Only God Knows

Today I am especially reminded of what a precious gift Austin is.
A child was lost today and my heart aches for a family who will never hold their son again. A twin sister who will never be able to feel that bond again, or perhaps have a unfillable void. A new baby on the way who will only hear memories of how special their older brother was. I guess it is not right for us to guestion Gods plan. I cannot help but feel sadness for this family and yet still have anger that the God that I believe in could cause so much pain. Why this child, why any child for that matter. I know that he is playing in Heaven now, and will be an angel to watch over his family. God speed Jakob.
Hold your babies a little tighter tonight, and give thanks.

Holy Teeth Batman!!

Four, yes that's right, FOUR new teeth have emerged. All tops, and all at once. Poor little guy. No wonder he has been so "un-Austin" like the past few weeks. I feel horrible that I wasn't more patient with him. Not that it at all hurts him to sit in his crib and cry for five minutes while mommy or daddy take a five minute sanity break.
Patience...ahhh..my nemesis. For all of you that know me in real life, you are quite acquainted with the fact that I have none of it. I do not try to hide my lack of patience or for that matter make any real excuses for it. Except for the clever "I just do not have any tolerance for stupidity." However becoming a parent is probably one of the best things that could have happened to me in that department. I still get frustrated but not at all as quickly or frequently as I used to. There are somethings I cannot control and I have learned to deal with that now. Life is better for all involved. Ask Nate, I am sure he can attest.

Nine and a half months old!!!! I cannot believe it! He is so grown up and doing all sorts of new tricks everyday. Finally crawling!!!!!!!!!! All of a sudden he was just go, go, go. Since he now has the hang of that his newest trick is trying to pull himself up and cruising furniture. Still wobbly, but check back in a little while and I am sure he will have mastered that to. My little baby is becoming my little BOY. Amazing, heartwarming and sad all at once.

"Mimi went to Flordia last weekend and I tried to stow away in her carry on"

"and she found me a new friend 'Charlie'"

9 month well baby and Austin is tipping the scales at 23lbs 12oz, 28 3/4" long supporting a 19" melon. My short, sweet, solid, big headed baby! I LOVE YOU!

Not a lot of new happenings in the Ball household as of late. Nate is currently working a schedule that allows him to be home at night with Austin and mama, which has been wonderful. I forget how much fun it is to watch him and Austin interact. Or how nice it is to not be the bad guy who puts Austin to bed when all he wants to do is still hang out. Sadly come Monday life will be back as usual. Nate being a single parent in the morning and I at night.

Austin had defiantly been sir grouch a lot the past couple days. With a low grade fever and the numerous messy diapers either we have a little bug or a new little tooth waiting to emerge. I believe the later. He has taken to biting down on his spoon again as he did with the first two teeth, only this time he cries afterward. Last night we allowed to be "naughty" and play in his basket of bibs and burp clothes. Normally this basket is off limits but it seemed to keep him happy and content last night and mama and dada were all for that.

Still no more additional progress on the crawling front. He does get on all fours and Grampa has seen him move a couple inches, but he is far more adept at rolling and scooting on his back to his desired location. He is standing now and will do so for quite a long time if there is something to play with or keep his attention. He was trying to reach dada on the other end of the couch the other night, but couldn't quite figure out how to get there. I cannot believe our little guy is nine months old. I was going though our "No other baby will ever wear these clothes but Austin" box the other day due to moving it upstairs after the multi-floods in the basement and cannot believe how small those clothes seemed. I remember thinking what a big baby he was, and now looking back he was so small. We have our nine month appointment coming up and I will be sure to update with stats.

Magician

Watch me pull a rabbit out of my diaper!

Presto!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Austins room is finally taking shape!

Mimi finished the valance this past week. Finally Austins room is turning into the baseball haven Nate hoped it would


In this one you can see the quilt that my moms friend made for him.

We are in teething hell right now. I hope this one pokes through soon. Between the humdity and teething pain our little guy is miserable! Somethings mommy just cannot fix.

Are we ever going to crawl?

I know, I know. Austin is only 8 months old (well this Saturday will be 8 months as my Pampers email so gently reminded me), however this little bugger shows no interest what-so-ever in crawling. Not that he is not mobile in so many other ways. He can roll with the best of them and rolled himself right from the foot of the couch to where his high chair sits in the dining room (since most of you have never been to our home that is about 10 to 12 feet) in a matter of what seems like seconds. He also will roll over on his tummy, or do his now famous back bend, find what he wants and then rolls back to his back and scoots himself there. Much at the same rate as he would if he was crawling.
His "fairy" God Mother, Christy, showed me a few tricks to help him in the crawling position but he wants nothing to do with it. Perhaps one day he will go from scooting to walking. I think there is nothing cuter then a baby on all fours racing to their destination...then again there is nothing funnier then Austin scooting to his.
Nate and I both took a week off from work this past month and spent a much needed week as a family. We mostly puttered around the house and just enjoyed both being home at the same time. However on Tuesday of that week we headed up to Grand Rapids to John Ball Zoo. We had a great time. Austin slept through most of it, but woke up for Daddies, and based on his expressions his as well, favorite animal. The Penguin. They would swim by and Austin would laugh, kick his feet, and bam on the glass. Then they would swim away and he would look at us as if to say "Where did they go?" Back they would come and it was if he was seeing them for the first time all over again. He also really enjoyed the fish tanks, as I am sure his Grampy is ecstatic about. We stayed the night in GR and here is Austin as king of the castle....
He just looks so little at the head of that big bed.

There are not many pictures from the zoo with Austin in them, like I said he slept through almost all of it, but here he is in the Pack N Play waiting for Mom and Dad to finish getting ready for the day


I love that his hair is getting longer now and enjoy giving him a faux-hawk every now and again. By morning it is more of a shark fin in the back and flat in the front. He is now affectionately known to mommy and daddy as "Shark Bait"


I was one of those neurotic moms that sacrificed a "cute" bedding set for safety and refused to put a bumper in the crib. Now that Austin is mobile I was considering it. One morning our usually pleasant happy wake up call was a shrill cry of despair and pain and I knew something was horribly wrong as Austin always, and yes I mean ALWAYS wakes in the morning happy and babbling. I found him contorted in such a way with his foot stuck in the slats of the crib that I had to roll and twist him around to be able to pull his chunky little foot out. A bumper was now a necessity and Mommy was able to finally complete the cute bedding she has always wanted to put in there. Austins room is dark navy on the bottom with a bright white chair rail and a periwinkle blue up top. He has a beautiful quilt that a very talented friend of my moms made for him with baseballs, red and white polka dots and "grandpa" pillow fabric. My mom is currently making him a valance to match the quilt so I knew I needed a red bumper and navy sheets to match. I am now so excited to have the cute "little boy room" I always wanted him to have. Here is Austin "safely" sleeping in his newly "padded" crib with his Bun-Bun (see that Mimi, Send it back home he misses it)


Well I think that brings us up to date on all things Austin for the time being. He does so many different things each day that it is hard to remember them once I sit down to blog. Thank goodness I keep a calendar or I would never remember.

Horrible, just horrible

I cannot believe that I completly forgot to update on Austins 6 month appointment. Well the little bugger has slowed down in the growing so he is not quite as big as either of us guessed. Weighing in at 19 pounds 15 ounces and 27 inches long. Soon he will grow into that huge melon of his.

We have new happenings all the time. Our second tooth has appeared and is coming in nicely and just as perfect as the first. He loves to feel at them with his tounge. I am convinced that the top ones are not far behind, judging his moods.

Austin now sits up unassisted and will play that way for a good 10 minutes or so, or until something catches his eye.

We had his 6 month pictures taken last weekend and they are beautiful. Send me a message and I will get you the link to check out. Here is a sample

Copyright: Amy O'Conner Photography