Mama's Boy

Austen has gotten a bad rap on this blog of late. Don't get me wrong, he's earned it, but I feel a little guilty. Along with being a very very bad boy (ask me about my Merrell shoes some time. Not this week, it's too fresh a wound) he's also so cute it makes me weak.

Exhibit A:



Exhibit B:



Austen loves toys. Austen loves destroying toys. My house is nearly always littered with the dead skins of stuffed animals and pieces of tennis ball (yes, pieces of tennis ball. Nothing is safe from this boy). While the mess doesn't thrill me, the real problem with this is the fact that he likes to eat some of the wreckage. After my dog nephew Bo's brush with death, that scares me.

So, what do I do? I can't NOT buy him toys. If I do that, I'm the one who pays (Have I mentioned that I had a nice pair of Merrells up until verrrrry recently? Shoes that I spent way more money on than I usually do because when I wore them to work they allowed me to teach all day without foot pain? Yes? Ok.).

The only toys that he's been unable to destroy have been two ropes and a Kong given to him by my sister Christy.


(wasn't he darling? I sometimes forget how cute and cuddly he was)


So, today I went out and bought him two "indestructible" toys and another Kong. I'm hoping this will help him resist the urge to destroy my stuff.

So far he seems to like them a lot, although the Kong is still his favorite:




If this doesn't work I'm afraid one of us won't survive much longer, no matter how cute we both are.