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!

way behind on posting

Audrey turned 10 months old on 10/7!

she:

is getting one of her top front teeth
can stand up without holding onto anything
is cruising all over the place
says dada, mama, and kitty (kih-TAY!)

Olivia is just a few months away from her third birthday, unbelievably.

she:

absolutely loves her preschool class
talks even more, if you can believe that ;)
says jump like dump and chocolate milk as tok-lat milk, which is adorable
can be moody, but so so sweet.

And me? I got a job offer I couldn't refuse and went back to work full time. I miss the girls terribly during the day, but they seem to be handling things really well. I'll try to get some new photos uploaded soon of my sweeties.

first baby sign

Audrey did her usual 11 p.m. wake up last night (this girl just refuses to sleep through the night, like, ever), and when I went to get her out of her crib, she was opening and closing her hand like this:

milk sign

It was so cute! I haven't done a ton of signs with her so far, but I think I'll step it up now that I know she's learning them.

She's also standing up every chance she gets, and more importantly, has mastered how to get down from standing (which means I don't have to rescue her every 5 minutes all night long when she wakes up to practice her newfound skills). She says an excited hard k sound when she sees the cats, just like Olivia did, is starting to learn to clap her hands, and also knows what I mean when I tell her to dance, kick her legs, and pat her belly. She'll sit on the hardwoods and use her legs to spin herself in circles, then laughs when she gets dizzy. As her speech therapist recently said, she's a seriously cool kid. :)

Suddenly, waking up at 6:30 a.m. is her new thing ... which I really wouldn't mind if I wasn't up with her at midnight and then from 3-4 a.m. But I keep trying to tell myself that she won't be sleeping like this forever -- her first birthday is less than three months away, which seems absolutely insane!

big girl goes to school

Olivia started preschool last week. I, of course, was terrified -- how would she do? Would she cry? Would I cry? We talked it up a lot, but then I'd hear her crying in her crib at bedtime:
"Mama! Please! Pleeeeease don't leave me at schoooooool!"

So I was understandably nervous. For her first day, I was scheduled to volunteer in the classroom. She did fine, but I thought maybe it was because I was there. Tuesday was her first drop-off day, and we talked a lot about how I'd give her a hug, leave, and then come back after a while. We got to school that day and waited outside the classroom until the teacher opened the door. O looked a little wary, especially because there were a few kids crying in the hall. When that door opened, though, she started pushing me toward the door, saying, "Hurry up, mama!" I was only there for a few minutes when she asked me if I was leaving and if she could have a hug. I'll admit that I sat in the car down the street from her school for the full two hours, sipping coffee, reading a book and missing her a little bit, not wanting to be too far away.

Today, we got to school and she clapped with excitement when we pulled into the parking lot. I hadn't even been in her classroom for 2 minutes when she TOLD me to leave. "Mama! You go bye-bye now! See ya!" When I picked her up, one of the moms told me that Olivia is one of the most social kids in the class. When there was a lull in conversation during snack time, Olivia said, "Hey! Let's talk about our friends! What are our friends' names?"

a conversation with Olivia

It lasted for what seemed like forever.The phone rang, so I muted the song I was playing for her to answer it. She started whining:

O: bumcontrol!

me: what? what's bum control?

O: I said, bunnkinstrol.

me: (giving up on my phone conversation) Um, Olivia? I'm sorry, but I don't know what you're saying. Can you show me?

O (exasperated, louder): BUMCONTROL!

me: uh ...

O: bumcontrol?

me: does something hurt?

O: NO! i said, bunnkinstroll.

me: what is that? can you show me?

O: look at the computer and see.

me: Oh, it's on the computer? Is it a game?

O: Silly mommy! It's not a game!

me: a song?

O: yes! I SAID: bunnkinsroll.

me: bunkinsroll? a song? how does it go?

O: (hums an inaudible melody)

me: (finally figuring it out) Jenny Jenkins?

O: YES! bunnkinsroll jenny jenkins!

The song I had been playing before the phone rang was Jenny Jenkins by Lisa Loeb ... but I always change one of the lyrics to "roll, buddy bumkins roll" (we occasionally call Audrey buddy bumkins for some reason). She's always been so verbal and understandable that it was really puzzling and frustrating for us both for me to not know what she was talking about!

9 months old

Audrey is 9 months old!

She has two teeth that finally came through ...

and, just like her sister, she has a fun little silly face that she makes when you ask her to. :)