Wordless Wednesday: She Loves Her Even If She Won't Admit It

Audrey's Spring Program

Audrey's little MDO program puts on a fall and spring program. I absolutely love these programs and they may just be the sole reason why I send her to MDO. Not really, but it's a good enough reason! There is nothing cuter than all those little two-year-olds up on stage singing their hearts out!


Entering the sanctuary-- holding Trent's hand! She says he is her "fwend". :)

 On stage and not a bit fazed by all the people in the audience!

 Exiting and SO EXCITED to see all of us!!

 Grandaddy and Too Too came up to see Audrey's little performance. She absolutely LOVED that they were there!!

After the 2K perform, they get to leave and go back to their rooms. They are in the sanctuary maybe a total of 10 minutes. It was definitely the best 10 minutes of my day! I can't wait until next year! I think I may sign her up for everything I can possibly sign her up for just so I can see her perform-- that's a little weird isn't it? Well, maybe just dance and gymnastics then! HA!

Daddy's GI Joe's get the Royal Treatment!

Clay's mom saved a ton of his toys he played with when he was a little boy. She pulls out something new each time we go down there for Audrey to play with. When we went for Mother's Day, out came the GI Joe's. He had a ton of them! I am calling them all GI Joe's but they were actually an assortment of all kinds of random figures. Indians, space aliens, Hamburgler, Mickey and Minnie Mouse and whoever else was popular in the late 70's and 80's. Audrey has loved introducing them all to her Little People and Strawberry Shortcake friends!

In this photo you can see where she's lined them all up. She was making them where they could all see her perfectly. She then proceeded to sing and dance for them. I'm sure they had never seen anything like that when Clay was playing with them!

Sweet Pea found it all pretty amusing as well!

After the star of the show tired of singing and dancing for them, she decided to take all of them to the doctor. At this point she told me "no more pictures" so I had to put my camera down! I laid out a deck of cards on our coffee table and she put each little figure on a card. We then doctored each of them for fever, broken arms and legs, and hurt tummy's. I know these things have never had it so good!

 Since then, we have fed them, rocked them, kissed them, bathed them, played with them in the sand table and took them with us to the grocery store. Poor Strawberry Shortcake has taken a back burner to these guys!

Butterflies

We got Audrey a Butterfly kit and we've had so much fun with it. She loves anything "outdoorsy" and I thought she would enjoy watching caterpillars metamorphisize into butterflies.

When the caterpillars first came, they were pretty docile little things. They didn't move much therefore, they didn't interest Audrey much! Ha!

It didn't take them long to crawl to the top of their little cup and change into a chrysallis ('coon to Audrey). We had 5 caterpillars and miraculously all 5 of them went all the way through metamorphosis.

Once they all turned into a cocoon, we transferred them to their new habitat and waited for them to emerge.

   

It took them about 5 days for all 5 of them to hatch- not long but it was forever for a two year old!

Once they hatch, we soaked a paper towel in sugar water and just enjoyed them for a few days. Audrey named them butterfly, butterfly, butterfly, butterfly and butterfly. :) We thought she may not let them go very easily but it wasn't a problem at all. We took them outside and Clay got them out one-by-one. Audrey really wanted them "on her finger" so he would try to put each one on her and she would say goodbye! It was a fun little activity! It required very little "momma" help and was probably the best pet we've ever had! I think we may get lady bugs next!

Everybody just wants to be held..

Yesterday Shelby Claire was having a day where she really just wanted to be held. As in, she wouldn't let me put her down for even a second or she would cry her little eyes out. It was a day that Audrey spent 4 hours of at MDO so that made it a little easier to oblige her. Audrey wasn't there the entire day though and when she overheard me say to Shelby Claire, "Awww..you just want to be held by your Mommy today!", she responded with, "I want to be held by my Mommy!!". So.... I did! I'm going to have some major arm muscles one day!

I know Shelby Claire looks pitiful in the top picture. She does actually like the Baby Bjorn (Audrey loved it!) when she is facing forward. She's technically still too small to face forward but desperate times call for desperate measures!

Audreyism:
Later that night, Audrey was picking up a mess of diapers that she had knocked off my bed. I saw her go into my room so I called to her and asked her what she was doing. She explained that she was cleaning up the mess she made "with her foot". I praised her and told her to come to me when she was done. I then told her that "I couldn't possibly love her anymore," meaning that I loved her more than anything. She looked at me and said, "MOMMY!?! YOU DON'T LOVE ME ANYMORE!?!" and took off to the kitchen to tell Clay that Mommy said she didn't love her!!! I laughed and laughed and finally got her to come back to me so I could explain what I meant! She's so much fun!

Not Really Wordless Wednesday

When Shelby Claire was born, she gave Audrey a digital camera and a teddy bear. Audrey loved the camera and uses it all the time! Here are some of the things Audrey feels are worthy enough to be photographed!

Grandaddy, Paw Paw and Aunt Lesa at the hospital when Shelby Claire was born.

Meeting Shelby Claire for the first time- having to take her picture. :)

Too, Too,  my sweet friend, Kellie and my Momma at the hospital.

Self portrait

Someone got ahold of her camera and snapped a picture of her!

Another self-portrait.

Our kitchen with her easel and table.

The TV with what I am sure is "The Cat in the Hat" showing.

Sophie Haris coming to meet Shelby Claire! So cute!

