Cuzzin's are Comin'

Last week was Spring Break for my nieces. On Sunday, my mom brought them up here to meet Shelby Claire and to go to the zoo. I told Audrey that they were coming and she made up a song that had two lines, "Cuzzin's are comin', Cuzzin's are comin'. Those two lines were repeated over and over and over and over!

They didn't get here until around 5:00 Sunday afternoon so they didn't have much time to play together that day. The main event was the zoo though and we went there Monday. It was Laura's first trip to a zoo and Gracie's second. They both enjoyed it but I think Laura really had the most fun!  

At almost every exhibit Laura would ask me, "Aunt Christi, is that ________ (insert animal there) mean? Will he be mean to me?" I started out answering her question with a "nooo, they are nice zoo animals". After awhile I finally just started saying, "Yes, they are pretty mean." :D

I tried to get a shot of the three of them facing me all day. This is pretty much the best I could do. Audrey wasn't the most cooperative model that day. :D

They left around 1:00 and headed back home. I took my two girls and we made it back home in time for naps for everyone! It was a pretty fun morning!

Audreyisms

During the severe weather Friday, April 15th:
Audrey: You take care of me?
Me: Of course! Mommy will always take care of you!
Audrey: And God will too!

At Publix:
A random man was chatting with Audrey. He turned and said to me that he had three boys and a little girl and that the girl was a "Daddy's Girl". I replied that Audrey was too! He then turned to her and said, "Do you love your Daddy?". She said, "Yes, I love Daddy and Mommy and Selby Care too!"


When I take Audrey to school in the mornings, I always get Shelby Claire and put her in her stroller and then put Audrey's backpack on my back. I forgot the backpack one morning last week.

Audrey: Mommy! Where my backpack? (In a not-so-nice voice)
Me: Oh, Audrey, thank you for reminding me to get your backpack! I had forgotten it! (in a sugary sweet voice! ha)
Audrey: Umm... I... uh-prree-ci- ate (appreciate) you getting my backpack!

Wordless Wednesday

Zoo tots

Our zoo offers classes for children starting when they are 6 months old. I started taking Audrey when she was itty-bitty and she has always loved them! We haven't been since she graduated from the baby class to the Zoo Tots class so I decided to take her last Friday. Each class has a theme and this class was on African Animals.

The classes are very hands-on and age appropriate. Audrey got to make an African mask, touch a leopard gecko, a tortoise and see Madagascar cockroaches (hissing cockroaches). It was a fun class for both Audrey and me!!

*She also got to play with her sweet friends, Addie and Peyton. Audrey loves these two kiddos and talks about them all the time. They are both in her MDO class. Her teacher told me the other day that she asked Audrey who had fixed her hair that morning (Audrey had just told her that her Mommy "didn't do nuttin'"!) and Audrey's response was "Peyton". Ha! Also, Clay asked her who her best friend was during bath time and she said "Addie". She normally responds with one of us so it was a surprise to hear her say "Addie"!*

Addie doesn't look like she cares much for the leopard gecko.

Holding one finger up so they could touch the animals.

Peyton was the only one who liked the cockroaches!

Audrey loved every animal that the teacher brought out for them to see except the hissing cockroach. She told the teacher to "put it back in cage"! Ha!

Neither of these two girls wanted anything to do with the cockroach!! I don't blame them!

 Our zoo has a brand new Trails of Africa exhibit and two new elephants (one more on the way)! We are so excited about the elephants and the new addition to the zoo. It is AWESOME! For part of our class, the teacher focused on elephants and their size. This photo shows the footprint of an elephant in comparison to Audrey's size 6's (at that time she was a 6-- she's grown two shoe sizes since I've had Shelby Claire!! She's now a 7 in a Sun-San sandal!).

Here she is making her elephant mask. Around this time sweet Shelby Claire decided to wake up and eat. I had to do some juggling of the two of them! It worked out! Thank goodness for other mommas who were there to help!

Please look at this picture closely. Audrey is trying to open a marker and unfortunately hit this poor girl in the eye. I can't believe I actually got a picture of it! Poor little girl! She didn't cry until about 5 minutes later!

The second portion of the class is actually out in the zoo itself. The teacher takes us around and showed us African Animals-- including the elephants!

Audrey loves seeing the animals but if I am completely honest, her favorite part of the zoo is just getting to run around freely and pick up rocks. These little green shorts are a little big for her in the waist. When she added about a pound of rocks to the pockets, they were barely staying on her!

We spend a lot of time at the zoo. I love to take her there because she can move around on her own without having to hold my hand and we can get some fresh air. We have a routine and a route we take around the zoo each time we go. We typically end our trip by either eating at the zoo cafe or going to eat somewhere around the zoo. It's usually a fun day!

Sundays

Last Sunday we all tried to get back to church as a family. Clay's been going with Audrey since Shelby Claire was born but I've missed it and was ready to return. It didn't work out. One thing happened after another and we missed both services. We will make it this Sunday!

"I NOT take picture!"

