Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Green Seersucker Bikini

I haven't ever been a big fan of bikini's on little girls. I've seen many little girls who look absolutely precious in them and who are not showing everything that their momma gave them but I hadn't really ever thought I would put Audrey in one. That is until discussions of potty training came up with my mommy friends. I am not planning to start that anytime soon but I pick apart the brains of every mommy I know that has been there and done that. One of the suggestions a friend had was to put Audrey in a bikini rather than a full suit because it's easier for her to get out of in the case she has to go potty. That got me to thinking about getting her one. Then I found a pattern for a toddler's bikini and that was that! Audrey will be a bikini wearing toddler this summer!

Scoot, Scoot

Audrey's got new wheels!

A friend of mine has one of these Radio Flyer Scoot-Abouts for her little girl and I just loved it when I saw it. I thought it was perfect for Audrey because she knows how to propel herself, she just doesn't know how to pedal.

I got it Tuesday (found it on Craigslist- new in box) and Clay put it together for us that night. I was so EXCITED to see Audrey's reaction. She had played with her little friend's scooter and enjoyed it but I wasn't sure if she would still be interested. I shouldn't have worried!

She loved it! I was so excited to see her play with it that I got her out on it before we left the house yesterday morning. Wednesday mornings are usually chaotic as we are in full Babypalooza but I couldn't wait. We then spent every spare moment we had riding it all over the yard. It didn't take her long to figure out how to ring the bell either!

I love it, she loves it-- oh, happy day!


Changing subjects...
Clay was taking Audrey to bed one night last week and he told her to tell me "night, night". We had already gone through our nightly smoochy fest and snuggle time so this was just a passing by "night-night" on the way up the stairs. I didn't hear her but Clay said that when he got to the bottom of the stairs, she said, "Night-Night, Mommy. I'll ov oo. (I love you)".  She's said "I love you" before but it was always after I prompted her. This was completely on her own and was the first time she's ever done it! It makes me teary eyed just typing it. I love you, too- sweet child of mine!

Wordless Wednesday

Camp Christi 2010 Part 3

The last post about Camp Christi was getting long-winded so I thought I would break it into 3 parts rather than 2. Looking back, all I had left to tell you about was the final day so I should have just stuck it onto the end of Part 2.

Wednesdays around here are what my friend, Kelly, refers to as "Babypalooza". They are BUSY! We start our day with a 9:30 storytime that is about a half hour away from my house and then we immediately leave when it's over and go straight to Kindermusik by 10:45. We stay there until 11:30, head home, have lunch and then take a nap. By the time naptime comes around, Audrey is exhausted.

Since Gracie was with us (and Clay who took off to spend time with all of us) we decided to have a picnic after Kindermusik! We just wanted to add to the excitement of the day!

After our picnic we played in the river at the park-- trying to burn some energy off before we had to drive to meet Gracie's momma!

Sweet Meredith Grace is a dancer. She's full of grace and long, lean muscles but she's decided she wanted to play softball this year. Here she is practicing her "throw" with some rocks. I'm hoping she sticks with the dance but if she chooses to just play softball that's okay too! There's nothing like watching her dance in the Nutcracker though! I will certainly miss that if she ever gives it up!

After our picnic, we took Clay and Audrey home for naps and headed south to meet Lesa. Our week ended with a trip to Target! :)

Gracie's sister, Laura, saaaaaayyyss she's coming this summer for CC. We shall see if she follows through with it. This is the first year she's shown any interest in coming! I hope she does!!

Camp Christi 2010 Part 2

After our busy day Monday, Gracie wanted to "relax" and get some "peace and quiet" on Tuesday. That was Audrey's day to go to Mother's Day Out so I had Gracie all to myself for 4 hours!

We started out the morning by Gracie "rock, rocking" Audrey and teaching her to bang on the table during breakfast.

Gracie had cereal so Audrey had to have some as well. She didn't like it that hers didn't have milk!

One super perk of having Meredith Grace here was that I was able to put my makeup on without having a toddler sit in my lap and put her makeup on as well. Oh, how nice that was! I am missing that this week!

