Look Whooo Is 16 Months Old!

I completely forgot to do a 16 month post closer to the time that Audrey actually turned 16 months old. Oops!! Better late than never, though!

Our sweet girl is being a complete turkey with her sleep this week! If you're on FB, you saw that on Monday she and I were at MOPS. The worker told me she fell asleep while being rocked around 11:45 for about 10 minutes. TEN minutes. That led to complete nap refusal at home when I put her down at 1:30. She was in bed from 1:30-3:30 happily playing with crib toys, pulling dirty clothes out of her laundry basket and in her bed through the crib slats (that basket has now been moved away from her bed!), we've had 45 minute naps, 11 hours of sleep at night rather than her usual 12-13.....ahhhh!!! OK, vent over. She still wakes up at 7:30 or later so I shouldn't complain. I don't mind the 11 hour night if that would mean a 2-3 hour nap, but an 11 hour night and only a 45 minute nap just is not enough sleep for her. Hopefully she figures out her schedule again very soon. Luckily, she's not overly fussy or tired, so maybe she just doesn't need a ton of sleep...but Mommy needs a good nap time and some evening quiet time!

Between 15 and 16 months she learned how to crawl up the stairs (and excitedly tried to go upstairs at Christmas at my parents' house because Zane and Karys were going upstairs), pulls up to standing on EVERYTHING, can stand without holding onto anything for 2-3 seconds, can take steps while holding onto something (a push toy, our hands, etc), and she cruises really well. One day she will walk independently :)

Weight: 21lbs 1oz (has not gained a single oz since 15 months....this girl is on the move!)

Length: probably the same as 15 months, but I'm not positive

Head circumference: I don't know the exact number, but if you remember in her 15 month post, I mentioned how we had to go back in January to get it re-measured because it looked like there was a big jump in her head size from 12-15 months. Our regular pediatrician was back from maternity leave and showed us that Audrey's head originally measured in the 25th %ile at 2 months, fell to the 10th %ile around 9 months, and now is back in the 25th %ile, so our regular ped. thinks that there was an inaccurate measurement at some point. She isn't concerned about Audrey's head size, and said that we shouldn't be either!

Sleep: Generally in bed by 8, but isn't falling asleep until closer to 8:30 (she used to fall asleep very quickly), wakes between 7:30 and 8am; naps around 1:00. This can seriously last 45 minutes - 2 1/2 hours. She stays in bed for a minimum of an hour and a half regardless of how long she actually sleeps.

Eating: Haha, I read what I put at 15 months and it's pretty similar: her favorite food one day may not get eaten at all the next day! Lately she hasn't been eating cheese. She used to LOVE cheese! And she's not eating foods from a pouch as excitedly either. I made a knock-off/clean-eating Hamburger Helper type meal one night that she absolute LOVED and gobbled up! The next night she ate about 1/4 of what I portioned out for her. Stinker. She loves any color of bell peppers, peas, green beans, broccoli, mac and cheese, Spaghettios, tuna salad, apple slices, apple sauce, pizza, chocolate chip cookie, Cheerios (plain, and in milk), pasta, crackers, puffs....that's all I can think of for now.

Clothes: She's definitely outgrowing 9-12m clothes. 12m still fits pretty well depending on the brand. Some things (shirts especially) are already 18m. Some fit really well; others are too big - again, it depends on the brand.

New Achievements of the Month:
1. Taking steps while assisted
2. Cruising furniture
3. Labels Mommy and Daddy's eyes and nose with a word approximation - yet when you ask her "Where is Audrey's eye (or nose)?" she points to her ear. Every time!
4. I can't think of new words she's learned, but I'm sure she has some! She learns so quickly!
5. "Sings" Bubble Guppies theme song (a.k.a. says "bububububu" repeatedly!)
6. Does the hand motions to dance along with Bubble Guppies during their dance scene. It's soooo cute!

Likes:
1. Bubble Guppies
2. Puppies
3. Balls
4. Walking around the house
5. Santa - she will still say "ho ho ho" and then say "Santa please" like he's around our house somewhere! She's depressed that Christmas is over :)

Dislikes:
1. Clothes/diaper changes
2. Naps (at least this month!)

I still can't believe how old she is! I feel like she should still be an infant. Time really does fly by!

Christmas Festivities, Fevers, and the Flu

This post is LONG overdue! I would love to say it's because I've been so busy that I haven't had 5 minutes to myself. But last week when Audrey had the flu (more on that later), I had nothing but time. Did I use that time wisely? Hahahaha...not at all! Do I regret it? Nope!

Anyways, we were lucky enough to have Michel off work on the 25th and 26th. That meant Audrey and I had no plans on Christmas Eve, so we decided to go to my parents' house. I could watch a Christmas movie that my mom had recorded (parents have cable; Michel and I don't, and I miss it SOOOO much from Thanksgiving until Christmas!). Anyways, my parents and I watched a Christmas movie during Audrey's nap and then we all went to my parents' Christmas Eve service at their church.

