The Boat

Eric got Audrey a tugboat for the bath as part of her Christmas present. She loves that boat. It has a fish, life preserver, and captain. She loves to sink the boat, let the captain drift out to sea, eat the fish. I try to get her to rescue the captain with the life preserver but apparently rescue is not what that thing is intended for. Her boat plays music and says a few things, which seem to take Audrey by surprise since, well, her bath toys just aren't supposed to make sounds. Tonight, it played a song, and she had to stop what she was playing to, well, dance of course! You know, just with her torso. Each night, she gets to choose 1-2 toys to take with her out of the tub to help with the process of getting her pajamas on. Tonight, we managed to get 3 out, I think because the captain was holding on for dear life via the life preserver. After she was dressed, I told her she could play with her toys for a few minutes before bed. When I picked her up to head into her bedroom, I had my hands full, and she did too with the fish and life preserver. But, how was she to carry the captain? I held him out for her to see how she'd manage to carry him, too. She looked at her full left hand. Glanced at her occupied right hand. Then looked at me. She then looked at the captain and opened her mouth up wide! I'll hold him this way! Poor captain.

Wa Wa...Cupcakes...and Dancing!

Wa Wa~
I'm not sure how this developed, but Audrey now calls Frisbee, Wa Wa. She misses her. Fris is on a week long vacation at her grandparents. Audrey noticed on Saturday that Fris was missing, especially when no one was there to help clean up dinner. "Wa Wa? Wa Wa?" She will be delighted to be reunited with her friend later in the week. She did receive a toy pup for Christmas that she can walk. I thought this would be good practice for Audrey before she tries walking Fris. Audrey's version of walking this pup is having him hang in the air by his leash. It's best that Fris didn't see this...

Cupcakes~
We had Audrey's 1 year pictures taken today. She took only a short time to warm up to the photographer and then was smiling at the camera even when she was supposed to look in a different direction (I've taught her well!). I had baked her a cupcake for her picture, and she dove into it as soon as it was put in front of her. Parting with the cupcake was very, very difficult. She has quite a sweet tooth. No idea where she gets that from...

Dancing~
It struck me the other day that Audrey dances like Eric, which is concerning. She does not need her lower body when dancing. Instead, she dances while sitting or kneeling, moving her torso left then right, then back again. No doubt if she could snap while dancing, like her dad, she would. She loves dancing to the Hallmark snowmen (especially the one involving a penguin partyhouse...) and the radio on her new playhouse. Her dance moves are actually dangerous. Today, she crawled up on me after smacking her hand on her playhouse when her dance moves got a little out of hand. Maybe we should sign her up for ballet lessons ASAP...

Happy Birthday!

One year-old. It's so hard to believe that her first year has passed. I spent a lot of time thinking of how to spend her day, trying to figure out something really fun to do. In the end, I decided she would most like to play all day, at home. And that is what we did. Eric and I serenaded her this morning - she is starting to recognize this Happy Birthday song after we sang it to her dad on Friday and celebrated her great-grandma's 90th birthday at her party on Saturday. We serenaded her again this evening when she enjoyed her cupcake. She opened her presents this morning and not so patiently awaited Eric putting together her gift from us. We did head outside only for brunch (high of 16 degrees today), where Audrey made a friend with the waiter who brought her a chocolate chip pancake doused with chocolate syrup and whipped cream for her birthday. She got a taste of the whipped cream before I could snag it and have her eat applesauce first. She was so unhappy to not get to eat her special treat first that I caved, and she got her wish. She happily ate her applesauce though too, and waved and offered her brunch to the waiter whenever he would pass by. Friends for life.

