Austin's Antics

         As the red Mini Cooper pulled into our driveway I looked for Austin in the back in his car seat.  Awake and smiling he climbed out to give us each a hug and and asked me, “Grandma, where‘s my room?”  I took him upstairs and showed him the blow up bed that looks like a rubber raft with the bright yellow Lightening McQueen quilt and pillow case I had found at a yard sale.  Little did I know Lightening McQueen, the race car from the movie "Cars", is Austin's favorite.  He was ecstatic.  Then he wanted to check out the toys and sports equipment I had bought for his visit.

“What’s that?” Austin pointed to a rectangular box spotted in the loft.

“It’s a hockey game…”  I told him.

“Can we play right now?” he wanted to know,  And before Hayden or Jess could unpack the car and come in the house, they were getting out the hockey game, setting up the  mesh goals on the front lawn, and Austin was swinging a kids’ sized hockey stick batting the ball happily.

When Austin came down to breakfast the next morning I asked him,

          “How’s your bed? Comfortable?” 

“Not that comfortable…” came his reply. Maybe he was just playing with the word comfortable, I thought to myself.

 

At 3 1/2 Austin is articulate, confident about any sport, and observant about nature.  I noticed how he would stop to smell a flower, pick up an insect, and study a spider web.  He pointed out the tiniest mushrooms growing in the woods and wanted to identify birds that perched on the railing of our back deck. Austin is assertive and more strong willed now. But when it comes to words and expressions he is a sponge absorbing all he hears around him.

One afternoon his parents had gone out on an errand and I got him up from his nap.  We were playing with his cars in the living room when suddenly he turned to me and said,

“Speaking of which…where is my Mommy?”

I told him she would be right back and he simply went on playing.  No problem!

Austin loves the word “actually” and starts many sentences with it.  He would say, “Actually, I think we should go swimming….”  or “Actually, I want a snack…” or “Actually, lets read 3 stories…”

          He also calls everyone “guys” which he obviously has picked up from the American culture we live in.  

“Guys, you want to come watch me play tennis?” he would say.

One day he turned to us and said, 

“Guys, you know what happened to my boots?” 

“No, I don’t,” I responded.

“I left my boots at home,” Austin said emphasizing this with proper body language.

Another day we must have been talking about the weather when Austin said,“Guys, did you hear about this?  I’m not going to like a thunderstorm.”

Sometimes Austin can be dictatorial as he said to me one evening when we were all at the dinner table, “Grandma, can you not talk with your mouth full!”  Austin loves the expression “absolutely not” which he has learned to use very effectively. When he wanted a snack, he said to Jessica, 

“I want my cookies!”

“No, first let’s have some fruit…” she replied reasonably.

“Absolutely not!” was  Austin’s response.

He also can be a tease as he was when he found me dozing in a chair and asked what I was doing.  

“I’m taking a little nap,” I told him.

“Silly, Grandma,” he replied.  “You’re supposed to sleep in a bed…not in a chair!”

One afternoon after being put down for his nap, thinking he was  asleep, I was surprised to have him come downstairs in a short while.

“What happened to your nap?”  I asked.

“ I had it,” answered Austin.

“Your eyes were open,” I pointed out to him.

“I sleep with my eyes open,” he replied very seriously.

  Austin is  more imaginative at 3 1/2.  When we were at the Arboretum, Jessica bought him a butterfly net in the gift shop. Austin chose a bright pink one and was excited to catch butterflies and  fireflies with it.  But in a few days he was ready to catch something else.

“I’m going to catch a big fish!” he said to us waving around his net.

“Mommy is going to cook it…Daddy will set the table…Grandma will make the salad…and Art will wash the dishes.”  He was pleased with his plan as he looked around at us to see if we were too.

Austin is full of information.  He said to me while we were reading a story at bedtime “Another word for zero is nothing…zero means nothing!” He looked at me emphasizing this fact shaking his finger to make sure I understood that.

One afternoon Art took Austin outside to run off some energy and Austin’s mischievous side took over. When I went to check on where they had gone, Austin had stripped off all his clothes and was running around after his Grandpa with the water squirter Jess had bought to play with at the lake. Art was soaked but squirting Austin right back.  I turned around and went indoors and let them go at it in fun.

“Sorry,” Austin likes to say in a sing song voice.  “Sorry, Grandma…” he’ll come out with the minute he knows he’s crossed the line and has done something he shouldn’t.  He likes to emphasize this word as he’s heard people around him do and imitates them perfectly.  When he turns his big blue eyes on you and is emphasizing his apology it’s hard not to forgive him in an instant.  We always do…of course!

Austin is growing up and when we visit I look for new developments I haven’t seen before.  What does not change is the cautious, careful, observant little boy I’ve known since he was born.  It is gratifying that his sweet nature is at the core of his personality even when he struggles to assert his independence as he is doing more and more these days.