Videos, Part 4

Here is my final video post (for a while at least!).

I turned the video screen around so Audrey could watch herself, and she loved that. It even got her to sit still for a few moments so I could capture these videos!

Seriously, I love the way she says "Ham". I think she says it in all three of these videos; it is my favorite word of hers! In this next video, she says a few new words she has learned this week. Ice, towel and tent. I was folding towels the other day with Audrey, and we made a tent out of the towel. And she thought that was so fun...so that's why she is saying those words.

Here is Audrey going through the list of names she knows. Some of them she can say fairly well, and then sometimes she just makes up sounds for the names. I forgot to ask her about Katie and Amy...she can pronounce those fairly well, and it's so cute when says them.

Videos, Part 3

One of the Elmo's World episodes that Audrey likes is about jumping. While watching it the other day she started trying to jump herself. Her feet don't quite leave the ground, but that doesn't seem to stop her from trying.

To help Audrey be more cooperative about getting her diaper changed, I have started showing her how to pretend to change her baby's diaper. We change the baby's diaper first, and then we change Audrey's diaper. It seems to be working, as you can see in this video!

If you're getting tired of all the videos, I'm thinking I will just do one more day of this video series. Then we'll get back to regularly scheduled programming. =)

Videos, Part 2

Audrey loves, loves, loves ice cream. We occasionally let her have real ice cream, but most of the time when Audrey thinks she is eating ice cream, she is actually eating frozen Go-gurts. We learned the trick of freezing Go-gurts and calling them ice cream from the Lanters. And Audrey thinks it is the greatest treat!




Our dog Maggie drives me crazy most of the time, and some days I would love to get rid of her. But Audrey really likes Maggie, which means we probably never will purposely get rid of Maggie. Here's an example of Audrey playing with Maggie. I bought Maggie a dog toy the other day (a rare occasion), and Audrey that it was so funny that Maggie had her own toy. She kept running and crawling all over the house, chasing Maggie and laughing at her.

Videos, Part 1

I have a lot of video clips from the past couple of weeks to share with you. Sometimes our video camera sits in the cabinet collecting dust for months, and other times we use it almost every day. Lately, I've captured a lot of fun little moments with Audrey, so I thought I would start a video series here for the next couple of days. (If you are reading this on Facebook, you will need to click "View Original Post" at the bottom of this page to see the videos).

First, a couple of animal sounds. She's been doing these for a long time, and you can tell by how quickly she answers. She is probably so sick of us asking her to make sounds and words all the time!

Audrey loves books. She is especially fond of the Babysitter's Club books that I used to read as a kid. The books are on a shelf that is just her height, and she loves to pull the books off the shelf and bring them to me. She spends some time studying the front covers, then she usually wants me to flip through the pages. And then we repeat the whole process over and over again!

Here's a sample of some of the words she is saying right now. I've been updating the list I made a while back. It's amazing how much she can say! Granted, she hardly ever pronounces anything correctly and I am usually the only one who can understand her...but still, it's fun to get a little peek as to what is going on inside that little head of hers.

I need to try to get some more words on video because some of them are so cute! She has the most enthusiastic "Hi" and "bye-bye" that you've ever seen...but I don't think I have ever captured it on video. I will try to do that soon. I also need to videotape her saying "ham". First of all, it's just funny to me that "ham" is a word she likes to say. There is a picture of ham in one of our magazines, and she just gets so excited about ham. Plus the way she says it is so cute; she emphasizes the "mmmm" at the end. And it cracks me up every time! So stay tuned for lots more videos in the coming days!

Chicago Trip

Before I talk about our trip to Chicago last weekend, I just have to comment on how much fun Audrey is right now. Tonight she was just being so adorable and silly and funny, I didn't want to put her to bed (but I did put her to bed, because even though she is cute, I still had lots of things to get done without her around to distract me!). She is talking so much. Rather than just repeating words on command, she now uses words to communicate what she is thinking, and it's so much fun to listen to her!

Her newest word is "no". It took her a while to start saying "no", but now that she is saying it, "no" has become a quick favorite. Last night we had some people over for Daniel's birthday, and she said "no, no, no" to every kid who touched one of her toys. I have to admit that hearing her say "no" is really cute, but I know the cuteness will fade quickly as she turns into the selfish little girl who won't share her toys. So we're going to be working on the concept of sharing from now on!

Anyway, on to the purpose of this post: Last weekend we went to Chicago for a mini-vacation. On Friday we met my sister Elisabeth and went to Ikea. It was my first trip to Ikea, and I loved it! It was also Audrey's first trip to Ikea (obviously!), and she loved it as well. Her favorite parts were the children's area (she wanted to climb on every bed and play with every toy) and the bathroom (where they had a kid size sink so she could wash her hands all by herself!).


After several hours at Ikea, we went to the mall and out to dinner with Aunt Elisabeth. Then we took Audrey swimming at the hotel pool. Audrey and I were the only ones with swimsuits, so we went swimming while Daniel and Elisabeth took pictures. Audrey hadn't been in a pool since last summer when she was still a baby. So it was fun to see her react to the water, as it was like she was in a pool for the first time. She was a bit scared at first, but she seemed to really like it by the end. She especially liked climbing on the stairs and getting in and out of the water (with Mommy's help of course!).
On Saturday, we met my friend Katy at the Chicago Children's Museum at Navy Pier. Audrey was a bit timid and grumpy at the start of our day there, but she warmed up and had fun by the end. Her favorite exhibit by far was the water play area. Here she is in her too big and incorrectly buttoned raincoat, ready to attack the water.These water spouts were the best. She loves washing her hands, and here she could stand and wash her hands all by herself (just like at Ikea!). It was like heaven for her, I think! And the raincoat proved to be ineffective...she was soaked by the time we dragged her away from the water!

After the Children's Museum, it was time for Audrey to say good-bye to her new friend Katy.

And timed for one last picture in Chicago.And then Audrey completely crashed on the way home. She was asleep by the time we pulled out of the parking garage at Navy Pier! Poor girl...it was a busy weekend, but she was a trooper and cooperated wonderfully the whole time.

Eighteen Months

Audrey is now 18 months old. We had her dr's appointment today. She weighed in at 23 lbs, 8 oz (39th percentile) and 31 1/4 inches (51st percentile), so she is still staying right on average with her size. She is developing just as she should, and the doctor didn't have any concerns at all. I'm pretty sure she remembered her last dr's appointment (which was horrible!), because she started crying as soon as we entered the exam room. Audrey never likes to have the doctor examine her. She always screams bloody murder when they touch her, even just to take her temperature. But today seemed even worse than normal. I think she inherited her mommy's fear of doctors.

Here are a few 18 month pictures with Raggedy Ann. Obviously she doesn't think it is very cool to sit down and look at the camera for pictures!

Showing off her brand new pediped shoes. Mommy is pretty excited about these cute silver shoes!

Her favorite activity at Sprouts (a playgroup at our church) is to play with the shopping cart and groceries.

She has been so silly lately! One night she thought it was hilarious to put the puzzle pieces in her mouth and then let them fall out. And then to keep doing it over and over again.