A day at the "beach"

We made a trip to Houston on Saturday to visit Robert's parents and continued on with Aubrey's eventful weekend. We went pool hopping -- first we made a stop at the neighborhood water park. Aubrey liked going down the froggie slide and jumping off the side of the pool to Daddy. Then, we went to the beach club in their neighborhood and Aubrey had a ball! She loved letting her feet sink in the wet sand and playing with her sand & water toys. It was almost better than the real beach -- no sharks or jellyfish, no seaweed, trash or other debis on the sand & clean chlorinated water...

Fireworks, finally!

Ever since July 4th, Aubrey has been asking to see fireworks at least once every day! She'd say, "Fireworks, fun, many colors, awesome". We decided we'd keep her up late and let her see the Friday night fireworks at the Dell Diamond. We went to the game with the Carrells, so Aubrey had one of her favorite buddies, Mallory, to run around with. Aubrey loved watching the pitchers warm-up -- every time they threw a ball she'd say, "again, really fast". She & Mallory both made it to the end of the game and saw the firework display. I even got some of it tape to show Aubrey when she asks for fireworks from now on.

Fun in the Sand

Aubrey's enjoying her new ladybug sandbox!

Our Social Butterfly

Ryan's "Contruction Site" birthday party
Aubrey waited to swin until after she was out of her swim suit & into her cover-up. Oh, well.

We had a busy weekend mostly visiting with friends. It was great to spend some time with the Pavys Friday night, especially since they are moving in a few weeks :( Aubrey played with her friend Mallory Sat. morning, then we went to our neighbor Ryan's 2nd birthday party in the afternoon. The Dewhursts stayed here Saturday night while they were in town for a wedding -- Aubrey enjoyed running around with Naomi & Mary Sophia. It is neat to see Aubrey really remembering people and forming friendships. She is 19 months now and is starting to use lots of sentences like, "Come on Mommy, let's go." Or, "Hi, Daddy. How are you?" Or at the pool today, "Bye, bye people. See you later." She's our little angel...

"Night down"

Aubrey has been obsessed with her night gowns lately. If she sees one in her drawer or when I'm folding laundry, she'll say "night down" and try to put it on herself (she usually ends up asking for help). Night gowns are her favorite thing to play dress-up in or sleep in. She'd wear one out all day if I let her. Here are a few pictures of Aubrey being silly in her night gown before bedtime.

Caught Red-handed

After finger painting carefully and staying on the cardboard, Aubrey decided to try something new. The second I turned away to get my water, she had both hands in the paint and started to paint her feet. She also painted her legs, my nose and then sat in the middle of the piece of cardboard that she just painted. Oh well, as a former preschool teacher I don't mind kids getting messy while they are exploring and having fun. I think next time I'll move the painting to the back porch so we can hose off afterwards...

Another wedding weekend

We were in Dallas this past weekend my Jessica and Mark Roeser's wedding. Aubrey got to spend lots of time with her Nana and great-grandparents while we went at various wedding events. We did bring Aubrey to part of the wedding reception because it was at the Dallas World Aquarium. Aubrey loved seeing the manatees, penguins, tropical birds, and all kinds of fish. Out of all the brightly colored fish, Aubrey's favorite fish was a tiny white fish that would dig a little hole in the sand and pop out every now and then. She called it the "hiding fish" and asked to see it through out the night. I got to see lots of my UT friends who are now scattered around the state and country. Aside from Aubrey getting a little off her normal routine, it was a very fun and successful weekend!

Aubrey had lots of fun visiting with Uncle Tim over the past several days (even though she may not look like it in this picture -- it's hard to get her to smile on cue sometimes). She liked saying "Uncle Time" over and over again and kept asking him to put her between 2 pillows and make an "Aubrey sandwich"! He's headed back to Dallas, but we will also be in Dallas this weekend for a wedding so we'll probably see more of him (as well as her Nana & great-grandparents). I better get to packing for the weekend...

Happy July 4th!

We had a fun 4th at the Nolen's house in Wimberley, Texas today! Aubrey played in the Blanco river with Ella & William and liked finding rocks and watching Daddy skip them. We ate lots of good BBQ and yummy homemade peach ice cream! We even saw lots of fireworks on our drive home. We had a a nice, relaxing day visiting with friends...

Daddy's shoes

Aubrey's funny expression is her saying, "cheese" for the camera.

Pretending to be a puppy at the park

Having fun in the "baby pool"

18 months

This morning we went exploring at the Austin
Children's Museum. In the top right picture,
Aubrey was standing in front of a wall of fans
feeling the air blow her cape and her hair.
She also liked looking at fish, playing in water, the
sing-a-long, and the bubble machine. The other 2
pictures are of her playing hide & seek yesterday at home. She is 18 months old today and continues to
grow and change everyday. Some of her favorite new
words & phrases are...
-"oh my goodness"
-"one more book" at bedtime; and she'll say this about 20 times to postpone getting in bed.
-"awesome"!
-"silly Daddy"
-"hold it", "do it", "fix it", "hear it", "see it"... she's very into commands. She also likes to tell me or Robert to, "dance", "sit", "stand up" or "run". At least she is getting a lot better at saying please.!
-"children" -- for some reason it is funny to see a little toddler pointing at kids at the park, pool or wherever we are and calling them "children". Sometimes she'll specify ans say"big children" or "little children".
-"how 'bout______?"
-"snuggle" -- this is my favorite, of course. Every now &
then she'll lay down next to me and suck her thumb & snuggle

Jumping Beans

Today Robert took the day off of work and we took Aubrey and a friend from church, Haddie, to Texas Jumping Beans. It is an indoor play area where everything is inflatable. They had several moon jumps and lots of things to climb up and some fun big slides. We all had a good time! Here are a few pictures...