Our little stinker is generally such a happy little girl, and tonight was definitely no different! She's hamming it up for the camera. And check out her super adorable Christmas outfit! Each year I've had her, I want to do a 12 Days of Christmas Outfits blog post, but keep coming up just a couple outfits short :( Maybe one year... Christmas outfits for little girls are just so precious!

Anyways, after the service, we ate a quick dinner with my parents and then she and I headed home. I still had loads of presents to wrap and I had to watch It's a Wonderful Life. It's become my Christmas Eve tradition...such a good, good movie!!!

Christmas morning, Michel got home around 7am, and then we had to wait over an hour for Audrey to wake up. I'm adding this little tidbit in because it won't be long before Audrey (and hopefully a sibling) are waking us up at 4am ready to open gifts!

For Christmas, Audrey got a slide, rocking chair, new book, new clothes, a ball, and some fun goodies in her stocking. Honestly, she cared way more about opening the presents than the present inside!

One of her 12 Outfits of Christmas! (cutest pjs ever)

She doesn't look so sure of it in the picture, but she loves her slide now!

Presents got so awesome that she had to have one in each hand!

When she opened her stocking and saw those cookies (that's what's in the yellow bag), she immediately started asking "cookie please?" so we opened it and gave her a cookie before breakfast...it's just what you do on Christmas!

That expression!!! "Oooh....Daddy, what is that?"

Last but not least from our Christmas celebration at our house....this has got to be my favorite picture of her!!

Michel got me a new Google Chromebook and upgraded my cell phone! I gave him cash, lol. That may seem incredibly impersonal for a wife to give her husband, but it's seriously what he wants and asks for. He enjoys either saving it to buy a big expensive techno/nerd gadget in the future or he'll find something online that he just can't live without and spend it fairly quickly!

We chilled at home, had breakfast, and packed our stuff up and headed to my parents. Even though they're only 45 minutes away, my sister and her family come to stay for several days so we opted to stay the night, too, so that we weren't driving back home Christmas night and then back the next day. Plus, it makes it feel more like a vacation if you're away from home. We had lots of fun opening more presents, getting together with all the family, and of course, eating too much (yummy) food!

OK, I have to tell a cute story. Audrey absolutely ADORES Karys (6). Karys will sit in the floor and play with Audrey, read books to her, and usually give her lots of attention that Audrey just eats up. I put Audrey to bed around 7:30 on Christmas night. I heard her on the monitor about 20 minutes later crying, so I went up to check on her and asked her why she was crying. She's pretty verbal for being 15 months old, but I didn't really expect an answer. So when I picked her up, she pointed to the bedroom door and said "Kar-Kar" (that's how she says Karys' name). Zane and Karys were still downstairs playing, and I guess Audrey could hear them and was sad that she wasn't in on the fun, too. Luckily, Zane and Karys were both heading upstairs to go to bed themselves, so I told Audrey that Karys was going night night and it wasn't time to play. Apparently, that worked because I put her back down, and didn't hear from her until about 7:30 the next morning! Silly girl just wants to be a big kid like her cousins!

Audrey loves Karys so much, she kept wanting Karys to pick her up. Audrey weighs 21 pounds. Karys weighs about 31 pounds...it wasn't going to happen. So Mom came up with an idea for Karys to hold Audrey.

Can you tell how much Audrey just adores Karys? This look says it all!

While we were there, the kids had to take the obligatory grandkid pictures! First, they do one in front of the Christmas tree with this red rocking chair. My mom's dad built this chair when she was a little girl, and apparently did very well because it has held up through the years. There's a picture of each generation of kids with the rocking chair:

Christmas 2014

Christmas 2013 (my parents forgot to take the picture while we were there, so Audrey isn't in this one)

Christmas 2012

Christmas 2011

Christmas 1983 - my sister, Janette, and older cousin, Daniel

Christmas 1954 - I'd say this chair has held up very well!

When my 2 cousins, sister, and I were little, we would always take a picture of the 4 of us on the couch. My mom is continuing that tradition with her grandkids.

Christmas 2014

Christmas 2013 - look how much Audrey has changed!! 

On Sunday, December 28th, it was time to pack up again and go celebrate Christmas with the Zoutendams. Michel's brother and sister-in-law had flown in from Michigan, so we were excited to see them again! Audrey had a great time with everyone! She LOVES her grandpa, so she was pretty excited when we buckled her in her carseat and told her we were going to see Grandma and Grandpa. We got there just around lunch time, and decided it would be best for Audrey if we ate lunch, put her down for a nap, and then opened presents afterwards. She took a sad nap of about 45 minutes while Michel, Philip, David (his dad), and I played Monopoly. I love old fashioned board games!

I was the banker...yet still managed to lose! 

