First Day of Preschool 2012...

To say my little girl was excited about going to school is a HUGE understatement.

Girl was ecstatic.  

As Chris would say, happier than a third grader on frito pie day.

Do they even serve frito pie in school now?  Doesn't that break some law?  Or is that only in New York?  

Anyway...

We went to open house last week and she almost had a meltdown when we had to leave.  Daddy was there and I truly think his being there is the only thing that saved the day.  (He's a special treat these days.)

She woke up yesterday morning saying, "I want to go to school nnnoooowwwww!"

It's so not cute when she says "now."  

Seriously.

As I had to do for open house, we left early and took the long, long way to get there.  AK just couldn't stand staying in the house another single minute.  

Most Wednesdays and Fridays, my plan is to walk her to school.  It's just 15 minutes since the church is right outside our neighborhood.  Thus the purchase of the double stroller (see picture in previous post).  But yesterday, the parents had a brief orientation after we dropped the kiddos off.  I thought it best for the newborn to stay home with Nana for that.  

It was also 101 yesterday.

Just to prove how excited she was, I present her first day of school photos.  In which, she:

A.  Stood still

B.  Smiled

C.  Did not whine.  Even once.

Apparently, Pumpkin likes it when things are all about her.

Raise your hand if you're shocked by that.

Exactly.

 

Here are Aubrey Kate's First Day of School 2012 favs:

Book:  Bible (no, seriously, not just my Sunday School answer.  She knows more bible stories than I do.)

Food:  Mac & Cheese

Song:  Wheels on the Bus

Activity:  Playing in the Playroom (Come in the playroom with me?)

TV Show:  Caillou (aka:  Momma's least favorite show)

Toy:  Old Spots (I got her a new one but it's not faded so she can easily tell the difference.)

Aubrey Kate, you are an absolute delight.  We love how excited you are about going to school!  Can't wait to watch you grow and learn, sweet girl.  

We're just chillin'...

Life's just moving along around these parts.  Nothing overly exciting going on.  Except for lots of lovin' on some very precious babies.  

And maybe a little singing.  Don't miss the latest AK show.  

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Itsy Bitsy Spider...

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Two years old...

We also celebrated Pumpkin's second birthday this weekend.  The party was loosely Elmo.

Very loosely.  

Aunt Carrie made the banner and it was fabulous!

The rest is all thanks to Pinterest.  I spent two weeks crafting and planning.  You would think a simple family party wouldn't take so much work.  But it does.  Because she's worth it.  

She had a blast.  All that's left is cleaning out the playroom to make more space for all the fabulous new toys.  

I am picturing days of vacuuming and having juice with her new tea pot.  

La, la, la...la, la, la...AK's world!  AK loves her vacuum.  Her Minnie Mouse too.  That's AK's world!

Our baby is two...

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Aubrey Kate,

In so many ways, it seems completely impossible you are two years old today. Time with you has certainly flown by. You are growing so fast. Hard to believe a year ago today you were still doing your crab crawl. Hard to believe you weren't really talking. Hard to believe you were still a baby.

But in so many other ways, it feels like you have always been. Like our hearts were not fully complete until you came. The day you arrived two years ago, our hearts grew by a whole you. How we have treasured each day. Watching you learn and grow. Watching your precious personality develop right before our eyes.

You are a happy, sensitive, precious little girl. You love music, reading, Elmo and whatever mommy and daddy are eating. Dresses and bows and necklaces. You are all girl! Pushing your babies in their stroller, wearing your pearls and talking about going to the store. You make us laugh every day.

We know you are here with us because of Christ's love. He loved us so much, He answered our prayers for a daughter. We are daily humbled and amazed at the miracle gift of you. We pray you will fall in love with Jesus. Follow His will for your life. Seek His heart. Trust His plan. Find His goodness even in darkness of life. Strive to live a life of grateful praise to Him.

Pumpkin, we simply cannot wait to see how the Lord will use your life.

Lord, oh how You love us. Thank you for our daughter.

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

How about an update on Pumpkin?...

Take a look at that sweet face!

Oh my heart.

Next week, my baby girl will be 22 months old. How exactly that happened, I really don't know.

These days she is changing every day. I walked in from work last night and she immediately points to the stroller on the floor and says, "Fell down."

Well, hello. That's new.

She's replaced "Uh-oh!" with "Oh-no!" Which is way cute.

The mimic stage has definitely hit.

On our way home from the Dallas Zoo a couple of weeks ago, a car pulled out in front of us. Chris said "Dude!" For the rest of the ride home, we giggled as Aubrey Kate continued to repeat "Dude" over and over from the back of the car. It was priceless.

And fairly innocent.

Unlike dinner one night when one of us, and I'm not saying who, said "Crap." Her repeating that was not quite as priceless. But since that's the worst our language gets, we just made a mental note to watch it and she hasn't said it again.

