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Austen loves to snack on food through out the day. Here she is eating her “boo-yeah bar” (as Mama and Dada call it) while in the car. The reason for the name is because Dada heard her say “booyeah” when he once gave her the bar (or at least that’s what Dada thought he heard).

That’s what it’s all about!”

Austen now does the entire hokey pokey dance: hand, foot and body movements, spinning around, “shaking all about.” It’s unbelievable. Austen is exuding Grandma Judi’s personality: the spiritedness, animation and bits of wackiness. Turn the music on and the fussies disappear.

This is just one of the numerous songs she sings, including Twinkle Twinkle, Baaa Baaa Black Sheep, the Alphabet Song, Elmo’s World, Teletubbies and several others from her Music Together class.

Today Austen ate and enjoyed ice cream for the first time. Previous attempts failed. She shared a bowl of chocolate and vanilla with Mama, continually asking for “More!”

So far, Austen’s only enjoyed pizza once, despite several attempts; it was at Ayush’s birthday party. Yes, she’s an embarassement to childkind everywhere. Yesterday, Mama did get her to eat a bite of pizza.

Austen regularly eats rhy bread, mac and cheese, bacon, edemame and berries. She snacks on crackers, cheese, lollipops and LOVES chocolate.

The MOMS Club threw a giant picnic at Roosevelt park. There were so many activities including egg hunt, races, making your own necklace, along with just general park play with all the kids.

Austen and Mama love to go out to play dates and parties (and to host them) like regular social butterflies. Mama gets to vent about child raising stuff and Austen gets to snack and run around and check out new toys and interact with friends.

Austen continues to learn at an exponential rate. It seems just repeating a new word or song a few times is enough for her to recant it on her own, although not perfectly. She uses so many sentences that we’ve lost track. And they’re often creative and original. After placing an oversized ball in her basketball hoop, she says, “It’s stuck.” When driving over the Manhattan Bridge on our way to Grandma and Grandpa’s house, Austen pointed to ships and said, “Ships are in the water.” Also, she pointed to a dolphin toy and said, “Hi, dolphin,” even though she’d never see a dolphin before, only pictures of dolphins. She often says hi to her friends and uses their names.

Austen surprises Mama and Dada regularly with her memory. Examples include:
-singing “Row, row, row your boat”
-singing “Twinkle, Twinkle little star”
-singing “Bah Bah Black Sheep”
-repeating lines from her favorite books such as “Goodnight Moon”
-counting from 1 through 10 with ease
-singing the ABC song (although she only hits a handful of letters)

Austen also shakes hands. While shaking, she’ll look at you and say “Hello!” in her own pronunciation (sounds like Heh-whoa).

It’s fun to read to Austen now. She’s an enthusiastic listener and points to pictures and exclaims, “Oooh, a bird!” Her interest is contagious. If you ask her “Who’s that?” she’ll answer correctly (e.g. “Ernie!”). She also tells you that he’s holding a rubber ducky.

Austen can now play by herself or amongst the other kids at parties without constant supervision by Mamma and Dada. This helps them all enjoy get-togethers more. Mama and Dada just check on her often and feed her.

Austen drinks lots of water and a little chocolate milk. She loves all forms of chocolate: milk, cookies, brownies, Godiva dark.

As for potty training, Austen talks about going potty and knows where Austen’s potty is but gives a definite “No!” when asked if she wants to use her potty.

Austen now misses people she hasn’t seen for a while, including her cousins, her grandparents, Chacha and Dada.

Sleeping is less of an issue for Austen. She naps and sleeps through many nights in her crib.

As for a Mommy update, Mama now realizes she was depressed when Austen was a newborn. She missed her own mom terribly and wanted to talk to her about stuff everyday. When Mama sees her friends with newborns she feels sorry for them, which she knows is totally bizarre and is something she never felt before motherhood. It must be because of how difficult things were for her during Austen’s first few months (before Mama was able to get out of the house, start activities and meet other moms). Mama realizes that, all things being said, she prefers toddlers to infants because they give feedback.

Austen still loves her bottle. Aaron is the closest she has to a little boyfriend; she mostly likes older boys, around five or so. 🙂

Yelling with her sparkly shoes on.

Austen love hanging out at home with Grandma Mindy, Grandpa and Chacha.

Grandma Mindy somehow manages to get barrettes in Austen’s hair while cooking a bunch of Indian food, although the battettes only last a short time until Austen pulls them out.

(Cover your eyes, Auntie Holly!)

Austen enjoyed a BBQ/poker party thrown by some mommy friends. First, Austen went into the backyard jumpy castle. Then, after sufficiently jumping and going in and out several times, she decided to explore the kiddy pool. Mama came prepared and after a quick change into her bathing suit, Austen played in the kiddy pool with some friends. Unfortunately, it started to rain so we all headed indoors where the party continued with high energy.

All the kids ran throughout the first floor but mostly hung out in the playroom, which had plenty of toys including a ball pit and an Elmo video playing.

While Austen was entertaining herself, Mama and Dada decided to play some poker in the garage but Austen didn’t stay away for long. She hung out a lot with Dada (hence the bottle next to Dada’s chips). It was a fun, friendly poker game and eventually more kids trickled in and joined the grownups.

We went to the local Memorial Day Parade for the 2nd year now (maybe a new tradition in the making?). Only 25 minutes in length, it’s a short but fun parade. Last year, Austen was about 8 months old and not walking so she watched from her stroller. This year, she was on the front lines with Mama and Dada, sitting on the curb, walking around and lounging in her chair. She eagerly accepted a little flag and a lollipop and enjoyed most of the parade; Austen didn’t care much for the people shooting their loud rifles (with blanks, of course).

Here’s Mama and Austen with their decorated, styling crocs.

Austen is mesmerized by the people marching in the parade but she’s not sure if she really likes it yet.

After sitting with Dada, Austen decided she’d rather sit in her little lawn chair (another thoughtful purchase by Mama).

The horse, fire trucks and brownie girl troops were among Austen’s favorites to watch.

Mama’s favorite was the marching bagpipe players.

Dada had to go away for a week-long business trip to Tokyo. In preparation, he explained the how he would be traveling using nothing more than chalk and a driveway. Except for the incorrectly showing the plane’s flight path, it was fairly accurate.

While Dada was away, Grandma Mindy stayed over to help Mama watch Austen. There were lots of fun activities including bubbles, going to the park, eating out at favorite restaurants and some all out playing-till-you-drop activities.

Here’s a video of Austen talking to Dada, although she didn’t seem to be in her normal gabby phone mood.

Mama comments a lot about Austen’s willfulness and temper but that’s only because Mama has a tendency to focus on the things that need work. The truth is that when Austen’s in a good mood, she’s the most cuddly, smily child Mama has ever experienced. Tonight, as Mama held her before bed, Austen smiled and cosied her head up against Mama’s arm. She also sang some of Old Macdonald for Mama — one of her current favorites. Today, Mama got several excited greetings of “Mama! Mama!” accompanied by bursting smiles.