Life with the Sheltons

Good-bye!

2010-10-04T16:54:00.000-07:00

I have decided that it is time to say good-bye to the Life with the Shelton's blog. As you probably know, I also keep a Photo a Day blog in addition to this one. Originally, this blog was dedicated to family pictures/stories, and the photo a day blog was simply a photo from the day.

Lately, the photo a day blog has become more than a photo a day. It has become posts with multiple photos, along with stories and thoughts and notes about our family. As a result, I have not posted much on this blog.

It seems silly to keep up two blogs with the same purpose. Thus the reason for saying good-bye to the Life with the Sheltons blog. All posts will now be on my Photo a Day blog: www.emilysdailyphotos.blogspot.com. I will see you there!

The Great Outdoors

2010-09-09T19:43:00.000-07:00

Audrey loves to play outside, and we have not been outside nearly enough this summer. I blame this on the mosquitoes that have overtaken our yard. It is ridiculous. But we braved the mosquitoes tonight and played outside for a bit. Audrey had so much fun. Maggie on the other hand, I don't know. Audrey really likes to tease Maggie with this water bottle.

Showing me her "beez" (leaf).

Watching an airplane up high in the sky!
I love the way she runs with her arms flapping all over the place. It is so adorable.

Counting!

2010-08-25T20:40:00.000-07:00

I have worked with Audrey on counting a little, trying to get her to count to 3 mostly. The best she had done so far was saying "one, two" (actually it's "none, two" according to Audrey)repeatedly.

So she completey shocked me today as we were going upstairs and she counted to twelve! She needed a little help on five, but she did all the other numbers completely on her own initiative. Now before you start thinking my daughter is a genius who just magically can count to twelve, you should know that I often count the stairs outloud as Audrey and I go up them...just because I'm a dork and it gives us something to do. I never thought she would learn her numbers just by listening to me say them as we go up the stairs though. And obviously, she's only 22 months old, so her "counting" is really more like making sounds that kind of sound like numbers. She's not so good at pronunciation.

This video isn't her best "counting". She's a little slow to get started, and then Maggie starts barking and distracting her. But you get the idea.

I kind of wondered if she though that the numbers only go with the stairs and can't be used to count other things. But one time today I got her to count to 10 by counting some stickers in her sticker book, so maybe she gets the concept. Or maybe not. She'll probably wake up tomorrow and forget all about our counting adventures today. She is very unpredictable like that!

Dance Party

2010-08-08T19:39:00.000-07:00

When in the right mood, Audrey loves to dance. The other morning I babysat Simon and Elliot and they had a good time listening to music and dancing...especially Audrey!

Bows

2010-08-05T19:38:00.000-07:00

After Audrey woke up the other day, before I even got her out of bed, she insisted that I put a bow in her hair. So I put one bow in, and then she quickly found another one (bows are everywhere in our house it seems) and wanted that one in her hair as well. So she got to eat her breakfast in her PJ's, with two non-matching bows in her hair...and it was so much fun!

Fear Conquered!

2010-07-30T18:51:00.000-07:00

Audrey is no longer afraid of grass...what a milestone! Yesterday, we played such a fun game that she didn't even think twice about running around in the grass. She would "nun, nun, nun" (run, run, run) and pick up a leaf in the yard, bring it to me, then run back out to look for more. This game probably may have lasted all day, but I was being attacked by mosquitoes and finally had to drag her inside.

Play time

2010-07-27T20:08:00.000-07:00

This afternoon I managed to get some pictures of Audrey while she was playing. This was a pretty impressive feat because normally if she sees me with the camera (or if she sees me at all), she gives up whatever she is playing with to come and grab the camera (or me). So I normally try to stay away when she is nicely entertaining herself.

But today she was looking so cute in a new dress (I saw it at Kohl's yesterday for just $2.60 and couldn't resist) and she was having so much fun playing with her Yo Gabba Gabba sticker book (a FREE find at a garage sale) that I had to take a few pictures.

I also learned a new trick today for getting Audrey to smile at the camera. When you ask her to say cheese, she does this. (See also my photo of the day). She sticks her chin straight up in the air and often looks away from the camera.

I found today that if I ask her to say names of the characters on Yo Gabba Gabba (can you tell she is obsessed with that show?), then it will almost always make her smile. This is the smile she gave me after saying "Muno", which I think is one of her favorite characters.

New Sounds!

2010-07-12T19:08:00.000-07:00

Audrey has learned a few new sounds. She can do a rooster and a donkey and a Papaw. The rooster and donkey sounds aren't quite right, but they are pretty cute. The Papaw sound is something Daniel's dad taught her to do.

Yummy Watermelon

2010-06-30T20:30:00.000-07:00

Finally...a new post!

2010-06-17T19:44:00.000-07:00

Hello, Life with the Sheltons Blog!! It's been almost three weeks since I've posted here, and I'm so sorry I have neglected you! I have several posts and pictures that I have been meaning to share here, it's just been a matter of finding the time to do it. I have been keeping up with my photo a day blog regularly, so I don't feel like a total blog failure.

For now, here are some pictures I took of Audrey playing outside tonight. She kept running around her slide again and again, then she would stop and go down the slide. And then "run, run, run" (that's what we were saying while she was running) around the slide again, and then back down the slide. And the whole time she was smiling and laughing. I love when she plays little games with herself. She is turning into such a big girl!

And here is a picture of how long Audrey's hair is now! Crazy, considering that she was pretty much bald a year ago! It's still fairly short in the front and on the sides though. She definitely has a mullet going on. I've been putting pigtails in almost every day lately, because they seem to conceal the mullet. And I think she looks pretty adorable in pigtails!
One more update: I have officially given up on keeping track of Audrey's Words. I just can't keep up with her anymore! She keeps saying things that take me completly by surprise, because I don't remember teaching her to say them. I guess she is just picking up on things in our everyday converstaions now. Which is a little scary, because who knows what she will start saying now! She is still not putting two words together or saying any kind of sentences, but I'm sure that will come soon enough.

Videos, Part 4

2010-05-27T13:14:00.001-07:00

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

2010-05-24T19:06:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-22T13:01:00.001-07:00

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

2010-05-21T09:22:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-10T19:16:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-05T13:52:00.000-07:00

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.

This Morning

2010-04-27T18:34:00.000-07:00

Our poor video camera has been collecting dust lately, so I pulled it out this morning to capture a few moments with Audrey.

Audrey loves to open and close doors. She especially loves to slam the doors closed as hard as she possibly can. She's been doing this since before she could walk and has yet to slam her fingers in the door...but I am sure that day will someday come. Our newest game goes like this: Audrey tells me bye-bye and slams the door. I open the door and say hello. Audrey laughs and giggles, then says bye-bye and starts the game again. Of course, since I had the video camera out, Audrey wasn't all that interested in playing the game very well today. But there is still plenty of door slamming in the video below.

(As you watch the video below, you may notice that this is a dangerous game for Maggie, who likes to try to run through the door at the same time that Audrey is closing it. Don't worry...even though it looks like Maggie gets hit by the door in this video, the loud sound that you hear is my hand hitting the door to stop it. It is not Maggie's head. No dogs were injured in the making of this video!)

Audrey often goes up to the piano bench and says "B-i-b-i-b-i", which meands "B-i-b-l-e", which means she wants to play the piano. (We play and sing the B-I-B-L-E song together a lot).

Remember these videos from last July? Audrey has come a long way in her piano playing skills in the past 9 months. Back then, she used the palms of her hands to bang loudly on the keys. Now, she often uses her fingers to play one key at a time (and she figured that out by herself, I didn't even teach her!). Back then, Audrey had to sit on Mommy's lap to play the piano. Now, she can sit on the bench all by herself. Back then, Maggie howled annoyingly in the background. Now, oh wait...Maggie hasn't changed a bit!

I am very impressed that Audrey can recognize the tune to Elmo's Song after hearing only a few notes. (We must let her watch her Elmo's World DVD too much!)

I have more videos, but that's probably enough for one post. I'll save the rest for another day!

Eating with a fork

2010-04-20T18:43:00.000-07:00

As I posted on my Photo a Day blog, Audrey has been eating with a fork lately, or at least trying to eat with a fork. She hasn't quite mastered it yet, but she thinks forks are really fun! As usual, I took a series of pictures to capture her eating adventures tonight!

