An Audrey funny

 This is Audrey's Fisher Price Little People house.

She loves it and plays with daily. She especially loves the ringing doorbell, phone, and the running water sounds of the bath, washing machine, and toilet. Since she is very familiar with potties, she constantly puts the mommy, daddy, and baby on the potty and announces that they are going to the potty. The other morning I looked over and she was sitting up against the house with a funny look on her face. She said "I'm going potty in THIS potty."

And sure enough, she had pooped in her pajamas (thankfully she was in a backwards zip up sleeper so she couldn't get out of her clothes) sitting on top of the Little People potty. It was really hard not to laugh, but I managed to explain that it wasn't her potty and that she had to go poopy in the big potty.

I had to put this one on the blog though; total blackmail story down the road. And no harm done either thankfully. I've never been so thankful for her inability to get her clothes off!

Cooking with Gigi

My mom came over this week to help out while I've been recuperating from surgery, and she and Audrey baked cookies. I'm not sure which one of them had more fun, but the cookies were delicious!

Audrey's new room!

We have moved Audrey to her new big girl room as of Saturday. I dragged my feet because a) it means she is not a baby anymore and b) it means she is not contained for nap/bed. It worried me that I would lose my good sleeper. But so far so good (more on that in a second).

In the weeks leading up to her room's completion, we told her all about it, and every time we would go upstairs or downstairs she would ask to see "Audrey's room." She was SOO excited about having her new room and she hasn't thought twice about her old crib and nursery.

I couldn't find any pics of the room before (though I know we have some). Here it is during and you can see that it used to be yellow:

And here are the after pics, complete with Audrey on her new bed.

 

 Reading corner and closet:

Dresser and toys:

 

 Aren't these adorable?? Our owl theme inspiration, painted by Andrea Vreken:

 A monkey jumping on the bed:

Saturday afternon Audrey was too excited about her new room to sleep very much for her nap so we had a rough afternoon. That night, we thought she'd be exhausted but we closed her in and she wreaked havoc for 2 hours before she finally crashed on her bed. Her room was a MESS! So Sunday we went to Plan B. Every time she got out of bed at her nap time, one of us went in, picked her up and plopped her in bed without a word. After only three times, she gave up and went to sleep. Thinking we'd have an even bigger battle that night, we were pleasantly surprised. Audrey didn't get out of bed once, even though she was awake and talking to herself for two hours after we put her in bed (what she does every night). Overnight she had a 3am party where she talked and laughed to herself (fun for her, not for us) and STILL didn't get out of bed. And then, this morning when she woke up, she called out for us and didn't get out of bed until we went in the room. I think she's got it!

And now the nursery is ready to receive its new occupant!!

Back when we were young and Nick had hair

One of my projects while Audrey is in school is to go through our now-only-guest-room so it is actually fit for people to stay in. The closet is jam packed and that was before I emptied the closet in Audrey's new room and now have to house all that stuff! Anyway, it's a mess. But I found a whole bunch of negatives and a few picture CDs back from before cameras were digital (I can barely remember that!). It was fun to see the ones from the CDs - they were from a trip we took to Charleston in 2004. So here are a couple of us touring sites around Charleston (and apparently freezing our butts off). Nick looks so much balder and thinner now!

School days

 Here are a couple of pictures from Audrey's first day of school. She absolutely loves it. I got her up Wednesday morning and said "Guess where you are going today?" She clapped her hands over her mouth and said "SCHOOL!!!" and started jumping up and down. She doesn't even give me a backward glance when we get there - in fact, I made sure to get my kiss and hug in the car before we headed in the building. Her main response when we asked what she did is to say " No running!" - hey, at least she is catching on to the rules. Her teachers are being very cautious with her during snack time and making sure that she eats the snack we packed from home and also explaining to her and the other children about why Audrey has a different snack.

Audrey was taken by the medical bag (which she stuffed everything into and used as her purse), and anything resembling contraband (i.e. cameras, cell phones, and calculators).

Listening to the shell, or pretending it's a phone; not really sure which!

Making herself at home

 One thing I can say for Audrey is that she isn't shy. She can put on a good front and pretend to be shy when it suits her, but she generally is a friend to all and especially when we go place, she just makes herself at home.

Even on top of other people's cats:


And in other people's beds:

She's kind of like Goldilocks.