One Small Step for my Little Man

We're consistently asked when we're out in public if Austin is always the cheerful, happy and charming baby he appears to be. While he is for the most part (when he's not crying he's smiling) it's sometimes a challenge to explain his little personality... he's the sweetest baby with an incredibly strong will. Really, he's just stubborn but I feel like "stubborn" has a negative connotation and strong willed can be a positive character trait. Thank you thesaurus.

For example, he never ate baby food - he went straight from a bottle to table food. No rice cereal, no nasty peas in a jar... straight to steak and potatoes. (or pizza. whatever.) Then it was the transition from a bottle to a sippy cup... he'll go the entire day without drinking any milk, which he loves more than anything, because it's not in a bottle. He'll be crying for milk while he's holding a sippy cup full of it, but won't drink from a cup because he doesn't want to.

Now it's walking. Justin and I thought for sure he'd be walking well before his first birthday. At nine months-old he was pulling himself up standing and climbing up the stairs. He's mastered holding your hands and walking, and walking along furniture but has no interest in walking on his own. If you let go of his hand and encourage him to take a couple steps he folds his knees in and starts crawling to the carrot held above his head. BUT today he teased us with a couple steps! Needless to say we were pretty thrilled and excited and as you'll see, Bella was stoked to get in the mix and help him along as well. I love those moments of our small family as we share milestones together. YAY!

Austin walking at 12 1/2 months:


just for fun here's Bella walking at 12 months (first birthday!):