Austin's Update

It's been a while since I've updated everyone on what's new with our lil man. He is already 19 months old and everyday Scott and I are amazed at how fast time flies by. Austin is just FULL of personality and cracks us up with it. He's such a goofball and ham. One day I need to get on video the way he talks. It's either with a British accent (HUH?!) or with loads of facial expressions and full-on body movement!

He is learning new words weekly and so far has about 24 words in his vocabulary. Lately he has been repeating words we say and although some are in another language (Russian?!) he seems to be serious in saying the new word over and over. Lately he has added all right, book, excuse me, blue, and car to his vocabulary.

It's also been quite pleasant for him to actually vocalize his needs/wants to us rather than his typical whining and pointing. Using water as an example, in the past he used to whine, run away, then whine some more. However the past 2 weeks he has started to come to us either with his sippy in hand or not and say, "Wa Wa?" Occasionally he'll regress back to whining, running away (where we follow him) and whine/point to the fridge and say, "wa wa". It's a start but it's a nice start! We are looking forward to him vocalizing (with words) his wants and needs even more.

I am also proud to report that Austin has good manners. He is constantly saying Thank You ("tha do") when you hand him something he wanted. You can really tell he is excited about what you gave him when he exclaims, THA DO!!! really loudly hahaha

He is getting better and better with the spoon and his progress with the fork has grown by leaps and bounds! Literally overnight he knew how to properly eat with a fork. Of course it can only be with chicken - another progress he has made: eating chicken without revolting.   Although Scott and I need to do the stabbing, Austin will put it into his mouth OFF of the fork and not take the chicken off the fork and then place it into his mouth using his hands.  Everytime Scott and I help him stab the chicken, he'll mimic us and try to say Stab himself.  It sounds more like "Ab" but you better watch out - he may take off a limb LOL!!

Austin is obsessed with balls and will point each and every one out to you that he sees.  We have taken Austin to Academy to the ball isle (footballs, soccer balls, etc) and you should've seen the look on his face - pure bliss!!  Every time we are at Target he makes sure we see all the balls (Target sign, video bubble in the ceiling, etc) and he especially loves the big red ones in front of the store. 

He still loves Wheel Of Fortune and has since he was about 5 months old.  I'm just sure that he'll be a contestant winning Momma and Dada thousands!  $$$ 

A few weeks ago Scott, Austin and Grammie went to the Mansfield Pecan Festival.  There was not any pecans - go figure!? - but Austin was able to ride horse!!  According to Scott, the moment Austin was placed ontop of the horse he was laughing and smiling with excitment.  It escalated the moment the horse started walking.  Here is a picture of his horse riding adventure - if you are a momma reading this I'm sure you already notice that he's not strapped in. . . good thing I wasn't there!  I would've had a heart attack but alas he is alive and well and had LOADS of fun with dada!!

Austin has always been interested in music.  He loves Praise & Worship time on Sunday at church and enjoys Chapel at Preschool.  Now that we got him a new CD player for his music at night we gave him his stereo that wasn't playing CD's to play with.  He loves changing the tuner, turning it on/off, and making it really really loud -- already practicing to be a teenager!!  And he is kindly (lol) preparing us for what's to come Here are a few pictures of him playing with his radio:

I'm sure there is more I can update on but I hear a little someone asking to go play outside.  I'll post later about our fun times outdoors thanks to the nice cool weather we've been blessed with!