Austin is 10 months old, which means.... I almost have a 1 year old! It always hits me at 10 months that we are almost done with the first year. I think because he follows so close behind Ida I feel like he hits these mile stones so quickly. As soon as Ida gets out of a phase Austin is getting into it without a real break in between. Austin has become pretty difficult to take pictures of... this photo session took a loooong time. As soon as you sit him down he starts rolling around and won't look at the camera. We did finally get one good picture though. :) With moving and the craziness we didn't make it to Austin's 9 month doctor appointment so we did it this month instead. He is 18 pounds 10 ounces and 28 1/2 inches tall. He is wearing size 3 diapers, size three shoes and 9 month clothes. He seems to have brown eyes which makes me so excited because he is the first of my kids to actually have an eye color by this age!
This past week or so Austin has hit a big mental developmental jump! He is so much more aware of what is going on around him and involving himself in what's going on. He has realized he has the ability to get reactions from what he does and if he notices that he is doing something that causes a reaction, like laughter, he will continue to do whatever he is doing. This stage is so fun because their personalities really start to peek through. Austin definitely likes company. He does not like being left in a room alone and if he discovers that everyone has left him he will immediately go on a search around the house until he finds someone. Sometimes I feel like he is more of a handful when I have him alone then when his siblings are around because his siblings entertain him and give him company and when they are gone the full responsibility falls on me. haha He loves to be played with and tries to involve himself anytime mom and dad are on the ground rolling around with the kids. He also loves being chased but instead of running away he tends to just run towards you. :)
Some fun things Austin is doing right now is clicking his tongue, clapping his hands, pointing with his finger at things and dancing. He has started sticking out his tongue to the left side of his mouth all the time! He also can do all the actions to pat-a-cake by himself and likes playing pick-a-boo. It's fun because in the car if he has a blanket he will cover and uncover his face with it and wants you to say "Where's Ausitn?" We can also start singing pat-a-cake in the car and it works as a great distraction! One of my favorite things Austin is doing right now is giving hugs when I ask for them. All I have to say is "Hugs Austin" and he will lean into my shoulder and lay his head down. It's the cutest! He has started pushing cars around all over the place and makes a cute vroom sound while he does it. :
Austin really likes to transfer objects from one place to another. Some example.... He will transfer all the food on his tray to the table and then back to his tray again while he is eating. Or he will dump out a box of toys or something and then transfer them all (one by one I might add) back into the box and then out again. It is really helpful when it's time to clean up the toys and he jumps right in putting all the toys in the box! He also seems to really like the TV... already... If it is on he zones in on it pretty intensely. He has done this for awhile now. I fear we might have another TV lover on our hands. He also likes using the table legs and chair legs around the table as a jungle gym. He crawls around and around under the table crawling over, under or around all the wrung of the chair and table legs. It's pretty funny. He is also getting a bit more adventurous at climbing things. He does not like however, not getting his way or anything being taken away from him and will throw a nice fit, rolling all over the floor, if either of these things happen. Again... Pretty funny to watch.
I think Austin might beat the rest of my kids with walking. Just a couple days ago he he stood up in the middle of the floor from sitting! And he has gotten really good at walking around when you are holding one of his hands. He also learned how to go down the stairs by himself.. One of my personal favorites, although he can't turn around at the top of the stairs yet so I still have to go rescue him and turn him around so he can go down. Very soon though he will have stairs mastered and I won't have to worry about them anymore!
Austin is still eating pretty well although he has started to become a little more picky with food. I'm hoping it's just a phase and he will be back to eating most foods soon. I have started giving him a sippy cup with water during meals and although I feel like it took him awhile, he can now drink from it pretty well although he still wont hold it by himself. Nursing is going pretty good. I've had a few phases here and there where my milk supply and let down have been a little low and slow so we have had some problems with that. But thankfully it has always bounced back. I feed him on demand but demand is becoming more like 3 to 4 hours apart with the occasional 2 hour.
Austin is still getting up 1 to 3 times a night although he has slept through the whole night 2 or 3 times! I feel like his sleeping has never really been consistent but I feel like us traveling so much affects that as well. He doesn't sleep the greatest when we travel and usually the first night is the hardest. Then when we get back we kind of have to figure things out again. I also feel like every couple weeks he tries to start waking up every couple hours again and we have to do another cry it out session. It's kind of frustrating. But we manage. He is going to bed between 8 and 9 and waking up between 7 and 8 and has officially gone down to 2 naps a day. All in all it's going pretty well. Sleeping will get there.
