Happy 28th Birthday, Tyson!

Audrey and I went shopping last week for gifts for Tyson. Actually, I had already bought his gift from me a couple of weeks ago so we were focusing on a gift from Audrey. I decided that she would give him a shirt (something easy to pick out and something that he always needs). I picked out two that I knew he would like and let her choose between them. Let me tell you, it was a very scientific process. I put both of them in front of her and I bought the one that she touched first. Mostly because her hand had drool all over it, but you know…

I also picked out a card from Audrey for Tyson…one of those cartoony/brightly colored cards where the dad and daughter are animals wearing clothes and the dad is pushing the daughter on a swing that’s hanging from a tree; and the tree has little birds smiling at the dad and daughter and the weather is perfect. Oh, yeah….one of those cheesy cards. I wrote a little note from Audrey inside and then let her sign the card. and by “sign the card” I mean, she scribbled, chewed on the pen and drooled all over the envelope (which Tyson thought was sweet):

Happy Birthday, Tyson! Your wife and your daughter are both crazy about you. :)

Creature of Habit

We have lived in our house for almost three and a half years. As the years have gone by, we’ve made little changes here and there throughout the house. None of them have been major changes, just little weekend projects or redecorating. But it hit me this last week how those little weekend projects can add up to a whole lot of change!

For example, our eating area. This is what it looked like after we had lived in our house for about six months:
We had just adopted Walter about a month before and he had already made his presence known in the eating area (the blue and green bowls, his food and his HUGE crate, the large white thing in the bottom left hand corner.) That summer I repainted the walls so they looked much cleaner and brighter and I also painted the canvases that are hanging on the wall. Then last summer I moved the tree/plant over by the window to get more light, but it died. So I got a new plant and still kept it over by the window. Then Audrey arrived and she put her little mark on our space: her highchair. Once Audrey started crawling, she was very interested in those green and blue bowls, so Walter now eats outside. (Walter’s crate was also moved outside because we no longer crate him in the house, it’s just not necessary anymore.) Then the plant and its accompanying dirt by the window was a hazard for Audrey, so it is now in a plant stand. Then, once Audrey started standing up next to everything, she, of course, would try to stand next to the kitchen table and chairs. She was just short enough that she could stand under the table, but she would, inevitably, hit her head on the bracings underneath. The chairs also had lots of sharp edges where the wrought iron was attached, also a hazard. So, a few weeks ago, we sold our old table and chairs and bought a new set. All of these little changes were “no big deal.”

Then a few days ago, I moved the trash can to a new spot.

Oh. My! GOODNESS!!!

I can’t, for the life of me, get used to the trash can being moved! It makes much more sense for the trash can to be in it’s new spot, but I can’t count the number of times each day I reach for the trash can in it’s old spot. Aaaahhhhh…the frustration!! Why can’t I remember that I moved it?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

What I want to know is: has anyone else experienced this by moving one little item? Please tell me your story so I feel more normal. (and here’s our “after” kitchen picture.)

new things (again)

Wow, a lot has happened in just a week!

Audrey has 4 teeth now…the top middle left tooth came in Tuesday night!

We finally moved Audrey up to her big girl car seat yesterday. It’s bittersweet. We’ve been weighing her on our bathroom scale periodically (by herself and with us, then subtracting our own weight) to get an estimate of how much she weighs. Twenty-two was the magic number (that’s the limit for her infant seat.) As far as weight requirements, she could have been moved up to her new car seat a long time ago, but we’ve been prolonging the luxury of her infant seat: always strapping her in inside the house, being able to easily click her car seat into place and take her out of the car without having to unstrap her, keeping her strapped in her seat for quick errands (by putting it in the cart), and having a handle to hang her toys from. It’s been especially handy when she falls asleep in the car and I’m able to carry the whole seat inside and just set it in her room and she can continue her nap without being disturbed. I’m dreading the first time she falls asleep in this new seat and I have to completely unstrap her, take her out of her seat, walk inside and then lay her in her crib…I’m guessing she won’t sleep through all that. (it also gives me a small glimpse of what our parents had to go through with the old school car seats…I‘m very thankful for all the advances) I remember buying it for her for Christmas and thinking that she was going to have to be in it by January…but her weight gain slowed down, so we’ve been pleasantly surprised by the extra time in the infant seat. She just looks so much bigger in her new seat…she really is a little girl already. What happened to my baby?!?
On Wednesday, I decided to drop her second feeding of the day to formula. It had been about three weeks since we dropped the third feeding of the day, so I figured it was enough time (for both mommy and Audrey). I’m now feeding her around 7:30am and 7:30pm and hope to keep this up until she‘s a year old (which is only 6 weeks away). She seems to be adjusting just fine. She gets really excited when she sees her sippy cup and is doing really well at holding the handles, but still doesn’t understand that she has to tilt it up when it’s almost gone…she’ll eventually get it. Since I’m only feeding her twice a day, I’m going to have to keep my snacking in check. I have had to eat and snack all day the whole time I’ve been nursing to keep my milk supply up. I’ve heard that some nursing moms tend to gain a little weight back once they stop breastfeeding because they don’t adjust their own eating. I don’t want that to happen! And since I’m only feeding her twice a day, it means I’ll be cherishing the rest of the times I feed her…which (hopefully) means I won’t be using the pump anymore. yay!

Audrey is definitely testing her boundaries these days. She is kind of starting to get it when we say “no.” She always smiles at us when we tell her no, and then looks back at the thing she was going to touch, and then looks back at us, just to see how we'll react. Sometimes she’ll reach for it again, so with a straight face, we simply say “no” again and then move her to something that she can play with. I also think she remembers what she’s not supposed to touch. for example: there are a few candles by our fireplace and she will crawl over to the fireplace, stand up next to the bricks, look at the candles, then look back at me and smile. The little stinker!

