"Yuppers!"

          “Can you believe I do that?” Austin said to me last weekend as he was showing me one of his Batman moves.  Austin is into imaginative play now especially acting out superheroes.  He puts on a shiny blue cape, part of last October’s Halloween costume, and announces, “Batman is on the case!”  He loves hand gestures and will hold up his arms and make fists and muscles to demonstrate that he is super strong and in control.  One day as he was being Batman he said, “I need some water, so I can get some energy so I can fight the bad guys.”  I gave him a glass of water.

  

          It’s been three months since we visited in Washington and I looked for the changes.  Austin, at 3 years old, is clearly a “big boy”. He holds up three fingers to remind you of that.  “Grandma,” he’ll say seriously, “come see my “big boy” bed.  He has shown me this before but it’s really one of the most exciting changes for him in the past six months.  He takes my hand and leads me up the stairs to his room where he lies down in his crib where one side is open.  He can get in and out of bed “all by myself” – another frequent expression.  “I want to do it myself,” is his recurring demand for independence.  I had him putting on his shoes and except for mixing up the left and right he did it “all by myself.”  He can answer the I Phone when Mommy is calling from the other side of the world to Facetime with him.  He insists on dishing out his own granola from the canister in the morning despite the inevitable mess he might make.  Heading for the car to go somewhere he tells me “I can get into my seat all by myself” and he does.

Cracking breakfast eggs "all by myself"!

Flying his first kite at the Kite Festival on the Mall

          Austin has always been “ahead of the curve” with language and this time he seemed to have more to say than ever before using vocabulary that made me wonder where he picked it all up. He is observant and obviously has the gift of listening because he learns new words he hears around him all the time. He loves to start sentences with “Actually….” He’ll say “Actually, lets take the soccer ball with us,” or “actually, let’s go outside.”  Do 3 year olds say that?

One evening we went into the Whole Food Grocery Store on H Street that opened a week ago.  Austin had been once before and he insisted I come clear across the store with him.  When we got to the other end we were in the cake department surrounded by gorgeously decorated cakes and colorful cupcakes.  How did he remember where this was?  I waited a minute as we looked but he didn’t beg to buy one. Then I said “we have to go find your Daddy and Grandpa now…I’m not sure where we left them.”  Austin blithely replied, “Come with me, Grandma, I’m a good finder.”   And he is!   On Sunday morning we drove out to Pautuxent Wildlife Center to take a short hike.  Austin kept up pretty well for a mile stopping to throw rocks into the lake a favorite pastime of all little boys. We took one path out and a slightly different route on the return.  Back in the parking lot Austin suddenly declared” Hey, we made a loop!”  I thought about it a minute and he was absolutely right…we had done a circle loop.  

Austin never tires of riding the H Street streetcar and we did it twice on the first day we were there.  There are many “do’s and don’t” signs and symbols on the streetcar and at the stops along the way.  Austin likes to hold up his finger to point with emphasis while he reels off no smoking, no spitting, no dogs and so forth.  I thought he might be ready for his driving test because he also points out the no U-turn signs and no left turn signs and is very observant of the red and green stop lights.  He is especially passionate about NOT crossing the street in the middle of the road but at the cross walk.  He likes to follow the rules and Jessica always says that it’s the Huber (German) genes in him.

Austin loves to ham things up and be silly. When I asked him if he wanted to read a story, or take a bath, or perhaps sit down with me and eat part of a bagel he answered, “yuppers” delighting in having made up a silly word.  Each morning as I was getting dressed he’d come in and hide behind all the pillows on the bed – giggling and laughing and egging me on to find him.  Then he said, “I can do camouflage,” as he dove under a pillow again.  He also has started with the “poo” jokes and remarks and loves to get a rise out of adults when the unmentionable is mentioned.

Austin is into the “why” stage especially when we were reading stories.  He loves to be read to but now if you pause to take a breath he interjects “why?”  “Why?” “Why” “Why”?  He’s also curious outdoors and loves nature. He will stop and study an insect or a turtle or even smell a beautiful flower.  He is an observer and concentrates while we tell him about a certain plant or animal.

At three, Austin is more confident with certain things.  He whizzes all over now on his scooter, wearing his helmet, standing up straight and maneuvering turns and bumps like he never did before.  He kicks a soccer ball with force and Hayden said he’s making progress with his tennis.  He delights in doing things the “right” way.

The most fun being around Austin is his continual chatter about everything.  He’ll say things like, “Do you need any privacy?  I’ll leave the door open…” or he’ll get serious with me and say, “Grandma, Halloween is a bit scary.”  Or he’ll divulge a family secret and say “We don’t like mouses in our house…that’s why my Daddy puts mousetraps.”

I carry Austin’s voice in my head and all the unexpected things he says.  Life from the perspective of a three year old is completely fluid and always entertaining.  When I’m home again I count the weeks until we can visit again so I can hear more…