Reunited!

Audrey's boyfriends have moved on to the older toddler room, so she hasn't seen much of them lately. When I picked her up this evening, I saw that her boyfriend, Callen, was in the room with her. Audrey immediately got up from her seat on the floor beside him, started cleaning up her stuff (and others' stuff), but didn't say hello to her mom. Callen, on the other hand, let out a big, "HI!" Her teacher reminded me of their close relationship, which picked up today right where it had left off. She said that Callen's class had too many kids for the number of teachers this morning, so she asked Callen if he wanted to come next door with her for the day. He apparently didn't give her the time of day. Until, that is, she mentioned Audrey's name.

"If you come next door with me, you can play with Audrey all day??!!"

"YES!"

And they did just that. I guess they hung out in the corner playing with toys and reading each other some books. And, of course, having many conversations only they understood.

When Audrey took care of everything she felt needed to be cleaned up, she headed for the door with my keys, and said "Bye!" to her teacher, her class, and me. After two requests, she decided to allow me to tag along with her for the ride home. As we were leaving, I looked back and saw a big grin on Callen's face.

"BYE, AUDR-EEEEEE!"

They'll be reunited in a week. We'll see if they make it...

18 Month Photo Shoot!

Audrey had her 18 month photo shoot today. Her hair is so much longer than even six months ago, and she looks so different from her pictures a year ago. She was a little shy with the photographer in the beginning, so we tried to get her to smile. Leave it to her dad to get her to show her beautiful smile (by having her doll attack his face...but hey it worked!). By the end, she was finding some props to include in her pictures to keep the photo shoot going!

Out with the old...

Audrey "helped" me clean out her closet to put away some of her clothes that no longer fit. She mainly helped by taking out each of her books from her bin, and reading each outloud to me, making the various sound effects for any animals she came across. This was a nice distraction from my sadness of putting away some of her too-small clothes. We came across two hats, both from when she was born. A pink one for her first couple days, and a red/white candy cane hat for her homecoming trip on Christmas Eve. She wouldn't humor me by trying on the pink one, but she did try to put on the Christmas Eve hat. It still fits, right?

Roar!

Look what Audrey made at school! Isn't she the cutest lion???!!

18 months!

One and a half years-old. As Grandma S would say, Wow!

Let's see, Audrey is talking up a storm (No, Yes, Fris, Mommy, Daddy, did I mention No?, turtle, more, please, thank you, bye, hi, Audrey, grandpa, meow, moo, dog, tree, milk, zebra, Uh oh, did I mention No?). And much, much, more. Careful what we say as she repeats most things now!

She loves her dolls. Rides in the car. Her teachers. Daycare. Other kids. Dogs, turtles, and any other animals. Ice cream. French fries. Fruit. Yogurt. Swimming! T-ball. Playing catch. Peek-a-boo. Showing off. The Pookie dance. Singing. Blowing kisses.

She does not like flies. Scared of them and other bugs. We're working on the fly one though. The other night at dinner, she got so scared of a fly that landed on her that she ended up eating dinner in my lap. When the fly landed on the table, chair, etc., I would wave and say "Hi fly!". Audrey just kept saying, "Bye fly!"

She is more and more fun everyday. And more and more of a little girl. Where did the past 18 months go?

Happy Father's Day!

Oh how Audrey loves her daddy. The swim lessons. The view from his shoulders. The countless books. The howling during her Doggies book. The ABC song. The dancing. The waving good-bye until she can't see him in the drive anymore. The returns home to see her when she squeals and runs around, too excited to stop to say hi for very long. The mommy-doesn't-do-it-that-way-but-it's-fun-if-she-doesn't-see-it things.

Since she was pretty little, he's tossed her over his shoulder and asked, "Where's Audrey"" as he spins around to find her. This has become one of her favorites. She giggles and squeals, and her eyes just light up as her daddy tries to find her. The other day, as he was spinning her around, I saw her holding her finger to her mouth, indicating to not tell him where she's at. She had a grin from ear to ear and loved that he couldn't find her. I just kept wondering when she had gotten so big.

What she really loves is the mornings with her daddy. She knows there's no chance I'll get out of bed much earlier than required (except this morning!). But her daddy, he's her morning guy. Granted, she gets up earlier than either of us would like. She will come to bed with us, and if she does fall back asleep, it's usually on Eric's chest. But, usually, she's bouncing up and down, pointing out our (closed) eyes to us, rolling, twisting, squealing, singing, anything but sleeping. The minute Eric is up and about, she wants out of bed to hang out with him.

We had a great day today which included brunch, a nice Sunday drive, playing, and more playing.

Happy Father's Day to Audrey's daddy. (And your wife loves you enough to even dress your daughter in a Cubs dress for the day!)

The Hat!

Audrey got a new straw hat today, and didn't want to take it off! How unusual for her. She especially loved wearing her hat while jumping on me...