Nine Months Old

Austin turned nine months old this past Saturday.  I don't understand why time gets put in high gear when you have kids!  We went to Austin's check up today and he did so well.  He only had to get one shot and his toe pricked but he did not make even the slightest fuss about it.  He jumped at the shot initially, gave a tiny pouty face and then was fine.  I always imagine that I'll be leaving the doctor's office with a screaming baby, but I never do.  What a champ! 

Latest 9-month stats are as follows:

Height:  29 inches (75%)

Weight:  18 lbs, 12 oz (25%)

Austin is one flexible

happy

content

and cool dude.

Big Cheeks, 4th of July, and New Treats, Oh My!

Check out these cheeks, ladies! Can't find more kissable than this!

(Austin is the little ladies man - two 2 year olds attacked him on Sunday and gave him hugs and kisses, and the baby girl his age always smiles and talks his ears off when they are together)

Happy Fourth of July!

My mommy puts me in my crib after feeding me in the morning so she can go back to bed...what's up with that?  The sun is up, it's time to play! (Sorry buddy, 5 am is too early for mommy to play...)

Mom and Dad are letting me try all kinds of new treats.  I like to eat graham crackers, "puffs", biscuits/cookies, and chew on veggies like carrots, bell peppers and cucumbers!

Time to walk off all those goodies!

Austin or Dopey?

I took Austin on a walk and when we got home I noticed some red bumps on his head which I assumed were mosquito bites.  The more I checked him over the more 'bites' I found.  They were everywhere!  I couldn't understand how he could have been eaten up so quickly by mosquitos, especially when I hadn't seen a single one on our walk.  Then I thought... chicken pox!  Jeff and I took off his clothes and he was solid red on his back, belly, under his arms, and under his diaper.  I remember having chicken pox and they sure didn't make me look like I had a nasty sunburn!  So, we concluded he must be having an allergic reaction to something.  I called our doctor and waited to talk to someone for about 20 minutes (why do these things always happen on the weekend?).  After talking to a nurse I sent Jeff to the store to get some Benadryl and I gave him a bath.  The nurse told me if he started drooling or had a hard time swallowing to call 911... Thankfully his breathing was normal, he could swallow fine, and he continued to be in a pretty happy mood.

Austin's ears got extremely swollen which made him look a little bit like Dopey...  I put socks on his hands to keep him from itching and pulling at them.

 After a couple doses of Benadryl and a good nights rest he woke up with only only a few faint spots left around his diaper.  We are pretty sure that it was the banana custard baby food he had for breakfast that caused the reaction - it was a new food.  I hadn't read the ingredients list before I bought it - I figured it was baby food and must be safe for babies.  After he had this allergic reaction I realized it had both milk and eggs in it.  When we've given him tiny tastes of ice cream or whipped cream the skin around his mouth would turn red.  I'm sure it has to be a milk or egg allergy.  Babies aren't supposed to have eggs or regular pasteurized milk until they are a year old anyway... which makes me question why this baby food had milk and eggs in it to begin with. Oh well, I'm sure we will find out more as time goes on, and hopefully he'll grow out of it.  But for now - no milk or dairy products of any kind (except mine of course) and no eggs!

Crib Tunes

Austin is our little rockstar with his ferocious bulb-syringe mic.

NO PRESS PLEASE!

Miscellaneous

Found a jar of tart peaches!

Austin can stand in his crib if we help him up

Lazy Sunday

Cousins spending time with their Great-Grandma Loucks

White Boogies

Austin had just finished nursing when he decided it was time to do a little number in his diaper.  He pushed so hard that milk came shooting out of his nose and mouth!  Apparently it shocked Ausin just as much as it did me by his expression in the picture...

Thankfully it was a successful push and he didn't go through all that trouble for nothing!  (To date, he has done this a second time, but the eruption of milk through the nose was not quite so aggressive)

California Dreamin'

This June we were lucky enough to get away and visit Jeff's family in California for 10 days. We overlapped our stay with the Larsens for a few days which was perfect because we hadn't seen them in several months, and they had not met Austin yet.

Austin and cousin Landon enjoying Grandpa's wagon rides around the backyard

Slept through most of our visit to the Santa Ana Zoo

Went swimming for the first time!

Austin loved kicking in the pool... and licking the water off of my shoulders...

Grandpa, Grandma and Michael babysat Austin for a day so Jeff and I could have a date in LA.

We went to the Los Angeles Temple and out to eat afterwards.

Hangin' with Grandpa

Three Mitchell men at the Angels v. Dodgers baseball game.

We had a great trip and enjoyed spending time at the beach, playing games and celebrating birthdays with family. Can't wait to see everybody again!