Last year at Camp Christi (CC) we did a lot of craft projects and baking, etc. Not this year. On the ride to my house on Sunday, I asked MG what was the main thing she wanted to do while she was here. Her response was to change Audrey's diaper and to get some peace and quiet. That last part cracks me up thinking about it.  I threw a lot of the plans I had made out the window at that point. We just did whatever Gracie wanted to do and on Tuesday she wanted to have her nails done. FINE WITH ME!!

I think her mani/pedi turned out perfectly!! The daisies were just the right touch.

She also wanted to go eat at Ruby Tuesday's because they have the "best" salad bars ever. I have only been to the Ruby Tuesday's here twice and both times were with MG. This girl loves it!

Of course if you eat that much salad then you must have Dairy Queen for dessert.

After a quick trip to Target to get Laura a surprise, we had to go get Audrey from MDO. Audrey almost always crashes right when she gets home from school. She plays nonstop while she is there and is exhausted. Tuesday wasn't any different. What was different though was that when she awoke from her nap she didn't call, "mooommmmmyyyy" like she normally does. She woke up and said, "Graaaaaaccieeeee, Graaaaaaccciiieee" until we went in and got her. At first I thought it was just a fluke but she was serious! She wanted GRACIE! This was what we were greeted with when we entered her room.

Sorry these pictures are so blurry, I forgot to change my camera settings.

After they finished their cuddling and rocking, we all loaded up and went to the Children's Science Museum. Audrey loves this place and Gracie did too-- last year. This year it was "boring"! :)


Group photo of the three of us...

Bed of naaaiiilllsss!

Last time I tried to put Audrey on this she screamed and cried! Not this time!! She got to watch Gracie do it so she had to do it then!

Gracie-- Self Portrait

                                                    Audrey's hiney.

Hurricane Gracie and....

...Tornado Gracie.

After about 45 minutes, Gracie declared that she was ready to go home. So we did!

The final day of CC will be in a whole new post! :)

Camp Christi 2010 Part 1

 
Sweet Gracie came to stay with us once again for Camp Christi. It was different this year. My precious, little niece who used to just love for me to let her "fix" my hair, wanted to always snuggle before bedtime, and loved for me to read to her, wanted to fix her own hair (not mine), told me she was tired and ready to go to sleep and said that reading was boring. I knew she was growing up, I just didn't realize how quickly. She's still just as precious as ever, I am just not as cool as I used to be!
 
For example, we went to the zoo Monday. I had a blue bandaid on my arm. Before we got out of the car at the zoo, she said, "Christi, you're not going to wear that bandaid, are you?" Right then and there I realized that I needed to rethink everything I had planned for the week!


I'm going to backtrack a bit. I met my sister, my mom and both of my nieces halfway between my house and theirs on Sunday to pick Gracie up. We shopped, ate at Olive Garden and then I headed back home with Gracie. I asked her what she wanted to do and she said she wanted to go to the park. We went straight there and met some friends of mine.

Gracie is a great helper. It was the easiest time I've had a the park in a long time. Usually I am climbing up and going down the slides with Audrey!

One thing that was very clear this year is that Audrey adores Meredith Grace. She followed her everywhere and tried to imitate everything Gracie did!

She even tried to hang from the monkey bars like Meredith Grace did!

I did get to expose Gracie to something really cool that only an aunt like me could do... the ice cream truck! Haha!

Audrey looovves this ice cream truck! She can hear the jingle way before I can and she usually starts to head to the gate at the park saying, "ice cream, ice cream" the entire way. To my knowledge, there are not any ice cream trucks in the town Gracie lives in and if there are, they don't go out in the country where she lives. I make a point to get her an ice cream from the truck every time she's here because everyone knows ice cream is better when it comes from a truck!

After the park, we headed home and got supper, played some more and Gracie got to practice her "rock, rock" skills. For some reason, Audrey only wanted to be rocked by Gracie and Gracie LOVED every minute of it!!

The next day, we woke up and Gracie wanted to go to the zoo.  She picked out her own clothes and chose how she wanted her hair. She's at Camp Christi she can do that, you know?

