Beautiful Day

What a beautiful day! Low humidity + cool breeze + temps in the very low 80's = playtime outside!

11 Month Photo-Shoot

My baby is 11 months old! It doesn't seem that long ago that I was pining for this month, and it seemed like some far-away fairytale. Now it's here and gone... next stop, one year!

This Past Weekend

It's Tuesday, and I'm just now finding enough time to sit down and do a show-and-tell about this past weekend! This will be a long one, so settle in!

Saturday was a Cleburne day, mainly because none of Kyle's family were able to celebrate his birthday and Kyle's cousin Jake's birthday when they were officially here. SO after Audrey's morning nap, we packed up and headed down in the rain.

We spent the afternoon at Nita and Floyd's (aka Nanny and Granddaddy). We had a brisket and mac-n-cheese lunch which Audrey completely enjoyed, then we played until afternoon nap time arrived.

Audrey shared her rings with Jake

Ellie supervised

Audrey practiced her stair-climbing

Nanny and Granddaddy watching Audrey

Audrey and Nanny exchanged raspberries

Nanny introduced Audrey to a real piano

After Audrey's afternoon nap, we headed out to Mimmy and Pappy's house to check out the new concrete slabs that have been poured in the front and back of their house. From there we went to Robert and Kim's for Jake's birthday party. Jake got a big-kid drum set from his parents, and Audrey was quite attracted to it (that is until about 5 third-graders descended on it... then she decided it was way too noisy). The day concluded with the ride home, which involved zero fussing and a happy Audrey, Dada, and Mama.

Audrey munched Toasty O's on the ride home

On Sunday, Mimmy and Pappy came up and hung out. Because of the still-rainy weather, I was in a cookin' mood, and got way in over my head with a huge batch of homemade gnocchi. My mom arrived just in time to help me finish those darned little dumplings. I ended up making 3 batches! It was good, though:

With some eggplant and cheese, I quite enjoyed the fruits of our labor

Mom made a rustic peach tart for dessert

At the end of the day, we hung out and played until bedtime

So Big!

We bit the bullet and finally got Audrey a big-girl car seat. Kyle found the most amazing deal on a website that I now check daily, and we couldn't resist (even though Kyle would like to keep her in her infant car seat forever!).

I decided to install it in my car this morning between the light showers that were hanging on from the night before. After reading over the manual, I grabbed all the parts and pieces and headed out to Zoolander. After all, I had installed the first car seat, so how hard would it be? Oh. My. Gosh. What a minimizing thought... it took me an hour! Now, granted, I was out there with cleaning wipes, wiping down the seats that hadn't been exposed since October of last year, but still!

I actually had to install it twice- the first time, I didn't have the reclining bar going the right direction for the seat when it's rear-facing. The second time I had all the parts right, but I forgot to loosen the shoulder straps before securing everything down, so I had to wiggle and struggle to loosen them up without taking the whole seat out again. Did I mention that during this process, it started raining again? Yeah.

Anyho, I finally finally got everything pointing the right way and slanting the right way and tightened down the right way and installed! The funny thing is when I loosened up the shoulder straps, I thought I was leaving a ton of slack, and while I was installing the seat itself I kept marveling at how big it was... then Audrey and I went grocery shopping, and...

...she filled up the whole thing! I couldn't believe it! After all this time, she's still so small in my mind! Not only did she not need much slack taken up in the straps, but I will have to put on the extra head support contraption way sooner than I thought, as her head is almost to the red line at the top of the chair! I'm not going to get to keep her rear-facing for long (look at those long legs), and we all know what that means... uninstalling it, turning it around, and starting this whole process again!

Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaps...

One of the most frustrating and confusing processes in the BabyWise schedule system is determining naps and adjusting them accordingly as baby grows. I have found it extremely frustrating and a source of stress because Audrey isn't a good nap taker, on or off a regular schedule. It's hard to pick up on cues that the experts say you should watch for, that will tell you when baby is ready for a nap adjustment, when those 'cues' are always present! For example, one sign that baby is ready to drop a nap is if she consistently takes more than 15 minutes to fall asleep and wakes up more than 15 minutes early. That is almost every day for at least one if not both of her naps when it comes to Audrey.

On the other hand, all resources say that the schedule Audrey is on right now should be the schedule that carries her into her 14 month, if not beyond, plus or minus a 30-minute adjustment in the morning. I still feel like the schedule she's on is right, but at the same time it's so easy to question it on days when it takes her 45 minutes or more to fall asleep, or she only sleeps for 45 minutes out of the 2 hours she's down! Even though the quiet alone time awake in her crib is almost as important as a nap, it's hard to watch her sitting there awake and knowing that somewhere around 75% of kiddos her age can take 2 solid two-hour naps every day. I guess I just have to keep going like we're going and accept that she's just not that good of a nap-taker! At least she sleeps 11/11.5 hours at night!

3-Day Weekend

This past three-day weekend was also Kyle's birthday weekend. By request, we didn't plan a big celebration or outing, and hung around home to relax, eat, and play. Kyle got to come home early on Friday, and we enjoyed the overcast, cloudy day hanging out and winding down.

On Saturday, we had baked pears and coffee, and ran errands around town between Audrey's naps. On Saturday night we actually got to go out to eat (wa-hoo!) and indulged by sampling the local Cotton Patch Cafe.

On Sunday afternoon, Grammy and Gramps (aka Linda and Bill) came over (Linda fresh from the airport) and stayed with Audrey so we could go out with friends. It sounds like they had a good time, and we did too!

Audrey shows her toys to Gramps... all of them

Audrey was having a great time explaining what each toy was for

Grammy and Gramps wore Audrey out, and Audrey wore Gramps' knees out!

When we got home Sunday night, it felt like we had pulled an all-nighter, yet it was only 12:30am! It seems like the older you get and the less frequently you go out, the harder the following hours are once you get back in!

So Audrey woke up fresh and happy after her night with her grandparents, and Mama and Dada woke up fuzzy-eyed and dashing for the coffee pot, but on the whole it was a great weekend for everyone!

Finger Painting

Audrey decided today that since her room was decorated in Mimmy's art, she should make some art for Mimmy's room.

We had to establish that paint was not for eating, then she let loose!



She was so inspired, she had to take a break




The finished masterpiece (hand- and footprints added for drama)

The absolutely necessary bath afterward (yes, that's red and green paint on her lip)