13 facts about my 13 month old.

1. If she has room to run, she is running.
2. Every time I try to get the camera out and video tape I am ambushed by her and unable to get any usable footage.
3. She still wakes up about 2 to 3 times a night.
4. She is successfully off the bottle. And it wasn't really that hard!
5.She will pop up with pacifiers in her mouth around the house and I have NO CLUE where she found them.
6. She LOVES to be chased.
7. She plays peek-a-boo with herself in her closet door mirrors. It's one of the cutest things ever!
8. Every time I try to get her to say 'mama' she says "dada"!
9. She has started to throw little fits and can wiggle her way out of our arms.
10. A snake says "ssssssssss", a cow says "mmmmmm", and a kitty says " now now now".
11. She is eating us out of house and home.
12. She is a book fanatic! She will now sit on her own and "read" books.
13. some of her favorite foods: Bacon,grapes, roasted butternut squash, and turkey.

Weekend Beach Get Away

As we neared the beach the excitement started to set in. I was about to witness my baby girl's first beach experience. I really had no doubts as to whether or not she would like it. It was really a question of how much she would like it! We finally get to the beach and set her down feet first on the sandy shore. I can't remember which one came first. She either took off running , or stooped down to get a handful of wet soupy sand. Either way she obviously loved it despite the chilly October ocean water. She would have run straight into the middle of the ocean and morphed into a mermaid if we let her. .I looked over at Aubrey sitting in the waters edge and she was just shivering to death.We had to end the beach experience a tad quick because the wind was really kickin' and the water was cold. But none the less, she had an awesome first beach experience.

Halloweeeeeeeen !!!!!!!!!!

So any one who knows me, knows I LOVE Halloween. The costumes,the candy,the imagination,the creativity,the absolute ridiculousness of it is nothing less than FABULOUS! I decided on Aubrey's costume shortly after she started becoming more mobile. The way this girl buzzes around the house with non stop energy and speed really left me no other options for an idea for her costume. So a busy Bee she will be! Here is what I have accomplished on her costume so far.All handmade with love by mom (me) !!!

She signed fan!!

The other morning after Aubrey woke up I did the usual by getting up and bringing her to our bed. she was being her snugly, happy,bouncy little baby self as usual. She looked up at our fan( which she has always been fascinated with) and I said "fan". She looked up,then looked down at her little hand, raised her fist , poked out her little pointer finger and moved it! I was like " Dustin she just signed fan!" I was freaking out! He was like "yeah, I thought she did." That is not how you sign it but it is a hard one to do for a 10m old. But the point is that she DID sign fan.I'm so proud!

It was our first day back to our home church as a family. It went great :) Especially considering Aubrey was running on no nap at 12:30 in the afternoon. What can I say...my girl is a trooper. When church was over I hopped in the back seat with Aubs on our way home so I could feed her. She was so tired she was falling asleep with the spoon in her mouth! I can honestly say I have never seen her that exhausted in her tiny little life. When we got home I layed her in the crib and she continued to sleep for 2 hours.So here is a picture of Aubrey tonight in her owl P.J.'s in our bed waking daddy up from a nap. We had a busy day and Aubs trucked right on through.She is now tucked away in her bed and sleeping like......well, a baby . We love you baby girl.

It's raining........

It's pouring, today will be boring. Trying to keep up with new and exciting things to do with an almost 10 month old can be exhausting. Not to mention when it's rainy and cloudy outside I feel more like crawling in bed and watching a movie, not keeping track of my Tasmanian devil .Aubrey obviously has an itch to get out today as well judging by her overwhelming attraction to our patio door . When you are low on funds ,it's raining ,and you have to be at work by 2:00.....what can you do? Looks like I might be pulling more cooking utensils out of their safe cabinets and throwing them at the mercy of a baby.

I marvel at the ridiculous pace that our beautiful baby girl is progressing. It seems like yesterday that I was freaking out thinking I couldn't possibly make it another day with a newborn screaming her head off and wanting to nurse 24/7. As I look back on those not so distant days it seems like it took place years ago .Not only did we "make it through" those very tough colicky days, but we have now bonded with a relationship that only another mom could understand. It's almost as if those once crystal clear memories have faded into blurry dream like substances of the past.I truly can not believe that my baby girl is going to turn one in two months. I am holding back the tears as I type at this exact moment. I am already planning her Birthday party and can't seem to keep the phrase" I can't believe she is gonna be a year old already!" off my lips. So here is a long overdue update on our ever changing marvelous baby girl(I can still say that) Aubrey.

1.She is constantly practicing her walking. She can take about 5 steps on her own before plopping down on her cute tush.

2.she figured out her jungle toy! She now rolls the balls down the spiral and puts them in the elephant's ears :)

3.She thinks it is hilarious when dogs bark. it is one of the things that will make her bust a gut laughing!

4.She giggles at her mobile every morning while she falls asleep for her nap. It truly touches my heart EVERY time she does it.

5.She loves getting under blankets with us and "hiding".

6.Aubrey is one of the busiest children I have ever come across . and because of this she gets hurt a lot. She has torn her frenulum like 3 times! I think she also might have chipped her tooth!

7. She is starting to dance! Finally!

8. She still doesn't eat much table food because chunky food makes her gag.

9. She gets excited every day Grammy and Daddy come home.

10. she makes the most wonderful expressive faces. Especially with her eyebrows.

