Silly Monkey

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

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

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

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

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!

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:

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

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!)