Almost 2 and FULL of energy!!

My sweet, sweet Austin,

You will be 2 in a few months and are changing SO much.  You are soaking up and learning so much every single day and you surprise us each day with something new you say or do.  You are such a smart little guy!! 

You are talking so much now and today you said your full name for the first time ever "(baby) Austin Smyers" and it was incredible.  You have been only referring to yourself as "baby" for months now, even though you clearly knew your name and responded to Austin, but you never called yourself Austin until about a week ago - and then today to put the last name and first name together, was so cool.  Way to finally embrace it, little guy -- you're stuck with it for the rest of your life.  haha.  :o)

You are the most athletic kid your daddy and I have ever seen at this age.  You will play any and every sport there is, but basketball and baseball are your favorite right now.  The last two Sundays we have picked you up from Sunday School at church your teachers (different each week) have said "do you know how good he is at basketball???  he has a big future ahead of him as a basketball star!!" 

You can hit a baseball when it's pitched to you, just like if you were hitting off of a tee.  You make basketball shots overhanded, underhanded, two handed, one handed and even when standing in furniture.  You can ride a scooter by yourself.  You kick the soccer ball, throw the football, and already know how to "properly" throw a baseball with a step/throw technique that daddy showed you only once! (You impress him every time you do it).  We LOVE to watch you play.  The other day you dribbled a basketball 10 times in a row in Mimi and Pop's driveway.  You love to "hit birdie" (badmiton) too in the backyard at Mimi and Pop's.  And golf...you love golf, although you aren't always gentle, and it looks like you are playing hockey instead.  You have quite a swing though, young man.  We hope you always love it as much as you do now.  You get so much joy from playing sports and any time you get a chance are trying to throw the ball to mommy and daddy, or shooting hoops.  Today you saw your tricycle helmet in the garage and said "football helmet, mama!"  I put it on you and you grabbed a football and we threw it back and forth for a few minutes, all while you had that helmet on. 

Other than sports your FAVORITE thing to do is throw rocks into water.  Any time you see a rock you automatically say "rock!  water!" and have an insatiable desire to find a body of water (i.e., puddle, stream, pond, lake, or currently the broken irrigation pipe in the backyard that daddy dug up).  Today you wanted to throw a rock you saw in the water so badly that you started crying because there wasn't any water around for you to throw it into.  You also love going to the duck pond to walk...probably because you can throw rocks in there too. 

You fish almost every day with Pop and water the garden with him now that it's warm outside.  You love the outdoors and I think you would be out there exploring and playing ball every second of the day if we let you.

You still love to read and ask mama to read you books every day.  You sing all of the time, still mostly "Old McDonald" and the ABC's, but today at supper you started singing "if you're happy and you know it" and were clapping your hands.  Daddy and I joined in and you LOVED it! 

Just about the only time you sit still is when there are sports to watch (either on tv or at one of "Gruh-Gruh," "Ty-Ty" or Scott's games), someone is reading to you or you're watching video's (mostly E-I-E-I-O) on mommy and daddy's phone. 

You have recently started to pick flowers outside and pretend that you are picking them in books you read.  You "pick" them and say "mama, flower!"  I pretend to take it from you and take a big sniff of it and say "That smells so sweet!"  Then I hand it back to you and you take a sniff and put it back in the book.  Sometimes in the morning when daddy has already left for work, you will pick a flower and we will take it up to his picture and let him smell it too.  It's adorable.  It's so fun to see your imagination start to engage.  You, like your mother, have a giant sweet tooth.  You love love love cookies.  You have a few books that have pictures of cookies in them and you often pretend like you are eating those (and you always share with mama too).  As soon as we pull into the parking lot of the grocery store you start yelling, "cookie!!!" in eager anticipation.

You still love shoes.  You love to put on different shoes, but more importantly you love to take off your shoes...every time you are in the car.  every.  single.  time.  But that's you and we love it. 

You really are such a smart little boy.  I know I'm your mom and I'm biased, but you really are a brilliant little guy.  You pick up on things so quickly.  Your teachers (Mrs. Jones and Mrs. Cat) are impressed with how quickly you catch on to the books you read in class and say you often read along with them because you've memorized the words.  You can already identify about 10 letters of the alphabet.  We have magnets on you refrigerator with each letter and you love to play a game after we eat supper where we ask you to pick out a letter, and you find it on the refrigerator and run it over to us.  We clap and celebrate each time you get the correct one.  You are so proud of yourself and love to show off for us and accept our praise.  And we love to give it to you. 

You are a little talker, like your mama, too.  You just love to chit chat.  You have also started to love hiding.  Your favorite spot to hide is in our closet behind all of our clothes.  You wait patiently for us to find you and when we do you scream with joy.  Sometimes you say "mama, where are you?!?!"  I respond with "Where are you???"  And you say "hidin'!!!!!"  It's awesome. 

Your most favorite food in the world, aside from cookies, is "go-gurt!"  (yogurt) and you definitely prefer if mama feeds it to you.   You are also the watermelon king. 

You love to dance and jump and sing.  Sometimes we turn the music on in the house really loud and you bring me and daddy golf-clubs and you have one for yourself and we all play air-guitar and dance and be silly. 

