Let me just start by saying that Audrey is so blessed to have such a loving daddy! There was one day last week I really, really, really needed a Mommy "time-out" (lol). Audrey was getting over croup and fussy, clingy, crabby, etc. On top of that, I was really disappointed that a special date night that Michel and I had planned had to be cancelled. So, last Thursday Michel saw that I needed a break, and took Audrey out to do a couple of errands that he was already planning on doing, then took her to Cabella's to look around and see the big fish tank, and ended with a special Daddy/daughter lunch at Chipotle (since she loves any and all Mexican food). Not only was it a special time for me to have 3 hours at home by myself, but I know that it was a special time for Michel, and most definitely a special time for Audrey. To make it even better, she took a 3 hour nap that afternoon! Daddy/daughter dates apparently wear her out! I told Michel he was going to be responsible for taking her out daily if we get those long naps from her :)
She's still not walking independently, but we are getting there.....slowly, but surely. She has a push car that she loves pushing up and down our hallway. On days that it's been nice outside, I've taken her outside and let her push it up and down the sidewalk. She cruises furniture all the time, and she always asks for someone to walk with her (holding her hands). I also have a little "gym" in my bedroom with some step benches, weights, a weighted ball, and treadmill, and she loves crawling up and down off the treadmill and step benches, so she's definitely working on strengthening up those weak little legs of hers. Maybe she'll be a true walker before her 2nd birthday???!!
She went through a period of time where she did NOT want to go into the church nursery which is so unusual for her. I've never had her not want to go to the nursery. She would hold onto my shirt and cry, and sometimes just start crying as I walked down the hallway going to the nursery. She sure did know how to tug on my heartstrings. I kept putting her in the nursery and the workers always told me she stopped within 5-10 minutes of me leaving, but it still wasn't my favorite way to leave her. Then, just as quickly as it started, it stopped! Last week the worker just held out her arms to Audrey and said, "Do you want to come play?" and Audrey just leaned right over to her....and then proceeded to look at me, wave, and say, "bye, bye." Turkey.
Waving and saying "bye bye" has definitely become a new favorite. As I was putting her in bed for her nap the other day, she usually rolls over to her tummy and starts sucking her thumb, but this time she stayed on her back, smiled at me, waved (and her wave is like a beauty pageant wave!) and said, "bye bye." Haha! I am glad she's not a kid who cries when I put her in bed, but is happy in bed and can put herself to sleep without an issue. Even though I complain about her short naps I am happy that she never protests being put in bed, and if she's not quite tired enough to fall asleep right away she'll talk and play with her crib toys. If she really wants to be mischievous, she'll throw her toys out of her crib, and I can hear them hit the floor followed by the cutest little "uh-oh." :)
One of her favorite things to do is be a "helper", and honestly she actually is a pretty good helper most of the time. The one chore I really try to get done before I get her out of bed is unloading the dishwasher. She likes helping with this....and that's why I try to do it first thing in the morning before she's awake. There's lots of interesting-looking knives, plates, and forks that she doesn't understand why she can't have! She loves helping me with laundry. She'll sit on the couch and hand me clothing items one at a time while I'm folding; if I'm loading the washing machine she sits on the floor outside of the laundry room with the pile of dirty clothes and hands me dirty clothes one at a time....and it's always with a big smile. She's very proud of herself! She's really such a sweet girl.
Weight: 21lbs 2oz
Length/Head circ.: Don't know - will find out at 18 month appointment
Sleep: Usually in bed between 7:45 and 8:00 and generally falls asleep within 15 minutes. She wakes up between 7:30 and 8am and goes down for a nap by 1 (earlier if she's being super cranky). She usually only naps for an hour and a half.