All done and ready to wash my hands!!

Words

2010-04-18T09:12:00.000-07:00

Since I am sentimental and like recording all of Audrey's milestones and since I am also too lazy to get out her baby book and write these things down, I'm going to start a list here of all the words Audrey is saying. Mostly for my own record-keeping...maybe someday I'll actually get all of these things written in her book.

Audrey is almost 18 months old, and here are the words she is saying now along with her pronunciations and my commentary on what she is saying. She says a lot of things consistently, but she consistently pronounces many words wrong (as is to be expected from an 18 month old!). Often I am the only one who understands her!

Words:
1. hi
2. hello (when pretending to talk on the phone)
3. bye-bye
4. ball
5. baby
6. up
7. hot
8. hat
9. coat
10. boat
11. dog/doggie ("doa" or "da-ya"is how she says it, she hasn't quite mastered this one yet and normally just says "woof woof" when she wants to say dog)
12. cat (she is really good at saying cat though, and often emphasizes the "t" sound)
13. bubble (an early favorite!)
14. apple
15. wow
16. cookie (she doesn't quite say this right, but I can't remember how she pronounces it)
17. milk ("Gilk")
18. bananana ("ba-ba")
19. water ("wa-wa")
20. cracker (I don't think she quite gets both "r" sounds in, but it really sounds like cracker when she says it)
21. Light ("ight", she often leaves off the first consonant of words...I think that's a normal thing)
22. Walk ("ock")
23. Clock (I don't think she really pronounces the l, so it sounds more like "cock", she learned this just the other day from watching a Baby Einstein video)
24. fish ("eesh", mostly in reference to Goldfish crackers)
25. teeth (she pronounces this various ways, but it is almost always accompanied by a motion like she is brushing her teeth)
26. help ("elp", which really sounds like up)
27. cheese ("eez", she is starting to say this anytime she sees the camera!)
28. keys
29. boy and oh boy (sometimes she says "bee" instead of boy)
30. yellow ("we-woh", this is the only color she knows, but she points to things that are yellow and will say "we-woh")
31. rock ("ock", as in rock in the rocking chair)
32. eye
33. go
***Added the week of 4/26/10***
34. shoes ("foos")
35. all done ("ah da")
36. please ("Pease")
37. TV (I'm a bit sad that she has already learned this one.)
38. flower ("fowfa")
39. Ice cream ("i cree")
***Added the week of 5/9/10***
40. cow
41. goat
42. car
43. no (I'm surprised it took her so long to learn this one, but now that she knows it, it has become an instant favorite!)
44. ham
45. book ("gook")
***Added the week of 5/16/10***
46. chair
47. green beans ("bee bees")
***Added the week of 6/13/10***
48. ice
49. tent
50. towel
51. rock
52. doorbell (She doesn't really say this clearly, but I know what she is talking about)
53. nose
54. mouth
55. arm
56. ear
57. tongue (sounds more like "dun")
58. trash
59. juice ("Jew")
***and now I am officially giving up on this list! I know there are so many more words that she can say. She is constantly repeating words and saying new things every day. I just can't keep track of it all anymore! Maybe my next list will be Audrey's First Sentences. But so far, she is just sticking with individual words for now.***

Names:
1. Mama
2. Dadda
3. Audrey ("Au-dee")
4. Mimi (for grandma)
5. Papaw (for grandpa)
6. Elmo ("melmo" though it often sounds like Mama)
7. Amy ("Mamy")
8. Katie (she says this perfectly, emphasizing the "t" sound)
9. Cael ("Cae")
10. Natalie ("Na-na")
11. Heidi
12. Seth ("Feh")
13. Elliot ("Aaaaaaa" or "au-dee" She can't say her buddy Elliot's name, but she consistently says these things when she sees him, so I'm writing it down. There is a video on Facebook of Elliot and his brother screaming "aaaaa" that Audrey loves, so I think that's why she associates "Aaaa" with Elliot. Elliot recently learned to say Audrey, and he says it every time he sees her. So now I think Audrey associates her own name with Elliot too)
***Added the week of 5/9/10***
14. Tik (our neighbor)
15. Evie ("beebee", Tik's daughter, Audrey gets so excited every time we mention her name!)
16. Ernie (from Sesame Street, we don't really watch Sesame Street but she is learning these names from the Sesame Street books that we own)
17. Abby (from Sesame Street)

That's all I can think of for now. I'll try to update this list as new words are learned, and we'll see how long I can keep up with it!

Audrey and the Mural

2010-04-15T19:48:00.000-07:00

So Audrey loves this mural that is painted in the hallway of the children's area at our church. Every Wednesday night she takes off straight for this area (saying "Woof, Woof" and raising her hands to ask where's the doggie?). When she gets there, she runs around to give all the characters a hug. The difficulty of trying to give a hug to a flat painting doesn't seem to bother her.

I wish I would have had my video camera with me, because that probably would have captured her cuteness much better. But these pictures will have to do for now.

First, she gives the brown doggie a hug.

Then it's time to hug the dalmation.This doggie was special enough to get a kiss!And the boy (or "bee" as Audrey calls him) gets a hug too.

And don't forget about the girl!

Last, but not least, she saves a hug for the squirrel.

The Zoo

2010-04-06T20:43:00.000-07:00

Audrey and I went with Lindsey and Simon and Elliot and Simon's friend Mikayla to the zoo this afternoon. This was the second time that we had been to the zoo in a week! Daniel and I took Audrey last Friday as well. Both times, I was surprised by how unexcited Audrey was at the zoo. It's not that she doesn't like it; she just doesn't get as animated as we would expect. Outside of the zoo, she gets so excited when we see a dog, cat, squirrel, bird or duck. She laughs and wants to run up and say hi. But at the zoo, she looks like this most of the time: This is Elliot's zoo face, slightly more enthusiastic:

Simon and Mikayla took time out from seeing the animals to put on a show for us. They were acting out some version of The Wizard of Oz.

Here are Elliot and Audrey, watching the show.

That picture of Elliot and Audrey watching from the stroller reminded me of this picture, where they were watching Simon and Natalie go on the carousel at the mall:

And this picture, where they were watching Simon ride on the swings at the fair:

Poor Audrey and Elliot...always on the sidelines!!

Happy Easter!

2010-04-04T19:16:00.000-07:00

One thing I love about blogging is being able to go back and read old entries. Take a look at last year's Easter entry (http://lifewiththesheltons.blogspot.com/2009/04/happy-easter.html) to see how much Audrey has changed in the past year!!

We had a nice Easter. After church, we had some friends over for lunch. I cooked a ham (for the first time) and made homemade rolls (for the first time). Our friends brought some more yummy food, and we had quite the feast! Audrey and her friend Hannah got to play and have a very quick Easter egg hunt (it was thundering and about to rain, so we had to make it short!). It rained a few times, but then it was bright and sunny and nice for most of the day.

(These next pictures were taken a couple of days ago when we had an Easter photo shoot and a practice egg hunt!)

I have more pictures that I will post to a Facebook album soon, but Facebook is not letting me upload pictures tonight. Check back soon for the link to those pictures.

(OK, Facebook is working now. You can find more pictures here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=413870&id=521110244&l=6dfefb7b82)

First Dairy Queen trip

2010-03-26T18:30:00.000-07:00

A new Dairy Queen opened in our area today, and we are VERY excited about it! We braved the crowds and headed to the grand opening today for an ice cream treat. We even let Audrey eat her very own dish of ice cream (instead of making her share with us like we normally would). I think this is the most ice cream Audrey has ever had, and obviously, she liked it quite a bit!!

Pippi Longstocking

2010-03-23T13:53:00.000-07:00

Today I was able to get Audrey's hair into pigtails for the first time. She wasn't a big fan of me fixing her hair and she was very squirmy, so we ended up with messy, uneven pigtails. But she looked pretty cute still!!

My camera battery died right in the middle of these outside pictures...or else I probably would have kept taking pictures all afternoon!

With all this pigtails talk, I've had the Pippi Longstocking theme song stuck in my head all day. "Pippi Longstocking is coming into your world. A freckled face red head girl you want to know..." How do I still remember this song??