When we stay with Michel's parents and other people are there, too, we end up putting Audrey in a Pack 'n Play in their office, and Michel and I stay in a hotel (Philip and Erin were in their guest room). Michel and I stayed and ate dinner and dessert with everyone, put Audrey down to bed, and went to our hotel around 9:00. Audrey is a great night sleeper, so we knew she'd be fine.

Our plan was to go back to the Zoutendams' house after breakfast, stay until Audrey woke up from her nap, and then we would pack up and go back home (Michel had to go to work the next day). However, when we got to their house, they said that Audrey woke up a little after 7, played and ate breakfast, and around 9am she started acting sleepy. She laid down on the couch with Michel's dad for like 20 minutes! She was very warm to the touch, so we took her temperature and it was 101! Poor baby. Michel and I decided to go home a little early so that she could be in her own bed and we could be near the pediatrician if need be. Our first sign she didn't feel well: she was silent/sleeping the ENTIRE 2+ hour ride home. Not normal. Second sign she didn't feel well: she took another 2 hour nap after lunch. Third sign she didn't feel well: Around 7pm, she started getting really fussy, so Michel and I were talking to each other about "Maybe she wants to go to bed early?" and she started crying saying "bed, bed" and I looked at her and said "Do you want to go to bed?" and she signed "Please." When a 1-year-old cries and WANTS to go to bed early after sleeping 4 hours in a day, you know she doesn't feel well. I told Michel if she still had a 100+ temperature the next day I would probably take her to the pediatrician. Well, at 6am, she woke up crying! Like crying, crying. She rarely wakes up before 7, and never wakes up crying, so I had a feeling she was still sick. I took her temperature and it was 101.9. I decided I'd make an appointment with the pediatrician, and lo and behold, she tested positive for the flu. We even had gotten her the flu vaccine in September/October! So, for the next 2 days, she and I (Michel was at work last Tuesday and Wednesday) laid around watching way too much Bubble Guppies, and doing absolutely nothing. One day, she took one 4 hour nap (this is totally unheard of!) and still went to bed around 6:30! The next day she only took a 2 hour nap (woke up because of poop) and was crying to go to bed at 5pm! I hadn't even fed her dinner yet (her appetite never decreased while she was sick). I got dinner ready for her quickly and had her in bed by 5:45. I've NEVER put her to bed that early. I was so afraid that she was going to wake up at 5:45 the next morning, but nope...she slept until 7:30! By Thursday, she was much more herself. She had much more energy to play, only took a 2ish hour nap, and was able to stay awake until 7pm. I absolutely used all of her sleep time to lay around and do nothing! It was awesome (not her being sick, but having all that extra time to myself that I don't normally get). I watched movies, surfed the Internet, and basically did nothing for 2 days in a row.

So that's how our Christmas went! Sorry this turned into a long book (I don't know how else to write...all I know is how to be long and wordy)!

Look Whooo Is 15 Months Old?

This girl is 15 months old today! She is full of personality, always full of conversation, and full of fun. Last week, she cut her first molar. Oh. My. I dread the rest of her molars coming in. Her naps were terrible, she went down crying at bedtime and naptime even with pain relievers (crying is pretty rare for her, especially at sleep times, so for her to do it daily was sad....and a little annoying because it hasn't totally stopped even though she's fine now). One day, her nap was literally 35 minutes long! A 15-month-old with 35 minutes of sleep all day. Not. Cool. Last week consisted of a lot of hour-long (or less) napping, crying, overall crankiness, and just not her normally happy disposition. Once that tooth popped through the gums all is back to normal!

I absolutely love taking her out shopping now. I joke with Michel that she should become a Wal-Mart employee and stand at the front greeting people as they come in because when we walk through the parking lot or the store, she just waves at everyone we pass with a big smile on her face! And if somebody waves back, or better yet, starts talking to her, that's sure to receive a great big smile! She's such a friendly little girl!

This month has really proven just how much she understands what we tell her, and how much she tests her boundaries. We give her one warning for whatever it is (lately it's eating things that she shouldn't - like the lamb on one of our nativity scenes; standing on the couch; purposely trying to crawl off the bed; throwing food on the floor). We tell her "if you do (fill in the blank) again, it's all done. She's complied enough that I know she understands exactly what she's not supposed to do, so we have to make sure to follow through or else she'll never listen to us. So far, we've managed to avoid any full-out tantrums....just a lot of fits that are actually more funny than they are anything else! :) Also, the funny thing about her consequences is she doesn't usually throw a fit when they occur. If she stands on the couch, she loses the privilege to be on the couch. The first time I took her off of it I expected a fit, but instead, she looked at me and signed "all done". It's not that I feel the consequence is ineffective; I feel like she's understanding what just happened. I don't know...I'm not at all trying to brag on my parenting. I have no idea what I'm doing half any of the time. We just try something and if it works - great! If not, we'll try something different next time. But so far, explaining stuff to her seems to be working so much better than anything else we've tried.