Eating: She's a great eater! I really couldn't tell you a food that she doesn't like other than tough meat (chicken breast, pork chops, etc). If we're having a meal with a meat that I know she won't eat I'll either heat her up some macaroni and cheese or Spaghettios. She eats all the same side dishes we do, and generally eats the same dinner we do. For breakfast she used to eat a cereal bar or oatmeal, but I guess she got burnt out on that because she had stopped eating a good breakfast. I didn't put much thought into it because she ate a great lunch and dinner, but this week, I've been on a scrambled egg kick and she keeps eating my eggs at breakfast! She also likes sausage (I just toss some pre-cooked sausage crumbles into my eggs as they're cooking) and Greek yogurt. Pretty much if Michel or me are eating it she wants it....and a lot of it! For lunch she usually gets either Spaghettios (rare, but a good quick lunch), ham, or tuna salad (her absolute favorite at the moment) and she usually eats a pouch food, apple sticks, red and green bell peppers (sauteed), a couple of crackers, and some cheese with her main course.
Clothes: 12m/12-18m. I actually feel like some of her 12-18m clothes look too big now! She's slimmed up a lot in the last month since her walking has increased so much!
New achievements of the month:
1. Some of her words are getting much clearer to understand
2. Can correctly say the sound when she sees "H", "B", "P", "T", "D". "T" is her favorite letter and she looks for it on her pouches...and can usually find one!
3. Can correctly name heart, star, circle, square
4. Has figured out that Ninja has similar body parts to her: (eyes, nose, mouth) and likes to touch those parts of his and then touch her own eye/nose/mouth. He (surprisingly) sits there and lets her do it and when he's had enough he just walks away. He's very good with her, and much more tolerant of things she does to him than I thought he might be.
5. Loves pointing out hats and glasses that people are wearing
6. "Counts" - her "counting" is not understandable. I just recognize her sound that she makes and she's either touching an object while "counting" or moving things one at a time over to one side of her - she's at least showing me she's starting to understand 1:1 correspondence)
7. Can correctly tell you the noises the following animals make: owls, goat, sheep, cow, cat, dog, pig, frog, bunny (it goes "hop, hop, hop"), bear, bird, pig, and duck
8. Has discovered my wedding scrapbook and asks for "book" every day. Apparently when I show her the first page (it has a copy of our wedding invitation on it) there's not really anything on there that she would recognize, so I guess I say "ooooh!" because when she wants to look at the book she asks for it by saying "book ooooh" LOL :) - also loves pointing out all of her family members that she sees (which is why she likes looking at the book so much) and now when she sees the page with our cakes on it she says "nom nom nom" Hahaha....I'm proud of this!
9. Pooped in the bathtub! OK this isn't an achievement, but a first for her! We had a lot of fun sterilizing the tub and all of her toys that were in it (insert sarcasm)
10. Really tries to copy the dance moves on Bubble Guppies! Her favorite is "Build Me a Building" in which they talk about a hammer says "bam bam bam"; a saw says "zip zip zip" and a wrench says "crank crank crank" so they have cute hand motions to go with each tool in the song. She will now bust out at any time hitting her fist like a hammer while saying, "bam bam bam" and will follow with the wrench and saw. It's soooo cute!! Today we watched one about brushing your teeth and they had toothbrush hand motions in which she really tried copying that song, too. I love seeing how much she understands!
11. I finally remembered to pull her Duplos out of her closet and get them down for her (they were given to her when she was about 3 months old with the idea that it would be a good toy for her to grow into, and since she was way too young at 3 months we put them in her closet and forgot about them. I remembered to get them out this week and they have been such a fun new toy for her. She played with them with Michel for over an hour tonight!
12. Can correctly name her shoes, socks, pants, and shirt (as well as anybody's clothes for that matter)
Likes:
1. Bubble Guppies
2. Puppies
3. Hats - grandparents gave her a Hello Kitty beach/sun hat this last summer and she's just now taken an interest in it, but she loves it! Tonight she was building with her Duplos while wearing her HK beach hat! I wish I had gotten a picture :)
4. Being outside - we could seriously spend all day outside doing nothing and she would love it
5. Looking at pictures of her family
Dislikes:
1. Not getting her way - I've used this before, but it's true; this is really the only time I see any sort of displeasure from her. We're lucky that she's never had a full-on meltdown, and when she is upset she's pretty easy to distract with something else and she's totally over whatever she was upset about in about 5 seconds....but she definitely lets you know when she's not happy!