Yummy Broccoli

2010-03-22T20:02:00.000-07:00

Tonight Audrey had broccoli and pizza on her tray, and guess what she was more interested in eating...the broccoli! This would have been completely normal a couple of months ago...broccoli (and all vegetables) were her favorite food. But she has grown much pickier recently. It's been a while since we've been able to get her to eat any vegetables at all. But tonight, broccoli was back to being a favorite. Personally I think she's crazy (I hate all green vegetables!), but it also gives me hope that maybe she will grow up to be a healthier eater than her mommy is.

Backyard fun

2010-03-20T10:54:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Daniel raked all the spiky, gumball things out of our backyard. We have this tree that drops these annoying balls into our yard, and there were so many that Audrey could hardly walk in the yard without falling down. But they are gone now, so Audrey was free to run around. What did she do? She found her way to this little piece of cement outside our garage door. And she would not leave this spot! She never stays still for anything, and yet once she found this spot, she did not want to move! I wish she would have picked a spot that didn't have trash cans in the background, because it would have made for better pictures!

Hmmm...what should I do in this cool new place??

Maybe I will show you my belly button.

Here it is!!!This shirt is yummy!! (and my belly is big!!)It's so much fun to stand on the piece of cement next to the garage door and the trash cans.I think I will just stand here and laugh all day long.

Park Outing

2010-03-05T07:29:00.000-08:00

The weather has been a bit warmer lately, still not warm, but closer to warm than it has been in a long time. So yesterday, Audrey and I went to the park for a quick little outing with Lindsey and her boys.

First we fed the ducks...for more on that see my Photo a Day blog.

Then we went up to the playground for a few minutes. Here is a picture of Audrey at the playground.

Notice how there is not any playground equipment in the picture. That's because as soon as I put Audrey down next to the slide or the ramp or any of the playground things that I thought she would like, she would take off in the opposite direction!Here I was all excited to get a picture of her on the slide, and she didn't want to have anythying to do with it. The freedom of all that open space was calling her name!And then she discovered this fun and exciting activity: stepping up the tiny step at the edge of the playground onto the concrete.

And then stepping back down the step into the playground mulch. And back up.And then back down. Over and over again. All of this fun stuff to do at the playground, and this is what she picks! Oh what a silly girl!
She did take time to stop and give this big stone dog a hug and a kiss though...pretty cute!

Too cute!

2010-02-25T19:29:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-24T20:51:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-13T19:32:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-07T20:33:00.001-08:00

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!

2010-02-05T18:45:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-02-01T20:26:00.000-08:00

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.

Bubble

2010-01-21T18:31:00.001-08:00

Are you ready for the cutest thing ever? OK, well maybe I am a bit partial, but it really is adorable. Audrey learned how to say bubble last night! They were playing with bubbles in the nursery at church, and she just started saying bubble. It really is so cute...I kept making her say it over and over today just because it makes me smile. It's exciting because she doesn't say too many words yet. She will say mama, dada, and hi consistently and occasionally she will say ball, baby and doggie. Bubble seems like a big word compared to those little words!

So today I went to Wal-mart and bought some bubbles. Audrey and Daniel had a good time playing with them tonight. She got even more excited about the bubbles after we put the video camera away...but these videos are still cute.

Entertainment on a Cold Winter Day

2010-01-06T19:49:00.001-08:00

How do you keep a toddler entertained during long, cold, winter days at home? A hat, a rocking chair and some pillows provided some fun play time for Audrey today!

All Bundled Up and Ready to Go!

2010-01-04T19:46:00.000-08:00

Audrey convinced me to brave the cold and get out of the house today. She was ready to go, all bundled up with Mommy's keys in hand!! Doesn't she look cute in her coat and hat?? My mom got her this hat for Christmas, but today was the first time she let me put it on her head and leave it there. And then she kept it on for our whole outing (to Hobby Lobby, Sonic and back)! She must have enjoyed the warmth on this cold, cold day!

Christmas Eve pictures

2010-01-03T20:05:00.000-08:00

Here is Audrey in her Christmas outift...from the front: And the side:

And the back:

And a few family portraits:

Opening Presents

2009-12-30T19:59:00.000-08:00

Time to get caught up on some blogging! I have several pictures from all of our Christmas travels over the past week, so I will probably share them over my next few posts.

Audrey got to open presents five different times between all of our Christmas celebrations with family. She did a pretty good job at sitting down with us and opening presents for a little bit at least, though she was usually more interested in walking around and exploring all the different houses we visited.

Christmas morning: Audrey opened her stocking and her presents from Mommy and Daddy.

Christmas evening: We opened more presents at Daniel's aunt and uncle's house. This was when Audrey first discovered how much fun it is to tear up tissue paper!

The day after Christmas: More present opening with Daniel's family and siblings. This is Audrey's hat that she got from Mimi and Papaw.

A few days after Christmas: we opened presents with my mom and Marcus in Keokuk. Again...Audrey found the tissue paper to be the most entertaining part.

And a couple of days after that: we had our final present opening with my Dad and his family at my grandma's house in Quincy.

Merry Christmas from the Sheltons!

2009-12-24T17:45:00.000-08:00

We made one of these videos last year and it was fun, so I thought I would do it again. Enjoy!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Videos!!

2009-12-16T14:53:00.001-08:00

Audrey is doing a lot these days, and we've been horrible at videotaping anything. I have tons of video of her laying on the ground and doing nothing when she was 6 weeks old, but very little video of all the fun new things she is learning to do now. So I decided to try to fix that the other day and videotape her doing all of her new tricks. The only problem is that she doesn't like to show off when we want her too...and she is always distracted by the camera. So it's hard to capture any of those moments on video.

Her newest thing is to make animal sounds. She can do a sheep sound and a lion sound really well (when she wants to at least!). She can sort of do a cow sound, and on occasion she has attempted to imitate a dog and a cat sound. Here's the lion sound:

And you can hear her do a sheep sound in this one. Also, one of her new "games" to play is to hand the phone to me so I can put it by my ear and say hello. Then I put it up to her ear and she licks it...she doesn't quite understand the idea of talking on the phone yet. =)

I haven't really posted much on this blog about Audrey's walking. She is walking pretty well on her own now, though she still falls down quite frequently (her face is a mess right now...a bruise on the left cheek, a big bruise on the right cheek that looks like a black eye, a cut on her lip). You can see her walking in this video, as well as bending down to pick up a toy and standing back up without falling down. There's also a little samping of her sheep and lion sounds here...and you can hear her say "doggie" (or at least her version of doggie) if you listen closely.

Audrey really likes toys that have buttons she can push, especially if music plays after the button is pushed (like the fish in this next video). On several occasions I have found her surrounded by 3-4 of these types of toys, and the music is playing on all of them! She likes to "dance" while the music plays.

Our Little Drama Queen

2009-12-11T19:19:00.000-08:00

This afternoon, I was trying to finish making a dessert for our church Christmas party tonight. To keep Audrey occupied, I gave her some bowls and spoons and spatulas to play with. She thought they were pretty fun new toys. She figured out this week that it can be a lot of fun to put something in her mouth and then let go, so she is just holding it with her mouth. She had a good time trying out this new trick with the wooden spoons and spatulas.

Unfortunately, once I finally got focused on the task at hand--fixing my dessert, Audrey decided she was bored with the spoons and spatulas and moved on to emptying all the food out of the dog's bowl. And I didn't take pictures of that, because I wasn't too amused at the time. I've been trying to teach her that the dog food is off limits...and it has resulted in many temper tantrums from Little Miss Audrey. Today was no exception.

Actually it doesn't take much at all to cause a tantrum with Audrey the past couple of days, just looking at her sometimes seems to cause her to scream. She's been a mess. I'm thinking she is getting some more teeth. At least, that's what I tell myself. It is easier for me to be patient with her grumpiness, when I know there is a reason for the grumpiness. Plus, I think part of it is her age and the independence she has found now that she is walking. She knows what she wants, and she knows when she doesn't get what she wants. But she doesn't yet understand why she can't get what she wants. And that must be frustrating for her. Actually, I know it's frustrating for her because she lets everyone know how upset she is with her screams.

