Merry Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Last weekend we took Austin to see Santa, as you can see that went well....



He was a little more calm with Mom & I got to tell Santa what I wanted for Christmas.


We were lucky to see some of Santa's Reindeer that were waiting outside for Santa.


Ever since, he's been cleaning out his toy box to make room for all his new toys!


He believes he's finished, but I think we'll be happy have another toy box from Grandpa Raml.



Have a Happy New Year too....

WALKING My Truck!

Suddenly this week Austin decided he was ready to walk & push his fire truck. Perhaps he learned from his cousin Owen over T-day weekend. Here is a video to watch. As you'll see he gets pretty mad when he gets stuck. We're working on problem solving that one with him.



Here are some good Family Pictures over the T-day weekend. It was Austin's first big adventure of travel. It was a little rough on him, but you couldn't tell from these pictures.





Okay, maybe you could tell a little bit in this picture, we were pushing nap time to try & have him sleep in the van on the way to SD.



Here Austin is with his big cousin Owen.


Smile boys!




Austin is pretty lucky, we have been able to get him fully vaccinated for the H1N1 & the Seasonal Flu. We are VERY Thankful! Now Erik is the family priority.

9 Months Old

THEY GROW TOO QUICK!

Austin is already 9 1/2 months! I cannot believe how time has flown by. I can't believe how little he once was. Here are some flashbacks from 0, 3, 6, 9 months old. Check out the GIANT paci!



Above he is playing with his new table that sings & makes music. He loves it & dances along with it. Lately he's been trying to climb over it...seems to be a trend with all of his toys. He has been "crusing" as they call it along furniture. His new thing is opening & shutting drawers & cabinets, especially the squeaky ones around the house.

This is how we'd find Austin in the morning - bright and early. It made us a bit nervous, so we kept lowering the crib mattress. It's now as low as it goes. I can't even easily put him down at night. On my tippy's & still have to let him drop like 1/2 inch down. That's better than him tippin' out! He normally gets up anywhere from 5 to 6:30. 6:30 is rare, but we love it when we get it. Otherwise, it is nice to spend that extra time with him in the mornings.



Yum! Austin has been experiencing lots of yummies. Here he is snaggin a "bite" of Erik's apple. Last night I let Austin do the same thing to mine, but he bit a decent chunk out. I freaked out...no more of that...I will cut it up for him!



He has been doing a lot of teething lately. He either has a teether in his mouth or his toy hippo below when in his jumper. As you can see, he was really tuckered out!



After a nap, I got him to show me his 6 teeth. Yes 6! You can only see 5 in this picture though.



Christmas at the Raml's. We both love decorating for Christmas, so we like to enjoy it a bit longer. We put up the decor last weekend already. As you can see Austin fits right in with us & was excited to decorate.



However, he had to take a nap, so by the time he woke up, he got to see the tree up (minus the decorations). He got to help us with that. We have some plush ones on the bottom for him to 'check out'.



Here are the 'kids' with their stuff animals. Stella with her puppy & Austin with his bear. He loves this thing, it's one of my old bears. Thank goodness I didn't get rid of all of them, they come in handy! This day it was like Austin was having a 'tea party' with his bear at his table toy.



It was fun to watch him learn how to go from a stand to the floor again. He is much more graceful at it now, but here are a couple snapshots when he was learning. Over the last couple weeks he has had more boo-boo's than I can count. Get the Boo-Bunny ready!



Here is a cute one with Grandpa Allen one weekend playing with Austin (and Stella getting jealous). When I was putting this together, I had to do a double take because I thought it was a picture of me when I was a baby...then I saw Stella & the grey hair on Dad!



Here is his other favorite toy of the moment - his fire truck. We could sing you all the songs, but we'll spare you. He loves going for rides on it & crawling over it.



This is a sweater from Great Grandma Raml made for his arrival, but fits in it now at 8-9 months.



With all the warm weather this fall, we try to get to the park on occasion to let him swing & go down the slide. We're hoping to have a swing set next year sometime, hopefully the spring.

He has graduated out of his infant car seat, so today was our first adventure riding in a cart like a big boy. Thank goodness for the little germ cover for carts that I have. He loved it & was just chatting away while we shopped. He was hitting on the check out lady too, just smiling & squeeling.

Play-Time

Not much cuddle time anymore, it's all about play time. Austin loves to be on the move these days. He loves to try out his new skills.

Here we are in our Party Monster shirt gearing up for Halloween.



Here's a cute picture of Austin & Great-Grandma Raml when she came to visit a couple weeks ago. He just sat by her side pretty content.



A couple weeks ago, Austin discovered he could stand & now he LOVES to just stand. If he's not, then he's trying to get up to a stand, which can get frustrating for him.