We are making huge strides in the letters, numbers and colors department. I bought a cheap puzzle for the car ride home at Christmas. It has little presents with numbers on them. They go from 0 to 10 and then have math symbols like multiply, divide, plus and minus. She knows all the numbers and all the signs. She just doesn't quite yet know the order. Other than one, two and three. Those we know. Except when we don't and it turns into one, one and one.

Everything was "wellow" even though she could say the other colors. Right up until one day when suddenly all the colors clicked. Now we know "wed", "bue", "geen", "urple", "ange" and "pink". Still working on brown, black and white. She loves to tell me what colors the fish are in "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish." And the flashcards with colors and shapes are fun too. Although we haven't learned the shapes yet.

Letters are good too. We know most of the alphabet. Not in order but we can point to a letter and say it. She thinks its a fun game to point to letters in books. She's almost more interested in pointing out letters than reading the story.

We are turning into a good little player too. Some of the toys she's had for a while and would only get frustrated with are now easy and fun. Like the bus with shapes. She can pretty easily fit the shape pieces into the right holes. And the blocks. She likes to take them out of their nesting spots and put them back in. She did that tonight for five minutes or so just talking to herself through it all.

Lesson learned for this mommy there. I had read that kids needed to have toys they could easily figure out. I think I was just trying to make her a little more advanced than her age. She's much happier when she can accomplish a task. That's fun.

Other than that, she's still in love with her naw-naws, babies and Elmo. She wakes up asking for Elmo. Talks about her babies on the way home from school. And wants to point out every naw-naw on every woman she sees.

I have some make-up brushes and hotel sample bottles of lotion in the bathroom drawer. She'll pull out the brushes to put blush on my cheeks. She loves it. She'll also bring us the lotion bottle and put some lotion in our hands. Lotion goes on the babies hands. Elmo's hands. On the highchair. Pretty much anywhere. We rub our hands together and then she runs to the other "target" to give them lotion. It's a cool game.

Last week, she started laying down on her stomach. I saw her doing it while she was playing and then she did it in the bathtub. She even put her face in the water once. She didn't mean to but she handled it really well. Now I can ask her if she wants to go swimming and she'll run to the bathtub. She'll even say "im!" It's precious. And also very easy to wash her bottom.

So basically, I adore her. We both do. We actually started crying one night while we were sitting on the couch just talking about her. Then we laughed at ourselves. We love her that much.

It's the good life...

We get to eat yummy yogurt for breakfast...

And make sure our friends eat too...

Then get in some morning naw-naw time...

Meet up with a cute boy at the park...

And feel the wind on my face while I swing...

Have lunch with Momma...

Maybe even an afternoon trip to the zoo with friends...

Wear cool sunglasses at night...

And end the day sharing naw-naws with Elmo...

Oh yeah. This has gotta be the good life.

17 months and yes, I feel totally guilty for missing 15 and 16...

Seriously, I think I might have missed 14 too. I can't remember at this point. All I know is the past two months have been a blur. Or maybe more like smokey. But we are all settled now so let's hope there will be more pictures of Pumpkin.

Largely because I finally found the camera.

I am still holding on to the hope that I can take a few pictures of Aubrey Kate with her favorite tiger, Aubie. But girly is on the move. Running mostly. So I'm not entirely sure it's safe to even try and take the pictures. She might just dive head first off the chair. And doing it on the ground would just mean she wouldn't sit at all.

She LOVES to walk. Outside. Inside. In church. In Target. In Lowes. On the trail. Off the trail. She doesn't really care. As long as she gets to wear her blue crocks, she is pleased as punch to walk. I let her walk from the apartment to the car every day. She carries all her animals (Lambie, Spots and Stripes) along the way. We don't go anywhere without them now. She drops them once or four times in the process so if I need to actually leave at a certain time, I have to plan for the additional "walk" time.

Totally worth it.

Because we are in a much smaller space now, we have to get pretty creative with our play. She is in love with her Sesame Street blanket (thank you Aunt Linda!). We spread it out and she walks on it like it's a red carpet in Hollywood. She loves to say "Oscar". Or at least try to say it. I'll put things in various rooms and then we "collect" them on to the blanket.

Maybe that's not creative at all. But she loves it.

And since we don't have a spot in the closet or the bathroom for the laundry hamper, Pumpkin has easy access to laundry. This makes for some...interesting...play. This afternoon, for example, she pulled my tank top out. And wore it as a necklace.

Awesome.

She's worn a sports bra as an apron. Socks over her shoulder. Pretty much, you name it, she's found a way to wear it.

The best part is how she shows it off. I can say, "Show me your pretty necklace, Aubrey Kate!" and she'll stick out her chest and turn side to side with the biggest grin on her face! It. Is. Awesome.

