Life in the Middle

Audrey is 1 Year Old!

Little Miss A is officially a toddler! On one hand, it makes me a little sad that the months just seem to fly by. My baby is less and less a baby every day, and as exhausting as it is, I fear I'm going to miss the snuggles when I rock her at night or feed her a morning bottle. On the other hand, it is so fun to watch her change a little each day - to gain the confidence to take a few extra steps, to figure out how to initiate the game of peek-a-boo, to decide (unprompted) to kiss her dollbaby on the cheek.

We've had a lot of fun celebrating her birthday over the last couple of days. The celebration began on Thursday. Someone was pretty pleased with all the attention.

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She had her first taste of frosting with a cupcake after dinner. It's safe to say she liked it.

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We had a small party on Saturday, and Audrey was quite the hostess. 

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Her favorite part of the day was her cake. I've heard that some babies don't know what to make of the cake - they pick at it, maybe take a small taste, but don't have much interest. Audrey wasn't one of them. She dove right in and within minutes, cake was flying. Literally. There was cake everywhere - in her hair, on the floor, on the dog. She put on a good show, and I think there were actually a few squeals of delight. (I'll post the video once I chance to edit it).

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Thankfully, the clean up crew took care of the mess.

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Happy Birthday, Baby Girl!!!!!

Audrey is 11 Months Old!

Has it really been this long since a post?! What a bad blogger I am. In my defense, we've had a really busy (but exciting) start to 2010 - we found a new house and are getting ready for our move in two weeks (and by getting ready I mean freaking out about the fact that we haven't packed a thing yet), we baptized Audrey and had both of our families here to celebrate, and we've both been traveling for work. Here are a few of my favorite shots from the last month.

All dressed up for her big day:

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Audrey and Aunt "I don't hold babies" Anna:

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Taking her baby for a "walk":

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(Rumor has it that she took her first official steps in Humboldt this week while I was away for work, but we're just going to pretend it didn't happen that way.)

My girl in Humboldt this week. Dru just sent me this picture and I can't believe what a big girl she is - it almost makes me cry!: 

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Holiday Spirit

A few weekends ago, Nathan and I were supposed to have a weekend away in New Orleans. Bags were packed, flights were booked, and Grandma and Grandpa were on the way to babysit. We were ready to go. But, as we laid in bed the night before we were supposed to leave, we realized that we hadn't even started Christmas shopping. And that there was only one other weekend before Christmas. And that we needed to give ourselves extra time to ship many of the gifts back east. And that we hadn't done our Christmas cards. The more we talked about it, the more panicked we (OK, me) became. After a long talk and a few phone calls, we decided to postpone the trip.

Dru and Mike agreed to come down to take care of Audrey so we could take care of our Christmas to-do list. Nathan and I spent the entire day out on Saturday - we did most of our shopping, sat and enjoyed a cup of coffee, went out to dinner, and actually saw a movie. We had some time to kill before the movie, so we ended up driving through the Rhema campus to look at the Christmas lights. For those of you outside of Tulsa, Rhema is a bible college that puts on a huge light display synchronized to music (it's something like 2 million lights). It was so cool! The entire campus is decorated and they have hot chocolate, carriage rides, and pictures with Santa. We decided we had to bring Audrey back to see the lights and to meet Santa.

Fast forward to yesterday. We decided it was the perfect evening to take Audrey to see Santa since it was relatively warm. We headed out early to avoid the lines. I was so excited, imagining the first of many pictures with Santa and wondering if Audrey would smile or cry or look perplexed when dropped in the lap of a strange man in a beard and red suit. Except when we got there, there was no Santa! Apparently, Santa doesn't work on Sundays at Rhema. So we don't have any pictures with the big guy yet, but we did manage a few cute shots:

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I'm still trying to decide if I have the strength to brave the mall for a last-minute visit to Santa...

Audrey is 9 Months (and 10 Days) Old!

