Happy Birthday Brian (8 months)

Last Saturday was Brian’s birthday. He took off work on Friday to spend the day with Austin and I. We had a lot of fun. We went to breakfast at Brian’s favorite place, Wally Waffles. I was excited because I got a pumpkin waffle. After breakfast we went out to Medina to a consignment sale. I got Austin lots of clothes and Brian picked him out some toys.




Once we got home, Brian decided to fix our washer for me. I was really happy. Austin tried to help too.


Saturday we took Austin to swim class. Brian is the one in the pool with Austin. Austin loves water. He has so much fun. During swim class, Brian was told to blow in Austin’s face while Austin goes under water. Austin did not know what to think but he did not cry. Austin is good at splashing water around.


Saturday night we had a wedding to attend. My mom was nice enough to watch Austin for us. Kids were invited to the wedding but we decided we wanted a nice date night. My mom did not mind at all so we went and had a good time. It was nice to spend an evening with Brian. Brian had a great birthday.

Austin is so fun at this age. He interacts with us all day long. He is almost always happy. However if he is not he definitely lets you know. Austin is more talkative too. He can now say da-da. He does not understand what it means but he can say it. I love it!

We are busy these days with Austin. I use to think we were busy before Austin. I have a new appreciation for busy. Our busiest time is the evenings. I have to make dinner. When I make dinner now, Austin has a pan and a wooden spoon. It’s amazing the pan and spoon keeps in entertained. It really helps because if he is not playing with that he is crawling all over the house. That makes making dinner a little difficult. We eat at 6pm.

Austin eats much better these days. However we have learned that we have to keep feeding him right after each bite. Little time for breaks because if there are too many breaks he is no longer interested in eating. He likes bananas, prunes, and pears the best. He is not a fan of green beans, peas, and carrots. He really does not like meats because he gags on that right now.

After dinner we clean up the kitchen and go for our walk around the block. Our walk takes about half hour. Austin really enjoys our walks. We are not sure what we are going to do in the winter. After our walk it’s playtime until about 8:30pm. Then he gets his milk, story, and diaper change before going to his crib for the night. He goes to sleep around 9pm.

Recently he’s been sleeping mostly though the night. That is wonderful. He sometimes gets up for a feeding around 4am but he usually goes back to bed until 7am. There are some nights when gets up earlier and does not go to bed. It is a miserable night but luckily they are now rare.

Climbing Stairs (7 months and 3 weeks)

Last Sunday night, we went out to dinner with Grandma and my parents. We went to Steak and Shake. Austin had fun seeing everyone. They even gave Austin a hat to wear. He looked so cute. We are experts at taking him out to dinner now. I pack up is rice cereal and vegetables and fed him while we eat. I am surprised how easy it is. The puffs really help keep him entertained too. Austin has gotten much better at eating (less messy too). Now he opens his mouth when he sees food coming unless of course he does not want any.



On Labor Day, we went to the Taste of Hudson. We went last year and it was a lot of fun. Last year, I was pregnant and I would look at all the babies and think that will be us next year. And here we are, there with a baby. The weather has cooled down significantly. I had to put Austin in a jacket. We had fun though. Brian even got Austin a balloon. He really enjoyed playing with his balloon.

After the Taste of Hudson, we did our weekly grocery shopping. Austin all most always goes grocery shopping with us. Brian and I would grocery shop together before Austin and now we just bring him. He now sits in the top of the cart like a big boy. He enjoys seeing everything. This time he stayed in his stroller since we walked to the store from taste of Hudson.

On Wednesday night, I was preparing his bath water. Brian was downstairs watching Austin. Austin crawled to the stairs. Then he started to climb them. Brian yelled for me to come quick. He has been trying to climb them for a few weeks but has not been successful until Wednesday night. He climbed 4 stairs! Apparently Brian helped him lift his leg to see if he could even reach the step. Brian thought it was too far for him to stretch. Brian was wrong. He set Austin back down and then Austin (now with insight into the process) crawled right back to the stairs and did it on his own. He is growing up so fast!