We recounted to Audrey the events of 1 year ago today. How I didn't keep much of anything down, even up to the day of her birth. How I insisted on Eric taking my picture that morning (and not really much before then). How Eric forgot his wallet and cell phone, despite this being a scheduled delivery. How we were running late to the hospital, and Eric kept saying they were going to cancel the delivery. This still makes me laugh. How excited I was when the nurse told me I was having contractions when she hooked me up to all the monitors, then said they were no where near what's needed to be anything of help to move things along more naturally. How nervous I was that Eric would pass out during the surgery since he put his head between his legs during the c-section cartoon video during childbirth class (our instructor had to stop and ask Eric if he was ok). How the nurse said we either had a blonde or a redhead. (I knew it - a redhead!) How when I said hello to Audrey, she looked up at me, examining me carefully, as if thinking, "So, THIS is what you look like!" We don't remember much else since Audrey had her days and nights mixed up, and pooped too many times to count that first day (all for her dad!). I do remember Eric taking Audrey for a stroll in her rolling crib to try to get her to sleep. I also remember him thanking her for sleeping for 5 minutes and asked her to sleep for 10 the next time. He also helped with her first bath and stayed with her during her EKG. All the nurses couldn't stop talking about her red hair.

Audrey makes the holidays, especially Christmas, so much better. Best gift ever.

11 months, 3 weeks

Audrey had a fun but busy last weekend as a non-1 year-old. She loved seeing Liam at his party but it took the two of them a minute to place each other outside of daycare. Once they did, the chattering began. His family loved meeting her. ("Oh, so this is Audrey! She's cuuuuute!") The two of them chatted until Liam passed out in his highchair from all the sugar he had from cake frosting. Audrey was too busy playing with the other kids, and Liam's toys, to care about him being asleep.

She has started trying to brush her hair with her brush and puts her new toy cell phone to her ear to chat. She loves her shape sorter and is especially fond of putting the circle in the correct hole. This yields quite a round of applause from her parental audience. We don't always notice she's done it, but she lets us know by doing it repeatedly until we do notice, and, ahem, applaud!

Lunch date

While I was reviewing Audrey's daily sheet at daycare, I asked her teachers how she had done at lunch. She isn't a big meat eater and was served a hamburger.

Teacher: "She did fine. She held Liam's hand."
Me: "Um, ok. The whole time?"
Teacher: "Yes, throughout lunch."
Me: "Who initiated that?"
Teacher: "Audrey did. She always does."
Me: "Always?"
Teacher: "Yes, she often holds his hand."

We will see Liam's parents this weekend at his birthday party so we can talk with them about this then. After I kissed Audrey goodnight, I started to close her bedroom door behind me as Eric was giving her a bottle. I heard him say:

"Now let's talk about you holding boys' hands other than your daddy's..."

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Audrey met Santa yesterday. She did fabulous. We had prepped her a little as we had hung up a Santa Claus last week after we received him from Aunt Amanda and Uncle Andy. Audrey stopped in her tracks when she noticed him on the wall. Hmmm...what's that guy doing? She just stared at him. I take her to him daily, and when I do, she'll smile, especially when I say, Ho! Ho! Ho! She'll bring her hand to him, closer, closer, closer, but won't touch him. It's the only thing she'll refrain from touching. Not sure why.

When waiting to meet Santa, the little girl in front of us in line cried, and Audrey couldn't figure out why. When it was our turn, I took her up to him, and she stared at him. Confused. You're pretty funny looking, she seems to think. Santa said, "Merry Christmas." Um, Santa, you gotta do your signature phrase. And he did. "Ho, Ho, Ho!" Audrey looks shocked. What did he just say? Is that the guy from the wall at our house? We approach him, and she doesn't look too sure but she's eyeing his big fluffy sleeves so he offers to let her touch his sleeves. She of course declines. You can't touch Santa! Eric prods me to just put her on Santa's lap, so, I did. She mildly protested but was easily calmed. I got a great picture of her talking to Santa. When I scooped her back up, she turned to Santa and gave a big grin. So, they said let's try for a smile with another picture. No such luck. She'd only smile at Santa from a distance. She did great, and we were so proud of her. Wonder what she asked him for...