Sunday, February 13, 2011

Audrey Update


Hello Everyone!

Audrey is still doing really well! She is so much fun and we are having a great time with her. Her speech is developing incredibly rapidly and it is so great to communicate with her more and more each day.

Just this weekend, Audrey sung the ABC song from start to finish. It's not perfect, but I'm still really impressed for a not even two-year-old!

Audrey is up to some four-word sentences now. Two of the most recent that I can think of are unfortunately from her recent bout of the flu - "I don't like it." and "I don't want it." She has lots of other sentences that she can say, but she said those two a lot when we were trying to take her temperature and give her medicine.

Michael has been spending a lot of time with Audrey and the new "You're Baby Can Read" program. I'm pretty sceptical of the whole thing, but I think it's great for them to spend the time together and Audrey seems to really enjoy it. One of the segments focuses on the zoo, so Audrey was extra excited when we went to the zoo today. She already has been talking about elephants, tigers and turtles, and really enjoyed seeing them in the flesh!

Audrey's other favorite animal at the zoo was the giraffe. She was a little overwhelmed at how close came, but then each time she saw a picture of a giraffe for the rest of the day, she yelled "giraffe!:

Audrey loves to read now, which makes me very happy. She will bring us a book, and ask us to read it to her. Her favorite book right now is "Hooray for Fish!" It's a neat book and we enjoy reading it to her every night. She has her favorite fish and likes to read it at least a couple of times before bed. The one she likes best seems to be the "gripy" fish, I guess because I always say "gripy" in a funny voice :)

I would say that Audrey's other favorite thing(s) right now are stairs. She is crazy about stairs! The only thing we have upstairs is our attic and laundry room, but she asks to go up there all the time! And she is quite upset if we don't let her... she is also really wanting to "do self" right now. So sometimes she doesn't even want to hold on at all. We've had a few battles, but overall she is pretty easygoing, or at least easygoing for a toddler :) There are certain things that are non-negotiable of course, and if she doesn't want to hold my hand when crossing the street or in a parking lot, she's learning that she doesn't get to walk!

Finally, Audrey is still very affectionate and so sweet. She stopped breastfeeding last month, and now only takes a bottle with warm water at night. She has been sleeping through the night really well in the queen size bed in her room. It is so great. Our only issues at all are actually getting her down, I have a bad habit laying down with her and falling asleep... but when she doesn't want to go to sleep, she tries to get attention... so the other night, she kept kissing me & telling me she loved me. It was so cute, but I had to ignore her as much as I could and remind her it was time for night night.

Well, that was quite an essay, and it's time for me to go night night! Thanks for reading!

Enjoy our zoo photos:



















And dinner after the zoo. Audrey really wanted some ketchup and french fries :)



And a few photos from Papa's house:


Love the pigtails!

Sunday, January 16, 2011

The Velveteen Rabbit


























My cousin Daniel & his fiancee, Denise, sent Audrey a really neat toy for Christmas. A velveteen rabbit based on the one in her short film. We had a little photo shoot with the rabbit today and got some cute photos, hopefully they will be able to use it in marketing the toy!





Final Christmas Photos!

Audrey enjoying some fruit at Tia Fa's.

Audrey with Tia Fa.
Audrey with Michael's cousin Sergio.


I swear she was super happy, but this photo is hilarious!



Audrey's last Christmas present was a big hit!
Audrey did have pigtails for the first time, but they didn't last long enough for the photo.

Making a mess with hummus :)

Birthday party fun. Audrey was quite serious on the little merry-go-round, but as soon as it stopped, she said, "Again!"


I don't think this is exactly in the rules.
With the birthday boy. Happy birthday Grayson!

Friday, December 31, 2010

I Wish I Could Capture Every Moment.

I have treasured my time off with Audrey, I'm just sad it's gone by so quickly. There are so many wonderful little things that she does that I don't want to forget. She is changing so quickly, and I'm sure I've already forgotten so much.

So, here are a few things I'd like to remember:

- her little goat noises when she was a newborn
- her cackling little laugh when she was smaller
- her big mmmmmmmmmwha, kisses right now
- she has just learned to say please, and when there is something she really wants (like marshmallows) that she shouldn't have, she'll say, "pease. pease. pease." Almost irresistible.
- the way she runs around the house, always in a hurry, but still not completely steady.
- she'll run into the room to tell you something very complicated that requires a lot of hand guestures, but despite her excellent speech, we have no idea what she's saying
- she'll sit down on any little ledge, wherever we are, and then pat the spot next to her and say "mommy sit" or "daddy sit."

Audrey is still doing fabulously well, and I just love seeing her develop and grow. Her vocabulary is growing rapidly each day, and she still has a wonderful, cheerful personality, although she's definitely asserting her independence more and more.

We hope you all had a very Happy Christmas & New Year.

Bread with Avo