A typical Sunday for us consists of going to church and then eating at a restaurant here in town. The restaurant is buffet style and it is in the middle of an antique mall. We love it. The food is southern style (stuff my momma makes on a daily basis but she lives 3.5 hours from me so we go here instead) and is usually packed out. Audrey knows the servers by name and they always chit-chat and love on her. As we leave, she gets to get a lollipop from the front desk.

Two seconds later.....

We typically come home and let Audrey take a nap and then we all go to the grocery store. I love our Sundays!

Wink, wink...

This looks almost the same as the "wink, wink" but is actually "Pirate Audrey, arrgghh!"

These pictures are from last Sunday. They are of Shelby Claire's first "almost" day at church and her second meal at the antique mall! :D

Smiley Watts

This sweet baby can put some cheese on!!! She is a grinny, happy, girl!! Her momma is too since she started sleeping through the night last week! Typically she will sleep from 10:00 to around 4:00! That whole sleep thing is completely dependent on if she has a paci and if she's in a good swaddle. If she breaks out of the swaddle, sleep time is over for awhile!


This photo shows her in her pack-n-play for one of the brief times that she let me put her in it. You can see that I've just started using it for storage more than anything else!

A little tummy time.. she can get herself over on her side all by herself. I'm not sure if it's the weight of her head pulling her over, or her on will-- either way, I find her like this rather often. 

She's also working really hard to lift her head! She will grunt and moooaannn as she does it! 

This is hard work for a 6 week old! Whew!

Yay!! Success! :)

Other news on Miss Shelby Claire:

• She's long since outgrown her newborn diapers and it won't be long before she leaves the size 1 in the dust also. 
• Wears size 0-3 months clothing.
• She started sleeping through the night at 5 weeks and is getting better and better at it each night.
• She took 2 ounces of formula from me today for the first time. She normally spits it out!
• She likes a paci when she is sleepy but rarely will take it if she's not.
• She is awake more and more each day. Normally she's bright-eyed from 1:00 to 3:00-- her sister's nap time!!
• She loves to be held and snuggled.
• Sleeps with a swaddle each night but tries to escape it. If she does actually get free she wakes up every time!
• Doesn't like her pack-n-play but loves Mommy's bed and a sleep-n-play sleeper.
• Still rarely cries but prefers to "grunt" like a grown man when she wants something. I can have her in my room and can hear her grunting all the way upstairs in Audrey's room!
• Finally lost her cord at 5.5 weeks. Yay for no surgery!

When I first had Audrey, I thought my life was so hard! Humph. Life with a newborn is fairly easy... it's life with a toddler and a newborn that's hard! HAHA! Don't laugh all you mommas with toddlers and preschoolers. I'll get there soon enough. :D 

Botanical Gardens

I took Shelby Claire and Audrey out together for the first time when Shelby Claire was four weeks old. We went to the Botanical Gardens and had a picnic with some of Audrey's friends from Mother's Day Out.  I was super nervous about going out alone with them in public. Audrey has a lively personality and like every other two-year-old, doesn't always mind her momma like she should. I felt pretty good about going to the Botanical Gardens with them, though, because Audrey would have plenty of room to run and play. It's not a place like the children's science museum where there are tons of people and I could easily lose sight of her. Plus, I'd have the other mom's there to help me!!

When we first arrived at the garden, our friends were running behind so that gave us a little time to kill. We went for a potty break, went in the gift shop, ran around the columns-- basically just whatever I could do with Audrey to occupy her while we waited. The last thing we did was to play in a fountain. My first mistake.

Audrey was wearing cute little croc maryjanes so I thought it was pretty harmless to let her splash around in the puddles at the fountain. Weeeellll.... her feet got wet inside her shoe and the shoe began to rub her little foot. We went to the bathroom to dry them off but by then the damage was done in Audrey's mind. She refused to put them back on. I took them off of her and just let her wear an old pair of socks of hers that I had in her bag in case of an accident. My second mistake.

That girl wore those socks all over the place-- on the sidewalks, in the flower beds, through the mud puddles, you name it! As I watched her run all over the place with those nasty socks, I just put it out of my mind and tried to remind myself that she was having a ball! That was hard.

It wasn't long after she had finished running through nearly every puddle there that she realized that her socks were dirty. And as the rational two year old that she is... she had to have them OFF, RIGHT THEN! I then tried some smooth negotiating... "Ok, you can take the socks off if you put the shoes back on".

Melt.down.city.

I then told her that Mommy wanted to make a deal. Her little ears perked up at that because she is all too familiar with "Mommy Deals" a.k.a "bribes". The deal was that if she put the shoes on, she would never have to wear them again. She agreed, we put the shoes on, no more drama.

We went on to have a lovely time at the gardens. She behaved herself (for the most part) and Shelby Claire slept through the entire trip. I did have lots of my mommy friends there to help me with both of the girls. That make the trip easier! Plus, my mother-in-law had come up the night before to help me get out of the house that morning. That was a huge help!! I wouldn't have made it on time without her here getting Audrey ready.

Audrey and Sophie Haris stopping for a hug break.

Shelby Claire is now 6 weeks old and we have gotten into a good morning routine around here. It's much easier to get out of the house and I no longer feel like I need 3 adults here to take care of 2 children! :D We've been on many trips since that first trip to the gardens and each one is easier and easier.