One Year Old!

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY, AUDREY!

At one year old, Audrey is a sweet, strong-willed girl. She is also inquisitive and a big talker. She says "da" all day long, which seems to mean this, that, and "I want it". She is a fast crawler, but although she can "cruise" on the furniture, she has no interest in walking. When we try to make her walk holding our hands, she will only do it side wise with her right foot leading at all times. Audrey loves music and will find her toys that make it so that she can dance. She has started raising her feet, rocking back and forth, and clapping when she dances. Audrey also loves to eat just about anything. She is allergic to dairy and soy products. She has four teeth and weighs about 25 pounds. Audrey has a very funny habit; she loves to rub her nose with any type of tag (from a blanket, burp cloth, toy, clothing, etc) while she sucks her bottom lip. She has never taken a pacifier or sucked her thumb so this seems to be the way she soothes herself. She sleeps through the night from 6:30 pm until 6 am and is either woken up by her sister or wakes her sister up!

We love you, Audrey! We had no idea what joy you would bring into our family!

Audrey's first birthday party!

This weekend we had Audrey's first birthday party! It has been rainy for the past two weeks, but the skies cleared for a few hours on Saturday, giving us a respite from the rain just in time for her garden-themed party at the park. We had lots of friends and family join us in the celebration. Since it was on Saturday morning, we served bagels, donuts, fruit skewers, juice, and coffee. We also had flower cupcakes and dirt cake with gummy worms, which the kids loved! Audrey enjoyed a banana muffin (dairy, soy, and egg-free!). The kids "goody-bag" was a shovel and a tin pail with a seed pack inside. The shovels were a big hit and the kids had fun digging up the dirt and real worms!

We had a wonderful time and the kids loved running around the park. We can hardly believe that Audrey will be one year old in just a matter of days!

Some of the party-goers at the park

Mimi and Boppa celebrate with Audrey

Audrey and Ellie


Ellie had such a good time playing with her friends!

Lori and Audrey


The birthday girl eyes her muffin while we sing



"Hmmmmm, what is this?"



"This is so good! You've been holding out on me! More please!"















All these presents for one little girl!

Eleven Months Old

It's hard to believe that we have only one more monthly update of Audrey's first year! We will be having her first birthday party in just three weeks! Here is what Audrey is up to at eleven months old...

- She is a crawling pro! She also now has started to what we refer to as "spider crawl". She moves around with her feet and hands on the floor and her bottom in the air.

- She is a very physical baby - she never stops moving and even when she's sitting in one place, she has her arms and legs swinging.

- She can pull herself to standing but has NO interest in walking! She scares us because she pulls herself up on things and then pushes herself back down to sitting on the floor.

- She has four teeth, two on the top and two on the bottom.

- Her only real word is still "mama". She makes lots of sounds though and is starting to say "up" and "down". She spends half of her day pointing at things and saying, "da!".

- She feeds herself at most meals. For breakfast she eats oatmeal with prune juice, but at every other meal she eats finger foods. She loves green beans, pasta, peas, peaches, and pears. We're working on using a sippy cup, which isn't going too well. When she's hungry or thirsty, she smacks her lips at you! She also makes this motion with her hand over half of her face to blow you a kiss.

- She is a good sleeper! She goes to bed between 6:30 and 7:00 pm and doesn't make a peep until 6:00 am. She loves sleeping in the same room as Ellie. We listen to them talk to each other over the monitor and it is so sweet.

- She has the prettiest blue eyes.

- She is still our sweet, snuggly baby. When she's tired, she loves to sit in your lap, hold on to your shirt, and smell it. She also sucks her bottom lip when she's tired.

Ten months old!

Sweet Audrey is ten months old today! We have already started planning for her first birthday party, which just doesn't seem possible! Here is what she's up to these days:

- She started to officially crawl a couple weeks ago! She had been getting around by scooching herself across the floor (our pediatrician calls it "commando crawling") but is now going about it in the traditional way. There is a video of her crawling at the very end.

- Audrey can also pull herself to standing and go from laying down to sitting up. She is also trying to go from laying down to standing by doing the yoga position 'downward facing dog'! You can see this briefly at the beginning of the video.

