Month: March 2006

Austen is just starting to say “Da” and “Mahhh” — and even “Earl,” according to Grandpa Earl.

For Mommy’s birthday, Austen, Mommy and Grandpa Earl went to Johnson Park in Piscataway, located across the river from New Brunswick, where Austen was born. At the petting zoo, there was a beautiful cayote along with lots of colorful birds. Austen liked the goat because it looked like a large-sized cat.

“Side-saddle,” as described by Grandpa Earl:

Last night, Austen’s sniffles took a turn for the worse and she began vomiting phlegm. We took her to the doctor who said she had an Upper Respiratory Infection that had perhaps develped into a sinus infection (or some sort of bacterial infection). When we got her home, she had a fever of 101.5. For the rest of the day and night, Mommy and Daddy struggled to get Austen to drink … anything. Austen was very fussy, particularly when having medicine (tylenol and antibiotics) squirted into her mouth. She hardly played at all, sleeping in Mommy and Daddy’s arms most of the day. Austen had never before not wanted to eat. She’d never had a fever. And she’d never slept all day.

When Mommy tries to type e-mail while holding Austen on her lap, Austen reliably grabs for the keyboard — often managing to erase half of what Mommy has written. When Mommy pushes the keyboard away from Austen’s reach, Austen goes for the mouse. Mommy then moves the mouse away. When Mommy pulls the keyboard a little closer so she can resume typing, the whole process repeats itself. Eventually Austen gets fussy and starts to complain because everything keeps being moved out of reach. It’s as if Mommy’s playing games with her. Austen’s crankiness with Mommy suggests that she recognizes Mommy’s intentional action.

During a playdate at Barnes and Nobles kids’ section, Austen did the downward dog yoga position while playing on the carpet with the other babies. There’s a picture of Morgan doing this position at around the same age as Austen.

For weeks now, Austen has been reaching her arms wide when she wants to be picked up — the gesture is usually combined with a grunting “Uhh, Uhh, Uhh.” Mommy read today that this is a normal behavior for babies at nine months.

Over the past two weeks Mommy has been performing clapping songs for Austen — such as Grandma Judi’s favorite “If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands …” and “Pease Porridge hot, Pease Porridge cold …” Today Austen did some clapping of her own at Gymboree. She doesn’t clap on demand or when the song calls for it but whenever the spirit moves her, usually after everyone else stops clapping.

Also, Austen has started attempting to wave “Hi!”

Mommy and Daddy will try to capture video but Uncle Rin can confirm Austen’s new clapping skill.

Thanks, Uncle Rin, for picking out this Rocawear outfit.

Austen is becoming proficient at moving from sitting position to all-fours crawling position — although she doesn’t do much crawling while in crawling postion, just looks around and reaches for things.

At her new Leap Frog Table, Austen pulls herself to standing, then falls usually.

In memory of Grandma Judi (today marks one year since we lost her), Mommy and Daddy ate crab cakes, sang songs to Austen, and said encouraging, optimistic things to each other. It was a great “family-oriented” day.

Surrounded by the adults playing their own game, Devan & Austen entertain themselves.

Here’s Austen laughing and partying it up.

(Video – be patient while it loads.)

The dessert table:

Davinder and the “little tykes”:

Check out all the party pics.

Game Night guest list: Daljit, Kimball, Angie, Sumita, Wayne, Pricilla, and nine-year-old Ian