I could write so much more and recount every story and every amazingly cute thing you do, but then my letter would turn into a novel.  We enjoy you SO SO SO much.  You bring so much laughter and love to our lives and we can't imagine them without you.  Your kisses and "big hug's" are the sweetest things in the world. 

one and a half

My Dearest Austin,

It has been six months since I have last written, and my how things have changed!  First of all, let me apologize for not writing more often, but you keep me very, very busy, little man!  (In the best way possible, of course!)

In the last six months you have begun to turn from a baby into a little boy.  It is so exciting to watch you grow, learn and change and every new "stage" you enter seems to be my favorite one.  I guess maybe it has more to do with how much I love you than the actual stage itself, huh?

You are now a walking, somewhat talking machine.  You love to run and when you are really excited you have a little "gallop" that is absolutely adorable.  You bring a smile to our faces EVERY SINGLE DAY.   You are learning to talk and seem to surprise us with new words you know, everyday.  You are fascinated with shoes and lovingly call them "boofs" instead of "shoes."  You still love doggies - Lilly is of course your favorite - and ducks - and balls.  You are a really athletic little guy.  You absolutely love to throw footballs, baseballs, and shoot the "bball" in the "hoop."  You are just getting tall enough to reach the pedals on your tricycle and are a pro.  You ride all around the house with a little help from us.  You haven't quite gotten the steering down yet, but we help you out when you run into things.  You surprise us with how good of an arm you have when you throw things, and how great you are at basketball at such a young age (and being such a shorty).  You love to wrestle, too.  Every night you grab one of our arms/legs/or clothes and pull us onto the floor.  Most often it's your daddy because he rough houses with you the most.  Once you've gotten him laying on the floor you stand next to him, say "one...two...go!" and jump right on top of him.  Then you laugh, wiggle your way up and do it all over again.  You also like to walk and jump on him while he's laying there, showing your 'dominance.'  I love to watch you two play. 

You absolutely LOVE books.  We probably read 5-10 books a day, and I'm sure you read another 10 with "Dee" while we aren't here.  You will go pick one out of your basket, bring it to me, crawl up on the couch and cuddle in my lap or by my side and we will read...then you'll get another, and another, and another.  Sometimes we have a pile of 10-15 books sitting on the couch with us by the time we are finished! 

One thing that we have really enjoyed watching, is your comprehension skills.  Around 15 months old you seemed to begin comprehending almost everything we would say, even if you couldn't verbally express things very well, yet.  You have a book called "100 First Words" that has pictures in it of everything from clothes, food, trucks, balls and farm animals and you suddenly were able to successfully identify ALL of them.  Then you moved onto colors, and started knowing the differences between red, orange, blue, green, yellow and purple.  We think "lellow" is your favorite color right now.  Or at least the most fun to say - because you always point out things that you see that are "lellow."  You love to talk and sing.  You can hum along and know some of the letters of the ABC song.  You are like me in that you are a "hummer."  We often find you humming away, singing "Jingle Bells," "Old McDonald" (You sing "E..I..E..I..DUCK a lot of the time), and of course, the ABC's.  Today as I was rocking you to sleep, you began to hum "Jesus Loves Me" as I did.  Since you were a baby I have sung to you while I rock you to sleep - either "Jesus Loves Me", or "You Are My Sunshine." Today was the first time you have tried to hum along with me.  It brought tears to my eyes. 

We are working on learning the difference between hot and cold right now.  You learned very quickly that when we had a fire in the fireplace it was "hot."  You know that when mommy and daddy have coffee that it's "hot" and that the oven is "hot."  You point to the sun and say "hot" too - but it's winter time now, and freezing outside, and you haven't quite gotten "cold" down yet....to you, it's still "hot" when it's 24 degrees outside.  And we love it.

You are our little fearless child.  We love it and it scares us to death sometimes.  Your teacher, Mrs. Jones, said that you loved playing "ring around the rosies" at school but that they were scared that you would hurt yourself because instead of just sitting down at the "we all fall down" portion of the song, you would just dive!  Sounds exactly right.  You will climb, balance, stand on, fall down, jump off anything you can.  At the playground you will hang onto the monkey bars and swing without a care in the world.  You climb up the side of the stairs, on top of the coffee table, and try to stand and balance on anything that moves.  I think you like the challenge.  And we love to watch you explore and try new things...within reason, of course. 

You have begun to say "love you" now and give me kisses pretty regularly.  You are selective about giving out kisses, which as your mother I love.  You seem to save them for me, and your dad gets an occasional one as well.  Everybody else gets kisses blown to them and when we ask you for a kiss, you lean in your cheek to get one, but won't give them out yourself.  You often surprise me with your love and affection.  Sometimes when I'm least expecting it you will lean in and give me a kiss on the mouth.  The sweetest, sloppiest kiss in the world.  You melt my heart, Austin.  And I think you know you do.  You love me so well, and make me the happiest mommy in the world.  You squeeze my neck, always offer me a smile and a "mama!!!!!!!!" when I walk in the door and only want me to scoop you up for a hug when you fall and hurt yourself. 

Austin, you are sthe happiest, most charismatic, joyful baby that I know.  You are still inquisitive and adventurous.  You are loving.  You are brave.  You are smart.  And not to mention, the most handsome toddler I know.  Jesus has truly blessed me and I thank the Lord for you daily. 

Know that I pray for you and I love you and your daddy with my whole heart.  I can't wait to see the boy and man you will one day turn into, but until then I will treasure each moment I have with you right now.  I will try to love you better as each day passes, but I don't know if it's possible to love you any more than I already do.  I can't wait to find out though......

xoxo,
Mom