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.