Feeding the ducks

Brandon's mom and sister came out to find Chloe a place to live. Austin and I tagged along for the apartment search. After meeting up for lunch with Brandon we had some time to kill before the next appointment. Carla, Brandon's mom, thought of the great idea of stopping and grabbing a cheap loaf of bread then going to feed the ducks at the Duck Pond on BYU. This was Austin's first time feeding the ducks and he LOVED it!

 He would hunt down his Nana and ask for more bread, then break off huge pieces and throw them in. It was so funny to watch him because most of the time it landed on the rocks but he was not deterred. I think that each piece of bread that he broke on his own was broken into maybe 4 pieces. I told you, HUGE chunks!

The ducks loved the bread and were chasing us around the pond.

This little duckling was staring at me and would just keep quacking. I didn't have any bread to share.

So sad! There was a dead duckling in the pond. I wanted to scoop it out and bury it.

Sleeping duck deserved some staring from Austin.

These turtles got most of his attention. Have I told you how much Austin loves turtles? This has been ever since he spent a few days at the Davis' house and they were turtle watching. He loved the turtle and on the way home each day he would say "tur-tle" over and over again. Then he would ask for it as soon as he got back there in morning. It was so cute how much he loved it and was sad once the turtle was gone.

18 Month Stats

So, I just realized that I never put up his 15 month stats so here they are:

Length: 32.5 inches - 88%
Weight: 24 lb. 10 oz. - 53%
Head: 48.75 cm - 89%

Now his 18 month stats:

Length: 34.5 inches - 90%
Weight: 25 lb 15 oz - 50%
Head: 49 cm - 76%

He is still one very tall boy. He only put on a little over 1 pound in 3 months. I swear we feed him! All the time! Brandon for sure thought he would be 30 lbs. Not even close.

18 Months

Well, our sweet little boy is a year and a half. Austin is such a smart kid but he tries to push the limits. Lately he tries to climb up the couch onto the island. He thinks that he can just climb up and grab whatever he wants. Another thing is that he wants to look out the windows all the time but the blinds are down; the slats are open but he wants the blinds pulled up, so he tries himself. ;)

Playing with homemade playdough

Here is what Austin can do:
-Identify his head, feet, hands, belly, legs, arms, eyes, ears, mouth, teeth, and nose.
-Knows the sounds that a dog, cat, horse, pig, monkey, duck, lion, bear, and bird make. Sometimes cow as well.
-He tries to jump but he ends up bouncing
-Use a fork pretty well, and getting much neater with a spoon
-Identify a car, tree, bird, grass, house, dog, flower, bug when we are out on a walk
-He will follow directions like get a book, find your water, clean up your toys, if he is in the right mood. ;)
-Can pull up his pants to just under his bum - progress!
-Is mostly potty-trained. He uses it to go pee-pee, but he holds in his poop until nap time so he doesn't have to do it in the potty.
-Climb on Gus - poor dog, he is soooo patient with Austin.
-Help unload the dishwasher, and load the dryer. He is very good at handing things to us and not dropping them on the floor.
-We say one, two, and he says three!

Passing out after playing hard with the Davis kids. We love their family!

His vocabulary is just taking off. Here is a list of what he can say:
mommy, daddy, puppy, duck, more, thank you (tank coo), bottle, more, please (pease), water (wawawawawa), blue (bo), purple, cheese, chicken (chicky), bear, bubble, spoon (poon), dinner (ninner), banana (nana), Jesus, church, day, yes, no, off, out, pee-pee, good, hot, cold, cool, down (dow), eat, yuck, baby, Pappy (what he calls Brandon's dad), Meme (what he calls my sister Amy), Gus, go, car, book, blanket (bookat), bird, dog, tree, done, ball, shoe, Gabba (when he wants to watch Yo Gabba Gabba!), keys, hat, bye, night (nigh-nigh), cookie, cracker, yummy, okay (k), house, bug, push, this, that, turtle, piece, bite, bonk, bottle, door and a few more.

Splash pad in South Ogden. He was sooo happy! Water baby for sure.

He also has a few signs down: milk, please, more, all done, hot, and cold.
We are working on: Thank you, baby, mommy, daddy, water, food, eat, drink.

Trying to put on his shoes. So helpful.

 We sure love this kid! He is such a good kid. We are very blessed to have him. We are excited to see what he will do next.

p.s. I will post his stats on Friday after his doctors appointment.

The best

Can I just say that the best thing to see after a long day is your sweet child laying on his bed, popping his head up and blowing kissing to you? Seriously, it just warms my heart every time Austin does that. No matter how bad the day went, or how grumpy we both are by the end of it, Austin brings a smile to my face every night.