The good news is that she goes from screaming hysterically one second to laughing hysterically the next second. Bi-polar would be the best word to describe her..she is definitely a drama queen these days! I guess she doesn't want life at our house to be boring, so she keeps us on our toes!

Fun Times!

2009-11-28T18:57:00.000-08:00

We spent today cleaning and packing and getting ready for our trip to Joplin tomorrow. While we were getting all of our clothes together, Audrey had so much fun playing in the suitcase! She climbed/dove in and out over and over again. It was cracking me up!

And here's a video of Audrey walking with her walker and then walking on her own. She had a major breakthrough with the walker tonight. She has been walking with it for months now, but she could never figure out how to turn it around when she ran into something. So she would walk a few feet, run into something, ram the walker into that object over and over, then raise her hand in frustration, waiting for someone to come help her move it. But tonight, all of a sudden, she figured out how to back up and turn around with the walker...and a whole new world opened up! She can now weave her way through narrow doorways and back around in circles with the walker...like she's been doing it that way all along!

A Night Out (on a budget!)

2009-11-20T07:49:00.000-08:00

Last night Daniel and I went to St. Louis for an early anniversary celebration. Our anniversary is not until December 20. But we will be busy with our Christmas production at church that weekend, and the show I wanted to see was playing now, so we decided to celebrate a month early. When we got married, we decided that instead of getting presents for each other on our anniversary, we would go out and do something together. We haven't been able to go away for a whole night in a while, due to having a baby and being on a budget. But we left Audrey with a trusted friend for the night, and we took advantage of some really good deals that made it an affordable night for us. We were able to enjoy a $300 night away for around $100.

First we checked into our hotel. We stayed at the Crowne Plaza in downtown St. Louis. It was pretty nice, and our room had a great view of the riverfront and the arch. Our hotel is the building right next to the Hyatt. It was an older hotel, but it was still nice.
This is the hotel lobby.
To get a good deal on the hotel, I used Hotwire.com. I love using Hotwire to get good rates on nice hotels. The only downside is that you don't know what hotel you will be staying at until after you pay. You chose the location and the star rating of the hotel, then book your room, and then they tell you where you will be staying. I've used it several times in the past and have always had a great experience. This time we got our room at the Crowne Plaza for just $52 (plus fees/taxes which made it about $65 total). This was our room.And we were surprised that the room had a balcony with a great view of the riverfront and the arch. I wasn't able to get a picture of the whole arch (because I forgot to pack my other camera lens, and the one I was using does not allow you to zoom in or out, making for limited picture taking of big objects like the Arch!). But, from our room, you could see the entire arch and riverfront. Here are a couple of shots of the view from our balcony. I couldn't stay on the balcony too long, because we were on the 20th floor, and I'm a bit afraid of heights! This first one was as the sun was setting on Friday night.
And this was the view from our room when we got up this morning:

After we checked in, we walked down to the riverfront. It was a pretty nice day for November! Again, it was a bit difficult to take Arch pictures with the lens I was using, but Daniel was able to get a fun angle with this one.

And here's Daniel at the base of the Arch. He looks so little!

For dinner, we ate at a little place called 400 Olive. It was in the downtown Hilton hotel, which was conveniently located directly across the street from our hotel. It was a nice place, and the food was pretty good. Here we are at the restaurant. They had these little circular booths, which looked really fun but they were a bit awkward for seating.

For a good deal on our dinner, I used restaurant.com. It's another website that I really like, but I don't get to use very frequently because they don't really have any restaurants in Springfield. But if you live in a city, there are all kinds of restaurant options. On restaurant.com you can buy $25 restaurant gift certificates for just $10. But they often run sales, like they did last week, where everything is 80% off. Then you can get $25 gift certificates for $2! So that's what I did. If you use restaurant.com, be sure to read the fine print! Our $25 gift certificate was only valid on a $35 dinner. So you can't really get a free meal as there are always stipulations for using the gift certificate. Our meal was about $47 after tip. But with the gift certificate, we only had to pay $22, which saved us quite a bit!

Then it was time to go to the Fox! This was the 5th musical that we have seen there; we just love going to see shows! Going to see professional shows is a very expensive habit, so it's been a while since have been able to go together. This time we were fortunate to have received a $100 gift certificate to the Fox as a Christmas gift. So we got 2 great seats in the first row of the balcony for just $7 total!

We saw In the Heights and loved it. It was really good. If it is playing in your area, you should go see it! It's a fairly new musical (I think it originated on Broadway in 2007), so I don't think too many people are familiar with it. The theater was not very full, which surprised us. And it kind of made me sad, because a lot of people missed out on a great show!

So, we had an enjoyable night out, and it was made even more enjoyable by the fact that I didn't feel like we were spending too much money! I love getting good deals!

New teeth and a new trick!

2009-11-11T11:51:00.000-08:00

This morning, while Audrey was snacking on some cheerios, I attempted to take a picture for my A Photo a Day blog. I always wait until late at night to take those pictures, and I was trying to be more on top of things today!

And while taking pictures, I got this one...which I am SO excited about!!

Can you see her teeth??? You can actually see all three of them in this picture! This is the first picture that I have of her teeth; she is normally very reluctant to show them off! But she has started to do these cheesy grin where she squints her eyes and smiles really big...and it shows off all of her teeth! The top one is just starting to come in...here's a closeup so you can see those pearly whites a little better!
And some other big news for Little Miss Audrey...she now knows how to clap (FINALLY!). It's been 6 months since I first started to try to get her to clap...and all of a sudden she loves it and wants to clap all the time! And to think I just talked to the Dr. last week about whether we should be concerned about her non-clapping. She just has her own timeline for doing these things, and it is not always the same as what I think it should be. I think we should start calling her Little Miss Independent.

Audrey's Really Big Leaf

2009-11-08T12:08:00.000-08:00

Audrey and Daddy found a really big leaf in our yard the other day. Audrey thought it was really cool and carried it around for a while. She's so cute!!

12 month check up

2009-11-05T13:08:00.001-08:00

Today, Audrey had her 12 month check up. She weighed in at 20 pounds exactly (35th percentile) and was 29 1/4 inches long (67th percentile). She seems to be doing well, and the doctor didn't have any concerns. Both the Dr. and I think it is odd that Audrey still doesn't clap her hands, but since she uses her hands normally in all other ways, the Dr. didn't think it was anything to worry about. I suppose she will clap when she decides she is ready to clap!

It wasn't a very fun visit for Audrey (or me!) though. She had to get her regular 1 year shots, then she got a flu shot, and then they had to draw her blood to test for lead poisoning and anemia! She did pretty well until it was time to draw her blood. They asked me to pin down her legs and her shoulders (which was a bit difficult). Then the nurse was having trouble finding a vein, so they had to switch arms. That's about the time when Audrey decided she had had enough of being pinned down and laying still. Finally, the nurse went ahead and poked her with the needle. That was about the time that I accidentally glanced over at the needle and Audrey's blood spurting out. I have issues with my own blood being drawn, and I now know that I have issues when someone tries to draw my daughter's blood. Shots don't bother me, but sticking a needle in the arm and leaving it there while blood comes out...that is more than I can handle. So, I start to get hot and nauseaus and dizzy, all while I am trying to hold down a screaming Audrey who is fighting me with all her strength. And after all of that, the nurse was only able to get a small amount of Audrey's blood...not even enough to do one of the tests. So we get to go through the whole process again in 3 months at her 15 month appointment. Daddy is going to have to come along that time to make sure I don't pass out!!

It's now time to install the new forward-facing car seat and make the transition to whole milk and sippy cups...basically we're saying good-bye to our little baby and hello to our new toddler!

12 months old!!

2009-11-01T14:23:00.001-08:00

Yesterday was Audrey's 1st birthday. I'll start with a few updates on what she is doing right now, then we'll get to some pictures!

She is getting close to walking. We've been saying that for a while now, but she is right on the verge. She has taken up to 6 steps all by herself, and she is starting to walk very, very quickly while just holding on to one of our fingers for support. She is also starting to crawl on all fours, finally!! She will still resort to army crawling when she really wants to get somewhere quickly, but we are seeing her on all fours more and more often.