I don't know where she gets this stuff from.

I'm kidding.

Chris does the exact same thing when he has a new tie.

Every Tuesday and Thursday, Pumpkin goes to Parent's Day Out at church while I go in to the office. She LOVES it. The teachers are so sweet. And she has a little friend.

May-may.

She's an adorable little girl in her class. Aubrey Kate said her name for the first time last week but this Tuesday, she got adamant about it. Her teacher said Aubrey Kate yelled "MAY-MAY" from across the room and then went straight over to her. All day today, she's been talking about May-May. When I asked her if she wanted a cookie, she said "Yeah! May-May!" Apparently, they must eat snack together.

Or maybe I'm reading too much into that.

At this point, I can ask her if the world is going to end tomorrow and she will say "Yeah! Diaper!"

She is significantly more verbal just in the last two weeks. She will try a word if you ask her to. Before she wouldn't do that at all. Here's our favorite word list:

Momma (she says it emphatically)
Daddy (still says "Da-thy" but that's better than "Th-athy" which is what she said first)
Nana
Noah
Puddin'
Diaper
DOG!!! (after "Thathy" this was our first word. And no, we don't have a dog.)
Cat
Lion (more "Ion" but I know what she means)
Horse ("Orss" and she makes a big "O" with her mouth)
Cheese
Keys
Please
More (and the sign with it)
Down ("Dow")
Up
Baby

And by far our favorite:

I love you! But really it comes out "Wuvu" and is all one syllable.

Ask me how much I care about HOW she says it!

She's started giving hugs in addition to her "love pats". My kid is not a snugly kiddo. She never has been. She started patting us on the shoulder when we were holding her several months ago. But she never would give hugs. Still can't get her to give kisses. Even blowing kisses is out. I'm working on it though.

She still loves music. We clap our hands when we're happy and we know it. We thoroughly enjoy doing the Hokey Pokey. She dances when we sing our bath time song (which is the old school Batman TV show theme song...Dahna, Dahna, Dahna, Dahna, Bath time!). I sing to her when I'm changing her diaper. Jesus Love Me calms her right down. If she's ever fussy in the car (since things are much further away now, she spends far more time in it some days that I would like), I can give her my iPod and she snuggles it up on her shoulder. She'll grunt in between songs because she thinks it's gone off.

Overall, she's flippin' amazing. There are some days when she wears me slap out. Tuesday and Thursday after we get home are not the best because she usually only sleeps 30 - 45 minutes at school but won't take a nap once we get home. But then there are days like today that are pretty much perfect. We played hard. Giggled so much. Slept well. Ate well. Even did some dancing.

These are the days when I feel like I am living a dream. Even better than a dream because there's no way I could have imagined how much I would love her or how much fun she would be.

My kid does not like the grass...

So for Father's Day, Chris wanted the entire Auburn football season on DVD. Thus he ordered them. He thought that was all he was getting.

And he was wrong.

I'm not a fan of that celebrating route. I've done it in the past because Chris is not a gift giver nor is he very good at receiving. Getting gifts always makes him a little uncomfortable. It is so not his love language.

But it is mine and sometimes, I need to love on him that way.

I had been planning for weeks what I wanted to do for him.

The easiest stuff is food. Chris likes food. He's skinny, gets bored eating and can literally forget to eat. But when the stars align and he actually realizes he's hungry, he does eat. Sometimes he even enjoys it. With his favorite meals being breakfast and Thanksgiving.

Bacon and turkey.

Men.

Knowing there was absolutely no way he would wake up early enough to eat a full breakfast on Sunday morning before church, I decided Saturday would be the day for bacon.

By some bizarre miracle, Pumpkin slept until 8:00 am on Saturday.

Not kidding.

Yeah, I totally checked to see if she was breathing. Once. Maybe three times.

Since that so very literally never happens, I woke up at 7 thinking holy moly she is gonna be so mad at me for sleeping late. Girly's got to be starving. I didn't even check the monitor really. I just jumped out of bed, made her breakfast and then went in the nursery to get her. For some reason, I didn't go in saying Good morning Pumpkin when I opened the door. I just quietly walked in, saw her all snuggled up in the corner and then equally as quiet, backed slowly out.

Holding my breath.

That gave me a whole hour to fix breakfast and even make the potato salad for lunch.

Father's Day breakfast...Done.

Cooking a Thanksgiving meal would have to come Sunday afternoon. I got a turkey breast and all the fixin's for dressing. Desert was the kicker. Aunt J had given me a recipe from the Birmingham News for gluten-free Snickerdoodles. Chris LOVES Snickerdoodles.

And I've never made them.

Gluten filled or otherwise.

Oh, I've purchased them. Just never actually baked them.

So I thought that would be a nice surprise.

