Seven months old

Sweet Audrey is seven months old today! In the last seven months we have seen her go from a calm, sleepy newborn to a feisty baby! Here's her latest...

- She has her two bottom teeth and knows how to use them. If we're really meant to nurse babies for the first year, someone tell me why they get teeth this early!?!?

Check out these pearly whites!

- Audrey is a raspberry blowing fool, especially when she has food in her mouth!

- She has developed lots of skills using her hands- she can clap, pick up more complicated objects, throw things, and transfer objects from one hand to the other. She is an expert hair grabber and glasses remover.

- Audrey still loves to talk - she babbles constantly!

- She has started to respond to her name, especially when it's said by Ellie. She does not respond to no. At all.

- You always know where she is because she happily screeches and hollers all day.

- At school, they call her the nosey baby; we like to say she's observant. When someone at school tries to give her a bottle or when I'm nursing her, she flips and flops all over the place if anyone else comes in the room so she can see what's happening.

- She is eating a lot more solid food. She has three meals of solid food every day and loves it! Her usual is oatmeal with prune juice at breakfast time, a fruit at lunch time, and a veggie at dinner. She's gone from nursing every two hours to only four times a day. She eats her meals in her highchair at the table with us, which Ellie loves!

- She is not close to crawling yet, but every once in a while when she's mad, she can get up on her knees and hands. When she's on her back though she scooches herself backwards.

- She enjoys playing with her toys and she loves holding onto her feet. When she's falling asleep in your arms, she likes to hold your shirt up to her mouth but doesn't actually put it in her mouth. She sucks her bottom lip instead.

- She loves to snuggle and will sit on your lap for a while just relaxing.

- She is the sweetest baby and we wouldn't change a thing!

"I'd rather go to school"

For the past few days, we have been telling Ellie that we were going some place special and really fun on Friday. Her guesses: the grocery store, the cookie mall (the mall that sells her favorite cookies), and Mimi and Boppa's house. We promised her it would be more fun than all of those! Last night we finally told her that we were going to go see Disney on Ice. She had no idea what that was so we showed her a video preview. I don't think that she completely got it because she said that she would rather go to school!

Today she was on the edge of her seat all morning in anticipation of going. She had lots of questions about what was going to happen and what characters would be there. What we didn't tell her was that her BFF and family were meeting us there! When we walked down to our seats, Ellie was so excited to see them. The show itself was fun but a little long for the adults. Ellie was glued from the moment it started and she got into it much more than we thought she would. She was clapping, waving, and doing whatever they asked the audience to do. She had such a great time! We definitely plan on going to something like this again!

Audrey got a ride in the Baby Bjorn

BFFs

"I can't wait for the show to start!!"

The girls got to sit together and share popcorn.

Ellie's favorite parts were when Cinderella and Snow White came out of course!

Soggy Saturday

What comes after "Frozen Friday"? Why, "Soggy Saturday", of course!

When we thought things couldn't be worse than no heat on the coldest day of the year so far, we woke up yesterday morning with no heat AND no water. I called our water utility company who didn't seem concerned and then confirmed with our neighbors that they all did have running water. The assumption was that there was a frozen pipe somewhere outside and we would just have to wait for it to warm up enough to thaw. Luckily we have a water cooler so had plenty of 5 gallon water jugs sitting around.

The furnace was thankfully replaced by late afternoon so we finally had heat again. We still did not have water so we were trying to make plans for the next few days. Since we assumed that the frozen pipe was outside, we were thinking about staying with my parents until Monday. We decided though that we'd stay home one more night just in case it came back on. Definitely a good decision!

A couple hours after the heat came back on, my parents took Ellie out to dinner. Lori and I were sitting on the couch with Audrey when we heard this loud noise and then a huge rush of water. We jumped up knowing that the water must be coming back and then suddenly water started pouring out of our ceiling and vents! We turned off the water to the house and unplugged the electric appliances nearby while just watching water pour into our living room and dining room.

My parents got home from dinner right before the fire department arrived. We watched the firemen tear down parts of our ceiling until they found the burst pipe. Such a tiny little crack! Once they found the pipe and could confirm that there was no electrical risk, they told us it was okay to stay here for the night. The plumber is coming this morning to repair the pipe and then we'll have a contractor out to do the ceiling repair. The carpet is soaked so we don't yet know if it will need to be replaced. We will call our homeowners' insurance carrier as soon as they're open and see what we need to do.

It was hard to believe this in the moment, but we are very lucky. We happened to be home and sitting in the room when the pipe burst so the water was turned off within 30 seconds. We had few things sitting directly under the water. Ellie wasn't home when it happened. My parents were here to help with everything. We have amazing neighbors. Most importantly, no one was hurt.

So what we though would be a nice three day weekend with no major plans has so far included no heat, a new furnace, no water, and a burst pipe. Remind me, what are the benefits of owning again?!?

Hope your weekend is going better! :-)

Frozen Friday

Do YOU know what it's like to live with no heat when it's 6 degrees outside???

WE DO.

All week we have been waking up to temperatures below our thermostat setting, but today the temperature was 10 degrees below. Help was called and according to Tom from a local repairer of such things, we need a new furnace. Our current furnace is the original from when our home was built. Furnaces are supposed to last 15 years. Did I mention our house was built in 1983? So although we can't complain about a terrible furnace, we can complain about the cost of a new one. Has anyone else gotten a new one lately?? It's crazy!!

The furnace will be installed tomorrow so tonight we are without heat on the coldest night of the winter so far. The company we are using left us two space heaters so we are all staying in one room whenever possible and we'll all sleep together tonight. We are so cold!

The Three Musketeers!

See no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil

and they certainly don't act it either! :-)

(Ellie and her two best friends at school)

Carrots!

Audrey started eating solid foods several weeks ago and has quickly progressed to eating the entire jar of her fruit/vegetable. In addition to rice cereal and oatmeal, she's eating applesauce, pears, and peas. Today she tried carrots and loved them! We had a little hiatus on the solid foods due to some concerns about a food allergy but we're trying them again and she's doing well.

I have my two bottom teeth and I can clap!

I love my big sister!

And she loves me!

January videos

We got a request from some angry grandparents for a blog update so here you go! These are a few videos from this month. I'll try to get some pictures up soon as well.

The first two videos were taken at the birthday party of Ellie's best friend. She had her party at the gymnastics academy where they take a class together. We all had a great time! The first video was very exciting because Ellie has been trying for months to do a certain jump they teach them - drop on the trampoline (seat drop) and then bounce right back up to your feet. She hasn't been able to do it for the few months that she's been taking classes, but at the birthday party she finally did it. You should have heard me and the other moms with kids in the class scream! Ellie was so excited that she ran off the trampoline to give me a hug. I of course didn't catch the first time on video but recorded her next turn on the trampoline. It is so exciting to see the pride in her eyes when she accomplishes something that she's been working at! The second video is at the same party when the teacher was taking them for a ride on the "bouncy train", Ellie's favorite part of every class!

This last video is of the girls playing on the floor together. It is just a delight to see them interacting!

2009

Happy New Year! We hope that your new year is filled with joy, love, peace, and good health!