We have a walkerand a talker! Our clever little boy...

Yes that's right - he's finally walking FULL TIME!!!! And so many new words are added to his vocabulary every day. It's amazing watching him grow into this clever little man, who just soaks up EVERYTHING we throw at him.

Austin started walking for more than a few steps at a time last week, and when he falls down now, he gets up and walks again rather than quitting on the walking and crawling. He beams at us as he wobbles along, so proud of his achievement and we delight in his delight. He is growing more adorable every day and is starting to string two words together now. He has been saying "pat cat" for a while (his first phrase), but tonight surprised me with "more pleeeeeease" when he finished his vegemite crumpet (he is a vegemite kid and had already tossed his steak and veggies on the floor!!!). Two crumpets later he was shouting out "Botooool", so that was the end of dinner and time to get him ready for an early bed time. I don't think he will be breastfed much longer, he tells me he wants "mumum mook", then a few sucks later he is screaming "BOTOOOOOOOL!!!!" again. So I guess it will soon be all over and any hint of our baby will be replaced with our little boy.

The other thing that got us all by surprise last week was that when we say one, he will say two and sometimes three. He's notg even 15m yet and the boy can COUNT!!! And the other day he pointed to one of his shape sorter pieces and told me it was blue! He also loves chatting on the phone, well actually he does more listening than talking when it's a real phone - if he sees anyone on the phone he reaches out for it saying "talk, talk, talk" and then as soon as he grabs it he giggles, holds it to his ear and is silent, perhaps shaking his head every now and then. But last week he spoke to me on the phone at work for the first time, I was giggling myself it was so exciting! He was just giving me the baby jibber that he uses when he talks to "Nanna" or Papa" on the pretend phone (when we ask him who he's talking to that's who he says it is), but soon I will be able to have little conversations to him from work. Thrilled me to bits as I miss him soooo much!

He loves to go bike riding and the last few days when Andrew asked him what he wanted to do he pointed out the window saying "bikes" but there was no way we were going riding in the sweltering heat. We have been telling him about our holiday next week and he is getting very excited about going on a plane again. We are looking forward to some decent family time again too as we are heading to the goldcoast for a week away by the beach. We have a friend's wedding on Saturday, then if it's not too hot we'll ride down the Parade to the food and wine fair (Auty will love it - going by bike AND lots to see!) then firts thing Monday morning we fly , fly away. Wooo hooo! Now I had better get back to the study as I still have to get an assignment done and an exam on Friday before all that can happen...