Prayers

I've decided that Audrey will either work at a bank or be a nun. The former due to her love of her weekly trips to the bank with her daddy, and just how upset she becomes if she doesn't get to go with him. I asked her one day if she would like to work at the bank. She of course said, 'yes', and then I asked her if it was because of the free cookies, to which she again said, 'yes'.

However, she may also grow up to be a nun. Not sure if she would go for that given her apparent love for the boys, but Audrey loves to pray. Sometimes more than once during a meal. Often there's a request after the meal to say prayers before dessert. She ensures that neither Eric nor I sneak any food before prayers, but often nibbles away at her own plate while she tries to herd her parents to the table. Her never-fail reminder to pray is a nice reminder which ensures we say thank you for our many blessings.

Her before-meal prayer typically varies somewhat, but here is how it typically goes:

God bless the food we eat.
And God bless mommy.
And daddy.
And baby Jonathan.
And kids.
And childrens.
And school.

(We then remind her to bless herself, Frisbee, and baby Pierson.)

There always seems to be someone added in, or she becomes distracted by naming who sat where at her birthday party, etc., and we have to reign her back in to finish the prayer. The funniest one yet was from yesterday morning.

"Oh, and God bless the dentist!"

Yes, and God bless the dentist!

Audrey's parenting attempt

"Move your hand, otherwise you'll get a time-out!"

Says Audrey to Eric at 5:10 AM. While in our bed. The two of us trying to get a few more minutes of sleep. With the dog in bed, too, of course.

I had two thoughts:
1) Two year-olds shouldn't be using the word 'otherwise', especially correctly.
2) Eric would have liked to have gone into a quiet corner around that time. Bet he would have stayed there longer than Audrey's mandatory 2 minutes...

Gas station moves, Part II

After a nice dinner out this evening, we pulled into the gas station to fill up on some over-priced gasoline. No sooner had Eric gotten out to get the gas did Audrey start looking out the window, waiting for Eric to do his thing.

He starts dancing, backwards, forwards, spinning. Audrey starts yelling, "No, peek-a-boo first! Peek-a-boo first!" He can't hear anything over the loud music playing at the gas station. She keeps yelling, I explain to her that he can't hear her but he will duck down soon enough.

And he did.

And then I see it. Two police officers. Inside the gas station. Appearing to wonder what the weird guy at the pump is doing.

So, I try to get Eric's attention. No luck.

He heads inside to get his receipt (of course the pump is out of paper). I wait to see what will unfold. Thankfully, Audrey is quiet in the backseat as she is content with the amount of peek-a-boo that Eric provided.

After a few minutes, Audrey says to me, "Where is that daddy?"

"Um, he appears to be talking to the nice police officers inside."

I decided I could laugh when the cops did not appear to be requesting a breathalyzer or to see ID of some form. Of course, I was also wondering if one of the cops looked familiar to Eric after his, ahem, chat with one of their colleagues, a couple weeks ago, not more than a mile away.

When Eric makes eye contact with me on the way out of the station, he started laughing. When Eric had gone inside, the kind police officers asked him what was going on, and apparently commented on his dancing. They were content with his response of providing entertainment for his daughter who was inside the car.

As we drove away, Audrey said, "Mommy's so happy! Mommy's laughing and laughing!"

Yes, so long as we aren't bailing your daddy out of jail soon...

As suspected...

Aunt D came thru with some pictures of Audrey blowing out her candles.

As documented in the second picture, I did have my camera in hand for the big event. However, as documented in the third picture, I failed miserably!

Thanks, P & D!

Let it snow!

We finally got more than an inch of snow yesterday, and Audrey got to spend her day at home today with Eric playing in the snow. While her snowsuit from last year is a tight fit (it is a size 12 months!), Eric said she enjoyed her time in the snow. How does he know?

In the midst of playing outside, bundled up in her snowsuit, she said to Eric:

"Audrey is sooooo excited!"

:)

2nd Birthday Party

Audrey had a really fabulous 2nd birthday party. She is so loved. She received such thoughtful gifts, and she has been enjoying playing with all of her new things. On Monday, she spent the majority of the morning "cooking" eggs with french fries, yelling at the french fries for not staying in her little skillet. ("No, not nice, french fries!!") She insisted on taking her new cupcakes from Aunt N and Uncle B with her to the store, and she took such good care of them, careful not to drop them or lose them while we were out and about. She has made many "trips" to the store and the bank with her babies and her new car seat, and likes to feed her babies from her new diaper bag. And, she has had a hard time not wearing her new boots 24/7. And, she's been reading her new books every night before bed. She continues to talk about her party. Asking me, "Did you have fun, mommy?" She has a big grin on her face when she asks this, as she knows I will ask her in turn.

I somehow managed to not get a picture of Audrey blowing out her candles though so if a kind partygoer caught this on camera, I'd love a copy! (We're betting on Aunt D!)

Christmas

Audrey had a fabulous Christmas - or Christmases. We started with a nice Christmas Eve breakfast out, and Audrey almost licked her plate clean. We first had Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with Grandma and Grandpa P, Great-Grandmas D & B, and Aunt A, Uncle A, and cousins J, and hmmm...one more person. Who was that again? Oh right, Heather!

We haven't stopped hearing about cousin Heather. "Wear pigtails, mommy, just like Heather?" Yes, we've been sporting pigtails more days than not since this is the fashion craze that cousin Heather shared with Audrey. These two little girls had so.much.fun together. Giggling. Squealing. Chatting. Running. Jumping. Did I mention running? Audrey has never slept so well away from home. Even fell asleep during Christmas dinner. And, she only had eyes for Grandpa P during Christmas Eve mass.

We had fun driving in the snow to see Eric's extended family on Sunday, and Audrey was again spoiled. She received many nice gifts and particularly loved spending time with cousin Rachel, who was seated at the kids table. Though Audrey slept a good portion of the way home, when she was awake, she often said, "That Rachel sure is a silly goose!" I think this was related to Rachel sneaking Audrey some Doritos and cookies upon request. Maybe that's why she slept so well on the trip home?

We had our Christmas on 12/30 as Eric and I both had the day off. The night prior, we baked cookies for Santa, and Audrey thought 3 cookies and a glass of milk was a good snack for Santa, and a large onion would help to sustain Rudolph. She even wrote a note to Santa. She could not believe when she woke up to see the cookies and milk, and the onion, were gone! She double checked the plate and even took a look up the chimney to see if she could catch a glimpse of Santa. She liked her note from Santa, too. She liked her red-headed doll and camera that Santa got for her this year, but I think she was a little done with Christmas gifts by this point. Good thing our next Christmas isn't until February! We'll be ready by then!