Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Audrey's Do's and Dont's


Audrey is a busy girl. Some things she does are adorable, wonderful, silly, exciting, funny, and make me so proud I could explode. Other things can be a little embarrassing or frustrating, but always a learning experience! I thank the Lord that He gave us a cheerful and sweet little girl with a fairly even, mellow temper. Here is a list of the things that she is doing these days, both wonderful and slightly less wonderful. :)

~ She says quite a few words now including: Bubble, Ball, Cracker, Hi, Bye, No, Baby, Oh whoa!, Oh no!, Dog, Uh oh, Water (wa-wa), Banana (nana), Bird (a little garbled but we know what she means when she says it) Good Girl (see below), and the signs for Please, More, and All Done.

~ When I was teaching her the sign for Please, I would praise her by saying "good girl!" each time she did it correctly. Now, whenever she does the Please sign, she says "good girl!" Naturally she says "good girl!" all day long when she asks for things. :) It's insanely hilarious.

~ She does the Please sign whenever she wants something, whether she is asking for a toy from another child, food from Eric & I, or food from anyone else. Did I mention she likes food?

~ She gives hugs and kisses (a.d.o.r.a.b.l.e.)

~ She loves water. I think this is partly due to all of the "Aqua Baby" talk that she heard while in utero. If she could, she'd spend the rest of her days plinking around in a puddle, swimming in the kiddy pool, splashing in the dog bowl, getting soaked in the leftover water on the dish washer door while I'm emptying it, or kicking in the bathtub.

~ She thinks it is hysterical when I whistle. I have never figured out why.

~ She sometimes walks but mostly runs whenever possible - I wonder how she doesn't trip and fall more often!

~ She reads books with great enthusiasm, often telling the story in her own bubbly language.

~ Not only does she love to read kids books, she loves flipping through the paperbacks on our book shelves. For the most part she is careful with them and isn't out to destroy them, I think she simply likes the feel and breeze of the pages as she thumbs through them.

~ She loves to dance. Especially to Bob the Builder, and themes to NCIS and Burn Notice. But anything really that has a beat to it. Or not. Anything that sounds remotely like music. Someone could be humming across the street, barely audible to the human ear. If someone, somewhere in the world is playing music, Audrey is dancing.

~ She loves to wear hats. She often brings me one of her hats and wants me to put it on her.

~ One of her favorite things to do is play tag with daddy. He chases her around and she giggles until she can't run anymore.





~ She is very vocal about what she doesn't like, complaining in angry tones. I think it's frustrating for her not to be able to tell us what she wants.

~ She often throws food on the floor or feeds the dogs directly from her hands. I don't always catch it, the little stinker!

~ She LOVES to be outdoors, whether it means walking on the sidewalk or in the grass, being in the stroller (though she would rather walk) or her favorite, playing on the playground. I'm really going to have to find some nice indoor places to explore during the winter!


~ She LOVES taking baths. She would play in the bathtub all night if she had her way. She doesn't like the hair washing part as much, but gets over it quickly. I promise I had nothing to do with the following picture - this was all Eric's cindy loo hoo hair!


~ She loves watching Sesame Street and Bob the Builder. Call me a bad mom, but I allow her to watch it once in awhile, without commercials on WoW On Demand. I get to take a shower or do a few things around the house, and she gets to enjoy her show immensely! I'm afraid she's beginning to love Elmo... *sigh*. I wish they would have Grover or Big Bird on more often, couldn't she like one of those fun, less annoying characters? Ha! :p

~ She is a GREAT eater and loves food of all kinds. I am so thankful to not have a super picky eater. There aren't even a handful of foods she doesn't like. Like any child, she'd rather eat what Eric and I are eating even if it is the same thing that is on her tray. Most of the time, she'd rather play than eat but she can certainly put food away when she wants to.

~ She is a very loving, friendly baby. She will climb into people's laps without warning.

~ She loves to sing, especially The Wheels On The Bus verse where it says "round and round". She hums it and does the hand motions.

~ She loves to push things around on our wood floors. Strollers, toys, laundry baskets, trash cans, blankets, the dogs, you name it.

~ She often helps me clean up, which to her means dropping her toys into the toy box. I LOVE it!

There is more, but I am out of time!

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Play time is the BEST time!


Audrey and I are all about going outdoors and walking or exploring different playgrounds around town. We've been to quite a few lately, many with our good friends Laura and Ava! Audrey LOVES climbing up the steps of playground equipment, going down the slides, swinging on swings, and just plain running around and exploring. I, of course, follow her wherever she goes. So I've been spending quite a lot of time walking around on the highest tiers of playgrounds. We have a blast. I love watching her expressions as she discovers new things.





She's gone through stages of loving and hating swings. Right now she loves them. Although, it doesn't quite show in this pic. :p


Park day! (HAHA Kims!)




Crazy static hair inside the plastic tunnels:


Last week, Audrey and I went with Laura and Ava to Inniswoods Metro Park, where we had a nice walk and let the girls play in a neat water contraption they have there. They LOVED it.









Last but not least, a silly pic of the little munchkin in her infant car seat. I had it out for some reason the other day and she found it and sat in it for the longest time!


I will post soon about all the new things Audrey is doing. She's has turned into a mini adult - a true toddler. I wanted to post some pics though, as I know you all love them so much!

Friday, September 4, 2009

The Windy City

This is way late, but I thought I'd post some pics of our trip to Chicago. We went for my Grandma Porowski's funeral/memorial service which ended up being just about as nice as those things can be. It was comfortable and informal, while family members and life long friends of my Grandma stood up to remember her and talk about great memories. It was so nice to see all of the people that loved her, to hear so many great, funny stories of all stages of her life. Afterward we walked out to the Veteran's Memorial where my Grandpa was buried (in a niche) and stood together to listen to my sister play Amazing Grace on her violin, then a moment of silence.

All of my aunts, uncles, and cousins on my Dad's side were there. It was so great to see them. I hadn't seen any of them in about 15 years, so we had a lot to catch up on as you can imagine! During the course of the weekend, we hung out together at the hotel, playing cards and talking. We chased Audrey around multiple floors of the hotel. We traveled to downtown Chicago to roam the streets, go shopping, eat good food, and my favorite, enjoy a lovely ferry ride into the bay and down the river inside the city. My aunt Anne lives in a condo over looking the bay, so we congregated (a.k.a. squeezed 15 people into her tiny place) there to eat Chicago style pizza one night. It was wonderful. The weekend would've been perfect, if I hadn't lost my camera downtown at some point. I'm still really sad about it. My cell phone has a camera, but not a great one, so my pictures aren't the best. I didn't get any of my family (I don't really know what happened there, and I'm really sad I didn't take more pictures with my cell), just the city really. My Dad and sister got some great ones though, so check out their facebook albums if you want.

Eric had Audrey in a shopping bag ~ love it!!!
She thought it was hilarious.

Kims being Kims on the balcony at my Aunt Anne's condo :D

On the boat:






My seester and I.






My dad... so silly!



I really, really love Chicago.

Walking downtown: