Shave and a hair cut...

Austin got his hair cut yesterday.  We went to the barber in the covered market.  He sat very patiently in the big chair and let the barber use the scissors and some small clippers.  He seems to like his hair cut, when he was brushing his teeth this morning he looked in the mirror and yelled 'Hair Cut!' and touched his head with a smile.

O Christmas Tree...

We are getting in the Christmas mood. We put our tree up this morning. Austin helped a little bit. His favorite part was taking the balls out of the box and throwing them around the room. He did throw a few on the tree. He had a good time with it and he really likes the Christmas lights.

He's all set to be a camel in the Christmas Nativity Play at the nursery. He sings Jingle Bells and Twinkle, Twinkle, Christmas Star for us. Of course, his favorite part is the 'Hey!' in Jingle Bells.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, we had our Thanksgiving celebration yesterday as Thursday was a working day for us.  We had some friends over so it was very festive.  Austin enjoyed having some other children around.  He enjoyed the turkey and rolls most of all.

Austin is staying very active and keeping us busy.  He enjoys running and jumping.  He has such a good time at nursery that he's not interested in napping while he's there.  He will fall asleep during the walk home (as pictured below).  He is talking all the time and learning more and more new words.

He loves to look at the moon and stars.  He wants to fly in a spaceship to the moon.  He's always trying to reach it.  "Austin reach moon.", he says.  He talks about it so much that his group in nursery has gone through a time of drawing pictures of the night sky and making rockets to play with.

Happy Halloween!

Austin had a blast for Halloween. We went to the Halloween party at the college and he loved looking at all the other kids' costumes. They went door-to-door as a big group and yelled 'Trick-or-treat!' at each door. At first Austin was scared of all the noise and at the first door he got caught in the crowd so he wanted to be carried after that. After about 4 or 5 doors he started saying 'treeeeat' when all the other kids were yelling.

A friend's son was dressed as a Jedi and when we went to his house, our friend answered the door dressed like Darth Maul and they had a light saber fight. Austin was scared of him at first but after he realized who it was he kept saying his name and wanting to touch him.

When we got home he wanted to take a bite of each piece of candy. He really enjoyed the chocolate!

Autumn Weather

We are trying to enjoy some of the last bits of sun and warm weather before the cold weather sets in. The highs for the next few days are in the 60s and 70s. A couple of weekends ago we all went to the University Parks. Faimon played a football game with some friends and Austin and I played with some other friends that were there to "watch". Our friend got a few pictures that you can view on her blog.

Austin is learning several new words and concepts. He is putting thoughts together to make sentences. He has tons of energy and loves to play. His new favorite book is "Things That Go". His favorite video at the moment is "Barney At The Farm".

He has adjusted well to 3 days a week at nursery. He calls out the names of his friends that he wants to play with on the days that he doesn't go.

Austin is 18 months old. It's hard to believe. He keeps us busy as he is always on the go.

He's talking all the time now and some of the words we can even understand. His newest words are 'up', 'grass', 'car', 'bowl' and just today he said his own name. He loves to point out planes in the sky and chase flies with the flyswatter. He's a big help in the kitchen and his favorite thing to do is help make scrambled eggs. Of course the scrambling is the best part.

We have had a cool, rainy summer so far but we try to make the most of the sunny days and get out and about. Austin loves to run and take his ball outside and throw/kick it around. He's fascinated by the geese in the river near us and the bumble bees in the flowers.

Austin got a chance to go swimming last weekend. The pool is a shared one in our family housing. The sun was out most of the day but it was still pretty cool outside for swimming. Some of the moms were topping the pool up with boiling water from their kettles so the water was nice and warm. By the time Austin finished swimming his lips were shivering a bit. He had a great time, though.

At first he wanted to get in and out over and over to chase the ball that kept getting thrown out of the pool. He got more comfortable being in the pool with the other kids and was splashing around and making as much noise as he could.