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After finally finishing all major house painting and almost finishing work on the back and front yards, Mommy, Daddy and Austen (with significant help from Uncle Rin) hosted a Famous Family Gathering/Open House at home in Metuchen.

The weather was lovely and lots of chairs were set up on the deck where Mommy, Daddy and Uncle Rin cooked burgers (with Worschester Sauce and Montreal Steak Seasoning), buffalo wings, hot dogs, and corn on the cob. The dessert table in the dining room was loaded with homemade pastries brought by guests. In the late afternoon, Aunt Heather showed up with lobsters and taught everyone how to eat them. Thanks to all our guest who brought food and helped make the party such a success!

Visiting Austen were Grandpa Earl, Janet, Heather, Tod, Holly, Morgan, Mark, Jen, Emma, Erin, Uncle John, Aunt Gloria, Kristine, Ann, Jeffrey, Jonathan, Susan, Jeff, Grace, Daljit, Kimball, Devan, Angie, Sue, Mr. and Mrs. Husain from next door, The Badai Family from across the street, Aunt Ollie, Connie and Ralph.

Austen was so overwelmed with the excitement of seeing so many people she could barely calm herself down for a nap. She was passed from person to person. Mommy and Daddy didn’t even know where she was half the time. She loves getting to know new people and enjoyed crawling around on the deck with the other kids and sitting under her new parachute while Mommy and other guests sang.

Long, fond farewells.

Sometimes Mommy thinks about how much Austen would have enjoyed spending time with Grandma Judi and vice versa. She pictures all the singing and playing that would have happened. Austen loves to laugh and Grandma Judi loved to make people smile. Mommy and Grandma Judi, and even Daddy, all have a bit of silliness and wackiness to their personalities. And Austen eats up stuff like that. When Mommy or Daddy laugh at a TV show, Austen joins in. When Mommy and Daddy wrestle and chase each other around the room, Austen burst into laughter.

Grandma Judi’s clothes accentuated her free-spirited, fun-loving side, so Mommy used swatches from them for a Grandma Judi Quilt. In the photos above, Austen is sitting in a rocking chair made for her by Grandpa Earl.

Mommy showed the quilt to everyone at the Open House on May 20th. Grandpa Earl liked it especially and said he remembered Judi wearing each and every one of the fabrics used to make the quilt.

Uncle Rin came to visit and babysit while Mommy did grocery shopping for the big Open House tomorrow. When Mommy got home from the store, she called out but nobody answered so she rushed upstairs and found Uncle Rin sleeping on the floor of Austen’s room as Austen, wide awake, leaned over the edge of her swing, staring down at her sleeping uncle.

Mommy strapped Austen into her bouncy chair so she could go take a shower while Austen watched Sesame Street. When Mommy returned she found Austen crawling around on the floor.

Austen now says something that sounds like “Mama” although her favorite vocalization is “Ca” which she says when she sees a cat. Austen loves to say “Dada” as well, but she says it all the time, not just when she spies Daddy.

For the last several weeks at Gymboree, Austen crawls away from Mommy and goes to visit with the other mommies and babies; she complains when Mommy tries to rein her in.

Once in a while Mommy hands Austen a new toy that gets an immediate strong reaction. Like love at first sight. If one even touches the toy, let alone tries to take it away, Austen cries loudly. Sometimes she won’t let go for an hour, even while Mommy feeds her or changes her diaper. Tonight, Austen ate dinner in her high chair while gripping a yellow head with two red antennae. Last night, Mommy and Daddy put Austen to bed still clutching a silver rattle she’d taken a liking to.

Oddly enough, this strong attachment has happened with two eyeball toys. One’s the top of a Kushies stacker set and other is part of a Baby Einstein bath caterpillar.

Kelly, Riley and Sanjiv came for a BBQ. Mommy and Daddy make chicken wings, burgers and corn on the cob. Austen and Riley tested out the railing on the deck by practicing their pulling up skills.

Last year, while pregnant, Mommy received a Tiffany and Company diamond heart necklace on Mother’s Day. She was having a rough time — with pregnancy and losing Grandma Judi — and Daddy wanted to make the day special. He certainly did.

This year, on the Saturday before Mother’s Day, Mommy and Daddy drove Austen to Queens (to spend the day with Grandma and Grandpa Rodey) and then took the subway into Manhattan. They, along with Uncle Rin, had a wonderful time acting like wacky, childless people. They did not forget Austen, however, and stopped at FAO Schwartz to buy her some toys. They also went to Prada, Bendels and Louis Vuitton. New York Restaurants, such as Rue 57 where the party enjoyed sushi and pomme frites, are far superior to New Jersey Restaurants.

On Sunday, after a quick brunch at Longhorn Steakhouse, Mommy and Daddy got some work done around the house: painting the hallways and potting plants for the front patio. Mommy got a cute card from Daddy that said “It’s great seeing you as a mommy — you’re very caring, thoughtful, concerned, supportive, loving, protective (to just the right degree) & playful.” Mommy loved her hot pink key ring and perfume. Thanks, Daddy and Austen.

