14 months!

I still call her baby but this is getting to be a stretch. Top 14 things Audrey's loves at present:

1) The couch! After figuring out how to get into one of grandpa and grandpa's chair last weekend, she has been obsessed with getting onto our couch on her own. She can do it sometimes now, but whines and whines for help. I don't offer any since she makes me nervous rolling around on it but of course Eric just puts pillows on the floor to pad her falls!! We definitely do things differently!

2) Crawling! We're still working on getting her to walk consistently. I didn't think we'd still be waiting after she took her first step on Christmas Day. It seems that every night we plot about how to get her to not drop to her knees after cruising the furniture to get to what she wants. Eric asked me if I walk her to her classroom when I drop her off in the mornings. Um, no, but why don't I? So, the next morning I did have her walk. There were lots of things for her to get distracted by - like the lonely mitten in the lost and found box - but she did so well and just beams with pride with all the praise she gets in the process. I was telling Eric the other night that I couldn't wait for her to be walking so I can put her in dresses and skirts. She ends up half crawling, half Spiderman-walking on her hands and feet, as we were both reminded of last weekend. So, Eric gets the idea to put her in skirts ALL THE TIME. What an idea! We'll get this kid to walk, or hate us in the process!

3) Reading! Audrey loves bringing a book over and then climbing into my lap for me to read it to her. I don't think I read it right though because sometimes she wants it back to read it to me, upside down. Oh, is that how it's done?

4) Mega blocks! Audrey loves these things, especially if she gets to add to one of our creations.

5) Ball! She's got quite an arm in my biased opinion. I told Eric she is going to be quite the ball player, and I heard him tell Audrey that would make her mother very happy! She does like to crawl into my lap with the ball, but then a lot of times there's no one to throw the ball to!

6) Eating! I can't believe how skinny this kid is considering how well she eats. She's been using the sign for 'more' and I think she thinks it's magical - huh, is this how I tell her I want some more of that stuff??? She definitely has her preferences, and this varies across the day, shaking her head no if offered something she does not want, but overall, she'll eat most things in front of her. She's been doing so well handing us her bowl, spoon, and cup back when she's done with them. She must be beginning to understand how much her mom dislikes cleaning the floor!

7) Emptying things! If Audrey sees a stack of anything, like her books, she has to knock them over. She loves getting into the DVDs. One day, I caught her lying back on one of our big pillows in the living room, legs crossed, "reading" one of the DVDs like a book. I laughed but then realized we had quite a mess to clean up with all the other DVDs she had "read".

8) Cleaning up! They must sing the Barney "Clean Up" song at school because one day I started singing it, and Audrey started to help clean up. Hey, I'll sing a Barney song if she continues to help clean up!

9) Up, Up! She loves to be held. She holds her arms up to be held as soon as she sees one of us.

10) Twirling her hair! We know she's tired when she twirls her hair. She's really good at it, and I should know!

11) Bathtime! She knows the sign for bath and has consistently enjoyed her baths. Eric got me to no longer use the baby/toddler tub so she's in the big tub now. She loves it. She particularly likes to hand me all her toys so she has lots of room to splash! She loves her toys that squirt, especially when they squirt me! The other night, she chose to take one of her squirt toys out of the bath with her. I usually make sure those toys are emptied of water. I apparently forgot that night. Oh how funny she thought it was when she nailed me with a stream of water. And then she squirted the darn thing into her mouth and up her nose. I just dried her off again after that frog was finally emptied of water!

12) Her Fris! There are mornings that Audrey only has eyes for Fris. Fris is not as fond of Audrey given #6 above, but she still hopes for the best when meat is served.

13) School! She really seems to like school, and we are so glad that we moved her. She seems happy to be there, and her teachers all love her. I can't count the number of times one of the staff has said how cute she is and how well she is adjusting since she's been enrolled there. They are learning about how much of a fireball she is though. The other day when Eric picked Audrey up, one of her teachers said Audrey was mad at her. She had tried to have Audrey practice walking, and boy are there times that Audrey does not want to! She noticed while trying to get her to walk that Audrey's face needed to be clean. She knew that wasn't going to go over well either. Apparently, that was the last straw as Audrey didn't want to have anything to do with that teacher the rest of the day! I looked at her daily sheet that night and told Eric they had marked "cooperative" for the day. He said that must have been filled out before that incident! When I dropped Audrey off the next morning and I had her walk into her classroom, that same teacher was there to greet us. Audrey tried to turn around and walk out of the classroom when she saw her! She fussed when the teacher tried to take her over to the other kids playing, but Audrey agreed when the teacher said she wouldn't make her walk right then. Geez!

14) Shopping! Audrey is so much to go shopping with. She loves riding in the stroller and waving at everyone. She also does fabulous in the cart but she insists on turning around so she can see where we're heading. She also likes to be "assigned" to hold something while in the store and then handing it to the cashier. It's sometimes hard to part with whatever she's been in charge of holding but she's learning that the nice cashiers return it to her. I hope she continues to enjoy shopping!

I've noticed Eric becoming more and more smitten with her. He stays home with her on Fridays, and last night while we were getting ready for bed, Eric told Audrey that she had made his day by taking a few steps on her own. I asked him how she was going to make his day after she was running with no problem. She turned around to me, cocked her head, and beamed a big grin. Eric and I both laughed - ah, she'll find a way!