Austen & Gage

On Tuesday (July 5th), Austen woke up in the wee hours of the morning with a high fever. The next day, the doctor diagnosed her with an ear and throat infection and prescribed antibiotics. Austen was very lethargic, barely moving, only wanting to sit with Mommy or Daddy and watch Baby Einstein videos. It was a lot of trouble getting her to drink and she refused all food. After about 24 hours, her fever broke and she began the road back to normalcy.

Today, her drinking, eating and playing have returned to normal — but there’s still some clingyness and fussiness due to teething.

Today Austen took three baby steps without support. Yes, we know, Aunt Holly will want to see proof. Mommy and Daddy will keep the videocamera charged and ready.

For days now Austen has been trying to take steps without holding onto anything, but she usually falls onto her backside. But, once in a while, she has a successful mini-walk of about ten inches. Not sure if that would even register on a pedometer.

Austen is beginning to show a preference for feeding herself over being spoon fed … or maybe she prefers the chunkiness of table food to the mushiness of baby food. She loves cheerios, bread, and cantaloupe. She has sampled turkey, banana, chicken, rice, and ice chips.

Her current favorite baby food is surprising: Organic Lentils and Rice.

Austen played with her shape sorter today. She tried to put the circle in every hole (triangle, square, star) … except the circle hole.

No! Wait! I also got it from my mom’s side of the family.”

Austen played with Mia, Devan and Elexander.

In the relaxed atmosphere, Kimball took a nap.

Everyone else, including Mommy, Dadddy, Daljit, Sara, Ajay, Eileen and Chris played with the kids.

Mommy made crab cakes but the non-Marylanders weren’t too excited about these. 🙁 The spinach salad, watermelon, and hot dogs were a hit.

Four new teeth are pushing through on the top and one on the bottom (to the left of her two center teeth).

In retrospect, Austen should have refrained from cranking out five teeth at once because this has caused her a lot of discomfort. She drools, fusses, has trouble sleeping, rubs at her gums and chews on everything and everyone.

Austen-cakes
Cutie
Little Booger
Crazy Baby
“Da Baaaaby”
Sweetie

At a Middlesex Moms’ playdate, Austen crawled around, trying to catch the older kids, while the other babies her age hung out in their strollers like good little children. 🙂

Mommy had a fun time eating green tea ice cream and talking with the other moms until the dreaded fussies set in and Austen had to be taken home for a nap.

The Magic Oboe

[Once in a while Mommy will be adding reflections on Grandma Judi to Austen’s Blog. To search for them, click on a month on the right side of the screen and use Find (under the Edit menu) to search for ‘About Grandma Judi’.]