So we continue our ever changing journey of parenthood. Who knows what the future will hold,but I look forward to it with great anticipation!

Aubrey's first time eating rice cereal.

What is new in the World of Aubrey?

This is what has been on my mind.

So, latley I have really been wanting to do some more videos. As some of you may know our computer has really been freaking out and I think it would would make it a little difficult, but I am almost willing to try. There is so much new stuff going on with Aubs and I have a lot of things on my mind when it comes to motherhood that I would like to share. I would also like some feedback from other moms and people who have experience with children. I would really like it to take off and get a big following. It's not an original idea by any means, but it is something I have really been thinking about lately. I know how much I LOVE subscribing to other moms on youtube, so why wouldn't other people like to subscribe to me? Hopefully yall will be seeing me soon on a Vlog :)

Bathtime Splashfest

Cute winter outfit picture.

Kristina and I both had the day off and most of the time we end up just hanging around the house. We've really been wanting to get out and take Aubrey with us to do stuff. We took a trip down to the mall to drop off Kristina's wedding band to get repaired and then to TJ Maxx for some other stuff. We have this winter mix blowing in today, including sleet that was falling the whole time we were out, so we had to dress Aubs all nice and warm! :) Isn't she the cutest?

If the weather isn't too bad tomorrow, we're going to try and take Aubrey down to my old job at Southwest Alliance so everyone there can meet the baby. There are lots of ladies in that office and I'm so sure she'll get passed around like a hot potato. Hehe. Actually I remember when Stephanie at our office had her baby boy. Michael the acquisitions manager who has 2 little girls himself was holding baby Alex for most of that visit if I remember correctly.

Ironically while Kristina were out at the mall I saw a lady who replaced me when I was promoted from receptionist there. Her name is Diana and she's a regional marketing manager for JC Penny now. I'm pretty sure she used to work there before coming to SWA, and then like 4 months later she was part of our first round of layoffs and it took her 8 months to get back to work full time.

Anyway, the baby's asleep now and she went down really easy which beats fighting with her for an hour over sleep let me tell you. :) We just started getting our subscription to Parents magazine and they had 7 tips to help baby's sleep through the night. A big thing is a bedtime routine, and the doctor quoted recommended a meal, bath, baby massage and then lights off and in bed within a half hour of that. Aubrey was already about to pass out before I gave her a bath, which she loved. She seemed to enjoy the massage too. I really did! I had a grin on my face the whole time.

Now she's asleep. Kristina's out with her girlfriends for a while. The laptop isn't acting completely cracked out and slow so I think I might get in some poker time and watch American Idol. W00T! Here are some more pics of Aubs in her outfit today. Notice the tree mural Kristina's working on in the background!

Aubrey holding her head up, talking up a storm

Who knew having babies changes your body?

Well , just about everyone ! But, what you don't know is exactly how much it changes your body until you personally go through it. I never gained a ton of weight with Aubrey throughout my pregnancy. From beginning to end I had gained about 20-25 lbs. Which is good because I was overweight to begin with. I am back at my pre-baby weight and have been since probably the third week after having her. The thing is though , I have like no muscle tone in my stomach ! I never thought I had muscle tone in the first place , in hind sight I definitely did! So, I whipped put my Yoga DVD the other day and gave it a go. It was tough, but I felt so much better after doing it! I was sore in all the right places, and relieved in all the right places :) So during the days when I am home with Aubs ( which is pretty much every day ) I am making it my goal to do some form of exercise. I definitely have a 20-30 minute window when I can get it done with no problem.
I also need to work on my eating habits again.....uuuhhhggggg. I have always struggled with food problems. Whether it was eating too little in high school (I won't get too in to that) or eating too much when I am stressed out now. I have food issues........ My sweet tooth has been out of control ! Or my self control has been out of control :) I have always loved sweets , I just need to practice a lot of self control. Being in the house the majority of the day has killed it. But, no more excuses! I am whipping my ass back into to shape and reaping the benefits . Who knows, maybe I will even start posting some pictures?

Aubrey and Daddy

I don't know if we could keep up with it, but I'm thinking about doing a daily Aubrey picture. Kristina's mother is always jonesing for Aubrey something, so it would be inspired by her.

Aubrey's 2 month checkup.

Well our little Aubs had her 2 month checkup today. She is measuring 22 inches long , weighs 9 lbs. 3 ounces , and her head is like 15 inches around . By the way, she is in the 25th percentile for growth , but her head is in a category of it's own at the 50th percentile ! We knew that was comin! All the nurses kept commenting on what a happy baby she was and how alert she seemed. She really is inquisitive. You can already get a little peek at what her personality is gonna be like. Now of course the most dredded part of the 2 month checkup is the shots . She had to get 3 shots and some sort of oral vaccine. She did cry and it was like a " I can't beleive this is happening to me!" , sort of cry. Then she proceeded to scream " AAHHH MAMA!" That was really funny because of course she doesn't know what she is saying, but I would like to think it was some sort of primal instinct , or maybe she is just a genius :) I got a little teery eyed , but did much better than I thought I would have. She is running a tiny fever and a bit cranky tonight , but she is such a trooper. All in all it was a great doctor's appointment and everything is going really well for our girl.

3 "new" videos