Weight: 21lbs 1oz (25th %ile)

Length: 29 1/4" (20th %ile)

Head Circumference: 17 3/4" (25th-30th %ile)
Side note about her head circumference: we had her 15 month well-check today (that's how I know all of her stats and %iles) and our regular pediatrician is out on maternity leave, so we saw the nurse practitioner. There was a pretty significant jump in her head circumference from 12 months (17") to today, so they're asking that we come back next month to have her head re-measured. The nurse practitioner thinks it's possible her head size was measured incorrectly at her 12 month appointment because from 9-12 months it only grew 1/4" whereas from 12-15 months it grew 3/4". She said if it grows a significant amount between today and our next appointment then there might be cause for concern. OK, I have mentioned on Facebook that I struggle with worry and anxiety, so hearing it's possible there's something wrong with my sweet girl gives me anxiety like crazy. So then I get on Google and start researching stuff...bad idea. While I was doing that this afternoon, I had a very strong urge to go read my daily devotional and give my concerns to God. Lo and behold, today's devotional was titled: Disciples of the Mind - Fear. It's no wonder that God was urging me to go read my devotional. Today's devotional was written for a sin I'm particularly struggling with this afternoon. How comforting to know that my God loves me so much that he knew exactly what I needed to read, and hear today! I just felt so much better, and like the burden was truly lifted today after reading that. All this being said, we would still appreciate prayers for our sweet girl that when we go back her head size will not be a concerning issue, and also pray that her Mommy will not be anxious about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving in my heart, I will give my requests to God and he will cover me with the peace that transcends only from him (my favorite verse - Phillippians 4:6).

Sleep: Her sleep needs haven't changed much this month. She's still doing 1 nap a day. When she's not teething, she generally naps 2-3 hours. Occasionally she'll still pull a 1 hour nap, but I've just conceded to the fact that it will happen, and it just means early bedtime for her. I think she's still catching up on missed sleep from last week because this week she's been sleeping 12 full hours at night and napping 2 1/2-3 hours during the day! Love it :) When she's not catching up on sleep or teething, she's up anywhere between 7 and 8 in the morning and then goes to bed anywhere between 7 and 8 at night with a 2ish+ hour nap in there. Not too shabby!


Eating: Some days she likes certain foods; other days, not so much. She currently is not a huge fan of bananas, but a month ago they were her favorite food. Michel's famous response to things like this: She's a year old. :) As of today, the foods she will always eat are: cheese, anything in a pouch, peas, broccoli, green beans, corn, oatmeal, yogurt (this is seriously her favorite food right now - both Greek and flavored yogurt), tuna salad, cheese enchiladas, Spanish rice, and anything sweet! She is her mother's child :) She's barely drinking milk, so the NP (nurse practitioner) suggested we water down whole milk in case it's too thick for her liking, or we can try 2%.

Clothes: She is starting to outgrow her 9-12m/12m clothes. We are in desperate need of bigger clothes for her! We were well-stocked for the first 18 months of life, but now we're running out.

New achievements of the month:
1. Pulls to standing! Yes, she is late in gross motor skills, but she's coming along! I'm not going to lie...it doesn't bother me at all that she's a late walker. I'm dreading the day that she's running up and down the halls. She keeps me on my toes just with how quickly she crawls. But now that she knows she can stand she tries to do it all the time: in bed, in the tub, pulls up to the coffee table and toy box, and anything else she can get her hands on.
2. Climbed up the stairs just yesterday. I went to my best friend's house. She has a 5 and 2-year-old. Her 5 y.o. mainly stayed upstairs to play, but her 2 y.o. came up and down the stairs to play with us, then play with his brother, and back up, back down. I knew Audrey was by the stairs, and I had been watching her closely. I seriously turned my back on her for about 5 seconds and she was up 4 stairs...just climbing away! She just needed the right motivation to make her want to go upstairs.
3. She says soooooo many words that I can't even keep track. Some that I can think of right off the top of my head (and these are words that she says without any prompting or anything): grass, sky, Santa, cup, book, ball, puppy, bunny, treadmill, bed, pillow, baby, Kleenex, Bubble Guppies (it's Bubba, but I know what she means), frog, peacock, penguin, duck, kitty, Ninja, Mama, Dada, Grandpa, Nana, Grandaddy, pouch (she loves any food in a pouch), water, diaper, pea, carrot, corn, bread, yogurt, cheese, sticker, bye-bye. Now I will fully admit some of these words nobody else would understand; some of these words I only understand in context. She's very good at pointing to make herself more clear. Like book and ball can sound very similar, so if I'm saying the wrong word she'll start pointing at what she wants.
4. She knows what sounds A, P, N, and D say. I promise, I do not sit around drilling her on vocabulary words and letter sounds - she just really has a knack for learning new words. She loves to talk, so it's very motivating for her to learn how to be understood! Plus, I mean, she is brilliant. Just look at who her mommy is :)
5. I'm pretty sure she tattles! Ummm....I don't know who she got that from :) When either Michel or I tell her no about something she wants, or is currently doing that she's not supposed to do, she wants the other parent and will sit and cry while saying a slur of "dadodadadada". It's not understandable by any means, but I'm pretty sure she's crying to the other parent about how unfair we are. If Michel's not here, she'll just sit on the floor and do it to herself. It's actually more cute than it is sad. Where do they learn these things???

