9 months old

I'm not going to write about how fast the past month has flown by or about how I can't believe that Audrey is already 9 months old. I'm not going to do it. Instead, I'll tell you a little about all Audrey has been doing for the past month.

The biggest achievement for her this month was learning to army crawl. She can scoot herself all over the place now and get into all kinds of fun things. Electrical cords, remotes, and cell phones are her favorite things to get her hands on.

She really, really likes to stand up right now. If she holds onto the coffee table or couch, she can hold herself up for quite a while, but sometimes she just randomly lets go and falls down. She can't pull herself up on her own yet; she still needs some help. So, she ALWAYS wants someone to help her pull up to standing. She can also take a few steps if you hold onto her hands.

Here are the pictures for month number 9!!

Fun in the kitchen

Now that Audrey's on the move, I can't really trust her by herself when I'm out of the room. She always finds something she's not supposed to have...and quickly. So when I'm in the kitchen, Audrey has been hanging out on the kitchen floor...it's a new place for her, as she hasn't been on the kitchen floor much before. Since she crawls around on her belly, we are finding that she makes a really good little sweeper, picking up all kinds of dirt!! Here are a few pictures from the last few days. And at the end there is a video of Audrey crawling...all the way from the living room to the kitchen. She's getting pretty fast!

A Piano Sonata

Performed by Audrey Paige Shelton
with a special guest appearance by Maggie the dog

First Movement:

Second Movement:

Encore:

How does this thing work?

We went outside to play tonight and I brought Audrey's sippy cup with us I'm trying to get her to drink it, though I haven't been very diligent in giving it to her regularly; I always forget. So tonight I put some yummy juice in it and gave it to her to see if she could figure it out. Poor girl is trying so hard to drink out of it, but she just can't quite figure it out. She's able to get it into her mouth sometimes...she just needs to learn to tilt it up so the juice will come out.

My new favorite pictures!

This afternoon, Audrey woke up from too short of a nap and I couldn't get her to go back to sleep. So we got out this old Fisher Price telephone for her, and I played with my camera and the lens I am borrowing from my brother and took some pictures of her playing. They turned out SO CUTE! I ended up having 90 pictures when I was done, and out of those, I kept 33. I had a hard time picking which ones to post here, because I love them all so much!

Look I can clap my hands!!

Okay, I can't really clap my hands yet. But I can clasp them together and wave them up and down...which is kind of close to clapping them.

Dresses make the best toys!

This telephone is an old toy my mom got in an antique shop. That toy, combined with the hardwood floors, floral carpet, and antique furniture at my mom's house made me want to experiment with some aged/antique looks while I was editing. I'm not sure if this is exactly the look I wanted, but it was fun playing around with these pictures.

And one of my favorites from today is posted on my photo a day blog: here.

One more...

I forgot to post this picture yesterday, but I liked it. I like to think that Maggie is giving her a kiss to help her feel better.

A few cute pictures

I got some cute pictures of Audrey tonight. I got out the camera to take a picture that would capture how fussy she has been for the past 24 hours (see my Daily Photo Blog for more details on that), but instead she was happy and having fun the whole time I had the camera out.

This one is my favorite, though I wish I wouldn't have cut off the top of her head.

She's been sticking her tongue out all day. Daniel thinks she is trying to catch all the snot that is running out of her nose.

Using her dress as a matador's cape???Again, I would love this one if I hadn't cut off her head again...I need to work on that!

Playing with the cash register, which was a favorite toy of mine when I was little. She's too little to be able to play with the coins and figure out all the cool things this cash register can do...but for now she is content to just bang on it as hard as she can.

Why do we bother with toys?

Audrey is starting to scoot and crawl and move around more and more on her belly. She can get across the room if she wants to...she just needs something super cool to get her motivated. We've tried to get her to crawl for one of her favorite toys, but her toys are just not cool enough. I wonder why we even bother with toys, because Audrey seems to be interested in everything BUT her toys these days. Now that she is starting to figure out how to crawl, here are some of the things she has been interested in lately.

Yesterday she discovered Maggie's crate. Fortunately, she didn't try to crawl inside it, but she was quite entertained by opening and shutting the door.

Audrey doesn't like to lay still to have her diaper changed. She does like Maggie's toy...a lot. And when Maggie's toy happens to be lying right next to her while I was trying to change her diaper...this is the result. I was fighting and fighting to keep her still for just a few seconds, but I was losing. So I finally gave up and went to get my camera instead!

Taking pictures of her sitting still and staring at the camera is also getting harder. Tonight she just wanted to climb in my lap and go after one of her other favorite things...the strap to my camera.

It used to work out so nicely to keep this basket with diapers and wipes in it under our coffee table for quick diaper changes in the living room. Audrey thinks it is a great plan as well; she loves to get into the diapers and play with the wipes and the basket.

She also likes to pat the hardwood floor and to listen to the sound it makes when she swipes her hand across it.

Tonight Audrey discovered the dirty rug in the entry way. Not such a good toy, but I let her play with it long enough to get a picture.

After the rug, Audrey noticed the front door. I don't think she has ever really paid much attention to the door before. But tonight, looking at it from the floor, she found it very intriguing.

Maggie is still Audrey's most favorite thing. This morning, we thought she was saying "doggie". I don't think she had any intention of saying "doggie" in reference to Maggie nor do I think she meant to say it...but the sound that was coming out of her mouth did sound a lot like "doggie".

Daddy's stereo is always a good motivator in getting Audrey to crawl.

Happy 4th of July (one day late!)

It was too yucky yesterday to take any outdoor pictures, so I waited until today to take a few pictures of Audrey in her red, white and blue dress (thanks Aunt Nancy for the dress!). My camera battery died shortly after I started taking the pictures, but a few turned out pretty cute.