Last week, while she had the flu, she also got 2 more teeth. So she now has 3 teeth total, and I'm sure we'll be seeing more pop up in the very near future. Fun times!

We're still working on the sippy cup. She just is not that fond of any of the sippy cups we have tried. She will drink out of it, but her new thing is to take a big gulp then spit it out all over herself. She's still taking a bottle in the morning and a bottle at night. We're going to work on getting rid of the bottle all together in the coming weeks and making the transition from formula to whole milk. I'm sure there will be more fun times ahead with all of that!

She is babbling constantly, but not saying many real "words." For a while I thought she was saying doggie, ball, mommy and daddy in the right context. But right now, her word of choice is dada and she calls everything that! She talks in more of a conversational tone though, like she is trying to communicate but just doesn't know the words to use. She is also pointing at a lot of things now, which is nice because you can kind of understand what she is trying to communicate by looking at what she is pointing at.

OK, here are some Raggedy Ann pictures. We put her in a Halloween outfit, since her birthday is on Halloween and all!

And here she is in her birthday outfit!

The cake!

Audrey thought the cake was quite delicious.

After the birthday party, it was time for a nap. Then it was time to get dressed up for Halloween! She was a pretty cute little ballerina!

Poor Sick Babies!

2009-10-26T17:47:00.000-07:00

Daniel and Audrey are sick with the flu. My daily photo blog has kind of turned into my daily flu update blog, so check it out if you want to know more (http://www.emilysdailyphotos.blogspot.com/)!

It's been a while

2009-10-21T12:27:00.000-07:00

I just realized it's been a few weeks since I've posted anything here. We were out of of town last week. We went camping with Daniel's parents in Indiana and then went to our small group's 4th annual Martha Stewart weekend in Tuscola, IL over the weekend. We had a good time even though the weather was yucky all week. For pictures of all our travels last week, go here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=330225&id=521110244&l=1f6f9f79e2

This week the weather has been so nice! Mostly sunny, with highs in the lower 70s. It is gorgeous fall weather. This morning, Audrey and I spent some time in our backyard. I thought she would have fun playing with her ball (which just happened to match her shirt!). But after a few minutes with the ball, she was ready to walk/run around the back yard. She is still not walking by herself yet, though she is pretty close. So she wore me out leading me around to explore every inch of our backyard.

More outside pics

2009-10-06T17:06:00.000-07:00

We went outside on the back patio for a bit this afternoon.. And I took advantage of the natural light to take a few pictures. It was a bit windy, as evidenced by Audrey's wild hair in this picture!
Here she is practicing her wind blown, contemplative look.

And here are a few smiles! For an explanation of her blue fingers, see my daily photo blog.

It's rare to see Audrey crawling on all fours. But that's all she wanted to do outside. So it shows she CAN do it, she just prefers to army crawl most of the time.

Showing off her cute back jean pockets!!

Eleven months old

2009-10-01T19:21:00.000-07:00

Audrey is 11 months now, and I almost forgot to take pictures with Raggedy Ann and write a blog post! There is so much to write about this month because Audrey has changed so much recently. Daniel and I were just talking this week about how she really isn't a baby anymore! =(

I think she is saying something like "doggie" pretty consistently in the right context. She says "da" in reference to Maggie all the time, and sometimes she will add a "gee" sound on the end that makes it sound like doggie...so I think we can count that as her first word. She has also made the sounds for ball, dada, and mama...though I'm not sure if she always means them in the right context or if she is just making random sounds. I am amazed by how much she understands and responds to what we say to her though. She is like a little person now; it's crazy!!

She is pulling up on everything now. Here she is pulling up on her toy basket and making her way toward the entertainment center.

She loves to walk, especially if she can hold on to something (either us or her walker) with two hands. She can walk only holding on with one hand for a little bit, but she is pretty scared to let go and try it. I need to get a video of her pushing her walker around the basement; it's pretty cute.

We are moving into the 12 month size clothes now as her 9 month clothes were getting a bit snug and short (and they were all summer clothes and it's getting cold!). The 12 month shirts fit her fairly well; the 12 month pants are a bit baggy and too long. As you can see from the above pictures, this makes learning to walk difficult when her pants are always in the way. Hopefully she will grow into them soon!!!

Audrey is finally getting her first tooth!! One of her bottom teeth is just beginning to break through her gums this week. And the 2nd one looks like it is about ready to follow suit. She has been quite the firecracker this week...losing her temper at the drop of the hat. She throws little temper tantrums (kicking her feet and screaming and all), but she usually gets over them in a matter of seconds and can easily be redirected to something else. I'm kind of hoping the teeth are partially the reason for her short fuse, but I don't know...

She is mostly eating table foods now. She has tried all sorts of foods and seems to like most everything. She is still taking 3 bottles a day. We're trying to improve her sippy cup skills so we can move away from the bottle around her first birthday. She can now drink out of the cup with no problems, but she just has no interest in the cup at all. It may be a rough transition.

OK, enough rambling. I only took a couple of pictures tonight. As usual, Audrey did not want to sit still and kept trying to dive off of the couch which was making me a little nervous.

This is the face she made when I held up her favorite book.

She loves this Baby Faces book and any book that has pictures of real babies in it.

Silly Monkey

2009-09-29T18:25:00.001-07:00

Audrey wore these monkey PJ's last night. And this morning I really want to get a picture of her in her PJ's with her stuffed monkey. But she didn't really want to sit still with the monkey...at all!

When I first set her down, she threw a fit and didn't want to have anything to do with the monkey! This was a fairly common behavior for Audrey this morning. Anytime I wouldn't let her do something that she wanted to do, she would throw a little temper tantrum. In her defense, she is finally cutting her first tooth, so maybe that explains the irritability. Though she is a pretty strong willed little girl...she may end up being quite the drama queen! (Despite her crying, I really like this picture!!)

She was quite happy to sit still and play with her jeans though.

Then I put the monkey on the couch, thinking Audrey would want to stand up and play with it. But then she discovered the baby monitor on the couch, and it is obviously way cooler than a silly stuffed monkey. Mmm...yummy baby monitor!

This is the best one I got with the monkey. But that's OK, all of these other pictures are probably more "real" than any posed picture with a monkey. They make for a much more entertaining blog post too!

You just never know what this silly little monkey is going to do next!!

Audrey's New Tutu

2009-09-24T18:59:00.000-07:00

This adorable bundle of pink fluffiness is the tutu I bought Audrey to wear for Halloween. We tried it on her today, and let me tell you...she is going to make the cutest little ballerina that you have ever seen!

The only problem is that Audrey doesn't seem to be a big fan of the tutu. I think it felt scratchy to her...every time she touched it, she would make the funniest face (the same face she used to make when she touched grass!). So I thought I would let her play with it for a little bit, so she could see that it wasn't such a bad thing after all. Here's what happened:

Whew...much better now that the tutu is gone!!

Playing Outside

2009-09-17T19:21:00.000-07:00

We put on bug spray and headed out to "Mosquitoland" (aka, our backyard) tonight. I feel bad because we haven't played outside too much this summer, mostly because the mosquitoes have been horrible. Seriously, you can't stand in our yard for a minute or two without getting bit. So annoying! And I never really thought about bug spray until tonight, silly me! It did seem to help, because I don't think I got any bites and I didn't notice any on Audrey either.

Audrey also seems to be over her slight fear of grass. I don't know that she was ever afraid of grass, but she never seemed to be quite sure what to think of it. Tonight, she was digging around in the grass and finding all sorts of treasures! It was fun to see her examine everything!

Audrey has a question...and other random pics

2009-09-13T19:50:00.000-07:00

So when Audrey wants you to help her walk somewhere (which she wants ALL THE TIME!), she raises her hand up in the air, like this...just like a kid in school who has a question.

If you don't respond right away, she stretches her hand out a little more and tries to show you with her facial expression that she wants you to come right now and help her!

It reminds me of that kid at school who is so eager to be called on...and it cracks me up every time! I do try to respond to her because I feel like this is her own "sign language". She seems to be trying to communicate with us, so I want to respond to her to let her know that we understand what she is trying to say....but after the gazillionth time of walking around the house, hunched over and holding her hands, it does get kind of tiring.