Likes:
1. Puppies
2. Pictures of Santa
3. Books about Santa
4. Christmas
5. Daddy
6. Mama
7. Reading to herself or someone reading to her (she has started sitting with books and pointing to pictures while mumbling to herself....sooo adorable!)
8. Being the center of attention
9. Having other kids pay her lots of attention
10. Playing with balls
11. Playing on Mommy and Daddy's bed - seriously can stay up there having the best time for 20-30 minutes before she wants down
12. Touching the Christmas tree. She has to ask first, and someone has to sit with her. When we first put it up, she tried to eat a light bulb, so she's not allowed by the tree by herself for now.

Dislikes:
1. Diaper changes - rather than crying now she'll give you a big hug so that you won't put her down - again, where do they learn these things?? I won't lie...it usually does postpone the diaper change for a few minutes. I love my big girl's hugs!
2. Socks on her feet. If you see us out and about and it's 30 degrees, please don't tell me she doesn't have socks on her feet. I know. I try. I always have at least 1 pair in her diaper bag, but she will not keep them on.
3. Sitting in Santa's lap

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

Oh well...maybe next year she won't find him so scary! I can't wait to see her excitement about opening all her presents this year on Christmas! Last year, I was excited to celebrate her first Christmas and quickly learned that she was way too young to care about any of it. This year, I know she will love the presents (more specifically tissue paper, bows, and wrapping paper!) and she will definitely love being around all of her family.

Look Whooo Is 14 Months Old!!

This sweetie pie is now 14 months old! The big picture pretty much sums up her goofy, look-at-me personality! I had her dressed super cute for church (which was amazing considering my morning had started out ridiculously rough with cooking breakfast for our ABF, Michel was gone at work, Ninja brought a live bird in the house, and I was trying to get myself ready while capturing this stupid bird)...anyways, somehow we made it out the door looking put together, and somewhat on time. So once we got home, I wanted to take her picture. She LOVES sitting outside in the grass, so we played outside for a little bit.

I can now take her grocery shopping with me. I haven't done it ever before because she HATED the grocery cart so much, but now that she can sit up and see everything she's totally happy. She also has to talk to every. single. person we see. She'll call out in some way to get their attention, and when they look at her, she smiles a big smile and waves at them. It's pretty cute. I even chose to take her with me to Wal-Mart this morning even though Michel was at home because she enjoys it so much. I also buy her a cookie at Subway and that girl eats the entire thing! So she gets a treat while shopping, and I get a happy baby. Total win-win! While we were standing in line to pay, I got stuck in one of those lines that didn't move for 15 minutes, and after we were standing for just about 5 minutes, Audrey started fussing at me and signing "all done." Haha!!! It was cute! I love that she understands how to use her signs now, and it gave her a way of telling me what she wanted, but sadly, we were not all done, and I still had to pay. Anyways, onto her skills (I've started keeping lists so that I won't forget anything):

Weight: 19lbs 11oz

Length/head circ: No idea

Teeth: 8 total - 4 on top and 4 on bottom

Sleep: 1 nap a day. Sometimes she'll only sleep for an hour. Other days she sleeps for 3! You never know. She sleeps about 11 1/2 - 13 hours at night, though. She'll do 11 1/2 if she's napped really well that day, and 13 hours if she didn't nap well, so it all evens out!

Eating: She eats 3 times a day and gets a PM snack. Her favorite foods are cheese quesadillas, apple cinnamon Nutri Grain bars, cinnamon toast, macaroni and cheese, pretty much all vegetables, and anything that I'm eating :)

Clothes: Still 9-12m/12m and some 9m things. It depends on the brand as to what size she needs.

