11 months old / first steps!

She's one month away from being a year old -- I don't believe it. Someone has some serious party planning to do!

And to celebrate her new status as an 11-month-old, miss Audrey took a few steps on her own today. The bad: it was for the babysitter. When the husband told me, I burst into tears, causing him to say, "Uh ... I guess I shouldn't have told you?" But then she stood up and took a couple of shuffle-y steps toward me with a big grin on her face, and I decided it didn't really matter that much. I won't lie, though -- I was already struggling with some going-back-to-work guilt and that didn't make things any easier.

Audrey is such a ham -- she loves to laugh and dance, and she's just really ... jolly, as friends call her ... most of the time. I can't wait to see how she and her big sister interact when she's a little older.

long time no blog

First order of business: Halloween!

Olivia and Audrey are pictured with the newest member of our extended family, their adorable candy corn cousin, Mr. T.

I think Halloween sort of blew Olivia's mind. My favorite quote from her was: "I go to the house ... and they give me CANDY?!" She was really, really into it.


She wanted to go home after a few houses so she could eat her candy. Not wanting to deal with a crazed toddler on a sugar high, we gave her a few minutes with a sucker and had her put it away for the next day.

Some random cute Olivia-isms:

-- Enthusiastically exclaiming, "Soor!" (sure) when you ask if she wants to do something
-- Saying a d instead of j: SkippyJon Jones is SkippyDon Dones

Audrey will get her own post in a couple of days, when she turns 11 MONTHS old!