Austin // 2 Years

How is my baby not a baby anymore?!?!?!?! Stay little forever, please please please!

My emotions aside, Austin honestly just gets better with age. These days he's a robust, rough-and-tumble little butter ball. He's always smiling, laughing, and chattering away. I'm pretty sure that it would be impossible for anyone to dislike him. He has aaaaall the charisma and cuteness and jolliness that you could ever hope to squish into one tubby little body.

Can you tell I'm wrapped around his finger?

Some tidbits about Austin at 2 years old:

- He loves to play "Stop, Go" (everyone runs around until he says "Stop!" and we all freeze, then unfreeze when he says "Go!") and to have Doug chase him and Nicole around furniture. They call it "Tiger Chase" because Doug growls while he's chasing them.

- In the past month he has developed a love for toy cars, trucks, trains, and planes. We've always had some on hand, but he's just now really getting into them. He'll spend a good 20 minutes driving his trucks and cars over various surfaces in the house. He got mad at me when he had to stop playing with his new train set to take his nap yesterday. He rarely fights naptime, so those trains must be cool!

- He's a tubby little tater tot (91st percentile for 2-year-old boys), especially considering the fact that his height is average. He's losing the baby chub, though.

- While he's generally a people-person (and a bit of a flirt), he has his days where he's shy. Once he warms up to you, though, you'll feel like you're his best friend in the world.

- He enjoys a good game of "peek boo" (how he pronounces peek-a-boo).

- He still sucks his fingers. I'm finding it less and less cute as he gets older, but many "reputable" things I read tell me that he'll grow out of it and that I shouldn't try to force him to quit with things like bad-tasting nail polish and whatnot. We'll see. It's not causing any dental problems (yet). He reeeeeeally likes those fingers though...

- This kid loves to throw/kick/roll/bounce balls. He'll probably be into sports because goodness, he loves to chase a ball around and has quite the arm already. He's pretty good at kicking too, and can run so fast, especially down ramps at the park!

- He loves attending nursery at church. He makes a beeline for the room as soon as he hears that final "amen" from the pulpit.

- Daniel Tiger is his favorite thing to watch. I catch him singing songs from it regularly.

- Speaking of singing, it appears we have another singer on our hands! He often sings to himself when he's playing, and the melody we hear out of him most often is "Yo Ho, Yo Ho, A Pirate's Life For Me". He only knows the words to that line, so he just repeats it over and over. He's fond of "The Greatest Showman" songs, too.

- Also in regards to singing: sometimes he'll be singing along to something in the car and I'll start singing too. He says, "No, I sing!" because apparently both of my kids like to sing solo. He picked it up from Nicole because she's always telling him not to sing along with her...... my "family of singers" is turning into a family of soloists who don't want to share the spotlight, hahahaha!

- He really likes to side-chasse around our family room. I think that started from watching Nicole's dance class. (For those who don't dance, a chasse is kind of like a gallop, but smoother. Austin's chasse is definitely a bouncy chasse.)

- During this year's Primary Program (which is one Sunday every year where the age 3-11 children take over our church meeting to sing some songs and give short "talks" in the microphone) he was bummed he couldn't go up to sing with Nicole, so he just sang a bunch of the songs anyways from his seat in the congregation.

- Any time he gets even the tiniest cold, he gets a walloping cough with it. All thanks to that dratted bronchiolitis that he got back in February. I keep his nebulizer at the ready whenever I see a runny nose start. He knows the drill now, after having to use it so much, and is very willing to sit with the nebulizer mask on his face for 10 minutes because he knows he'll be able to breathe better afterwards.

- Bubble baths are a trump card. He will drop whatever he's doing if he can take a bubble bath.

- "Bankie" (a white blanket with elephants on it) and "puppy" (black Labrador stuffie) are still his best buddies, and are his favorite things to snuggle up with at bedtime.

- He is still a robust sleeper, but is starting to skip his afternoon nap some days. He'll just lie in his crib and chatter to himself for an hour or so until I give the nap up as a lost cause and go get him out. Nooooo Austin, not yet!!!

- He is quite the talker! His most-often-used phrase is "I see it!!!" and variations thereon. In a hilarious recent incident, he wanted to watch some bacon cook and screeched about how he could see it when I turned the oven light on for him. He then carried his puppy over to the oven, saying, "Bacon! Puppy, bacon! You see it?!?! I see bacon!!!!!" So apparently, he already has quite the obsession with bacon.

- Also in regards to talking: he loves to repeat things I say. He has quite the vocabulary developing because of it! Simple phrases/sentences tumble out of his mouth daily now.

- While not as obsessed with books as Nicole was, he will bring books over to me every now and then. We always make sure to read a book before bed, which he loves.

- He is STILL my snuggle bug! He loves to cuddle and gives me the sweetest hugs. On rare occasions he'll even grab my face with both hands and plant a big ol' kiss on my cheek. He's a mamma's boy through and through. I love it, but I have a feeling he's going to have a hard time adjusting to having to share mom with a little sister in a few months...

- Still a foodie! I never worry about his eating habits because he'll eat (or at least try) almost anything. Some favorites include any type of fruit, corn on the cob, soups and chilis of any variety, burritos, yogurt, pasta of any variety, chicken enchiladas (obsessed), crackers, any dessert, and avocado. He will eat an entire avocado plain in one sitting. He's not a huge fan of sandwiches, though, but he'll eat them if he's in the right mood. Oh, and he still has a banana almost every day.

- He is so low-maintenance. For example, when he wakes up in the morning or after naps, he just talks to himself and chills in his crib until someone comes to get him. So chill.

- He hates getting his hands/face washed after meals. He moans and complains like it's the most annoying and pointless process in the universe.

- He loves making pancakes and waffles with Doug on the weekends.

- He LOVES playing outside. Usually it involves chucking a ball around or digging in the dirt. He also LOVES slides. He will spend his entire time at a park going down different slides and be perfectly content with that. Perhaps with one break to go on the swings, because those are fun too.

- He has no reservations about being in pools and loves swimming. He goes down water slides with Doug and already tries to "kick kick kick" in the water even though he's still a little too short for his floatie wings to keep him upright properly, so we mostly keep him in a tube. Little fish.

- He usually pronounces his sister's name "Cole" and she is his best buddy and partner in crime. Even if she bosses him around a lot. He doesn't really fight back, so I guess he's a pacifist? Haha!

Oh man, we love this little dude! I thank my lucky stars that I get to be his mama. He brings so much joy and light into our lives. Here's to another year, chub chub!