October megapost - 7 months!

Trick or treat!!

Its been a busy month, as usual.  No big trips this month, but work has picked up for both Mike and me AND we're in the middle of basement renovation and roof replacement AND we had lots of visitors!  Needless to say, this is sort of a long blog post.  Its just too hard to leave things out to make it shorter!

Solid foods are definitely a bit hit these days, and Austin easily polishes off an entire serving at lunch and dinner.  We've had sweet potatoes, apples, pears, peaches, squash, banana, apricot, carrot....pretty much any sweet fruit and not so much any yucky veggie.  We'll work on that!  We've been offering water in a sippy cup, but it hasn't been until this past week or so that he's actually figured out how to suck on it instead of just biting it.  Pratima is going to try giving him some of her homemade food this month, and if he likes it, it will be so nice to switch to her being able to provide him lunch (and maybe even breakfast) at daycare. 

Apparently Halloween candy was also a hit this year!

Yep, we had 2 costumes.  One more wearable one for daycare, and then the tiger came out for the trick-or-treaters.  I sat him down in front of the bowl of candy to see what he would do and he had quite a bit of fun sifting through the candy and listening to the wrappers crinkle.  A few wrapped pieces ended up in his mouth so we spared the kids those pieces.  Next year I'm sure we'll actually let him try some!

A few weeks ago we met up with some friends and went to Glen Echo Park to walk around with the kids.  We grabbed some lunch and tried out the swing. He's been in the swing at daycare before, but this was our first time seeing him - he loved it!

We added a new big toy to the mix at home and scored this great exersaucer off of Craigslist.  Our neighbors have the same one, and he seemed to love it so we got one so that he could be in 'pod' that didn't encourage hour long jumping sessions like the jumperoo. 

We also had to beef up Austin's winter wardrobe now that its getting a bit chilly out.  Babies in winter hats are way too cute:

The fall colors were especially pretty this year.  Now that Austin is sitting up by himself we've set him in the yard with a few toys (and usually a blanket) to enjoy the weather.  Had to go for a few photo ops with the leaves in the yard:

We had a few special visitors this month.  Aunt Melissa stopped in for a few days on her way back to Paris from St Louis.  It was her first time meeting Austin, we were so excited that she was able to come to visit.  It was right in the middle of baseball playoff season, so she brought a perfect baby sized ball and bat which was quite the hit.  And by 'hit' I mean that he loves to chew on it and put it in his mouth.  It makes for some pretty goofy pictures.

Austin's pretty full of giggles these days and laughs very easily.  Its hard to remember back to when we would struggle to figure out what would make him even smile!



Of course, its still hard to get smiles on camera sometimes!

We also had a wonderful visit with Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Tony and Aunt Robin and his cousins.  Grandma and Grandpa took the train up for the weekend last weekend.  We walked around Brookside Gardens and also went to a park to ride a miniature train. 

Austin wasn't as interested in the train as we thought he might be, but he was very interested in the swings:

I swear, he's not about to fall out of the swing, it just looks like it in the picture!

When we sat him back in the swing, he wasn't quite as happy but he did someone intuitively know to hold on to the chain.  We attempted a ride down the slide, but I don't think he even knew what was happening.  We're looking forward to next year when he can do more than swing at the park!

Grandma wanted to see him in his halloween costume, so we played a little dress up a weekend early:

The other night, about a week ago, we got to witness Austin's first signs of crawling.  He didn't really get anywhere, but he is definitely moving his hips and legs and trying to scoot to toys that are out of reach.  After a bit of struggling, he can make it a foot or so and he can easily spin around in a circle.  Its only a matter of time before he figures out how to use his hands/arms to actually get somewhere.  Its pretty hilarious to watch him try so hard!  He has accomplished getting onto his belly from a seated position...but still can't really roll from tummy to back.  Grandma and Grandpa also got the chance to witness another new skill - consonant sounds!  Instead of just sounding like a monkey with his ooohs and ahhhs, we now have 'ba', 'da', and 'ma' (although 'da' and 'ma' have no relation to dad and mom yet).

The fall weekends have been so nice that we have gotten out for some more hiking/strolling.  A few weekends ago we went up to the Cacoctin mountins near Frederick and did a short hike to an overlook. 

Unfortunately somewhere mid-hike I started feeling the symptoms of a nasty stomach bug so we didn't do some of the other exploring that we had planned.  We did find an awesome camp site that we hope to check out sometime next year if Austin's up for it.

We also went to Great Falls, one of our favorite DC spots, to see the fall leaves.

Austin was pretty interested in watching and hearing the rush of the water over the falls.

This coming month we are traveling to the midwest to visit some friends, battling sleep with daylight savings time, hosting thanksgiving, and maybe, just maybe learning to crawl.