Austin at 15 Months

I have done professional pictures at one year of age for all my kids... except Austin. I did get his picture taken at the school at about that time. And I was so nasty sick at that time. But I know I would so regret it if I didn't actually take him somewhere. My favorite place in the past has always been Kiddie Kandids. They always seem to be able to get my kids to cooperate and get some cute pictures. Of course, they went out of business a year ago, then reopened recently, but I have heard mixed things about the "new" them. So I decided to try a place that gives you a CD with all the images they take on it, including doing any special effects you want. My overall rating is okay. I did get some cute shots. I think I should have had more cute shots, but they really weren't that fabulous working with Austin. Granted.... he was a stinker... big time! But they didn't really seem to try that hard to get him to cooperate, and they didn't have much of a set up to help distract him and actually get him to cooperate without knowing it. Props seem to be a big plus with this age, and they didn't really have anything. I actually took him twice, because the first time he let us take a few, and then we couldn't get anything after that. It was nice that they put the pictures from both tries on the CD for me. Here's the best ones, and little tidbits about him at 15 months old:

Austin has a great smile... the kind that makes you smile when he smiles. He also loves to make some silly faces, including scrunching his whole face up and breathing in and out as he does it. I also love the slight dimples he has on either side down low on his cheecks.

Austin is just learning to talk. He says: Mom, Dad, hi, done, and more.

Austin recently learned to go up and down the stairs... he was terrified of them for the longest time and wouldn't even let us help him learn until recently. Now he loves being able to go upstairs and get his favorite blanket out of his bed, or go into the bathroom and raid the toothbrushes.

Austin loves to be tickled and it is so much fun to tickle him and hear the giggles roll. He also loves to rough house. He loves it when Daddy gets down with the other boys and starts to wrestle them. He will throw himself right into the middle of it all.

Austin loves to eat. His favorite foods are blueberries, pasta (as long as it isn't skinny like spaghetti), toast with jam, peas, broccoli, cheerios, and anything sweet. He has his mom's sweet tooth! He also is a huge milk drinker, just like the rest of the family. When you try to feed him something he doesn't like, he just smiles really big and won't let the food go into his mouth. He will often even let his tongue stick out slightly, but still won't let it in. The funniest thing is how he keeps a big grin on his face the whole time.

Austin loves to get into things. My cupboards are constantly being raided. The floor is constantly littered with what ever treasure he has pulled out...

Austin has a phone fetish. He loves cell phones especially. If there is a phone out and in sight, you know he will grab it. He will often put the phones up to his ear and act like he is talking. He also likes the "hands free" way of talking on the phone where he uses his shoulder to hold the phone up to his ear.

Austin loves to close things. Drawers, doors... if he sees them open, he wants to close it. Sometimes this makes emptying or loading the dryer nearly impossible for me!

Austin loves to put his blanket on his head. I wish I had a professional version of this... He will put his blanket on his head and walk around crazily and laugh. For the longest while he would make sure he could see out somewhere, but he recently took to walking around without being able to see anything, and has crashed so many times into things. He still seems to think it is so funny...

Austin hated the bath with a vengeance for more than the first year of his life. He would scream and cry and it sounded like I was torturing him. Then suddenly in December when I was bathing him in the middle of the night after he had thrown up everywhere because he was sick... he suddenly loved it. He smiled, he laughed, he would tip himself backward and kick his legs as he lay on his back... and he has done this ever since.

We have so much fun with this little guy in our house. He just makes everyone laugh and brings so much happiness to our home.