New Achievements of the Month:
1. Does actions for The Wheels on the Bus without needing to see an adult do them first. The ones she does are: Wheels on the bus, doors go open and shut, windows go up and down
2. Can sign the following without a model: more, all-done, microwave; signs the following after seeing adult model: cracker, cookie, milk (cutest sign ever on her little hands!), and cheese
3. Can label the following items/pictures independently: goat, cow, carrot, puppy, bath, diaper, kitty, washrag, duck, baby (only in reference to her baby doll though), cowboy (in a book), bat (also in a book), Granddaddy (Mom, you'll have to tell Dad that she tries to say his name when she sees a picture)
4. When asked, "What does a cow say?" she'll answer with "Moo."
5. When talking about the wind, she'll start making blowing sounds (yesterday on our way to MOPS I was carrying her in the church, and said, "It's windy today," and she started blowing! She's too cute!)
6. Actions she does on command: run/exercise (she does the same motion as when she's dancing), shakes her finger when she hears you say, "no, no, no," stomp feet, kick, clap, wave

Likes:
1. Lights (she loves looking at the Christmas lights at Wal-Mart)
2. Ceiling fans
3. Reading
4. Having people do whatever she wants :)
5. Cookies
6. Ice cream

Dislikes:
1. Not getting her own way - this hasn't changed at all from last month!

She's so much fun! I think we're raising a little diva, though! :)

Look Whooo's 13 Months Old??!

I fully intend on continuing these posts until about age 2. We were still in Galveston on the 10th (when she turned 13 months), and then time has just gotten away from me, or there was other stuff I wanted to do, so I'm finally doing it now!

Soooo...we officially have a toddler now! Not a baby. A toddler. A toddler who loves to open and close drawers and doors, chase Ninja around the house, and hauls booty across the kitchen when Ninja's wet cat food is down there (and yes, she has eaten some). Man....life was easier when I could put her in one spot and she couldn't move! :) Oh, and everyone always talks about the "terrible 2's," but are there "terrible 1's"?? Audrey has decided it's acceptable to scream at you when she's not getting her own way, or turn the tears on. Or both! Talk about having a will, and opinion, of her own! Not to make all this sound negative, though; she is still a sweet little girl and generally easy-going and happy....but she's not shy to let you know when she's not happy about not getting her own way.

Here's some proof :)

This month has been FULL of really watching her grow, learn, and develop all sorts of new skills and abilities. She is so smart! I know every mom thinks that about their baby, but yeah, she's a genius :) She definitely understands much of what we tell her.

Weight: 19lbs 7oz (found that out at the doctor today)

Length/head circ.: No idea

Teeth: I don't even know for sure. I think 7 total. 4 on top and 3 on bottom. No molars yet. I've heard those are rough.

Sleep: We are now down to 1 nap a day. Sad day for Mommy, lol (ha...j/k....kind of!). While on vacation I gave her 2 naps one time and she took a great morning nap about an hour and a half long, and her afternoon nap was about 30 minutes....and it took her 30 minutes to even fall asleep for it! The rest of the vacation we did 1 nap and she did fine. At home, she keeps pooping like an hour into the nap, so she's been only sleeping an hour to an hour and a half a day, but then sleeps about 13-13 1/2 hours at night to make up for it, so I'll take it!


Eating: She eats 3 good meals a day. I try and get her to eat whatever we're eating. Sometimes she does. Sometimes she doesn't. If we're fixing something I know she can't eat (like steak), I'll fix her some macaroni and cheese. She (knock on wood) doesn't seem like a very picky eater. I always give her a banana at breakfast and she'll eat a half to a whole banana, just depending on how hungry she is, and her mood. I usually rotate between also giving her a cereal bar (she LOVES these...apples and cinnamon are her favorite), toast with either cinnamon and sugar or jelly on it, or a waffle with some peanut butter and syrup. For lunch, sometimes cheese is her main protein, but this week she and I have split tuna salad (just tuna, mayo, and a hard-boiled egg mixed together). She doesn't really care for lunch meat. She usually gets some applesauce, too, and some sort of carb (her favorite lately is Ritz Bits with cheese...sometimes that's her main meal whether I want it to be or not!). Occasionally I'll make her a cheese quesadilla, and she'll usually eat half of that. Dinner: she's gotten much better about eating meat. She used to not eat it at all. Now she'll generally eat whatever we're having with dinner. She's eaten hamburger patty pieces with cheese melted on top, meatloaf, taco meat, shredded chicken, etc. She absolutely LOVES vegetables! Broccoli, green beans, and peas are her favorites. We gave her corn one time and she seriously loved that stuff, and then we saw it was on the no-no list given to us by the doctor b/c it was hard for their stomachs to digest. She also likes cauliflower. She's really a good eater! She's always more inclined to eat it if I'm eating it first :)

Clothes: 9-12m/12m in everything. Some of the 12m stuff she got for her birthday are already fitting snugly, so we have to get as much wear out of them as possible!

