Seven month skills

Sorry it has been awhile since our last post. Our personal Internet was down, so I couldn't get the photos until now.

Since our last entry, Austin turned 7 months old. And he's made some progress.

Austin now weighs 19.2 pounds and 27 inches long. He gained more than a pound in about three weeks. So, he's getting to be a little bit heavy.

This weekend, he got his first tooth. Grandma, the dental hygienist, noticed a nub when she was cleaning him up after eating bananas and rice cereal. Austin keeps making sucking and smacking noises, obviously playing with his tooth.

Austin is also learning how to stand up when grabbing onto something. Last week, he could barely put his hands on the top step of our stairs. By the end of this weekend, he was standing with just one hand, cruising from side to side and almost climbed onto the first step. Yikes! We're in big trouble.

Austin practiced his new standing/climbing skills by trying to crawl over Grandpa.

Earlier in the week, Tia Courtney kindly agreed to babysit so we could go see Coldplay. She said he was a bit fussy before falling asleep early at 8:15 p.m. It was probably the tooth. She was lucky that she babysat before Austin learned his dangerous new skills.

He was playing in this box before she arrived.

The next day, Grandma and Grandpa arrived for the Thanksgiving weekend.

Aunt Pat agreed to host the dinner for 10 (including Austin). She had a beautiful display on her table.

Austin wore his turkey bib.

On Friday, Grandma babysat while Michael and I had a two-part date. We saw "Slumdog Millionaire" during a matinee. (We highly recommend it). Grandma wore him out so much that he fell asleep early around 7 p.m. before Michael and I headed out for dinner. Grandpa had spent the day helping Aunt Pat, so he didn't even get a chance to play with Austin that night.

Here Grandma is reading Austin a book:

On Saturday, Grandpa got to spend some quality time with his grandson when we headed out to Seal Beach to see the ocean and eat some tacos.

Austin enjoyed the baby swing at the playground on the beach.

That is, until I made him stop to take a picture.

All in all, it was a fun weekend. We're obviously most grateful for Austin's health and happiness, even if he seems a little too healthy these days. :)

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Daddy time

Michael had his last road trip of the regular football season this week -- a big relief for mom and baby.

Well, mostly mom. With our alternating schedules, it's kind of hard to get time to ourselves or with each other. It's still going to be busy for the next few months, but I think it will be a little bit better with him in town. (OK, Dings, I know you think we have nothing to complain about. We know your schedule is much worse.)

The work schedule works out pretty well for Austin. He gets quality mommy and daddy time. I get up early and start working at home before Austin wakes up for the day. Daddy is still in bed when I'm ready to leave. So, I bring Austin to bed with daddy:

Bicha, the cat, gets more attention from Michael. So, she cuddles up to Michael more. Here's a Michael sandwich with our two babies:

Here he is in a cute outfit from my friend, Debbie. The shirt says, "ABCD, for those about to rock." My little rocker:

For those readers out of state, just wanted to let you know that we are away from the fires. We can see lots of smoke, but the flames are far enough away.

Historic week

It was a historic week for the country last week with the election of Barack Obama.

And it was also a historic week for Austin.

OK, well, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit. But Austin did learn a few new tricks.

He sat up on his own. He was rolling around on the floor one night. Before I knew it, I looked up and he was sitting. It only happened once, but I'm sure it will happen again. In this picture, I put him in sitting position.

Austin also learned how to wave. I didn't believe it until I saw him do it three times.

We've been trying to show him the motions of "hi" and "bye" as people come and go. First, when his nanny was leaving last week, I saw his little hand go up. Later, he waved back at me when we got back from a walk. Finally, he waved when his daddy came downstairs. We both saw it. It really happened. I don't have a picture yet.

I also took Austin on his first trip to the zoo. He couldn't see many of the animals, but he enjoyed watching some monkeys swing around. In this picture, he's watching an elephant. You'll have to take my word for it. I didn't get a good picture.

Daddy took some cool pictures early one morning:

He likes to lie on his side these days:

Other than that, Austin is getting ready for the holidays, like everyone else. Warning to grandparents and aunts: He's checking out new toys for his Christmas list.

I just added some photos from the Tucson trip and some more October photos. Check them out.

-Sarah

Pumpkinhead

Austin doesn't really understand trick-or-treating. But we wanted to do some Halloween activities, anyway.

Babies are just too cute all dressed up.

We bought him this Halloween sleeper on clearance last year when I was pregnant. It's the first item of clothing that we bought him. Luckily, it still fit. But as you can see, his toes are a little bit tight. We bought the pumpkin hat to top off the outfit this year.

On Thursday - the day before Halloween - we caught up with our friends from the "Mommy Matters" class in Old Towne Orange. Kids dress up and trick-or-treated at the stores by the circle. Mostly, we sat on a bench and people-watched. Bobby (aka Superbaby) and Austin weren't too cooperative for a side-by-side picture.

On Halloween night, Michael and I dressed up Austin again and took him to Main Place Mall, which was having trick-or-treating. We just walked around and saw all the dressed-up kids.

I wore a "Happy Halloween" T-shirt.

Michael wore an orange shirt.

Next year, we plan to come up with themed-costumes.