’t suddenly start turning your nose up at anything.

Other than pink eye and the daycare snotties, you have been a healthy kid.  No illness that required antibiotics – hooray for the gut biome remaining intact!  At your one-year check-up, you weighed 24.5 pounds (88^th percentile), your height was 95^th percentile, and your head circumference was 92^nd percentile.

Speaking of your head, you’ve already had one haircut and another one is on the horizon.  Connor was and continues to be the same way with seeming to need a haircut every month or so.  Thank goodness for those free haircuts every 10.

You are a mama’s boy, but you sure do love your big brother and your daddy, too.  And Monte, he’s a favorite as well.  You love to crawl all over him and he is so good to put up with you.  You love going for walks and being outside in general, and I will like that more for you once you are walking and you can be up off the ground.  You love your baths and I think we’ll have a blast with the water table this summer.  And you still love the vacuum, which is annoying since you chase me around while use it.  But I suppose I’d rather have you like it than be afraid of it.

You communicate via sign language and a few words right now.  You say uh-oh, “bah-bah” for ball, “aw-duh” along with the sign for all done when you are ready to get out of your highchair, and plenty of da-das but I’m not sure that’s always dada (as in dad).  You’ve said more ma-ma lately, but I don’t know that it’s mama yet.  Soon, I hope!

Austin, you are AWESOME!  We are so glad you rounded out our family.  Connor tells me all the time, “We just love our Baby Austin” and “Baby Austin is so cute, isn’t he, Mommy?”  When I pick you two up from daycare, Connor always asks if you had a good day.  Austin, you are very lucky to have such a great big brother.  I love you, Austin!