Austin 2.5

Austin, my sweet boy. You are such a joy. You're opinionated, funny, and a wonderful ear! I'm completely torn because two and a half years doesn't seem nearly long enough to fit all the joy that you've brought to us, but at the same time I still think of you as my little baby and I can't believe you're so big! 

 Stats: 26.5 lbs, which I feel like is a huge deal because from 18 mo to 2 yr he only gained 1 lb (from 20lbs to 21lbs), but the next six months he jumped almost 6 lbs! I'm a proud mama. 18 month pants, and either 18 or 2T shirts. Size 4 diapers. 14 teeth, 7 on bottom, 7 on top.

 -We wake up every morning to Austin shouting from his crib (which is now in Lydia's room that they've been successfully sharing for a couple months now) "Mom! I want oh-yurt! I want ohhhhh-yuuuuurt." He wakes up early and wants to eat immediately. That's a pretty good snapshot of our life right now.

--Just a small sampling of things he says right now: 

When putting his footie jammies on: "My vwipper! (zipper) and my button!" 

Angrily, usually with tears, after wiping his nose: "You took my boogies! :( " Hahaha.

"Dis is soo heavy."

"What you making?"

"Watch what me do!"

"Dis is hot!" 

(Really, "Dis is... " pretty much anything. Dis is hot, dis is wet, dis is... etc...")

"I run so fast!"

He used to say "footie-jammies" but has recently started calling them "foomie-jammies".

"I not a baby, I AUS-tin."

(Pronounces Lydia - "ya")

If you respond to something when he's not talking to you: "I's telling Ya!"  or "I's telling Daddy!"

--If someone is crying or upset , he'll ask: "Wat happen'd?" in the sweetest little voice. Even if he's crying, he'll stop crying to make sure the other person is okay. (Then resume crying, of course.) 

--David's favorite thing Austin does is his "walk-jump" where he kind of skips around the house. 

--Can count to ten, sometimes fifteen, and with help twenty. 

-Can sing his ABCs. 

-Counts to 10, can count to 20 with help. 

--If someone is crying or upset , he'll ask "wat happen'd?"

-Doesn't love to share. "Is MY turn"

--He falls asleep almost immediately. I mentioned that he's sharing a room with Lydia now. So we do our scripture/song/prayer (which recently has included 3-5 primary songs instead of just one - mostly because Austin really likes singing primary songs), then they can each pick a book or two to read. After we read picture books, I put Austin in his crib with his pacifier and read a chapter book out loud to Lydia. Austin almost always falls asleep to the sound of my voice and I kind of love that. 

--Still in a crib, still uses a pacifier at night (and sometimes when he's really sad and he asks so sweetly if he can have his pacifier because "I sad!")

--Favorite primary song: Scripture Power, I am like a Star. Favorite other songs: Five little monkeys, Twinkle-Twinkle.  

-I mentioned how I feel like Austin is so little, and its true. I've felt that his whole life - habitually treating him like he's younger than he actually is (maybe because he wears footie-jammies all the time and they make him look so little). But as soon as Caleb was born, all the sudden Austin seems every day of his 2.5 years. He's so big! And he is such a wonderful big brother. He loves Caleb so much and wants to touch and kiss him all day long. 

--Hands down, Austin's favorite thing to do (other than smother his little brother with love) is to play with our Magna-tiles. For a long time I made the kids clean them up after each time they played with them and then I'd put them away. But now they have a fairly-permanent home scattered on the floor of my bedroom. Austin plays with them every day and can play with them on his own for easily an hour or more. He loves them and is super good at building with them.

--Likes to sit on the counter to help me make dinner or do the dishes. 

--He loves "footie jammies". Like, I'd be lying if I didn't say that's what he wears about 95% of the time, whether we are at home or out running errands. He puts up such a fight about changing out of them, and he just loves them. (Hello, who wouldn't? They look so comfy!) However, he does rotate the jammies a couple of times a day. "I want these foomie-jammies, I want these ones!" I was actually surprised at how many photos I have of him in real clothes, which is funny, because easily half of these pictures are of him in his jammies. It's just what we do. 

 --Loves tools and helping fix things. We got him a tool bench for Christmas with his own drill and screwdrivers and he loves it. (Plus his very own measuring tape, a real adult measuring tape, and he's basically in heaven. He is also a great helper with my cleaning chores. His favorite is cleaning the glass door with windex. 

-Most mornings he sits on the counter while I get ready. He knows exactly which item of makeup goes where and for a while he'd want to put them on his face as I was putting them on mine. I didn't see any harm and would pretend to put my eyeliner on him (using the back of the pencil instead of the head) and such. One day I wasn't paying enough attention to him and suddenly I realized that he'd put my mascara on his eyelashes all by himself! We were just getting ready to run out the door to church, so I wiped the tiny bit of black he'd gotten on his cheek and took him to church where I laughed and laughed. He did a better job of applying the mascara than I do on a regular basis!

--Sometimes he's just really sad. :(

--Likes to draw, play with play-doh, and lots of other creative things. 

--He loooves his dad. It's not uncommon for him to grab David's legs as he's leaving for work while saying "Nooo! Don't go!" It's sad and sweet all at the same time. He loves to climb up onto David's shoulders while David is sitting on the ground and jump off (usually with help, but not because he wants the help, and not even because he needs it- but because it makes me so nervous!) He especially loooooves "Tacos" where David rolls him up in a blanket and then grabs the end and unrolls it. (David is such a good dad.) 

-I like to take "selfie pictures" with him. 

--And he likes taking Selfie pictures, too. 

-He likes to climb behind me while I'm sitting on the couch, especially if I'm holding/feeding Caleb. It drives me crazy. But he really really loves Caleb, which makes it sweet that he wants to be so close. And I do mean so close. 

--He and Lydia are such great friends. They do everything together. Also, I love time-fillers like taking a bath or playing outside where they'll play together for an extended period of time and I can have a little break.  Lydia is part of an online preschool that she has to do for 15-20 minutes every day. Austin sits right next to her and watches the whole time, it's the sweetest thing. At the end, there are a bunch of songs/games that he likes to take his turn choosing with the mouse. (His favorite is a train song about counting to 7.)  

Other Pictures: 

Oh my Austin. I adore you. 

Happy 2.5 years!