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
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