Audrey has been pretty restless taking her bottle these days. We're down to giving her just 3 bottles a day now, and we've also been letting her feed herself. She never stays still while eating, as these pictures show. So it takes her forever to finish a bottle!

We see lots of smiles and hear lots of giggles from Audrey these days...and it's a lot of fun! This is still a favorite face.

New videos

2009-09-03T19:34:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since we've taken any video of Audrey. And now is when we need to be videotaping her because she is doing so many fun things. So I got out the video camera tonight to tape Audrey while she was playing with her music table. She loves this table; it was definitely a good purchase.

Here she is waving at the camera. I'm not sure if she really meant to be waving, because she had her hand in a fist, and she normally doesn't do that. But it's still cute.

This next video shows what a smart baby she is...only 10 months old and she already knows her animal sounds!!

OK, I don't think she really knows any animal sounds. But she says, "Ba, ba, ba" all the time. So I've started asking her what a sheep says, hoping that she will respond with "ba, ba, ba" and then everyone will be impressed with her animal sound knowledge. =) Tonight she responded that way several times right away, so maybe she's figuring out the game.

This last video shows her cruising around the table and playing with all the different toys.

10 months old!

2009-08-31T18:36:00.000-07:00

Time for another monthly birthday! 10 months does seem really old, and Audrey is starting to seem a lot more like a little girl these days and a little bit less like a baby. It is making me very sad how fast she is growing up. Get ready for a long post, because I'm feeling sentimental and want to remember everything she is doing now before she grows up even more!

She does not like to sit still anymore (as evidenced by the pictures below). She is still army crawling and doesn't seem to be too interested in crawling on all fours. She LOVES to stand up (with support) and also loves to walk (with support). This morning she was pushing and walking with her toy walker all around the basement (though she was a bit wobbly, and sometimes she would push but forget to walk).

She is just starting to cruise around her new music table. She is also just starting to pull up on a few things that are at her height. She hasn't been able to pull up on the coffee table or couch yet on her own (which is fine with me!).

Audrey is Little Miss Independent these days. She does not like being fed anymore and prefers to feed herself. This makes baby food (or any other food with a spoon) a messy and difficult job. So we've moved away from most baby food, and she has been eating mostly finger/table foods at each meal. Her favorites are Cheerios and bananas, but she also enjoys bread, pasta, most fruits, and surprisingly green beans. She hated baby food green beans, but lately has been eagerly shoving in the real green bean pieces. She loved baby food sweet potatoes, but when I gave her pieces of actual sweet potato, she didn't want anything to do with it. She hated baby food peas, and for now seems to hate real peas as well. Silly girl! We'll keep trying everything though!

Audrey knows what she wants, and she is starting to find ways to tell us what she wants. This is most obvious when we take away something she is not supposed to have...we see her little temper come out (which is kind of cute now because it's new, but I have a feeling the cuteness will quickly wear out!).

And she still doesn't have any teeth. Plenty of drool, but no teeth yet.

Overall, this has been one of our favorite ages so far. Audrey is so active and so much fun to play with. She laughs a lot and is starting to play little games with us and her toys. Part of me wants to freeze her at this age forever, but I know there are more fun times to come.

Now for this month's pictures...whew, it was a challenge. Audrey just did not want to sit still next to Raggedy Ann on the couch. It took this super cool, absolute best, only saved for extra special occasions treat (aka my old cell phone) to keep her still long enough for these two, which are the best I got today.

Before the cell phone, I tried giving her this plastic cup. Which is also a super cool toy for Audrey that often keeps her entertained when we are out in public. And these pictures are kind of cute, but the cup was so big that it covered up most of her face!

And the rest of these, we'll call the outtakes! I did take a ton of pictures today, but most of them looked like this:

And this:

I caught a rare moment tonight...Audrey and Maggie sitting next to each other. Maggie is smart and normally moves away as soon as Audrey is anywhere near. Why? Well, I think this picture, with Audrey's evil, "I'm going to get you" face and clenched fists in Maggie's hair, answers that question!

This is where Audrey prefers to be!

First Bow

2009-08-23T19:19:00.000-07:00

So Audrey is well known (at church at least) for her headbands with big bows and flowers. But today for church, I tried putting a bow in her hair without a headband...and it stayed in her hair! It stayed in all day really, except for when I took it out for her nap. I'm very excited that she finally has enough hair to hold a bow.
Today we went out to our church camp for their 70th anniversary celebration. Audrey was being so funny while she was eating in her stroller. She would sit up and grab a bite.

Then she would lean back and put her legs up and recline to eat it. Then she would sit up and get another bite. Then lean back and put her legs up and eat it. It may have been something that you needed to be there for, but it was really funny! (Also, her feet look HUGE in this picture. I don't think they are really as big as they look in this picture, because in the picture they look bigger than her head...and she has a big head!)

An early birthday present

2009-08-20T18:20:00.000-07:00

Audrey is ready for some toys that she can stand up and play with (besides the coffee table!), so Daniel and I decided to get this LeapFrog table for her for her birthday. We didn't want to wait 2 1/2 months until her birthday to give it to her, because she's ready to play with it now! So, she got it today...not like she knows the difference anyway.

Doesn't she look like such a big girl?? I haven't taken many pictures of her standing up. She's been standing up and holding onto things for a while now, but just in the last day or two have I been comfortable leaving her standing alone and taking pictures. For a while, she was just randomly letting go and tumbling down all the time. She just figured out that she needs to hold onto something while she is standing! So she does much better standing alone with that new discovery.

A Day in Pictures

2009-08-19T19:45:00.000-07:00

I haven't taken too many pictures of Audrey for the past week or so, but I decided to make today "picture day" and took a bunch of random pictures of things Audrey did throughout the day.

She practiced the piano.
She did some push ups.

She played with one of her favorite new toys: this laptop that Mimi and Papaw gave her.

She played with another favorite toy: her blocks.

She also played with this stool.

She also practiced spelling her name!

She worked on her "evil" look.

And she looked cute all day long!!

Waving!

2009-08-13T19:59:00.000-07:00

Audrey finally started to wave at us over the past few days. I'm vey excited because I have been trying to get her to wave and clap for the past 3 months. (Still unsure about the clapping. She kind of has her own version of clapping, and I think she thinks that she is actually clapping, though she is really just clasping her hands together and waving her arms).

Anyway, she first started waving in her high chair and then would only wave at us from her high chair. So I was starting to think that she thought waving meant "give me more food". But today she started waving at other times...when Daniel left for the Muni tonight, she waved good-bye to him, then after our walk she waved at me from the stroller, while I had the camera in my hands!

Um, this one reminds me of a Nazi salute. After watching The Producers, I did have the song Springtime for Hitler stuck in my head for a while. Maybe I sang it to her one too many times?? Whenever she waves, we get so excited. Then she gets excited and starts flapping both arms up and down...it is super cute!

New outfit from Grandma

2009-08-07T19:38:00.000-07:00

My mom sent us a package with this cute new outfit for Audrey. Here she is modeling it for you all!

9 month check up

2009-08-05T18:53:00.001-07:00

Today Audrey had her 9 month doctor's appointment. She weighed in at 18 lbs, 8 oz (46%) and 27 3/4 inches long (66%). Her head was 17 3/4 inches, which I looked up, and that is in the 80th percentile. So I guess she has a big head!

The doctor said she was doing great and didn't have any concerns. She passed the little development test they gave us; she's doing everything she's supposed to be doing. The Dr. didn't see any signs of teeth still, but she said not to worry about that. It was a pretty uneventful visit, and the best part was that Audrey didn't have to get any shots this time.

Here are a few pictures from this afternoon.

So I normally (as most people do) take pictures of Audrey's face and front side. But for some reason today, I ended up with several pictures of her from the back. So, here is her back side!!!

She likes to play with her jumper much more when she is standing outside of it rather than being trapped inside it.

Audrey is loving this book right now. We actually have 2 copies because I found one for 50 cents at a garage sale. So Audrey has one she can play with and feel and tear up, and one that will be for looking at only! The pages in this book are perfect for Audrey to turn. She really likes to turn pages, but with board books or paper books she can't do it by herself. This one she can look at by herself and will keep her entertained for a while. There is another one like this about the alphabet; I think I'm going to have to get that one for her because she loves this one so much! And I love that she is now old enough to really pay attention to and enjoy books, just like her mommy!!