He was so proud of himself for standing on the couch. Now he plays a game where he "falls" off or rolls off the couch & we catch him. I hope we're always there to catch him!!! He's so fast.



Of course after I learned he had a new skill I went out to get him some new toys to help him into his next phase...walking, but I'm sure we are a long ways off yet. Here he is riding on his new car/walker.



Here he is in the 'walker' set-up...not quite getting it yet. However, over the past couple days he's been taking some steps while holding onto things -he likes to shake things while he stands. I think he just really likes movement in general.



My first ball - and I love it. Dad can do so many tricks with it! Now if we can figure out how not to excite Stella while we play with it!



Austin has also been pretty interested in the piano, which makes me excited! He loves to play away, I'd say his style is perfect for Halloween (scary music). When we go down stairs, he sees the piano & gets excited to pound away. I can't wait to teach him his first song.



This weekend we thought it was time to try real solids -puffs. I think he still needs some practice with his pinching. Here he got one in his hand & is just thinking 'okay, now how the heck is this little thing suppose to get into my mouth'.



Here's Austin trying to go from the floor to standing all on his own.



These are from when Nancy, Karl & Gram we're here making him smile away. We got so many good pictures, here are a couple.



We met up with the Domras Family in Belle Plaine for the Scarecrow Festival. We thought it would be fun to take some pictures in their halloween outfits next to the scarecrows, however it was a little chilly & muddy for that. It was nice to get to see each other again. We know next year will be more fun as the boys will be able to play more with the other activities there.

Here are the boys all excited for the Scarecrow's.



And of course the kids had to catch up. Aiden was a white tailed dear & Austin was Tigger.



Austin thought Debbie was pretty silly.



Here the boys are checking out the scarecrow's & the goats. Aiden's waiving hi to his Mommy.



Here the boys are checking out the Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory Scarecrow sceen.



Grrr.... I mean BOOoo!



Happy Halloweeny!

8 Months Old!

Time has flown by, we can't believe he's already 8 months old. So much of life has changed in that span - it's nearly unbelievable. It's been so busy that I haven't been able to write much in the past few months, so I may throw some 'flashback' moments in the next few blogs to catch you up.

Austin's personality is starting to appear in little things he does. He loves to make us laugh. Mom was working on the couch while he was playing in his play pen. He started making funny faces to make me laugh. It was very sweet.



Flashback: It's amazing to us how he has impacted so many people. You think, 'our child is only 8 months old, how much impact could he have on other's lives'. Well, we were fortunate to find out thanks to a lovely card from his old daycare. One teacher who wasn't even in the room often, said when she was having a bad day, she would come see Austin & he'd make her smile & feel better. There were several comments like this & it just made me cry tears of joy & saddenss that we were leaving these loving people.

We were able to go back & visit his old daycare about a week ago & saw a few of his close teachers & his girlfriend...which he seemed to remember. This time instead of pulling her by her shirt, he pulled her bib. One of his old teachers did a quick art project with him. They made a halloween bat, it's very cute. They are all so sweet there!

Here we are watching the Twins game in our basement. Still working on getting the basement completed.



Here's Austin exploring the basement & found Mom's gorilla that plays a song. He thought it was pretty funny. Mom got this a day or 2 before he was born.



Ahhh...he's our baby in his first coat. I love his hat. We've been wearing this a lot lately!



We visited the MN Valley Apple Orchard last week before it got too cold. This is a special place for Erik & I. We've talked about this place becoming one of our family fall traditions for a long time, so of course, we had to go visit yet this fall. We saw some pumpkins, ponies, horses, lots of people, & of course apple tasting. We also had an apple treat before we left...next year maybe Austin can partake in that part.



This is the sweetest look from Austin while watching the Ponies.



We found a swing set & Austin LOVES to swing. This was only his 2nd swing ride. His 1st was at Josh's new house.



Since Ausitn loves Tigers & to laugh, we thought he'd make a great Tigger. Here he is trying on his Halloween costume with his little pumpkin in hand.



Dad put up the first of three baby gates now & we've baby-proofed outlets. However, with him scooting around, he is into EVERYTHING! The nice thing when we moved in, I tried to keep baby proofing in mind.

His new daycare here in town is doing okay. There are 2 other boys in his room that were born in Feb. The other 2 are a little younger. No more worries about the older kids getting rough with him!

Austin is finally helping around the house, he now does his own laundry. Well, he likes to help fold it after it's clean.




He knows what the camera is. Here he is trying to catch the camera before I 'catch' him. He is also fascinated by the radio. He keeps looking for the people talking "in" it.



One more thing...He said his first word this week! "Mama!" It's so fun to hear.