Too cute!

Audrey has started to raise her hands up in the air when you ask her where something is. It's like she is shrugging her shoulders and saying, "I don't know. Where is it?" It is the cutest thing. I remember when my friend Kellie's daughter Ava used to do that, and I just loved it!! Tonight Audrey and I were playing "Where's the Doggie?" and chasing Maggie around the house (Maggie was definitely annoyed by this game, as every time she laid down and got comfortable, Audrey would come running over to pet her and Maggie would have to get up and try to find a safe Audrey-free spot again!).
Audrey has been a huge grump lately, having fits and temper tantrums and meltdowns one after the other. Getting new teeth, possibly some molars, as well as being sick last week and not sleeping/eating well are probably the culprits. After a good long nap this afternoon though, she was much happier tonight. We had so much fun playing around the house. Audrey loves to open and close doors by herself, and it's even more fun when Mommy is waiting on the other side of the door to say Peek a Boo!I get easily bored being home all day long, playing with the same toys and reading the same books. And I'm assuming Audrey gets bored too. So I've been looking for some new ideas of things we can do. Audrey loves to sort things and take things out of bowls and buckets and then put everything back in. This keeps her more entertained than any toy we own! I read somewhere about filling a Pringles can with pipe cleaners to let toddlers practice taking things out and putting things back in. So I thought I would try it. Audrey seemed to enjoy pulling all the pipe cleaners out of the can, but putting them back in was a bit more difficult. It takes more coordination than you would think since the can is so tall and the pipe cleaners are so tall and bendy. She got a few in, but this game mostly just caused her to get very frustrated! Later she figured out that she could easily put the thermometer in the Pringles can and then dump it back out, and she decided that was way more fun than Mommy's pipe cleaners!!

Audrey's words

I was able to videotape Audrey saying some of her words this afternoon. It's not super clear, because I was taping her while she was eating her snack this afternoon, and her mouth was full of crackers. I know I'm not teaching her proper manners by encouraging her to talk with food in her mouth. But she is always so distracted by the camera that she won't cooperate when we try to videotape her. I thought the food might take the attention away from the camera, and it worked!

(If you are reading this on Facebook, you will need to click "View Original Post" below. For some reason, Facebook doesn't import videos).

Another 15 month update

Audrey had her 15 month dr. appointment this week. She was 21 lbs, 14 oz (35th percentile) and 30 1/4 inches (55th percentile). Poor Audrey had to get 3 shots and have her blood drawn again (they tried at 12 months, but they weren't able to get enough blood). It took FOREVER for them to find a vein on her, 2 tries on one arm and 1 try on the other, and we had to keep Audrey pinned down the whole time. She was screaming, and it was miserable. To try to distract her, Daniel was asking her to do all of her "tricks" (say her words and make animal sounds). Surprisingly, she was able to stop and say a word or make a sound right in the middle of her screams. It was so adorable and so horrible, all at the same time.

Audrey is learning all kinds of words and sounds these days. Some new words that she seems to know pretty well: apple, up, wow and uh-oh (finally! I've been trying to get her to say uh-oh for a long time!). She calls Elmo, "Melmo". She loves brushing her teeth (i.e. sucking the toothpaste off the brush), and is pretty good at saying teeth. Sometimes it sounds like "eesh" but often it really sounds like she is saying teeth. She will sometimes say duck. And she has also started saying "kaka" for cookie. She learned this from a picture in a magazine, because her mean Mommy doesn't give her cookies. Though Audrey is pretty smart to learn the word cookie, because now I want to give her a cookie, to reinforce what she is trying to say! Even with all these new words though, bubble still remains her favorite word!

I don't have many new pictures, but here are a couple from yesterday. It is getting to be impossible to take pictures of Audrey now. I made the mistake of showing her how she can see the pictures on the back of my camera. Now, every time she sees my camera, she wants to look at the pictures on the back. She doesn't understand the concept of me taking a picture and then her looking at the picture. She impatiently wants to see the pictures NOW!

Sledding

We took Audrey sledding fat the park or the first time on Saturday. She really seemed to like it and smiled most of the time Daniel was pulling her around. She wasn't so happy towards the end though...I think her fingers were getting cold. We weren't outside much longer than 10 minutes, so I didn't put gloves on her (because she just pulls them off as soon as I put them on her, so what's the point?). Maybe next time she will be more interested in gloves, because she was not too happy about her cold fingers the whole ride home!

Eating with a Spoon...all by myself!

I'm not sure when kids are supposed to be able to feed themselves with a spoon and fork, but I'm guessing it's probably about time for us to teach Audrey how to feed herself. She is a pro at feeding herself finger foods, but we haven't really given her the chance to feed herself with a spoon or fork. It's so much neater if we feed her those kinds of foods!

But tonight I let her eat her applesauce by herself with a spoon. Audrey thought it was so much fun! And once I showed her what to do, she did fairly well at feeding herself. Until the end when she decided to abandon the spoon and just use her hands instead! Here are some pictures!!

15 months!

Audrey is now 15 months old! She is doing so many fun things right now, I thought I should document them here so I won't forget!

Audrey's best words right now are mama, dada, and bubble. After the nursery workers taught her bubble one week, they are now trying to teach her new words. Last week they tried to get her to say fish while having their goldfish snack. She says "dish" so it's not quite right. But she says it consistently the same, so I think that counts as word. She will also say hi, ball, doggie fairly well if she is in the right mood. She has said up and "ha" for hot and "boo" for book on occasion, and I think she is trying to copy our sounds more and more.

Audrey's animal sounds are expanding. She now knows sheep, cow, lion, dog, and snake. The snake sound is pretty cute as she tries to make a "sss" sound, but can't quite do it. She also can make a "surprised" face and a "scary" face, complete with sound effects. We have a book of baby faces, and those are her two favorite faces. I've been trying to get a picture of her doing these faces, but I haven't succeeded yet. I need to get a video of her doing all these things, but she is always so distracted by the camera that it is hard.

Walking is one of her favorite things to do, especially if we are in a big open space. She just takes off and goes. Sometimes I think she would just walk and walk all day if she had the space. Recently she has been able to get herself to a standing position without holding on to anything. She has also learned how to stomp her feet, which is so cute! A few other favorite activities: opening and closing doors, pulling things in and out of baskets and buckets, dancing to music, and reading books. Lately, she has started to read books on her own, even talking and making sounds while she reads and turns the pages. Though she still prefers to have someone read to her, so she can point to all the things and hear us label everything in the book.

Audrey is still a really good eater. I'm pretty sure that she would just eat all day if we would let her. Occasionally, she will have a picky day. But for the most part, she is still eating her vegetables well. Peas, broccoli and green beans remain her favorite veggies. And she loves all fruit! And all bread! And cheese and yogurt! And she loves sweets on the few occasions when Mommy has allowed her to try some. (I figure that if she likes all the healthy food, why not just let her eat that...she doesn't know what she is missing...yet, so we'll let her eat healthy food for as long as possible!)

Now for the pictures. I tried to take her picture with Raggedy Ann, but she didn't want to sit still. Then she found the remote, which was good because she stayed still. But it was bad because she was trying to figure out how to turn the TV on (she definitely knows what the remote is for!) and wouldn't look at the camera.

Bubbles!!

You can't tell by the serious look at her face, but here she is doing one of her favorite things: pulling all the laundry out of the basket and then putting it all back in again.