9 months old

2009-07-31T13:50:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-29T18:07:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-28T16:39:00.000-07:00

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

First Movement:

Second Movement:

Encore:

How does this thing work?

2009-07-25T18:58:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-07-20T20:03:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-07-16T14:07:00.001-07:00

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

2009-07-15T20:21:00.000-07:00

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?

2009-07-13T19:07:00.000-07:00

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!)

2009-07-05T20:52:00.001-07:00

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.

Adventures in Crawling (and a few random pics)

2009-07-02T19:21:00.000-07:00

So, Audrey has made a little progress in the crawling department over the past couple of days. This first video shows what she has been doing for a couple of months now. She would get up on her back legs, but her face would be planted in the ground, so she could never get herself to move forward.

Now, she has finally learned to keep her head up and use her arms to move forward. She doesn't move very far, but she is starting to figure out how to army crawl to get to whatever it is that she wants. This next video cracks me up! She can't decide what she wants to play with...the book or Maggie. In the end, she decides she doesn't want either one!

And now for the random pictures...

Here is one of Audrey in her new playroom in the basement. We are very excited about this new space...even though Audrey doesn't look too excited in this picture.

I just love this next picture. Maggie was sniffing around Audrey, trying to lick her face. And Audrey thought it was the funniest thing. There's also a story behind this outfit. We were going for a walk that night and Audrey was only wearing the lime green onesie in the photo above. It was a little chilly out, so I thought she needed pants and socks. Well I couldn't find any pants to match the green onesie, so I just pulled out these hot pink pants and figured: what does it matter, it's just a walk. Before we left, the green/pink outfit was just bothering me...so I went back upstairs and found this hat in her dresser. And it seemed to pull the outfit together, at least enough that I was willing to leave the house with her. I know, she's just baby and she doesn't care if her clothes match or not...but I care, and I'm the mom. And you probably don't care either, but I still took the time to write this whole paragraph explaining her outfit to you!

And there's that face again! I can't help but take pictures of her when she makes this face!

Eight Months Old

2009-06-30T19:56:00.000-07:00

Audrey is now 8 months old. She has learned a lot of new things in the past month and seems to be growing up more and more each day. Here's a quick rundown on her latest developments (I'm putting this here now, so I will remember it all when I get around to filling out her baby book later!) Pictures are at the end of all my rambling!

Weight: According to the Wii Fit, she is 17.2 pounds today. She is wearing all 6-9 month clothes now and size 3 diapers. Next month we have a dr's appointment, so we will get her official weight and height and all of that fun stuff then.

Sitting: Audrey is now a pro at sitting up. She can lean over and turn around to reach toys without falling over. She can go from a sitting position to a crawling position.

Crawling: She's not crawling yet though. She gets up on all fours, and sometimes rocks back and forth, but quickly falls back down on her stomach. She did start to do a little army crawling yesterday, trying to reach Maggie. I think Maggie is going to be the one that finally gets her to crawl. Poor Maggie, she's always going to be on the run once Audrey starts being able to chase after her.

Babbling: She is talking up a storm now...Baba, Dada, Gaga, Yaya, etc. She still makes the funny trill/bird call noise occasionally.

Teeth: Audrey still doesn't have any teeth! For the past 4 months, people have looked at her chomping on her hands and drooling and have been telling me, "She is going to have a tooth soon, I'm sure of it." Well, after four months of hearing this, I'm starting to wonder if she will ever get any teeth. I'll believe it when I see it!

Eating: Audrey has become a very good eater and will eat most everything we give her now. She has tried most of the fruit and vegetable baby foods, and this week I started giving her some meats. (chicken mixed with veggies, and she seems to like it so far.) She is starting to figure out the "pincer" grip, where she can pick up food with her thumb and index finger and get it into her mouth. She's pretty good at eating her puffs (I'd say about 50-75% of them end up in her mouth). I've also given her some little pieces of banana, and tonight at dinner I gave her some tiny pieces of bread and watermelon. She seems to like it all. I'm still a little nervous about giving her "real" food...but we're slowly working the finger foods into her diet.

OK, now for the pictures!!

I am Audrey, hear me roar!

She was distracted by Maggie, as usual.

Trying to crawl away from all these pictures!

This is one of my favorite faces! It's often accompanied by a very cute "oh" sound!

Audrey's Favorite Face

2009-06-28T14:17:00.001-07:00

Audrey makes this face a lot! What a silly girl!

We've been busy!

2009-06-15T13:23:00.000-07:00

The past week has been crazy. We spent last Sunday-Wednesday at church camp helping with a 3rd-4th grade week. Then on Thursday night we went to Indianapolis to see our friends the Bungards, go to see Wicked and hang out with Daniel's family for their annual Backyard Bash. In the midst of all that, we had a gas leak (which got fixed today, hopefully it won't cost us too much money!). Last night I started helping with our church's Garage-a-palooza, a weeklong activities camp for kids. And tonight Daniel starts practice for the Producers (he's running sound for the show). It is crazy around here!!! I have pictures from camp and our Indianapolis trip here for anyone who would like to see them.

Audrey's new thing to do when she eats is to blow raspberries and spit all of her food at you. It is not a fun game for Mommy and Daddy. I've been telling her "no" in a stern voice when she does it. But she thinks that is the funniest thing in the world, giving me a huge smile and giggles. And then I crack up laughing. As annoying as it is, it's still pretty cute, I just had to get my camera out to take a picture the other day, even though that's probably just encouraging her to keep doing it.

She really likes to stick her tongue out these days.I think she looks a lot like Daniel in this picture
She wore a new outfit to church on Sunday and a new hair bow (thanks to Aunt Nancy, who has made so many cute bows for Audrey!).

A few videos

2009-06-04T18:40:00.000-07:00

I've got a few videos to share tonight, if I have the patience to wait for Blogger to upload them. It takes forever. But we just started watching The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, so I have at least 3 solid hours to sit here and wait!

Here is Audrey playing in her jumper the other night.

Audrey has started to make this really funny sound. It's like a high pitched trill with her tongue. People have compared it to a bird call. She does it all the time, and she has both a happy and a mad version. This is the happy version (I feel a little guilty video taping her when she is mad).

And one last one...this one's my favorite. The other night we were trying to teach Audrey how to say Mama, Dada, Maggie, etc. When Daniel said Maggie, Audrey cracked up. He said it again; she cracked up again. And on and on it went. I started video taping several minutes after this started, and she was still going strong. I'm telling you, she loves that dog.

7 months old!

2009-05-31T13:30:00.000-07:00

I know I say this all the time, but I just have to say it again: Time is flying by! I thought the month of April went by fast, but I'm pretty sure May was even faster. Audrey is now 7 months old! I don't know how much she weighs right now...though I'm guessing around 16 1/2 pounds?? She is still wearing mostly 3-6 month clothes, but she is starting to move into the 6-9 month size as well.

Audrey is getting pretty good at eating baby food now. She has baby food 3 times a day and is pretty eager to eat it...most of the time. She is still not quite sure what to think about those green vegetables (she must get that from me!). Somehow if I mix them in with a little cereal I can get her to eat those green beans and peas...I don't know how the cereal could possibly make them taste better, but she seems to like it.

Audrey is sitting up better and better each day, though she is still pretty squirmy and is always reaching for a toy...which makes her lose her balance and tip over a lot! She is very quick at scooting around on her belly now. If there is a toy within 1-2 feet of her, she can find a way to get to it. No teeth yet...but I'm thinking they have to be about ready to pop up soon!

Today, before I set her up for her "official" 7 month picture, I let her play with Raggedy Ann on the floor. She was having fun playing with her for a little bit.

Then she got a hold of her maraca...and started to beat Raggedy Ann in the face with it.

This is the innocent look she gave me when I told her that it was not nice to beat people in the face with maracas.

And now for the "official" pictures! Audrey was being very photogenic today. I ended up taking 62 pictures of her sitting there with Raggedy Ann! Don't worry...I've narrowed them down to 7 pictures to share with you today.

Hmmm...Raggedy Ann's foot is yummy.

I wonder if my foot is as tasty as Raggedy Ann's?