She got to see a lot of different animal species such as this:

and this...

But her favorite things at the zoo were...

Addie,

Elise,

and Audrey!

Notice how Gracie has Audrey's hand with one hand and is pushing the stroller with her other hand. Isn't she a great little Momma?

I'm not sure what I was doing. From the looks of it I was letting Gracie be in charge!

While at the zoo we also took our first train ride ever. I'm not sure why but I've never riden the train with Audrey and since this was Camp Christi, we did whatever Gracie wanted to do and she wanted to ride. So.we.did.

This next picture is of my dear friend Kelly and her son, Griffin and daughter, (my god daughter) Elise. I just love how Elise is peeping out over her Mom's shoulder!

Meredith Grace-- posing

                

I don't know why but I didn't get a picture of Addie's mom, Lindy. Next time!

After the zoo, we went to lunch with our friends and then headed home for naps. Do you know this eight year old took a nap every day that she was here?!? Ahh... that part she hasn't grown out of! We also went back to the park that afternoon for more ice cream. Hee.. Hee...

Part 2 is a comin' - I got an embroidery machine about 3 weeks ago and I am finally getting around to learning how to use it. It is taking up all my free time!

Wordless Wednesday

Easter Bunny

When Audrey got up Easter morning, she had a surprise ("prize"- as Audrey says) waiting for her on the kitchen counter.

The Easter Bunny came and brought her all her favorite things!

Little People, books, watercolors, a paint with water book, a Veggie Tales "DDD" (DVD) and playdough! She loved all her little prizes and was so excited!

Now, the Veggie Tales DVD wasn't as much of a hit as the Easter Bunny thought it would be. It was Veggie Tales: An Easter Story and it was a loose adaptation of "A Christmas Carol". Weellll... Audrey has never shown any interest in actually watching a DVD, she's always just danced and bee-bopped to the music. She paid clllloooossee attention to this one! This DVD has "The Ghost of Easter's Past" in it and it scared the mess out of Audrey!! I put the DVD in her player so she could watch it on the way to my parents house and when it got to the part when the ghost came on, she started yelling, "No, No, DDD, OFF!, No, No!"! She was really frightened! I almost threw the stupid DVD out the window! So, note to self: just because a DVD has a Christian message and is sold at Lifeway, it doesn't mean it is appropriate for my little one!

Easter at Granny and Paw Paw's

We attended Easter services Saturday night so that Audrey and I could get up early Sunday morning and go visit with my family. Momma cooked a huge meal and Audrey ate more ham, white peas, and rolls than I've ever seen her eat! It was lots of fun and I wish I had some of those white peas to eat right now!

In the following photo you will see Gracie, Laura and Audrey with their Easter baskets from Granny and Paw Paw. Audrey is obviously amazed by hers and is already trying to get in it.

Here she is telling us to "open".

And here she is looking at her cousins as if to say, "What is wrong with you two? Why haven't you gotten into your baskets yet?".

The girls' Easter baskets were filled with lots of yummy goodies this year. Momma got the treats from Meredith's Miracles . MM is a charity organization in my hometown that raises money to help families who have to leave the town to provide specialized care for their sick children. They help with all related expenses. They did the Easter baskets as a fund-raiser this year. All three of the girls LOVED their baskets.

                    

                    

                   

Audrey couldn't get enough to eat the entire time we were there. She ate EVERYTHING we put in front of her. In the picture above, Gracie is giving her a boiled egg! She also ate her fill of jelly beans with Granny, too!

                  

                  

After they dug into their baskets and filled their bellies with candy, we hunted eggs in the front yard. This was Audrey's third egg hunt so by this time she'd figured out that there was candy inside the eggs! After she found the first egg, it was hard for me to get her to look for anymore. She just wanted to stop and eat the candy inside of it!

                       

                       

Little "La, La" (as Audrey calls her) is becoming quite the photographer these days. Notice how she holds the camera...

... with just one hand! I'd say she's a pro. Here's some of her handywork.

She's a fan of the close-up! :) I love that sassy girl!