October 7

Today at Sprouts, Audrey discovered that she is now big enough to bounce on this ball all by herself. Last spring she couldn't quite manage it alone, but today she was a bouncing fool. I couldn't get a decent picture as she was constantly bouncing. I do like this one. It's not in very good focus, but you can tell that she is bouncing and you can see that she is smiling.

Audrey actually had fun the whole time at Sprouts today. You wouldn't think that would be surprising, considering that she is in a big play space with lots and lots of cool toys, but she is normally not very happy at Sprouts. She is whiny and clingy and won't go anywhere or play with any toys unless I am in touching distance. And then when another kid comes near here (keep in mind we are sharing this space with 50 other kids!), she screams no and starts to cry. It is usually very stressful for me, especially when I have to help with clean up and snack time.

But something was different today, and Audrey was so happy. She ran off to play with everything, she took turns with the other kids and shared the toys, and she checked in with me every so often by running up and giving me a hug and a kiss and a big smile. It was such a nice morning...exactly what Sprouts is designed to be! I'm hoping she is turning over a new leaf and this happy behavior will continue in the coming weeks/ months!

October 6

Here's a sneak peek at Audrey's 2nd birthday party invite. We're going with a goldfish theme this year. Audrey loves to eat goldfish crackers, and she loves real fish too. Everytime we go to Wal-mart or Meijer we have to be sure to stop in the pet section and see the fish.

My chore for tonight is to finish the invites. Last year, I had her invitations finished months before her party. I'm a bit of a slacker this year. And we're having two parties this year, so I have even more invitations to make! I suppose I should stop typing this and start working!

October 5

Tonight I had a photo shoot with the Provart family. They have two energetic boys--ages 4 and 5. As you can see from this photo, it was difficult to get a picture of the two of them together. One would smile, and the other would make a funny face. Then one would be looking the wrong way. Then the other would be looking the wrong way. And on and on it went. I got some good individual shots and some decent family shots, but I had a hard time getting the two boys together. I may have to test my Photoshop skills and see if I can merge two pictures together in order to get one of the two of them looking at the camera and smiling.

With all that said, I kind of love pictures like this. They are more candid and real and show the kids' personalities. I know these boys' parents probably don't want to blow this up and hang it above their mantel, but I think it's a fun photo!

Pacifier update #2: Normally when Audrey wakes up in the morning the first thing she does is go on a search for her pacifier (or "night-night" as she calls it) and her blanket. The blanket is usually still in the bed with her, the pacifier is usually on the floor under the bed. On morning #2 without the pacifier, instead of looking for her night-night when I came to get her up, she said, "Night-night trash. Blanket here." She understands that her night-night is gone, but that she still gets to keep her blanket. And she seems totally okay with it. Who knew it would be so easy?

October 4

Here's another dinner time picture.

Audrey is finicky about eating her vegetables. She goes through stages where she eats them without a fuss, and then through stages where every bite is a battle. Lately, we have been in the battle stage.

Tonight, I gave her broccoli with her pizza. And I remembered this day, when Audrey was only willing to eat her broccoli if she was wearing sunglasses. So I pulled out the sunglasses, and sure enough, Audrey ate it up once she had them on. Not sure if this is a good parenting move...what if she will only eat vegetables with sunglasses from now on? But at least she is eating vegetables, so that has to be a good thing. And it's nice to be able to enjoy a somewhat peaceful meal for a change.


Pacifier Update: Audrey cried for about 10 minutes at nap time today before falling asleep on her own. She then slept for almost 2 1/2 hours (a very good nap for her). I'm not even sure that the pacifier was the reason for her crying. Right before naptime, she was exceptionally grumpy and a crying mess. So she could have been crying just out of grumpiness and not because she missed her "night-night" (what she calls her pacifier).

Tonight she went to bed without a pacifier and with no problems again.

Seriously, if I would have known it would be this easy to get rid of her pacifier, I would have done it a long time ago!!

October 3

This is Audrey praying at dinner tonight. Her prayers are so adorable, always beginning with "Dear Gog" in the cutest little voice.

She's a big girl now! We finally got rid of her high chair and put her at the table with us in a booster seat. She loves to sit in her "big chair".

Speaking of big girls, we got rid of Audrey's pacifier tonight. We had her throw them all in the trash. She likes to throw things in the trash, and she understands that when they go in the trash they are gone for good.

Daniel and I have been very nervous about getting rid of the pacifier. Audrey is such a good sleeper. She will go to sleep immediately anywhere that we put her. We regularly put her to bed in a pack n play at a friend's house or church, then wake her up a few hours later, and put her back to bed at home. And she always goes right back to sleep--with her pacifier, of course! I was/am afraid that the pacifier is the magic sleeping trick. Will she go to sleep so easily and sleep so well without it?

Well, tonight she went to bed without a pacifier and without any fuss at all. No tears, no screaming, nothing. I'm not getting too excited yet though. I think the real test will come at nap time tomorrow. She is a good napper, but not quite as solid of a nap sleeper as she is a night sleeper. Keeping my fingers crossed for now!!

October 2

I didn't get home until 1:45 am, so I was too tired to post this then!


Today we took Audrey to the Apple Barn for some pre-Martha Stewart weekend fall fun. I could just post the picture and make you think we had a wonderful time. It's easy to post pictures that look like we are having fun and lead all of you to believe that our life is wonderful and happy all of the time. But in an attempt to keep it real, here's what the trip to the Apple Barn was really like.

It was dreary and windy and freezing! And Audrey was a HUGE grump, crying and whining and driving me insane the entire time. We bought some apples and ate a cider doughnut and attempted to have a nice outing, but really I just wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible!

One bright spot to the trip: after we got home and got the grumpy girl down for a nap, I used some of the apples we bought and made these yummy Apple Whole Wheat muffins. They are really good, and as an added bonus they are fairly healthy too. So something good came from our stressful trip!

October 1

Tonight was a book club night! This time we read the book Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. For our club, Breanne hosted an English tea party and then we watched the Hitchock movie version of Rebecca. Fun times!!
Also, we took Audrey to the children's museum in Bloomington today. But sadly, I forgot to bring my camera with me. Audrey had a great time. The museum was not busy at all, perfect for a little girl who has major issues sharing her space with others. We did run into our neighbors and friends Tik, Evey and Sophie, though!! We didn't even know they were going to be there!