Wordless Wednesday

Cupid came!

Sweet little Audrey had cupid come visit her on Valentine's Day and he brought her some of her favorite things!

"Colors" for the bathtub!

Bracelets for the girly girl...

... and a huge container of bubbles!

I made her heart shaped pancakes and strawberries for breakfast but...

... she wasn't very interested. Starting on Thursday, February 11th, Audrey went on a hunger strike and didn't eat anything until Monday, February 15th. She did drink lots of milk, just no solids. Notice what she did with her strawberry in the picture below.

I guess she thought Angel may like it better than she would.

Clay and I went out for dinner Saturday night and Audrey stayed with a babysitter. I think it was the second time she's stayed with a sitter and she loved it. The babysitter said she didn't cry at all and they had a great time together. She was brave enough to pull out the finger paint and let Audrey make us a Valentine card!

This last photo is after church Sunday. She was wrinkled from her carseat but I wanted to add it because the dress is a size 24 months. That is significant because Audrey is small for her age. She is just now wearing size 12-18 month clothes and she will be 18 months Sunday. I know that the dress is a little big and it was probably incorrectly sized but stillll! It's a 24 month!

We head back to the doctor for Audrey's 18 month appointment Monday. At her 15 month appointment, her pediatrician off-handedly said, "Let's try to get her to 22.5 pounds by 18 months!". He made that remark as he was walking out the door but I have taken it seriously. We were doing really well and thought we were going to make the 22.5 pound goal until Audrey decided to stop eating for 5 days. When Clay and I weigh her here, we've gotten her to 22.2 pounds fully clothed. I'm just praying she will be at least 22 pounds. After Monday's appointment though, I am letting it all go. I have stressed about what she was eating since she entered the world and as of Monday.. I am letting it go! She is smart, hits all her milestones, yada, yada, yada, and she will eat when she's hungry!

Wordless Wednesday

Our own Snowpocalypse

Well, not exactly like DC but still lots of snow!

Audrey liked being out in the snow today but was a little "under the weather" so we didn't stay long. I opened all the shutters in the house in an effort to bring the outside in for her.

We went out three different times but didn't stay out 15 minutes total! She signed "outside" and said "side" about a hundred and fifty times today!  This was the first trip out.

We don't have a winter hat for Audrey because up until this point she hasn't let us put anything on her head other than a hairbow. Well.... during her signing episodes this morning, I told her we couldn't go out without a hat. I went digging around and all I could come up with was her pig costume from Halloween. She LOVED it! She's worn it all over the house today! I tried and tried for WEEKS to get her to wear it at Halloween but nnooooooo-- no, no, no! I think I have laughed more today over this hat than I have in a long time! Isn't it so cute!!!

                 

                 

Clay came home early to "take care of his girls" and we took our second trip out in the snow. It was so hard for the two of us not to break out in a major snowball fight. We both tend to lean toward the competitive side and he started it by throwing the first one at me. I tried to use Audrey as a shield and get close enough to him to bust him with one but it never worked out. My mommy side of my brain beat the "kill him now" side of my brain and I took Audrey inside. We'll see about tomorrow though! 

In these pictures, he is trying to hit a snowball and make it explode on me ( and his one and only precious, SICK, baby girl!). Can you just see the pure JOY on his face?!?  

                     

                                            

We took our final trip out because I majorly overexposed the pictures from trip #2 (I tried to salvage them by making them b&w and tinkering with the contrast. Let's just pretend I meant for them to look that way!) and we had to have a redo.

                                                  

Hopefully sweet little Audrey is fever free tomorrow so she can actually put her hands in the snow. Maybe even throw a little at Daddy???

Valentine's Party at MDO

Audrey went to her MDO Valentine's Party this morning and it was so cute! The kiddos had a special snack of Little Debbie heart shaped cakes and hot pink iced cookies. They were full to the brim with sugar! That's what Valentine's Day is for anyway-- plus Audrey is just pure sugar as it is!