With the food plan covered and all the items purchased over two weeks of grocery shopping, the next thing to get to was the gifts.

First, I knew he needed a new shirt. He's said several times that he now understands how parents go years without buying new clothes for themselves. It's just not in the budget. I had a little money set aside and decided he needed something new. Thanks to Father's Day sales, I was able to get him four new shirts!

The other comment he's made is that he needed a new picture of Pumpkin for his office. The one he has is of her as a three month old. Since I just happen to know a fabulous photographer, I figured we might be able to make that happen. Last week, we faked a play date and went for a mini photo shoot instead.

Really, this is a gift for myself as much for him. Don't think I'm not aware of that. But I wouldn't have done it for myself. For him, yep, I can make that happen.

We did an Auburn theme for the photos because I have a "My Little Tiger" Auburn picture frame. I thought it would be great for Chris to take that to work. Mrs. Eartha did a great job with the pictures!

And of all the gifts, Chris seemed to appreciate the picture the best. Who can blame him? She is the best thing about Father's Day.

Although, I think turkey and dressing were a seriously close second.

(Can you stand the cuteness of this picture? I was so hoping to get some giggles in her new little dress I'd made. What I got instead was confirmation that she is my kid and wants nothing to do with grass. Noth...ing.)

14 Months on the 14th...

Let's take a moment and look at this sweet little face.

And notice that she doesn't look so much like a baby anymore.

Cause she is not.

She is all toddler.

Her face is skinnier. In fact, her little body is slimming down. And really, there's only one reason for that.

Running.

This girl is On. The. Move.

You can see Chris' arm in the photo. Our tag teaming of photo time has become a little more hands on. Or a lot hands on.

This month we wanted her to leave Aubie sitting there with her instead of her picking him up to snuggle. We literally got these two pictures before she went in for the snuggle!

And snuggle!

So what else has Pumpkin been doing this month? Pretty much everything. And walking while doing it. One morning this week, she took a walk around the block with Chris. Like she WALKED around the block. No stroller involved.

She loves to stack stuff. Her animals, her bath toys, the boxes out of the recycle bin. Pretty much if she can put something on top of something else, she will. She's very precise about it too. The items have to be stacked just right. And when she's done, she does this little "Huff" noise like it was a hardest task she's done all day long.

And if stacking is not "it" at the moment, then it's putting things into something else. Like a grocery bag (not a plastic one, a reusable one), or her old car seat (which we can't bare to put in the attic and miss her playing with it), or the drum Aunt Meredith gave her for her birthday. She's never once beat on the drum but she sure can fill it with stuffed animals.

We love lids. Putting them on. Taking them off. Putting them on. It's a cool game.

She snuggles everything. Animals, cordless phones, remote controls, wash cloths, dirty clothes out of the hamper. Everything. She picks it up, puts it up to her shoulder, gives it a good squeeze and then swings back and forth loving on it. Do all little girls do this?

Food wise, she's a little bit me and a little bit Chris. She gets bored eating pretty quickly which leads to tantrums when she wants down. Only to come back to the highchair 20 minutes later wanting to eat again.

Good times.

And just like her daddy.

She eats breakfast around 6:45 or 7:00 am (yes, thanks, I appreciate your sympathy), then a snack around 8:30 or 9:00 am. Lunch after her morning nap around noon. Afternoon snack about 2 or 3 depending on where we are for our afternoon outing. Dinner about 5:30 pm.

More than Stripes, Lambie or Daddy, Aubrey Kate loves CHEESE! Good gracious alive, that girl can eat some cheese. Really. I can't stress it enough. Cheese! That's what it's all about.

She also likes fruit. Which is where the little bit me comes in. Peaches, pineapple, oranges, bananas, blueberries, strawberries. Everything but pears. Well, at least the pears in fruit cups.

Can't blame her for that.

My favorite thing she's started doing this month (apart from saying Momma all day) is climbing into my lap. She loves to read books so she'll bring me a book and once I take it from her, she climbs on up. I flippin' LOVE IT. Holy moly. It is a fabulousness I never imagined. And of course, I must kiss her after every climb. Must.

For the most part, she's still wearing 9 - 12 months clothes. Although I noticed today her sleepers are getting a little shorter. I did buy her a pair of big girl pj's this month. You know, a top and pants. No snaps or zippers or feet. I got a little teary when she got up the next morning. She looked like such a big kid and not my baby anymore.

I absolutely cried when she moved classes at church. She left all her little friends behind and moved up with the big kids. I looked at all those big kids and pretty much lost it. Chris had to comfort me and I had to take a moment to get myself together.

So when "they" tell you to treasure each moment because they aren't babies for long..."they" are so not kidding.

But my sadness was even shorter. Because I adore her and every day is a new adventure. And another chance to see her play.