Austen has this new found love for the movie Pinocchio. I came home one night and he was in bed. So I poked my head in to give him a kiss and he was still awake. His head popped up and so I went and said hello and goodnight. He started telling me this story about a whale that was sleeping and it woke up, and ate Pinocchio and his family! He was using sounds he thought the whale made and water noises, etc. He was doing this all in a whisper because it was bed time. I could just see the wheels turning in his head as he was imagining what he saw earlier that night.
Then Saturday night I was getting ready to go out with Mike, and he was freaking out because he couldn't get this shell necklace off that I had put on. So he was asking me to take it off numerous times and as I turned to take it off and reassure him that everything would be okay, he said,

"I want to be a real boy!"

I just about died laughing (to myself of course because he was as serious as he could be). Sometimes kids just say the cutest most random things and you can't help but just be happy!

As we counted down til the New Year, I started remembering the events of last year. Waiting for the countdown to be over so that we could go to the hospital...the pain....the joy. When we were watching the fireworks at the space needle I wanted to go wake Kolton up and just snuggle him and love him and kiss him all over! But sanity took hold of me and I left him alone:) For lunch we took him to Red Robin with my parents. He was sung to and got a balloon. He was puzzled. Austen was funny though; he said,

"Can I have a balloon?"
"Sure!"
"And Happy Birthday to Austen?"
"No honey, it's Kolton's birthday today."

I think he just wanted an ice cream sundae for himself...haha. Silly boy.
It was crazy trying to get a picture with Austen smiling. This is what we got...

and...and...