We are getting ready to leave in this picture. She has her "purse" (lunchbag) and she's saying "car"!

Audrey loves playing in a kitchen! This was before her classmates got there for the party.

One of her sweet teachers, Ms. Gwen (who has 3 children of her own).

The other room mother, Jessica. Sweet, sweet friend who does things like workout when she drops her little boy off at MDO-- I need to learn a thing or two from her! She also sews, embroiders and all that fabulous stuff that I love to do!

Audrey giving Jessica's little boy some hugs!

Time to eat! Audrey didn't eat a thing on her plate but what's new? She didn't get THAT from her momma!

Audrey's sweet little Valentine..

The Valentine bags that Jessica made-- love them! Each child had their picture on their bag-- precious! I think I'll keep Audrey's!

One of her Valentine's. It had mini-m&m's in it and she LOVED them!! They got all over that white shirt!

WW: French Braid

Storytime

I started taking Audrey to storytimes when she was around 4 months old. The libraries here are amazing and tailor their storytimes to certain ages beginning with birth. The first class we went to was for newborn to 12 month olds and we met friends in that class that we are still friends with! I also took her every Wednesday to a storytime that was for 5 years and under. It was a large age range but the format of the storytime was singing, guitar playing, puppeting and overall just move your body kinda storytelling. Audrey loved it!

It was at this rowdy storytime that I began to first notice Audrey's outgoing personality. Once she began to crawl, she would leave me at the back of a room that was about 40 feet wide and full of dancing, singing toddlers to crawl to the front to get as close as she could to the storyteller who was singing and playing his guitar. Once she started walking, she was singing and dancing right along with all of the other children. As soon as we got there and her feet hit the floor, she was off!

Since Clay stayed home with us for a week in January and got to see all the fun stuff we get to do, he wanted to take Audrey to storytime this weekend. He didn't get to go to this particular one when he was off so he really wanted to see how she acted there.

We got there right on time but because it is so popular, we had to sit in the very back. I knew that wasn't going to bother Audrey! She'll just go right on up front with him!

The storyteller extraordinaire getting warmed up...

Audrey getting warmed up.....

Oooh, he brought out a cat!

Let me go, Daddy!

That's all it took. She was gone from us from then on. We eventually had to move to the front in order to watch her! It was hilarious to hear her call, "Mooooommmmmyyyy, Daaaaaddddddyyyy!" out from among all those children. Once she'd make eye contact with us, she was good to go sing, play and dance!

The lady with the green and white bag had a snack for her little boy. Audrey *almost*  stole it from her but she noticed Audrey was there at the last minute and quickly hid it. :)

Dance, Dance, Dance!

Do you see her in this picture? She's in the back beside the trash can.

I think the momma to the right was tired of me taking pictures of her and her baby! :)

The last time I went to this storytime, I went with a friend and her two little girls. One random lady said, "She's busy, huh?" and another said something about her being a bit "wild". I like to describe my sweet little girl as being outgoing, joyful and a tad rambunctious. Maybe... a little "busy"... she certainly keeps me "busy"!

WW: The wonders of the ceiling fan...

Toddler's Creed

Audrey had a slumber party this weekend with just one little girl as her guest. Our friends,  The Hannahan's , came up for a conference and stayed with us. It was a lot of fun watching the girl's play. Ellie is two weeks younger than Audrey so they had lots of things in common. I think the following poem sums up the weekend...

Toddler's Creed

by T. Berry Brazelton.

If I want it, it's mine.

If I give it to you, and change my mind later, it's mine.

If I can take it away from you, it's mine.

If I had it a little while ago, it's mine.

If it's mine, it will never belong to anybody else, no matter what.

If we are building something together, all the pieces are mine.

If it looks just like mine, it is mine.

We enjoyed having the Hannahan's stay with us-- we especially enjoyed the good food they brought with them! Audrey now has a new favorite food-- Turkish Apricots!?!?!