- Audrey has two primary motivations: 1) Ellie and 2) food. She will find a way to get anywhere if it involves one of those two. If you notice in the crawling video below, we got her to do it by putting a bowl of Cheerios at the other end of the rug!

- Audrey is primarily eating table food now. She loves pasta, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, peas, green beans, carrots, Cheerios, Gerber Puffs, and soy yogurt. She is still nursing or having a bottle four times a day, although we will be trying to cut back on that soon. We have been working on drinking from a sippy cup for several weeks now and she is just starting to get the hang of it.

- Audrey finally got her third tooth. She has had her two bottom teeth since six months and recently got one on top.

- Audrey has figured out how to smack her lips. She does it to tell you she's hungry and also to give you a kiss.

- Another big transition has been that she now points with her finger rather than her whole hand. And she mostly does this to get the things mentioned above as her primary motivations!

- She is responding more to 'no' and answers 'no' as well.

- Her favorite things - the swing at the playground, the bunny that she sleeps with, the tags on her toys, books, her large table top toys, and baths.

- What Audrey does not like - wearing socks, having her nose wiped, having her face cleaned, and being told no.

- Audrey has a very "spirited" personality. She is assertive and lets you know what she wants (even more so now because she can point and she tell you no!). She appears to have a very different personality than her sister and is already giving Ellie a run for her money!

- Her growth is slowing down a bit. She now weighs between 22 and 23 pounds. She has been slimming down a little bit, especially in her face and neck, since she started moving more.

Nine Months Old

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Audrey is nine months old today! When Lori realized this, she said that she couldn't believe that we'll be having a first birthday party for Audrey in just three months. The past nine months has gone by so fast!

Little Audrey has been sick for the last two days so she didn't celebrate her big day in her usual style. She continues to be a happy baby though, even with a 103 temperature! She has a big personality and knows what she wants, which is usually what her big sister has, to be nearer to her big sister, or food. She has a few words that she is using: mama, hi (which sounds like haaaa), night night (nnn nnn), and uh oh. She has also said mommy once. She will wave to you if you say hi, bye, or night night.

Audrey also appears to have the Mimi and Boppa music genes. This girl will start to wiggle, bounce, and sway anytime music is on and she even tries to sing along. We love it! She is still not crawling but has found her way to get around - she lays on her stomach, grabs the blanket with her hands, and just pulls her body up to where her hands are.

Audrey is eating more and more solid food. This weekend she had her first steamed veggies and seemed to enjoy it. We got the results of her food allergy tests last week and the only thing that was positive was the dairy allergy. We were thrilled! We have dealt with the dairy allergy before in Ellie and most kids outgrow that one (Ellie did by 2 1/2). We have started her back on Cheerios and puffs, which is going well. The girl likes her food!

Today's photo shoot didn't go so well since Audrey is sick, but we took a few pictures anyway....

This is how she spent most of our photo shoot!

Eight Months Old

Audrey is eight months old today and we just can't believe it! She has changed so much in the last month....

- Audrey said her first word earlier this month: mama! We can also tell what she wants when she calls me now by the intonation of the "mama". The mama that she says when she's tires is truly the most pitiful noise I have ever heard.

- Audrey has started to respond to other words that she clearly understands. If you say bye bye or night night to her, she waves her whole arm at you. If you say yay, she claps her hands together. Lori and Audrey have an entire night time routine that happens when I take Audrey up to nurse before bed, which involves a lot of waving on both of their parts. Tonight she even kissed Lori good night!

- In addition to waving and clapping, she is learning other gestures. My favorite is how she points with her entire arm at her bed when she's tired.

- Audrey is desperately trying to crawl! She rocks on her hands and knees but hasn't figured out how to move forward yet. She can scooch backwards and can wiggle her way around in a circle and across the blanket though. She can also get near Ellie no matter where Ellie is and will climb on top of her!

- Audrey is teething again and she is not happy about it. Neither are we!

- Audrey is 28 inches long (which was Ellie's length at nine months) and weighs 21 pounds 6 ounces (which was Ellie's weight at one year). We were told at her last pediatrician visit that she is between the 50th and 75th percentile for length and far above the 95th percentile for weight!

- She is still just as snuggly as ever! She is a baby who loves to be held. Sometimes she'll just sit on your lap and rest her head on your chest, which is the greatest thing. Now that she is becoming much more active we treasure those moments!