Austin Walking

We have been trying to get Austin to walk for months and months now.

He is going on 19 months, and he has been absolutely refusing to walk.

That is not to say he couldn't, if he wanted to. We have tried to get him to walk short distances to us, or to a toy he wants, etc. We have encouraged, pleaded, and helped him practice while grasping one of our fingers for support. However, without such support, he would carefully sit down, refusing to try. In fact, falling is so much fun! It is a game to get up, and then collapse, especially if there is something soft to collapse onto. Better yet, it is so much fun to jump on Mom or Dad.

This video was taken right after Halloween. Austin was actually standing all the way up on the bed, jumping up, and landing on Nate. He wasn't doing it so much after I pulled out the camera, but this still gives some idea of it:

We figured if he could jump on the bed, he could definitely walk. He just didn't seem to want to.

When he finally started standing and staying up on his own a couple weeks ago, he did so just so that he could fall down, laugh, and clap his hands. It took a lot of convincing for him to start understanding that we were happy for him standing, not falling.

Friday evening we had some good friends over for pizza and pie. It was so much fun to make and eat the pies with them! We are so glad they drove out to spend the evening with us!

The little snowflakes Lucy made for us are now in our window.

While waiting for the pies to bake, we were also delighted when Austin decided to walk to Nate! After the first go at it, he repeated the feat a few more times to show off for everyone.

Then today during choir, our neighbors across the street told us that Austin had actually walked a couple steps on his own Thursday evening. We had gone to the temple that night and they had generously tended Austin while we were gone. So, according to that story, he actually took his first real steps over at their place.

In any case, we are happy Austin has finally decided to try this walking business.

And I just want to say, I love living with these two good looking guys!

Halloween

This year we ended up going to three different Halloween parties, so we got a good amount of milage from our costumes. We went with a safari theme this year: Nate was a safari explorer, Ausin was a lion, and I was a leopard.

The first of our parties was hosted by my cousins in Logan. They completely decked out their house apartment with cobwebs and other decorations. We had root beer served from a large black cauldron with a claw shaped ladle, and plenty of other Halloween goodies to munch on. We chatted, ate doughnuts off a string, played games, and admired each others' costumes.

My cousin Stephen with his wife Kimberly

My cousin Lindsey with her husband Matt

Our second party was with my family at my parent's house last Friday. We followed our usual Halloween traditions with them, from pigs in a blanket for dinner to jack-o-lantern carving. Usually we also have stories and/or a movie, but since Nate had to work early the next morning, we went home earlier than usual. We carved our pumpkin to look like Mike Wazowski from Monsters Inc. My brothers carved theirs to look like a pumpkin house, my aunts carved a bear, and my parents carved a mean looking mustached jack-o-lantern.

Here we all are in costume

Austin the lion with his colorful uncle

Our ward had a trunk-or-treat party the next evening at the church. We not only had fun dressing up and passing out candy; we also enjoyed taking Austin around to a few cars.

On Halloween, we decided to take Austin trick-or-treating to our immediate neighbors. Turns out, he loved it! He doesn't walk without help yet, but he was all smiles while walking between us holding both our hands going from door to door. He loved picking over the candy held out to him, choosing a piece...and then placing in back in the same bowl. Our neighbors loved seeing him too. After all, we don't get very many trick-or-treaters on our street, so he was one of only a handful of kids to drop by their places.