Here is a funny video we made highlighting Austin's accomplishment:


This week he has been better at taking naps. I talked with daycare to find out how they do it. They give him his blanket near his face so he can cuddle with it. They also rock the crib a little bit. His crib at home is too big to rock so we can't do that but I have started giving him his blanket. I also really try to keep with the same schedule as daycare. He gets 3 naps a day. One after breakfast, one around lunch time and one around 3-4pm. The last on of the day is usually the longest of 2 hours. The other naps are usually around an hour.

This Saturday Austin starts swimming class. He enjoys water so he should like swimming. I am excited about this.

Back Home (7 months and 2 weeks)

Our trip home was uneventful. Austin did great on the plane ride home. Like returning from any vacation, it is crazy once you get home. We had to stop at the store to pick up food and get ready to return to work in the morning. With a baby, it is a little bit more challenging but since Austin is a well-tempered baby it’s not that much more difficult.



Once we got back home, we had to deal with our nightmare of our main line drain. Since we found out right before we left for vacation that it was likely collapsed we needed to get that fixed. Brian called many excavators companies along with a few plumbers to get quotes. Our first quote was extremely expensive and we were hoping for a cheaper quote.

We were getting use to the idea that our entire front yard was going to be dug up and all the work that was going to be involved in it. We were not happy but understood that it had to be done. Then we had found a local plumber. He came out and did an assessment. He was confident that our line was not collapsed. He wanted to try and snake it again. Brian and I had our reservations about this but finally agreed to let him try. About 2 hours later he had our line completely clean. We could not believe it. We were so happy! He pulled out a bunch of roots and then sent a camera through showing that the line was in perfect condition. $300 is much better than $5k - $8k.


Austin seemed to have changed a lot during our vacation. Once we got home, he was climbing up on everything. All he wanted to do was stand. He was not interested in his toys. He was really good at standing. It is cute but adds its new challenges as a parent. I really don’t want him to fall back and hit his head. So I am always next to him to protect his head. It took him about a week to figure out how to sit back down after standing. I am grateful for that.

Naptime is now difficult because he wants to stand up in his crib instead to sleeping. That drives me crazy! We have removed the ceiling video projector from the side of his crib since he was pulling it down. We also had to remove his mobile (see below). I feel a little better since he can now sit back down in his crib when he wants to. Before he could stand up in his crib, naptime was on a nice schedule and he would fall asleep within 15 minutes after putting him in his crib. That is not the case anymore. Wednesday he played the stand up and crying game for an hour. Finally I gave up. Austin of course was extremely tired later in the day. What does Mommy know though? Ha ha.



I have to say that naptime has been the biggest challenge with Austin so far. We have a great bedtime routine and he puts himself to sleep without any issues. Naptime is more challenging. I try to stick to the daycare schedule. He would take an hour morning nap, an hour lunchtime nap and 2-hour afternoon nap. This week that nap schedule has gone out the window. I tried for two days and finally have given up. I am going to let Austin tell me when he is ready for a nap. It is easy to tell because he has a meltdown. If he does not take long naps then he is just tired and cranky in the evening. If he is too cranky he will go to bed early. His bedtime has usually been 9:30pm but I think we should try and have him in bed by 9pm every night.

We have a schedule and routine for Austin but we are also flexible. We live our lives too. We are hoping to teach Austin to be a little flexible too. So far he is an easy-going baby. Let’s hope that continues.

Austin has eaten all stage-one foods. He was recently started on stage-two foods. He is not a big fan of them. He tried chicken and gravy and hated it. We are not rushing the food issue with him. All of his nutrition comes from formula. Eating at this age is just practice. He loves his rice, wheat, and oatmeal cereals. He enjoys fruits more than vegetables but will eat squash and sweet potatoes. His favorite food is probably puffs. He has become a puff eating expert. It is really cute to watch him scoop them up.

Austin eats breakfast now in the 8 o'clock hour and dinner at the 6 o'clock hour. He does not get solids for lunch yet. Eating breakfast and dinner takes about 30-60 minutes. We have learned to be patient. He does not eat as fast as we do. He eats puffs during breakfast and dinner. That helps keep him entertained.

Austin also has his two bottom teeth. They started coming in right before he was 7 months old. Teething has not been too bad. He gets cranky here and there but so far nothing terrible. Let’s hope that continues too.