New Achievements of the month:
1. Can pick out a familiar object when named ("can you get your duck?" - she'll pick up the duck)
2. Can point to her hair and nose when asked
3. Signs!!!!! It took FOR.EVER. for her to get it, but she signs "all done" when she hears the microwave beep, the stove timer go off, and (my personal favorite) when she's done eating! I worked SOOOO hard on getting "all done" down because when she was done eating, she would just swipe her hands all over her tray and send food flying all over the kitchen floor. Now she'll look at me and sign "all done." Soooo much better! She also knows the sign for "microwave" b/c I taught it to her and apparently it was funny to her and it has stuck. I haven't worked on many other words b/c "all done" was the one I wanted to focus on. Now that she's got that one down, I'll try expanding her vocabulary.
4. Meaningfully says: "tweet tweet" (bird), "kitty," "hi," "bye," (sometimes these are just waves rather than the word, but she does know the words), "glasses," (as in eyeglasses), "washrag," "water," "duck", "cracker",  "diaper", "sticker," "computer" (lol....I bet this is not one of the first words from previous generations!) I think those are it.
5. Will mimic just about any word/sound that comes out of your mouth....watch your mouths in front of her! :)
6. Can stand while holding onto something (but can't pull to standing yet)
7. LOVES having someone sit and read to her. Sometimes you get to read the same book over and over. And over. And over. And over again.
8. Can actually "help" with certain tasks. I can give her a washrag after meal time and ask her to clean her face and she'll put the rag to her mouth. Is she cleaning it? No. But it's a start! Also, one day, I took a couple of hours to sort through her drawers and closet and put away all the clothes that are too small, or too summery. For most of it, she read books in her room, or just played in the pile of clothes, but at the end I was picking up all the empty hangers to hang up the new stuff we had, and she started handing me the hangers after she saw what I was doing! It was actually very helpful to me! Then she was sad when there were no more hangers to pick up and her helper job was all done :)

Likes:
1. Birds
2. Playing in the sand at the beach
3. Crawling in the ocean at the beach
4. Being held/carried
5. Going on long walks (yes, in her stroller!) and enjoying this beautiful weather!
6. Looking at pictures of people she knows
7. Reading (herself, or others reading to her) (oh, cute story, I LOVE when she "reads" to herself. She just looks at each page and talks softly to herself, sometimes laughing, and then flips the page. It's sooo cute!)
8. Clothes - whether she's on the couch with me while I'm folding clothes, sorting through some of her old clothes and pulling out the clothes that she can't wear anymore, or that aren't seasonally appropriate anymore, she's totally happy when surrounded by clothes

Dislikes:
1. NOT GETTING HER OWN WAY
That pretty much sums up everything she doesn't like :)

This girl seriously cracks me up. Of course, there are days that she drives me crazy, but she is so fun, and interactive. I love that I can explain stuff to her (simple things) and she understands. For instance, if she's fussing and looking at her water cup (if it's out of reach), I can say "do you want your water?" and she immediately stops fussing and either responds with a "ya" or a smile, or sometimes a happy-sounding grunt-like noise. So, she totally gets that I'm about to give her what she wants and stops fussing. It's just so fun for me to watch her learn! Babies really are like little sponges! Anyways, love our sweet girl! Can't wait to see what she learns by 14 months.

Galveston Vacation!

During the summer, Michel and I decided to take our first family vacation since Audrey was born. I LOVE going to the beach even though I'm a total weenie and don't like swimming in open water (hello, sharks!), and we needed to keep it affordable which meant we had to go somewhere that we could drive to. Galveston was pretty much our only option. I'll admit, at first I wasn't that excited. Everybody talks about Galveston being dirty, but honestly we have had such a great time here! Michel booked us a "room" at Holiday Inn Resort which really ended up being our own small apartment. We haven't had daily maid service like you get in a regular hotel, so we've had to wash and dry our towels as needed, but that hasn't been a big deal at all.

Anyways, we left on Sunday, October 5th. We stopped at a gas station a couple hours out of town to let Audrey out and give her a small snack, then back in the car for another couple hours to get to College Station and meet my cousin and his wife for lunch. We also asked if we could go back to their house so that Audrey had somewhere to crawl around and get some energy out.

Our first road trip "selfie"!

I was very impressed with Audrey. We've never done such a long car ride with her, and she did great! She took 2 naps - each one 30-40 minutes which is by no means what she normally does, but it was pretty good for the car. I put on FB that she was happy 80% of the time, slept about 10% of the time, and was slightly to moderately fussy 10% of the time. I'd call that a successful road trip!

Our hotel sat directly on the beach. There was a long pier that you walked down from the hotel to the beach. It was soooo nice! Apparently, I haven't spent enough time on the beach, and didn't realize when you go to the beach with a 1-year-old, half of the beach comes back in, and on, your swimsuits. Anyways, I have loved everything about our stay from our VIEW, to our condo itself, to all the activities that we've done. Better yet, Audrey has LOVED it, too!

Who wouldn't love this view??? This is from our bedroom

The layout worked out great b/c we brought Audrey's pack 'n play and put it in the bedroom during the day, and put it up in the living room at night and Michel and I just had to stay in the bedroom (you can go into the bathroom from the hall or the bedroom, so no matter where she was we could go to the bathroom without disturbing her).