Time for a silly face!!

And time for a sad face!!

If you like to see how much she grows each month, you can find all her other monthly pictures here: one month, two months, three months, four months, five months, six months.

And for all the grandparents and relatives reading this who just can't get enough of Audrey's pictures, I've got one more link for you. Audrey went on her first camping trip this weekend, and she loved it!! You can see all the pictures of how much fun she had with her friends here.

Fun in the Jumper

2009-05-28T18:02:00.000-07:00

Finally, Audrey seems to be enjoying this jumper we got for her. I think she is just now getting to the age where she fits well in it and can reach all the toys. She is also starting to figure out how to bounce...I will have to try to get a video of that soon.

First Finger Food!

2009-05-25T10:22:00.000-07:00

I'm having fun with videos this week...here are two more!

We decided to give Audrey puffs for the first time last night. She seemed to know they were food as soon as she saw them and opened her mouth wide. From the look on her face in this video, it looks like she doesn't like them. But then after she finishes one, she smiles and opens her mouth for more!

This morning I put some on Audrey's tray so she could try to pick them up and eat them herself. It kept her entertained for a long time. I've never seen her focus on one thing like that for as long as she did today. And she managed to get a few in her mouth as well.

Audrey and the Maraca

2009-05-22T18:30:00.000-07:00

Oooh, a maraca!I shall eat it!!(Pause to pose for a picture)Now, I'm going to bang it on the floor as hard as I can! Look at me, I can sit up and bang the maraca at the same time!Maracas make me smile!!

Check out this video of me playing with my new maraca toy (thanks for letting me borrow it Lindsey and Simon and Elliot!).

A happy Audrey!

2009-05-20T17:59:00.000-07:00

A happy Audrey makes for a happy Mommy and Daddy. Audrey is definitely feeling better this week. Today she has been super happy, laughing and giggling at everything. She's having so much fun with us, now she doesn't want to take naps or go to sleep. That's been the only bad thing about this week. She throws these little temper tantrums as soon as you start to walk into her room and screams in protest. But even without a good nap today, she was still the happiest little girl tonight. I really think she is loving her life right now and having so much fun that she doesn't want to miss out on anything by sleeping!

Here are some pictures and videos of our happy little girl this past week.

She really likes the books we got at the library on Monday.
I usually have a hard time deciding who she looks the most like, but in these next 2 pictures I really think she looks a lot like me, or at least a lot like my baby pictures (only way cuter!).

I'm not sure if this is a smile or not, but she really does like this little piano.

She doesn't normally hold her own bottle. But lately after she's done eating, she will hold it and play with it for a little while.

Here's a video of Audrey talking and playing with her rattle:

In this next video, watch how Audrey immediately starts looking around as soon as I mention Maggie's name. She loves Maggie so much! Maggie ran away last week, and all I could think about was how sad Audrey would be if we didn't find her. Fortunately, we have good neighbors who helped us track her down in the middle of a thunderstorm. Audrey is very grateful!

And one more...Daddy is really good at making Audrey laugh!!

Scooting in circles

2009-05-14T18:38:00.000-07:00

Well, I think Audrey is about back to normal. Though it has been a rough week, as she has still been excessively fussy and refusing to nap. But after a couple of long naps today, she seems to be back to her active and more cheerful self.

Audrey has been scooting around in a circle while she is on her tummy. She does not like to be still!! I took some pictures of it today. All of these pictures were taken within 5 minutes of each other. Pay attention to the Boppy Pillow...I didn't move, the pillow didn't move, it was just Audrey scooting herself around in a circle. (it's fun to flip through these really fast on the camera, it's like watching a video)

And then she kept going, all the way around in another circle. But I decided that was enough pictures for one day!

Happy Mother's Day!!

2009-05-10T19:38:00.000-07:00

Besides celebrating Mother's Day at church today, it was also baby dedication Sunday. We took this family picture after church. But Audrey was really tired (and I think she is still sick), and I couldn't get a picture without the pacifier. We also didn't take the time to straighten her dress, so she's kind of flashing everybody in this picture. Oh well, we tried.

Sick, but sitting up!

2009-05-09T18:02:00.000-07:00

It's been a long week. Audrey has been sick, and that's not fun for any of us. We have changed some NASTY diapers this week!! She seems to be getting better the past few days, but I'm still kind of worried about her because she is not eating much at all. She won't eat any cereal or solids; she just gags and cries. And she will only take a couple ounces at a time from her bottle. It's frustrating, but I guess when we are sick we don't feel like eating, so she probably is like that as well. And now that she's 6 months, I was excited about trying all kinds of baby food...but she seems to be regressing and won't even eat cereal now. I'm just very frustrated tonight. I want her to be well and happy...it's hard to watch her not feeling well and not be able to fix it.

Despite not feeling the best or eating very well, Audrey made some major improvements on sitting up today. Earlier in the week she could only sit up for a few seconds at a time without tipping over. Today she was sitting up for a few minutes at a time by herself! What a big girl!!

The Many Faces of Audrey

2009-05-04T17:36:00.000-07:00

Audrey, Maggie and I spent some time outside this afternoon. Audrey was sitting in her Bumbo, watching Maggie play, taking in the scenery, and making so many funny faces. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves!

And last, but definitely not least...this one made it as my daily photo...and it is definitely my favorite. I laugh every time I look at it...

6 months old!

2009-05-01T17:05:00.000-07:00

Where did the month of April go? It seems like I was just posting Audrey's five month picture, and now she is already 6 months old. 6 months, that's just crazy! We had her 6 month appointment today and celebrated by giving her more shots! Poor girl, it almost seemed like she knew they were coming this time. She has turned into quite the chubby little girl in the past few weeks and weighed in today at 15 lbs, 11 oz (48th percentile). She was 25 3/4 inches long (62nd percentile). Six months ago, she looked like this:Now, she looks like such a big girl:

And a few more picures from our 6 month photo shoot today.

Check out my chubby belly!!

Audrey is extremely active and observant these days. She wants to grab, pull, hit, scratch, squeeze and taste everything she can get her hands on. Every time she hears Maggie's feet on the wood floor she is looking around trying to find the dog. Maggie has become one of Audrey's favorite things, and I'm pretty sure that her first word is going to be Maggie.

Audrey can sit up for a few seconds at a time, but she hasn't quite mastered being able to sit up on her own yet. We also think she is really eager to crawl. If she is on her belly and sees something she wants a few inches/feet away, she works so hard to get herself there. She has this move that we call the Inchworm (see the picture below!). She will push her legs up, so her bottom is sticking up in the air. Then she plants her face in the ground and pushes with all her strength. When she straightens back up on her belly, she has literally moved about an inch. It is a lot of work to move such a tiny distance...but this little girl is determined! The other day, in an attempt to get a hold of the remote control, she moved almost 2 feet by using the Inchworm move!

Finally, here are Audrey's Raggedy Ann pictures from the past few months, so you can see how much she has grown: one month, two months, three months, four months, five months

Yummy green beans!

2009-04-28T19:40:00.000-07:00

I gave Audrey her first taste of vegetables today...green beans! I don't think she knew what to think. We had just finished eating oatmeal, so I think she was very confused to taste something new. She did swallow the first couple of bites and made lots of funny faces while she did so, then she started to spit it out. It was fun to give her something new, and I'm looking forward to all of the new foods we are going to get to try in the coming months. OK, I shouldn't say "we". Audrey will be trying all the new foods. I'm not the kind of mom that needs to try everything she eats....I have no desire to know what it tastes like for her.

Pretty in Purple

2009-04-27T19:13:00.000-07:00

I'm experimenting with a flash my brother gave us, so I posed Audrey for lots of pictures today. I'm still trying to figure out the flash, so the lighting isn't quite right in all of these pictures. But Audrey is cute in any light, right? Add I also wanted to show off the new headband and bow that Aunt Nancy made for her! Very cute!!

Mmmm...

2009-04-23T18:18:00.000-07:00

I think Audrey was practicing the consonant M today. She kept saying "mmm, mmmm, mmm" over and over and over again. It was cracking me up. She calmed down on the "mmm-ing" when I turned the video camera on. This girl is camera shy! But I caught a little bit of it before she got fussy.

Reaching for her toy...