T-minus 7....

If you can believe it, we are one week away from Audrey's 1st birthday. This year has just flown by. I am so glad that I've kept up with this blog (however infrequently) or the poor thing would have no baby album at all. I'm way behind on her scrapbook pages, hopefully I can catch up and do a "baby's 1st year" thing in Shutterfly. As you can see on the right, her last page was for 6 months and I did it last week!

On to the documentation! She's still working on walking and will stand unsupported for a few seconds. But the moment she realizes she standing, she drops to the floor and crawls to her goal. Our drinking from a cup progress is slow. She'll drink a little then slap it out of my hand. Today I tried a cup without a lid - me holding it, of course - and she drank all of it. She may be one of those mythical kids I had heard existed who goes straight to the cup. Kind of like a potty trained 9 month old. She has really started babbling too. She can say "banana" which means "feed me!" She says "hi da-da" very clearly, and says a variation of "doggie". (Notice there's no "mama" listed there! Though she has said it, she just doesn't) She also growls at her dogs, and also at her bib that has a dog on it. And today she signed "eat" back to me.

Speaking of eating, I'm trying to keep her from getting to where Miles is, not wanting anything but PB&J. So Audrey has been enjoying the dinners that Wayne & I eat, usually the next day since she eats so early. She and Miles both liked sweet & sour chicken, Miles complained about "the red stuff" (sauce). And last night she devoured chicken soup with mini meatballs. Miles, however, would only eat the meatballs and then gagged on the one itty bitty piece of orzo pasta that stuck to the meatball. He truly does not like pasta!

I'm really going to be testing his desire to eat this summer. We've signed up for a Community Suppported Agriculture (CSA) share. Basically we've "hired" a farmer to grow veggies for us all summer long, even into fall. They had a meet & greet in town yesterday and they showed us all the varieties they will be growing. I tried to get Miles excited by telling him about the daughter who raises chickens for eggs, and the son who helps out too. And that they eat the veggies too! Before I went to the meeting Miles told me to tell them that he didn't want broccoli. Stinker.

.: quick notes :.

Okay, just a few random things swirling around my head....

.: I registered for a 5K! As long as I complete it that's one 2009 goal complete. I've been running on the treadmill at the Y and can run most of a 5K, though that is on flat "terrain". A couple of friends are registering too, so we'll probably end up walking together. The finish line is the 50 yard line at Neyland if that entices anyone else to join us....

.: Happy Valentines Day to all. We celebrated with family lunch at Moe's and an afternoon at the plaground with a family on our street. Wayne gave me a very creative valentine... as you can see in the picture, he made me Edward and Bella candy heart boxes. Surprisingly this was not an easily obtainable item. He got home and rushed to the dining room, only to pop out and ask, "where are the scissors? tape?" Needless to say, I was intrigued. I guess my scrapping/craftiness is rubbing off on him.

.: Miles got crafty with his school valentines. I saw these in a magazine and after his birthday cake, I thought he'd be all for it. He was. Even after he picked up some Mickey Mouse valentines at Target, I asked which he'd rather give and he said "iPods." Smart kid.




.: And the banquette in the kitchen is getting plenty of use. Audrey uses it as her jungle gym and Miles uses it as his crash pad. And we've busted Chelsea hopping up there to scavenge for scraps a few times too. At least it is a popular addition to the kitchen!!

Anyway... happy heart day to all!

7 years

Today is our 7th wedding anniversary. Look at how young and well rested we looked, years before these two whirlwinds of energy came along. Ha ha. Seriously. Our wedding day was such a beautiful, warm, sunny February day, about 5 days after a big snow in Memphis. We're having the exact same weather this year. After a couple of snow days last week, our weekend and today have been absolutely perfect days to be outside.

Miles & Wayne played some t-ball in the front yard while I worked on clearing out some stuff from the garage. I'm not sure that we'll ever get the 2nd car back in there, what with all the bikes, trikes, wagons etc., but the boys want to set the drums up so they can rock and roll in the garage. After Audrey got up from her nap, we hit the playground along with half the city.




After disparaging his eating habits last week, Miles surprised us all by eating and almost enjoying a couple of dinners last week. I made poppyseed chicken one night, of which he even fed a couple of bites to himself. Another night was baked chicken with BBQ sauce. He wouldn't touch the broccoli, but we can get peas OR carrots down every night - never both together, though!

And Audrey has finally taken a few sips from a cup! This is huge because I am ready to start weaning this girl, but she needs to be willing to drink from something. She won't take more than a few sips now, but I've only tried water. So hopefully around her birthday we can be done. It already feels like more of a ritual than actual feeding, so maybe it won't be so tough.

Audrey sampled her first ice cream last weekend, a Chick fil a cone shared with Wayne. She was pretty into it! So far she's showing signs of being a better eater than her brother. Miles currently subsists on PB&J, hot dogs and nuggets. Audrey has eaten mac& cheese, my homemade chicken noodle soup (strained, of course), chicken, cheese, pasta, broccoli, carrots, even pesto sauce! And banana muffins which I made this week and Miles refuses to eat. I think tonight she'll try our superbowl chili, although I'll probably rinse off a little of the seasoning. Miles.... we'll make him tast a bite, but I can already envision the faux-gagging that will ensue. Drama.



Of course he loves ice cream!!



So anyway, not much else going on, just the day to day fun of being 3 and almost 1. Speaking of, after some leading suggestions from yours truly Miles picked butterflies for her birthday party. I can't believe it's just a month away, this year has flown.









Today we got to meet Tracy's new puppy, Winston. I had to lock our dogs away, as they might have tried to eat him, but the kids though he was great. Miles ran laps with him in the house and Audrey just stared. Thankfully I didn't hear a "can we get a puppy?" Yet. I tried to explain that he would grow up and be big like Apollo, so maybe Miles was deterred. He really was a sweet thing, but another dog might just put me in the loony bin.

Audrey's waking up from her nap, but Miles is still sacked out... under the dining room table. We made a little fort with some sheets and he brought all his friends, pillows, blankets and sleeping bag. I hope he doesn't expect to sleep there tonight....