Audrey hit the jackpot!

Our next door neighbors are moving to another state and have been busy packing up all their belongings. A few weeks ago, Tyson admitted that he wished we could buy their backyard swingset/playhouse/slide from them...it's exactly what we've been wanting to get for Audrey. But I told him..."Just Between Friends is coming up the end of September and I'm sure I'll find something there."

so...last week, Tyson and I were playing outside with Audrey and our neighbors just happened to be out there, too. We talked a little and then the husband said, "hey we don't want to make you take it, but would you guys want our swingset? Our girls are too big for it now and we don't want to have to pack it up."

"YES!!! We'd LOVE it!!! We've been coveting it over the fence for weeks!"

actually, we replied as though we'd never thought of having it, "well, sure! I think Audrey would love it!"

So, on Sunday a different neighbor helped up take it apart and then put it back together in our backyard. It's perfect for Audrey right now. She can open the little door and walk around in there and poke her head out of the windows and say "hi" to us. She loves climbing up the ladder and sits proudly on the landing until she's ready to go down the slide. And she goes down the slide all by herself! basically, she loves it!
then...yesterday morning, Audrey and I were out playing on the swingset and in the middle of one of her squeals of excitement, I heard our neighbors outside again. Sure enough, they were whispering to each other, so I just acted like I didn't notice them. Then they yelled out to me, "hey, we have some more stuff that we don't want to pack up but don't feel obligated to take it, really. We just don't want to have to take it with us if we don't have to. Would Audrey want a little picnic table and a slide?" I got the feeling that they were feeling bad for offering me all their stuff, but in reality, we LOVE hand-me-downs!

As soon as the husband set the picnic table down, Audrey sat on the bench like she knew exactly what to do and she grinned and bobbed her head with excitement.

I tried to pay them for everything, but they wouldn't hear of it. They said it was a big help to them just to be rid of them. With being so busy trying to move, they hadn't had time to advertise to sell them and they knew Audrey would love all of the stuff as much as their girls did. What sweet neighbors. We'll miss them.

the best decision of the day

This afternoon, Audrey woke up from a kind-of short nap with a little cry and some whining. By the time I got into her room, she was standing in her crib (with the most adorable bed-head ever), holding on to her sleepy-bear with a perplexed look on her face. She usually greets me with a smile and we talk and play as she's waking up. But something was different today and I felt like I should just pick her up and hold her. She immediately laid her head on my shoulder and draped each arm around me and relaxed. She does that every once in a while, but about 10 seconds later she's ready to get down and run. Not this time. She continued to rest her head on my shoulder so I sat down on the glider and she slightly readjusted herself and got comfortable again. Within a few minutes, I heard her breathing get heavier and I knew she was asleep. I hate to admit it, but my first thought was, "I hope I can lay her back in her crib without waking her up so I can cross a few more things off my to-do list for today."
Then another thought came to mind: "when was the last time you held Audrey while she was sleeping?!?" And I honestly couldn't remember when. (When she's tired, she just wants to be put in her crib and be left alone, so, it has been a long time!)
I thought of the book "Let Me Hold You Longer" by Karen Kingsbury. It starts out about how parents tend to focus on all of our children's "firsts" in life. As the book goes on, the author wonders if she would have held on longer if she knew it would be a "last" time. If you haven't read this book, I highly recommend it!! Just make sure you have some kleenex handy. :) While I certainly hope it's not the last time, I realized it might be a LONG time before I get this chance again.
So, for the next 35 minutes, I sat holding my little girl while she slept in my arms. I closed my eyes and thought about how much has happened in the last 16 months. I prayed for her and for Tyson and I as her parents. and I just relaxed. It was just what I needed. One of the big lessons that God is teaching me right now is to sit and be quiet and relax.
and I'm really glad I did.

16 month letter

to our little sweet pea,

We can hardly believe that you are 16 months old! Where has the time gone? The other day mommy was looking at some pictures from last summer (btw, it seems like a lifetime ago!) and it truly is amazing how fast you have changed and grown into a little girl. It seems that each month gets better and better with you. We don't know how it can, but it always does.

It's been a long time since we've written you a letter...where should we begin? You are so expressive and intense these days! Daddy thinks we should have started this letter with "to our little spaz." Mommy just likes to call you intense. :) You aren't saying very many words, but you sure can communicate through your facial expressions, noises and pointing. It's amazing how much you can "say" without really talking to us. We look forward to hearing you continue to learn to say more words and finally hear what you're trying to tell us! You still love music and you dance and sway and nod your head along whenever you hear a song. When a song is really exciting, you stomp your feet and really get moving! Daddy even lets you play his guitar or the Guitar Hero drums sometimes!