In the early evening, there was time for a quick trip to Merrill Park to see the animals and go swinging. Austen is an animal lover. It’s in her blood (like her love of music). Grandma Judi once said that Mommy loved to look at animals when she was a baby, particularly birds and cats. Austen lunges in excitement whenever a bird or cat is within range, at times causing the person holding her to almost drop her.

After sufficiently screwing up the universal remote control with minimal effort, Austen decided she needed a new challenge. While Mommy was working in the office, Austen honed in on her next challenge – the PC. She quickly crawled to the power strip and pressed the illuminated switch, effectively powering off all computer devices.

The PC did not agree with this action and now refuses to boot up. Daddy will now need to spend countless hours backing up, rebuilding and restoring the PC.

We couldn’t find this ‘milestone’ in any baby book but crashing a PC before reaching your first birthday’s gotta be high on the list, right? Well, it was a Microsoft operating system so it may not be the biggest accomplishment.

A miracle has happened. Austen has learned to sleep … and without a prelude of screaming. She takes naps for up to two hours with hardly a complaint; sixty minutes is her average nap length. She regularly sleeps through the night. If she wakes, she goes back to sleep on her own without much fussing. You can find her face down in her crib (she rolls over on her own) on most nights from 8 pm to 7:30 am. Sometimes, in the middle of the night, she gets up and crawls around a bit or stands holding onto the rails. But, in such cases, she usually tires herself out, finds a pacifier (we keep three clean ones lying around the crib) and plops back onto her stomach for more sleep.

Long gone are the times when baby needed to be rocked, bounced and walked around in Mommy or Daddy’s arms to help her fall asleep. Although Daddy misses having Austen sleep in his arms, he doesn’t miss the achey back and stiff neck associated with keeping Austen in the most comfy position.

When Austen finds a toy she really likes, she cries more vocally now if it’s taken away. She threw a fit when Mommy wouldn’t let her have the universal remote control. Last time Austen had it, she caused a minor mix-up with all the devices, switching modes and blocking half the commands from reaching the device. Tech support (a.k.a. Daddy) was called in to quickly fix the problem. At music together class, Austen became enamored with the jingle bells and cried when the teacher took them away.

This month we’ve learned just how fast Austen can crawl when she really wants to. When a kitty is in sight, she books it. But despite her best efforts, she’s no match for Nietzsche, Squirt or even Scout. That’s not to say there haven’t been a couple of close calls. Although she’s still mastering her new-found crawling skills, her main goal when crawling is to reach some (dangerous) piece of furniture to pull herself to a standing position.

Austen is an expert at pulling herself to standing. She can use just about any stable item, including the legs of other moms at Gymboree, as leverage. Her legs sometimes slide open but eventually she achieves a full standing position and gets a triumphant look on her face. She doesn’t fall nearly as much as she used to and can take a step or two around her leap frog table. It’s like she’s eager to start walking now!

Despite previous discussions and some basic planning, Mommy and Daddy rush out to do last minute shopping in order to babyproof the house: numerous outlet covering do-dads, cabinet locks (adhesive & screw-in type), stair guards, corner cushions, etc.

Amazing Baby feats for her this month: Knowing her name and responding whole-heartedly when she hears it. Holding her own bottle for feeding. Opening drawers. Crawling on top of a big drum at Music Together class. Climbing steps. Understanding commands: Mommy says, “Clap!,” and she claps; Mommy waves the milk bottle and says “Come here!” and Austen comes barreling over. Rolling around onto her stomach and trying to crawl away during diaper changes. Shouting when Daddy opens his mouth to “eat” her.

Now that Austen has her two bottom teeth out, she’s practically stopped drooling. Finally … she doesn’t have to wear a bib all the time.

Austen is still a champ at eating. She has three meals a day, with bottles of milk and formula in between. She uses her teeth to do a little chomping. She feeds herself 4-5 veggie puffs while patiently waiting in her high chair for her meal to be prepared. Austen also drinks water from her sippy cup during feeding, to help wash down the food. She doesn’t quite have the hang of drinking from the sippy cup on her own but she’s getting there.

While Austen still uses a pacifier for sleep, she’s not as dependent on it for soothing during daytime hours. Toys now soothe her when she’s bored or cranky.

It’s getting hard to think of Austen as a baby now that she crawls, stands for long periods of time and cruises around the coffee table. She’s not the same helpless baby she used to be. She smiles and laughs and tries to communicate with people all day long, sometimes entertaining a room with her antics.

“For the record” information on poopies: Austen’s a regular pooper now, often soiling two or more diapers daily. When she was just a lil’ baby who only drank milk, she would regularly go five days between poopies. The difference, of course, is when she pooped back then, it was all over the place and super messy. If we were out, it usually got on her pants and even on her shirt, leaving her pant-less for the duration of the excursion. Now her poopies are more solid and easier to clean up.