Shelby Claire

This one is pretty good! :D

The neighbor's cat-- Audrey loves this kitty and tries to get it to stay at our house but he's a Tom and doesn't stay anywhere long!

I have a million more from her camera that are of our carpet, the walls, the lamps, her toys, and just completely black. The camera quality isn't that great but Audrey enjoys playing with it. I particularly enjoy seeing what she thinks is important enough to capture with a photo!

Happy 3 months to Shelby Claire!!!

Our sweet girl lost almost all her hair around 10 weeks. Here she is with what she has left!! It is coming back a tad bit lighter than it was and she is beautiful!

Her little arms and legs have chunked up and I love it! I love a chubby, healthy, little baby!! We don't go back to the pediatrician until June but we think she weighs about 12.5 lbs! We've hit the 3 month nursing milestone and I am so proud of Shelby Claire!

At 3 months, sweet Shelby Claire has come alive! She is no longer the little newborn baby that would just eat and sleep! She is awake the majority of the day and sleeps very well at night. Most days she will take 3 naps and they last around an hour and a half each. At night, she will go down around 7:00ish and nap until around 9:30 or 10:00. At that point, she wants to eat and then she will go right back to sleep and sleep until about 6:00 most days. Some days she will stay up for a good while then and then some days she falls back to sleep.

She's noticed her toys that we hang from her carseat and will coo and talk to them! She loves for anyone to talk to her and will smile at just about anyone and anything. She especially loves Audrey and will smile at her all the time!!

Speaking of smiling, that smile is almost always covered in drool-- just like her sister did! Shelby Claire is a master at the wet, sloppy, smile and her clothing is almost always wet in the front. I have to keep a bib on her so she doesn't saturate herself with her own saliva!

She's taken to gnawing on her hands lately and we wonder if she's getting ready to let a tooth break loose. I hope they are not too rough on her!

Overall, Shelby Claire is a very laid back, go-with-the-flow type baby. She rarely cries unless she is hungry or sleepy. She's practically perfect in every way!



Audreyisms

We were at the Antique Mall cafe and Clay and I were discussing who was going to hold Shelby Claire. She was fussing and I went to get her and he offered to get her instead. I said, "No, you eat and I'll hold her." He responded with, "No, you always hold her- let me so you can have a break." Audrey interrupts us with, "Share her. You share her!". :D We can always count on Audrey to set us straight.

Eyeshadow by Audrey

When Clay and I were dating, Beanie Babies were all the rage. He bought me a white dragon that had sparkly wings. I put it in Audrey's playroom and let her play with it. One day we were in there and she was pointing up high above her window (I stick random stuffed animals on her curtain rod to get them out of the way) and telling me she wanted to play with the "dragonfly". After she kept repeating "dragonfly" over and over, I finally realized she meant the dragon that could fly. She was so proud of her momma for finally getting it!

She is going to MDO three days a week now. We started the extra day when Shelby Claire arrived. Every morning she asks me, "Where my go today?". I'll tell her "school" and she will tell me that she wants to stay home with me and Selby Care. By the time we actually get to school, she is all happy-go-lucky and proud to be there. Then, once I pick her up, she tells me she is not ready to leave. She wants to take a nap with her friends! Fickle little one she is!

Audrey loves to stay at home and play with her toys. So much so that whenever I have a hankering for ice cream or just want to get out of the house-- I will make a deal with her that if we go to Dairy Queen/Target/wherever and she behaves herself, we will come right home and play with her sand table. :D

Wordless Wednesday: Babies

Mother's Day Weekend

We did some traveling around south Alabama this weekend! First, we went to my mom's house Saturday morning. We had an awesome lunch and Audrey "scratched" up some potatoes with her cousins and Paw Paw.

After wearing Audrey out from chasing her cousins around all day, we loaded her and her sister in the car and drove 45 minutes to Clay's mom's house. It was just enough time for her to get a power nap and get ready for round two of the playing!

 The cicadas were singing their song the entire time we were there. It brought back memories of growing up in a little house right beside a pond that was more swamp than actual pond. All of the critters would start singing around dusk and it was hard to have a conversation if you were outside at night. You could forget about sleeping if you came for a visit and were not used to it! Now, if I listen closely, I can hear a train and the neighbor's goofy dogs barking all night long. It's just not the same!

"I NOT TOUCH THAT!"

 Okay, maybe it is a little interesting. :)

 Audrey stayed up waayyy past her bedtime Saturday night but was a good girl despite it! On Mother's Day, Shelby Claire and I slept late because she partied all night and needed the rest! Audrey, on the other hand, was up at her regular 7:30 hour.

We spent some time at the barn with the horses and rode the jeep around to look at the cows. Audrey loves to be outside and she is in her element when we go to either of her grandparents' houses!

This fella's name is Sarge. He's my ride of choice when we go trail-riding. Sarge is slow and easy. Audrey and Shelby Claire *might* get to ride him one day. Horses scare me. Like seriously scare me. I developed that fear in my old age. Donkeys are more my speed.

This is Audrey's latest method of communicating with us. She puts her hands on her hips, wrinkles her nose up and stomps around. I have no idea where she learned to pitch a fit like this. We see this pretty frequently these days-- we are knee-deep in the two's around here!

I see strict, early, curfews in her future.

We spent some time with Clay's grandmother, ate a yummy lunch and headed back home mid-afternoon. Audrey slept the majority of the way home and Shelby Claire did also. It made for an easy trip back! It was just my kind of weekend.