The weather didn't cooperate very well with us on Monday. We didn't have much planned so we decided to give Audrey 2 naps that day rather than 1 (she's at a weird stage where she really needs 1 1/2 naps - one long nap and one is usually like 30 min, so we were planning on only giving her 1 nap most days). Anyways, we went out for breakfast and came back and gave Audrey a REALLY good nap. When she woke up we went to lunch. By the time lunch was over, the sky was dark and once in the car, we were pelted with torrential rain. We decided it was not a good day for a ferry ride (our original plan) and went back to the hotel. Not much to say about this. We read Audrey book. After book. After book. She's in a stage where she likes to read the same book over, and over, and over, or many books repetitively. I'm glad she likes to read, but I can only read "Are You a Cow?" so many times. Anyways, once she woke up from her 2nd nap the skies had cleared, and we decided to go for a walk on the beach. We discovered that Audrey LOVES birds, so being on the beach with tons of seagulls was right up her alley.

After our delicious breakfast out, before the storms rolled in...it was really windy as illustrated by my hair and Audrey's inability to open her eyes!

These weren't even the worst storm clouds

She's supposed to be giving a sad face b/c we're forced to stay inside

I'm not so good with the selfie...but I keep trying

On Tuesday, we went to Moody Gardens. They have an aquarium, rain forest, museum, 3-D movie theater, and an amusement park. We only paid to get into the aquarium and rain forest. Michel and I both agreed that the rain forest was our favorite part. Audrey definitely agreed! There were live tropical birds able to fly freely (no cages!) that she would always point to, excitedly saying, "tweet, tweet!" I have discovered she doesn't ever say the word "bird" even though we tell her that they're birds and then we always ask, "What does a bird say?" "Tweet, tweet." The "tweet tweet" part is what she really caught onto, so now birds are "tweet tweets" to Audrey :) The rain forest also had a butterfly garden with beautiful flowers and tons of butterflies! I tried getting one on my finger, but no luck :( I had one try to land on my shirt a couple times, but it never stayed. Audrey kept trying to "pet" butterflies, but when one did get close enough to touch her eyelids fluttered really hard when they were flapping their wings really hard, so she wasn't too sure about them up close.

The butterfly garden

This monkey was just out in the open! We were told to walk far away and slowly since we had the stroller - he associates it with having food in it!

A "tweet tweet" :)

We went to lunch and then back to the hotel to give Audrey a good nap. Luckily, she still sleeps fairly well away from home, but as I type this (on Thursday) I can say she's definitely missing some good sleep as she has been pretty fussy today which is TOTALLY not like her. Oh well. Anyways, after her nap we all changed and went down to the beach. We'd walked to the beach before, but not dressed to swim, or play in the sand, so this was Audrey's first time to really experience it.

She was very cautious when we first put her in the sand, like "What is this?" but after raking her hands through it a few times, she decided she could experience it better if she rubbed it in her hair and on her face!

This is a baby who is loving the beach!

We then ventured out into the water. We sat at the edge where the tide would come in enough to get us wet. Audrey LOVED it! At one point, a bigger wave came in, and pretty much submerged Audrey in the water (we picked her up right away - we were sitting right beside her), and as soon as she got the water out of her face, she just started laughing! It didn't phase her one bit! So we stayed in the water. She even started crawling out into the open sea to get a better experience. Again, we were right beside her, so she wasn't in danger :)

My child has no fear of water!

Chasing "tweet tweets" :)

I love writing in the sand!

The rest of this post doesn't include pictures, and I know I've gotten pretty wordy already! I'll sum up Wednesday and Thursday quickly (maybe, ha!). On Wednesday we got on the ferry to just experience a ferry ride, and it was so much fun! We took Audrey out and she was definitely more captivated with the "tweet tweets". We even saw at least 20 dolphins jumping in and out of the water, and she liked the birds more. LOL when one of the dolphins jumped up, I pointed to it in a really excited voice, and said, "look! There's a dolphin!" and she looked at me like "What's a dolphin?" and went back to pointing out birds :) We went to lunch again, and back to give Audrey a (horrible) nap. It was probably 30 minutes. Then we went to get ice cream because there's an ice cream shop that was listed on Trip Advisor as the "best ice cream." It was true. It was cold, creamy, and delicious. Audrey also LOVES ice cream, so Michel and I could not feed her fast enough! She was a satisfied little girl.

On Thursday, we spent the morning on the beach, came back, showered, ate lunch, and put Audrey to bed where she finally took a 2+ hour nap. It didn't really keep her from being a bit crabby, but we've been going and going and going every day since Sunday, so I assume she's just really tired. I'm hoping once we get home in her own bed she'll make up some good sleep (even though, for the most part, she's still sleeping fairly well...1-2 1/2 hours in the day, and 11-12 hours at night).

All in all, we have had a WONDERFUL time, and I would gladly come back again! We drive back tomorrow, so please pray for our safety, and that Audrey stays as happy on the way back as she did on the drive down here!