Austin had a very Merry Christmas. On Christmas morning the grandparents and great grandma came over. I had breakfast ready at 10am. After breakfast, we opened gifts. Austin did not know what to think of everything. He would start to open a gift then get distracted and move on to something else. Austin got a lot of presents. He got big blocks, Leapfrog Scout Turtle, Vetch teaching Turtle, stacking cone, abacus, Chicken Elmo doll, Turtle for the bathtub for his toys, and many books. It was a lot of fun to watch Austin play with everything. For Christmas, I made a calendar of Austin for everyone. Each month will be exactly one year ago. It is really cool to look back at how much he has changed already. Then for everyone’s birthday I have a picture of him or her with Austin. Everyone seemed to really like his or her calendar.
December was a busy month with getting ready for Christmas.
Austin went to two Christmas parties. He was fun to watch him with Santa Claus. We did not just throw him on Santa’s lap though. We knew that would not go well. Austin does have some stranger anxiety. It is not bad but he still noticeable. Brian had some time off this month too. It was really nice spending time as a family. Last night, Brian and I went to the home opener of the Cavs. We had season tickets for four and a half years and last year we did not renew because we knew we could not go to many games. But we still like the Cavs and enjoy going. My mother in law watched Austin for us while we went. Brian and I had fun. I’m sure Austin had fun with grandma and grandpa too.
Brian and I have been really good at still doing things as a couple. Luckily my parent’s are able to watch Austin almost anytime. Most of the time we do things as a family but probably about once or twice a month Brian and I do something alone. I think that is really important. Because our every day lives are crazy with Austin. Even though things are so much easier now (than 8 months ago), Austin requires a lot and that can be challenging at times.
We have been so spoiled by Austin though. Most of the time he is an easygoing baby. He usually only cries when he’s hungry or tried. But like everyone he has his moments that he is not happy and that can be miserable. I don’t like a crying baby. I let Austin cry as needed but I definitely don’t let him cry uncontrollably for long periods of time. Because usually if Austin is crying there is something wrong. 
Like last night he woke up at 3am. Austin has been sleeping all night now for a while but occasionally he will wake up because he is hungry. I was not too happy that he was up because I was tired. Plus supposedly Austin is supposed to be off the bottle in a month (I really don’t think that is going to happen by a month but we will see what the Dr says at his 1 year check up). So I don’t want to keep feeding him a bottle in the middle of the night. When I went to check on him I found out that he peed and pooped through his diaper so that was what was wrong. He did not like having to be changed in the middle of the night so he was screaming a lot. I had to give him a bottle to calm him down and he went right back to sleep. 
Next weekend we will probably take down the Christmas lights and probably our Christmas tree.
Austin did not really bother the Christmas tree much. He liked to stand next to it. He would stand unassisted near the tree. It is neat to watch him stand-alone. Austin really liked his new tree and we did too. We are very blessed to have such a wonderful son!