A year ago...

...Aubrey was swinging in her swing in the backyard of our old house. She was about six months old and had just started crawling. I can't believe it has been a year since this picture was taken and now she has long hair, 16 teeth, runs all over the place and talks up a storm! Where did my little baby go?

Who needs toys when you can count & stack diapers and take them in and out the basket? Aubrey also hops in and asks to take a ride! The box the diapers came in also served as entertainment for quite a while -- she pointed out all the circles and all the number "3"s and then climbed on top of it.

"Goodnight, Mush"

Aubrey has started requesting books by name -- her usual pick before bed is Goodnight Moon, or as she calls it, "Goodnight Mush". She loves to point out the mush on each page! Tonight she also asked for, "Foot Book", by Dr. Suess. We realized she has most of her books memorized. If we leave any words out and pause for a second, she will fill in the blank! She does the same thing for all the songs we sing. Here is a picture of Aubrey acting out "Jesus Loves Me" in one of Daddy's big t-shirts ("...they are weak, but he is STRONG").

Playing dress-up

Peek-a-boo!

Aubrey enjoyed playing at Amy's Ice Cream on Sunday evening -- they have a fun playscape and yummy ice cream!

Water Sprinkler Park

We took Aubrey to a fun & free water sprinkler park on Saturday. She liked running around under the fountains and watching all the other kids play. We also did lots of climbing and sliding on the playscape. We are enjoying scoping out all the parks near by -- we went to another park earlier the same day and saw tons of geese, ducks, ducklings and turtles swimming in the pond.

Aubrey loves to reach into my water glass, grab the lemon wedge, eat it and ask for more. She also loves pickles and anything else sour or tart. She rubs her hands together, scrunches up her nose and says, "sour"!

17 months

Here are Aubrey's new interests and accomplishments:
-coloring with crayons, playing with stickers & stamps
-playing with play dough & cookie cutters
-stacking legos
-watching, "American Idol". Every time I turn on the tv, she says, "la, la, la", referring to the signers and has started saying "Soul Patrol". She's a Taylor Hicks fan, so hopefully he'll win tomorrow night!
-fedding her "baby dolls" their "baby bottles" and putting them in their "baby bed"
-greeting objects. She like to say hi to everything like, "hi, abadado seed" (avacado seed), "hi, apple juice", etc...
-learn people's names and talk about that person all day
-still climbing on everything and loves to go to the park everyday
-starting to use sentences: "I want ______". She'll insert whatever it is she wants, like ball or doggie. I guess I'll have to work on "May I please have_______ "!
-she surprised me today by saying half of the alphabet! A-K and then she can fill is several other letters after that.

She is such a joy to be around and is definitely full of personality. She amazes me by what she knows and how quickly she picks things up. I can't believe she is almost 1 1/2! I still have 1 month left... Here's a recent picture of us at Old Settlers Park.

-

"Tofu, mmm, yummy!"

Just thought this was a funny thing for Aubrey to say as she sipped her tofu-berry smoothie...

First Bike Ride

Robert got a bike seat for his birthday from his Mom so we can take Aubrey on bike rides around the neighborhood. We tested it out this weekend and she really liked it. I don't think we'd used our bikes since Aubrey was born so it was fun to be able to all go together. Robert picked up this cute pink & purple helmet for Aubrey and now we're considering making her wear it, not only in the bike seat, but around the house with all the climbing and falling that she does!

Wedding Weekend

This weekend my good friend and college roommate, Amber Cornwell, got married to Gordy Quist! It was a busy but fun weekend for all of us. Aubrey had 3 babysitters in 2 days and did really well for all of them. Even though she is almost 17 months I still wonder if she'll eat her dinner, go to sleep with out fussing... Thankfully, she napped the entire time she was at my friend Jessica Pavy's while I was at the bridesmaid luncheon. Friday night, Aunt Joy watched Aubrey while we were at the rehearsal dinner at the Saltlick. Yum! Saturday, Robert's parents, Pam & Isaac, and Aunt Susan came to babysit durning the wedding. I had a great time catching up with all my college friends and fellow bridesmaids. Also, their wedding was at the same church, same reception site and with the same Pastor, so it was neat to relive me and Robert's wedding almost 4 years later! Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera but hopefully I will get pics from friends via email and post a couple soon.

Happy Birthday, Robert/Daddy!

Today is Robert's 29th birthday! It is on a Thursday, Robert has a tennis match and we are busy with a wedding I'm in all weekend, so maybe we'll get to celebrate more next weekend. Robert, I hope you have a good birthday even though we aren't doing anything extra special and I hope you know how much Aubrey and I love you!

Very Observant

Pointing at the little horse on our license plate
Studying a "baby bug" or roly ploy with Nana

16 months

Okay, so Aubrey has been 16 months for almost 2 weeks but I still wanted to mention all the cute new things she's been doing lately. She loves to:
-walk backwards.
- stand on her head and occasionally do a somersault.
- point at objects and say what color they are. If she doesn't know she says, "ret" and if that's not it she'll guess, "boo".
-count. She can count to 12 but usually not straight through -- she'll either do 1-5 or 6-12 and only if she is in the mood. I can't get her to do it on cue, but I was able to capture it on our video camera!
-watch for rain. Anytime she hears a lawnmower or a truck go by, she thinks it is thunder. She claps, says, "tunder" and runs to the window to see if it is raining.

We went to the pediatrician a month late for her 15 month check-up and Aubrey has dropped down to somewhere between the 5%-10% in weight. She is a very busy, active little monkey who likes to climb everything! She is still tall though in the 75% for her age... We'll see if that trend continues. Anyway, here is a picture from our drive home from Dallas this weekend with her two new friends, Po and Kermit.