You are a very active little girl! You are running almost everywhere you go! You love to climb!! Anything that you can figure your way onto, you do it: the couches, the rocking chair, mommy and daddy's bed, your booster chair, the kitchen table, your stroller, the fort at Nana and Papa's, your slide, the swing outside, and the handles on the oven. You are fearless, which scares us sometimes, but you usually find a safe way down from where ever you are. And even if you do fall, you only cry for a few short seconds and then you're back to playing!

You had another check-up at the doctor's office this week. You weigh 23.8 pounds (66th percentile) and you are 32 inches tall (89th percentile.) So far, you have 11 teeth, 3 of which are your first-year molars. whew! those were not fun! Your gums are swollen and we know that the 4th molar and your i-teeth on the bottom are working their way through...you poor little thing!

You still like your sleep. There are times (like a few weeks ago) where we were not sure what happened to you, but then you snapped out of it and you were back to normal before we knew it! We thought you were ready to go down to one nap a day, but you are still craving that morning nap! So, we'll roll with it. (and mommy will enjoy the 2 "breaks" a day for as long as she can!) You are definitely an early bird! But, you wake up so happy and full of energy, it's hard for us to complain about the extra time with you in the morning! We love cuddling in our bed and making a tent for you to crawl into and lay under with your white bear. You only relax for a few seconds because once you hear Walter, you're ready to get off the bed and chase him around.

You still LOVE playing outside. Your new favorite thing to do outside it pointing at airplanes as they fly over, which happens a LOT. You stop whatever you're doing and look up until you find it, then say "oooo" as you point with your little finger up at the plane. it's so cute. You still love your swing and exploring in the backyard. Of course, you still love tormenting Walter by taking his bone and making him chase you around to get it back. You get so excited when he plays along with you! Speaking of dogs, you've recently learned to make the sound a dogs makes! well, kind of. Since Walter hardly ever barks and he sniffs you all the time, we've taught you to sniff through your nose! it is seriously one of the cutest things you do! You're so adorable with your little nose scrunched up and your eyes squinted. Here you are trying it in the car:

Lately you've become a picky eater. We keep offering you lots of kinds of food, but you're not very adventurous with what you'll eat. The foods you'll always eat are cheerios, bananas, oatmeal, crackers, cheese, applesauce, pears, apples, watermelon, dried fruit, biscuits, pizza crust, muffins, beans, mac and cheese and chicken (and dessert if we let you.) We hope that you'll get over this soon! (What we don't understand about this, though, is that you'll eat Walter's dog food and dirt/mud when you're outside...)

You are definitely still a little fish! You LOVE bathtime and swimming in your whale pool in the backyard. You're able to climb in and out of your pool all by yourself now! A new thing you've been doing lately is "relaxing" in the pool or tub by laying down and "floating." It's quite a change from splashing and always standing in the tub like usual. :)

Your new obsession is cats. You have a lot of books that have "kitties" in them and when you get to that page, your face lights up and you point and make crazy/excited noises! Another new thing you've discovered is puzzles! It's so fun to watch your little fingers figure out how to get the pieces out, then study each piece and then attempt to put it back in the correct place.

Mommy keeps thinking it might be time for your first haircut, but daddy likes the "wild" look. If you would only leave barettes or bows in your hair, then it would stay out of your eyes and mommy wouldn't think that you need a trim! :)

You are such a blessing and every day I (mommy) remind myself how lucky I am to get to stay home with you and watch you grow and figure out the world around you. You fill our lives with smiles and laughter and you entertain us for hours on end! We love you so, SO much!

love, mommy and daddy

"I am a pushover"

I don't think you'll hear us say "Audrey is a great sleeper" for a while. I think we've jinxed ourselves. Seriously, what happened to our good little sleeper? Let me clarify. She still loves her naps. goes down without a fuss, sometimes even runs to her room and waits for me to put her in her crib. it's amazing!

Bedtime is a whole other thing these days. I think somewhere along the timeline within these last few months, we've become pushovers about bedtime. there. I admitted it. I am a pushover. (the first step to solving a problem is admitting you have one, right?!?) Audrey, the poor little thing, has been teething hard core (the upper incisors, all four molars and the bottom cuspids. and yes, I had to look up those names in her baby book) since her birthday, so for the last three months I've taken pity on her and if she cried at bedtime, I would go in and try to soothe her, or hold her until she fell asleep, or even take her on car rides to get her to fall asleep at night. All the while, thinking I was helping her, because we thought she was in pain. (which she was...by the obvious hands/fingers constantly in her mouth, her chewing on my shoulder, etc.) I would give her tylenol or use baby orajel, but she would still cry and cry. I thought I was doing the right thing...and maybe I was, but it seems we've created a monster.