It's been another busy month (and ten days) for us! We headed back to Massachusetts to spend Thanksgiving with my family and have been preparing for our first Christmas as a family. Here's a few of Audrey's favorite things in the past month:

• Orange foods. Sweet potatoes, butternut squash, carrots, peaches, cheddar cheese. The oranger the better. She's even started fussing if she can see the orange food, but you offer her something green first. Oh. And mashed potatoes? Worst food ever.
• The theme song from The Office. She'll stop whatever she's doing and turn to stare at the TV as soon as she hears the first notes. While I appreciate her sense of humor and taste in television shows, this says to me we're watching too much TV. I've started listening to NPR at meal times in the hope that she'll soon have the same reaction to the All Things Considered theme. No luck so far, though.
• Flirting. On a plane, in church, at Best Buy. Audrey is turning into a social butterfly. She's mastered a little smile that just melts your heart and that she'll flash with very little encouragement. People stop us to ask if she's always this happy. We're not sure where she gets it, but we're hoping it's not just a phase.
• Electronic gadgets. I'll use this as my excuse for not blogging all month. Audrey is obsessed with our cell phones and laptop. It's gotten so bad that I can't actually use the laptop in front of her without her climbing over everything in an attempt to play with the keys. And then pitching a fit when I don't let her.
• Saying Momma. Much to Nathan's chagrin, Audrey's first word was "Momma." (Actually, we think we heard "Hi" first, followed a few minutes later by "Momma," but we haven't heard again so I'm sticking with "Momma"). We've also had a sprinkling of "Dada's" and a "Bye" or two. I think it's the sweetest sound I've ever heard. 
• Spending time with Aunt Melissa. Melissa has been staying with us while she works at a local hospital and has been a huge help with Audrey. And Audrey LOVES her - she squeals in delight when Melissa comes home from work. We're going to be sad to see her leave when she heads to California next month!

Here are a few of my favorite shots from the month:

Spending time with Grandpa and Emma after Thanksgiving:

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Supervising the tree decorating while she enjoys a drink...

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Checking out the tree up close for the first time...

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And dancing to the music!

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Audrey is 8 Months Old!

Somehow I missed a post when Audrey was seven months old! I thought for sure I would be able to make it through the year with a post every month. Oh well. I fear the poor thing will probably end up with a photo box full of disorganized photos and momentos and a half-completed baby book. I wish I could be better about things like that. Anyway...

We continue to be amazed by how quickly Audrey learns new things. Just when we think we have her figured out, she switches things up on us! She's clappping, waving, crawling, pulling up (and occassionally letting go to see what happens). She's turning into a brave, independent little girl.

One of her favorite things is to "chase" the cats around the house (and they're generally pretty good sports about it - I think they've figured out that she's not quick enough to catch them yet.) Harley wandered in tonight as I was trying to put Audrey to bed. Of course, that that was too exciting to pass up and she wriggled off my lap to see what he was doing. She followed him into the hall and watched as he ran down the stairs. She paused (for just a second) and decided to head down the stairs after him. She's never been on the stairs before and she was completely undaunted! So I picked her up and let her attempt to climb up (that seemed slightly safer). She made it half way up without a second thought. I was so impressed! (Note to self - it's time to install a baby gate at the top of the stairs.)

So I grabbed the camera and hoped to capture the action. Of course, she decided she was tired, after all, and didn't really want to perform for the camera. I included the video anyway, mostly because I think she's really cute in her monkey PJs.

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Turkey Mountain

We took advantage of the beautiful weather here (80 and sunny in November!) and headed to Turkey Mountain for a hike. Turkey Mountain is part of the Tulsa River Parks system. It has miles of trails through the woods, and at 300 feet above the Arkansas River, it's one of the highest points in the area (see - Tulsa isn't completely flat). Audrey seems to really like her backback carrier, so I think we'll be doing more of this.

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Happy Halloween!

We thought Audrey was the cutest little lamb for Halloween, but she wasn't impressed. We didn't get her to smile once in her costume - I think she was afraid we might try to wash the car with her!

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Boo!

We headed to the pumpkin patch this afternoon to pick out some goodies for Halloween. We thought Audrey would love the goats and the ponies and the tractors. From the look on her face, she wasn't impressed:

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She was a little happier after a quick nap in the car:

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Laughter is the Best Medicine

Laughter

Ready or Not, Here I Come

 

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