Life Within the Cuckoo's Nest: Milestones: 17

**We have been so busy with the holidays that I fell behind in my monthly blogging of Austin! So this little excerpt will be about his past two months :).

Dearest Austin, you are becoming more challenging by the day as you strive to exert your independence. However, you are also the most adorable little terror we have ever seen so it is hard to stay mad at you. I am trying to figure out the best way to handle your little outbursts because you have started mimicking everything I do and then I realize I need to control my own anger if I am to try and contain yours. We are a lot alike in that way..... very passionate. I see many extreme power struggles in our future.

You have become such a little social butterfly and you LOVE attention! Especially from women. At the ward Christmas party you spent the entire time running around tapping on all the women and saying hi to them. They of course loved you and you loved the attention they gave you! You do the same thing in restaurants and in sacrament you around socializing with all your friends and collecting snacks from all of their mothers.

You have become very fascinated by my growing belly and are constantly lifting up my shirt to see what's inside. I have no idea how to explain it to you so we just gently pat my stomach and say, "belly!" and leave it at that. Then you run over to your dad to see if there is anything inside his shirt too.... hahaha you crack us up :).

Patting my stomach and saying, "belly!"

The weather has been perfect lately and every day you and I go on an afternoon walk. You don't need your stroller anymore and can actually go quite a long distance before you get tired! Yesterday you insisted on bringing your car with you and pushed it all the way to the park and back. It was so cute! You kept stopping to turn on the music your car plays and then would commence pushing it as fast as you could go until the music stopped and then you would repeat the process. You also love to collect rocks any time we go outside. I find your pockets full of them by the end of the day and you like to store them in little secret places in your room. Whenever I open up something and find a rock I can't help but smile. I love how intrigued you are by the beauty of the world..... even something as simple as a rock!

putting rocks in the trunk every couple yards.

And then off we go again!

For the most part, you have adjusted pretty well to me going back to work. Well, until I did a later shift and didn't come home til 9:00pm.... You were supposed to be asleep by 7:30pm but apparently you missed me so much that you stayed up and cried the entire time saying "momma!" until I got home! I was heartbroken to hear that and see you so upset! So I spent a few hours that night rocking you and singing to you, trying to get you to go to sleep. It was the sweetest moment because you were stroking my face as I sang and quietly whispering, "momma" in my ear :). The hard part was actually getting you to fall asleep because you were scared I was going to leave you again so you freaked out the second I tried putting you into your crib :(. That was a long night and I hope we don't repeat it any time soon....

You love to sit on our laps and read books, sing songs, go for walks, have play dates with all your neighborhood friends, and take baths! We try so hard to keep you busy all the time because your naughty side comes out when you are bored. This makes for two very tired parents by the end of the day!

You have become obsessed with your Baby Einstein shows and to our dismay you want to watch them ALL THE TIME..... we get so sick of them and you have them all memorized but if we don't play them for you, you throw major tantrums and make our lives miserable. We are working on this.... We hope your stubbornness and persistence will help you out later on in life because right now it is something we aren't enjoying so much....

You are the sweetest kid when you play with your friends. I hope I'm not jinxing myself here but while other children are stealing toys from each other and hitting each other when they want something the other child has, you are quietly watching and playing by yourself. You don't seem to have the ability to hurt others like the other kids do. Maybe that's a stage you will go through later on? Like I said, I hope I didn't just jinx it because I love hearing from the other mothers how you are such a joy to have around and how you make their kids look bad whenever they are around you ;).

Playing at your friend Sailor's house while Mom got some much needed sleep for her head cold :).

You love doing anything you see adults doing. That includes, pushing any button like the garage door opener, the play station buttons, the stove, the dishwasher..... basically anything we don't want you to touch. You have also gotten over your fear of the vacuum and like attempting to push that around with me! You are a huge mess maker but you also enjoy cleaning up the messes. Any time you spill something I hand you a towel and you race over to wipe it up! I'm hoping that little trait continues :).

You don't like being contained. This means we struggle any time we try and put you into your carseat, you no longer want to sit in a high chair, and you even try taking off your diaper if we aren't watching you closely. It is so hard to go anywhere with you because of this. You are such a free spirit....

You went to Nursery at church for the first time today and did fantastic! You played well with all the kids, ate your snack at the table like a pro, and only got whiny towards the end when you started getting sleepy and it was almost time to go home. We spent the whole time with you just to watch you and see how everything went and were excited to see that you won't be needing us in the future :). That means two hours of freedom my friend!

Oh your silly faces....

You instantly found a toy cell phone and car keys and played with them the entire time which didn't surprise us one bit....

You are such a little stud :).

Fun Moments Over the Past Two Months:

Grandpa Porter came over to help with a few handy man things around the house and you LOVED his ladder!

Future handyman :).

Grandma Porter bought you a balloon while she was babysitting you and you had so much fun!

Until it popped.....

You two also had a good time at the park. And of course you made some more silly faces :).

You love pushing this thing in circles. It must make you feel strong haha.

Playing outside on an especially challenging day.

Even though you are a handful, you know how to do the silliest things to make me laugh!

You love to read books.

It feels like you are always teething!

You LOVE your blankies and you love playing in your cupboard in the kitchen. You make such a mess but it keeps you busy so we allow it :).

Cuddling with Momma :).

I LOVE that big cheesy grin!

You love oranges and have a lot of fun peeling them. You become so focused on the task at hand and can't stop until the whole orange is finished..... a trait you may have picked up from your Momma....

We had snow in Henderson! But sadly, by the time we put our coats and shoes on it had already melted :(.

You carry your monkey everywhere and expect us to carry it around as well! This is especially difficult for me to do since my belly takes up a lot of room so now you always go to your dad for that job.