It's been very frustrating lately because she still takes naps like a champ but when it's bedtime, she acts tired, and will lay in her crib quietly for (sometimes) 30 minutes and then just start screaming in pain (or so it seems.) So I thought to myself..."maybe she's sleeping too much during the day!" She's at the age where most kids go down to one nap, so maybe she's ready for it! Yesterday we tried it and she made it until 11:30 and then slept 2 1/2 hours! I was really excited about it! She started acting really sleepy a little before 7, so I gave her her milk and put her in her crib and she was silent until 7:30...then the screaming started. I let her cry for a little bit so I could decipher what kind of cry it was and it sounded like the "I'm hurting" cry, so I held her for a little bit, gave her some tylenol, got her calmed down and then laid her back in her crib...just to have her scream as soon as I was gone. and this went on until 8:15. She wasn't going to give in. My mom just happened to be coming over so I could go to worship team practice, so I told her to just entertain her until she seemed tired. My mom told me she finally laid her down at 9 and she cried (really hard) for about 7 minutes but then fell asleep. It's so frustrating to me because I know all the signs she was giving me, telling me how tired she was. I think she got over-tired and fought through the sleepiness until she was wide awake again. This has happened a couple of times during the last few weeks and it's wearing us out.

so...where do we go from here?

I think we're going to probably stick with a morning and afternoon nap for a while. There are some days that 2 naps are not possible and we'll get through those days as they come. but for the most part, it seems like she still really wants and needs that morning nap for some reason. I'm going to start limiting her morning nap to an hour and her afternoon nap to 1 1/2 hours, just to make sure she's not sleeping too much during the day, so she's tired at night. I'm also going to re-cement our bedtime routine so she really knows that it's time to go to bed, which means I'll have to stop being a pushover and let her just cry it out. We'll still go in and check on her at certain intervals, but I won't try to assist her in falling asleep (like car rides) anymore.

*sigh...*

does anyone else have any great advice? I've heard that going to one nap can be traumatic and is quite a process...so I'd love to hear how others got through it and what helped them. if you read my blog but don't like to leave comments, just email me...that would be great!

thanks for reading and thanks for the advice... :)

just a little eye candy

my excuse

so, I decide to make my blog private and then I hardly write. You'll have to forgive me. Things are still great here in our household. We've all been busy. Tyson is working and taking classes for grad school. Audrey is busy climbing on everything and pushing more teeth through and I have picked up a very time-consuming hobby this summer. I'm addicted to reading! I decided it was time to really utilize my local library card and I have taken it seriously. This summer I've already read 8 books (200+ pages each) and I just started a 3 book series (The Mark of the Lion series by Francine Rivers) a few days ago.

So, like most libraries in the world, you can check a book out for 2 weeks. I've read most of the books in just a couple of days so I've never come close to turning them in late or having to deal with late fees.

Until today.

The book I'm reading is due today.

so, I thought to myself, "No big deal, I'll just renew it!"

Nope, I can't. Because someone else is waiting to read it. Apparently, 5 other people are waiting to read it!

As I was talking to the nice worker at the library, I told her about my situation and how I was not done with the first book, but the second book was now available for me to pick up (I had to request them from other libraries in the area) so there was no point in getting the second book because I hadn't finished the first. I was about to turn in my copy of the book I wasn't done reading, when the library worker's face lit up.

She proceeded to tell me, in kind of a quiet voice, "You could just not turn it in on time. It's only a 5 cent late fee per day, up to a dollar. That way you don't have to be put on the waiting lists for both of the books again."

WHAT?!? was she giving me permission to cheat the system? ...or is the library desperately in need of a few extra nickels? either way, I decided to keep the book and also pick up the second book.

all that to say...I've got my nose stuck in a book during the times I would normally be writing blog posts. so that's my excuse. :)

and now the couch and A Voice in the Wind are calling my name!

I'm glad I gave in

This afternoon Audrey decided that she didn't want to take a nap. I tried (unsuccessfully) for about an hour to convince her that it was, in fact, nap time, so she should be tired. Once she convinced me that she wasn't tired and I gave in, we had SO much fun just playing and giggling. She was in such a great mood! so I captured some of it with the camera. enjoy!

(this is her new look: "I'm checking you out," and then she starts giggling)

and after all that she's now taking a nap at 5...we'll see how bedtime goes tonight!