Audrey's Really Big Leaf

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

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!!

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!

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

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

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

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.