So, it feels like Austin has officially wandered out of babydom and into toddlerhood. He's wearing 3T clothes. He can climb, and run...still working on jumping. He no longer goes to sleep just because he's tired...there's WAY too many important things to do....like make his little Jeep climb the couch, ride Rock the dog, crack jokes about two cars on top of each other, spin the wheels on the toy mail truck and remind me of the flashing lights on a real truck.
Some of my favorites I have to write down. It's so true that in the moment you swear it's so cute or funny you'll REALLY never forget *this* one....but then another one comes along you have to remember and the previous one gets the boot!
He has discovered he is a *little* man. He's identified that he and Daddy and Papa and Jonny are all in the "man" category. He somehow made the connection one evening while exploring himself and he was asking who else had a penis. So now, it's quit an honor and big deal to be a *little* man ::snicker::. Later during this conversation he was playing with one of Pete's errant eyeglass cases and I hear a sudden "eehhhhhh....ehhhhhhh....EHHHHHH." I look over and he has this "help!" look on his face. Upon closer investigation, I find he had managed to snap his wee winkie in the glasses case. Oh, the tough lessons of childhood ::wink:: !
He's practicing being assertive with the dogs and though he runs screaming when he's holding food and Rock is "hunting" him, he is also practicing giving them firm commands like "Go!", "Down", "Back Up (Ba...ba!!)"and of course, "No, no, no!" He balances this with plenty of snuggles for the dogs and even goes in for Lily kisses......with an open mouth....::eyeroll:: gross!
He's such a sweet kid. He helps take things to the trash, he won't finish eating until his hands and face are wiped free of any new oatmeal mess when he's practicing with his fork. He and Pete share their "special drink" at night and Austin snuggles into Pete and they "chink...and then we drink." This is followed an hour later by many trips to the potty ::snicker::.
He busts out with memories from months ago that astound me when they surface. We were eating breakfast the other day when he looked thoughtful and told me that Austin and Mommy went on an airplane. Daddy was on his motorcycle. Then he looks perplexed and signs "boat" with kind of a questioning look on his face. I ask if he's talking about a boat and he says no and signs it again. I ask if he's talking about the RV and he instantly pumps his little hand Yes! He told me about playing with Cayley. He told me about the Razr (super 4-wheeler). I asked him if he wanted to see pictures and he did, so I got out some pictures from the trip and he went through the whole thing. It was amazing though because HE instigated the conversation...something we haven't talked about in over a month and it's been 3 months since we were there. I always wonder what part of memory goes where/when. Most people don't have memories of when they are this little, but he is certainly retaining his current memory. At about 13 months Dad came over with some real orange juice and Austin LOVED it. At 17 months he had OJ again at Dad's house in the back yard. The second Austin tasted it, his eyes lit up and he said, "Papa!" NUTS!
Okay...I'll have to ponder more thoughts later. Love this kid! Hope I'm a good toddler mom too!! ::fingers crossed:: !!
