Our Aussie Bear is 8!

November 25, 2000 at 8:59 am, Austin William Hendrickson came into the world weighing 7 pounds 14 ounces. I will always think of that as my "movie" delivery. It was such a quiet, almost peaceful moment when he was born in comparison to Jacob's birth. There were only four people in the room this time (my doctor, our nurse, Dean, and me) unlike the many that seemed to appear at Jake's birth. The lights were low and there wasn't much noise other than a few incouraging words and then Austin's first cry. The biggest difference for me though was that I got to hold him immediately after his birth and I got to hold him for quite awhile (Jake had spent the first 30-4o minutes of his life being checked over by nurses and given oxygen). So from the beginning, our little Austin was proving to be different from his big brother.

We had to work to get a smile on film sometimes.

Not only was he a good deal smaller but he was a bit more demanding. He really expressed his desire to eat about every 1.5 hours (instead of the leisurely 3 hours of his brother) and he really didn't like to sleep at first unless he was being held and sucking on one of our pinky fingers. I remember Dean rather frequently mentioning that we needed to invent the "pinky binky." Looking back at pictures of him, he was a bit more on the serious side but would soon outgrow that and became quite the little ham. As he got a little bit older, he started to do a signature move we liked to call "the bob and weave" (he would be in the exersaucer and rock from side to side) He also had many funny faces he liked to make.

This was his favorite funny face to make. (He would usually breathe in and out of his nose really fast at the same time.)

Austin introduced his big brother to the wonderful world of imagination. This tended to cause Jacob some very uncomfortable moments as his little concrete way of thinking about things was being turned upside down by his little brother doing things that just didn't make any sense. My favorite memory of this was when two year old Austin finished a puzzle and then, with a sly grin, looked at me, took off one of the corner pieces and put it on top of a different corner and said, "it goes here." I thought Jake was going to explode like a volcanoe when he noticed Ausin's "mistake". That day I saw just how opposite they were (and still are to an extent).

The Mister Potato Head glasses were a favorite accessory.

Austin is still our imaginative kid. He absolutely LOVES to write stories. He gets so excited about the stories that he is writing in school and loves to tell us what page he is now on. He is also very passionate about Star Wars, video games, and Legos. Between him and Jake they could tell you about so many of the details of Star Wars. (In fact they helped me with a quiz about it on Facebook and we got a perfect score). He is amazingly good at many video games and gets good really quick. Of course he also expects to be great at them the first time he plays them.




--Did I also mention that he is also VERY, VERY competitive. I truly believe that this trait was there right from the beginning. Remember that he was significantly smaller than Jake at birth and that he also wanted to eat every 1.5 hours? Well my theory is that he knew that he was smaller and the race was on to get bigger. He succeeded and was our biggest one year old! He still has the drive to be first or to do things better.--

Autin loved his baby brother from the very beginning.

His legos ships are some of the most amazing creations in my opinion. He can sit for an incredible amount of time and just create ship after ship. They all have their own unique design and usually have a few great features such as escape pods, or special landing gizmos. He is also a little entrepenure and would love to sell his creations to earn money for the above mentioned and much loved video games. (click here for that story).

Showin' off his crazy, curly hair that he got from daddy.

He is also a pretty social kid. He has a lot of friends in his class (thought there are a few that are really special friends). He loves to play soccer though I am pretty sure that it is not for love of the game but more for the time he gets to spend running around with his friends as we see while watching him watch the ball roll past and then he enthusiastically joins the group celebration. He also loves both of his brothers. Even though he would love to beat Jake at many things, I also see admiration in his eyes toward his big brother. He will often ask Jakes opinion on things and seek out Jake's approval of his ideas. He also love having a little brother that will follow his lead. He does get a bit impatient with Griff but is also very loving toward him and really tries to teach things to him. I am very proud of my little creative man!

Happy Birthday Austin! We Love You!