Bye bye to July

Well, July has come to a close and I must admit that I'm very happy about it (I had a rough month at work). What made it tolerable was that when I was on call and it was slow enough to take a break, Steve and Austin came to visit me at the hospital for dinner. It always makes my day so much brighter to see my boys!

This month I was at Rochester Methodist Hospital and they have a fountain in the lobby that Austin had lots of fun throwing pennies into...

He's not usually a fan of hospital food, but I don't blame him...it's really not very good. He's usually a pretty good boy when he comes to eat with me, though he often has trouble with the concept of "inside voices" when he gets excited. Here he is in the RMH employee cafeteria in his booster seat for dinner.

Now I'm on a rotation with daytime call only, so I get to sleep in my own bed for the whole month! Yay!

Austin has been talking soooo much lately! His vocabulary is expanding every day and he even started saying his name yesterday. He said it a whole bunch of times until I got the video camera out...then he needed some coaxing. Here is a short video of him showing his newfound ability...
http://youtu.be/RCRSG61Mj3o

Here are some pictures of fun playtime at home...

Playing with his Noah's Ark...still a favorite!
(and no, Austin didn't line them all up in pairs by the ark, nanny did).

Here he is making his panda bears kiss. He does this with the pairs of animals from his ark and Mr. and Mrs. Noah. He even makes the kissing noise and often gives them kisses himself. He's getting a lot more stingy about giving mommy and daddy kisses, but if mommy and daddy kiss each other, he giggles and insists, "Again!"

Austin reading to his super soft snuggly teddy bear from Joni Lee. He loves this teddy bear and will pick him up and carry him around the house, read to him, lay down and snuggle with him, etc.

New toy! Gramma and Grandpop sent Austin a piggy bank today. He loves playing with it, but if it is turned on and plays the sound effects, music, etc. he starts sobbing. He will even turn it on himself, but then starts crying. Maybe we'll have to take the batteries out for a while. When it is off, though, he has tons of fun playing with it and will put the coins in and out all day.

That's all for now. Next up is a haircut for Austin...he's looking pretty shaggy, but we have been procrastinating on his getting his hair cut because he screams and kicks and goes crazy! We're thinking of trying the children's barber in Eden Prairie for the next one, but since I've got work for 3 weeks straight without a day off, we have had to wait for that.

I hope you all have a wonderful August! Summer is flying by!