One last thing: one of Audrey’s new favorite things to do is listen to her daddy play the guitar. It is seriously one of the sweetest things I have ever seen! He starts playing and her little face lights up, she crawls as fast as she can to him and she’s glued to it until he stops. I melt when I see it.

Well, Audrey and I are hosting playgroup at our house in a little while, so I’m off! Have a great weekend!

a little news

nothing major, just some little things.

Remember last week when I said that Audrey’s tip of a tooth had just come through? I saw it. Tyson saw it. My mom saw it. And then it disappeared for a couple of days. I’m not sure if her gums swelled or what….but it went away. I didn’t even know that could happen! But then yesterday, that tooth actually came through! So she officially has 3 teeth!

Other news: Audrey loves her sippy cup!! Here she is drinking away:

She now drinks from it once a day. I decided about 2 weeks ago that I just wasn’t making enough for her anymore, so she’s drinking formula during her 3rd meal (which is turning into a snack anyway). At first, she wasn’t so sure about the cup and the formula and it would take about 20 minutes to drink it. Now she downs it in about 5 minutes. I’m so thankful that she is taking the sippy cup and that she is seamlessly taking breast milk and formula at the same time. What an answer to prayer!

Audrey also learned how to wave! At the beginning, she would only do it when I said "hi" and waved at her, but now she's doing it all the time, so maybe she doesn't really know what she's doing. oh well.

And that’s all. Have a great weekend!

a success story

Yesterday I was looking through Audrey’s pajamas and I realized that she only has 2 sleepers that are 12 month size (which she‘ll be in soon)…and both of these were the warm/fuzzy/fleecy kind because we thought she would continue to wear clothes 3 months ahead of her age. (so she would have been wearing them in February.) Her growth has slowly tapered off so pretty much her size of clothes=her age now. anyway, this meant it was time to go shopping! I usually LOVE shopping at Target for baby clothes, but I have been very unimpressed with their 12 month selection…she’s in between the “infant 0-9 month” stuff and the “toddler 12 month+” section. So we headed to Kohl’s, which I also love. They have a nice selection of quality kids clothes (be sure to check out their 80% off racks!!) and they are almost always having sales or when you’re paying you get to do a fun little scratcher to take and extra 15, 20 or 30% off!!! I picked out some really cute pj’s for her:
and then continued to walk around the store. and I saw the purses. Now…I’m not the typical girl that LOVES purses and shoes all things accessories more than anything else in the world. (and not that there’s anything wrong with it if you’re one of those girls.) I enjoy looking at the variety of options and then usually walk away with nothing because “I would only wear those shoes 2 or 3 times” or “I don’t really need that super-cute purse“ But today was different, I saw this:

it was so cute and had lots of little pockets and zippers and it had an over-the-shoulder strap, which is perfect for when you’re juggling a little one. At first the price freaked me out. I almost just threw it back on the shelf and ran away, but then I remembered that I was in Kohl’s and everything’s on sale! Sure enough, it was 40% off and then I heard that they were also doing the little scratcher things, too! yay! (of course, I randomly selected one with 15% off. they’re probably all 15% off…) As I was looking it over and trying it on and picturing where all my things would fit in it, I realized that it had been a LONG time since I had bought a purse! I thought back and jogged my memory…I hadn’t bought a purse since I was about 2 months pregnant with Audrey! Almost a year and a half!! Way to go, Lisa! all this said: I bought it. and I love it. It’s lightweight and practical and not too big (in case I still need to carry a diaper bag, too) and I just love the pattern on it.

I love when shopping trips are successful. :)

10 months and the tip of a tooth

The reason I haven’t posted in a week is because I haven’t been getting much sleep. I usually write during Audrey’s naps, but lately I’ve also been trying to nap while Audrey naps. It’s been about 10 days since we’ve all slept through the night at our house. It’s because of Audrey’s two top middle teeth. They’ve decided to come in at the exact same time and they’ve also decided to take their time! I’ve been able to see the whites of them inside her gums for over 2 weeks and finally, FINALLY, this morning, the tip of one of them is about to break through…maybe there will be some relief soon!

Last night was definitely the worst night so far. She went to bed shortly after 7 like usual and I went to worship team practice while Tyson stayed at home and studied for a test. We went to bed at 10:30 and she was awake at 10:45 with her “MOM!!! This really hurts!!” cry. But it only lasted about 5 seconds so we let her be. I was almost asleep and then 11:15 brought that same cry but it lasted longer so I got up and held her and got her calmed down and she fell back to sleep…for 20 minutes. And this pattern continued until 1:45am. I tried rocking her, swaying with her, giving her Tylenol, letting her cry it out, teething tablets, letting her sleep in the bed with me…nothing worked. So I’m completely exhausted at 2am, and I’m down to my last resort: driving her to sleep. We got in the car and drove around for about 20 minutes and…my goodness, it worked!! I carefully carried the car seat into her room and finally made my way back to bed…but then I couldn’t sleep. After having to be so mentally awake ALL night, then waking myself up even more so I could actually focus and drive at 2 in the morning, I couldn’t just flip the switch and fall asleep. I don’t know what time I actually fell asleep, but we all slept until 7:20.

And now as I’m finishing my bowl of cereal, I’m looking down at Audrey with her red cheeks, drooly chin and new little tip of a tooth trying to poke through and I remember that she’s 10 months old today! We did a quick photo shoot and now we’re off for our morning naps!

(I'm tired, mom.)

and finally after about 30 shots, a kind-of real smile. complete with tired eyes.

we love you, sweet pea!