First day of spring!

We enjoyed our first day of spring by visiting the family and playing in their awesome, big yard. Audrey finally was brave enough to crawl on the grass and enjoyed chasing her balls around the yard.

Greeting spring with her current favorite ball in hand.

Trying to handle a blade of grass ... can be tricky. 

There were too many balls to manage ... she had to divide her attention and
make sure she knew where they were at. 

The neighbor's dog showed up ... way too much excitement! 

Thinking about my question of where the dog could have gone.
Who thought it would have made her look so cute? :)

Finally! She stayed still for me to take a picture of her. These days I get a lot of
movement or she turns her back to me, every time! 

Amazingly I barely captured this one ... she was on the move!

Getting tired from all her crawling. 

"So, what are we doing, Mom?"

A beautiful apple tree already blossoming! 

Here is a clip of her chasing her balls. She's so fast when she crawls. We've been practicing walking, but she definitely still prefers to crawl--more efficient and just gets "the job done!"

Ball, ball, ball

I have mentioned (maybe to just a few of you, though I thought in a previous post) how desperate I am that Audrey learns another word and another sound. Everything is ball or "b." She even wakes up in the middle of the night opening her eyes wide, looks at me (sometimes with urgency), and says "ball." (As if this is a revelation!) She can see a ball in anything, and almost everything can compare to a ball. Life is very simple for her ... for now.

I have reached the inevitable conclusion that if you can't beat them, you join them. Here are some ways that I have "given in."

I hold conversations with her using the word ball, over and over. This has turned out to be humorous conversations where she laughs very hard. I feel like an accomplished comedian, until I realize that the only audience laughing at me is my nearly 1 year old, who happens to find the word ball repeated over and over ... erm, funny.

I have also changed the words of other songs to include the word ball. Today's song was Larry's Silly Song "Hairbrush."

"Oh were is my ball, Oh were is my ball, Oh where or where is my little ball?"
"I think you left it out in the hall."
"In the hall is my ball ... " (repeat until you can't repeat any more).
"Take care of my ball ..." (repeat until you can't repeat any more).
"Don't stall a rolling ball ..." etc. (repeat until you can't repeat any more).

We then try to find all the shapes that look like balls. Well, she finds them and I say "very good" or "uh, I guess I can see why you think that's like a ball." (I am amazed at how many ball-looking things there are ... which we with slightly higher education call circles)! I include the real name for them and add the word ball to please her. "Yes, this is a yo-yo ball." "That there is a planet ball." "And that is a ball of yarn ... " (at least she'll learn something right, heh).

Yesterday, I bought her a ball we can kick outside (she LOVES this activity). And while at the store, she fell in love with this small red ball that she wouldn't part with, so we got that too. (And on the walk home, she gave it many hugs and lots of affection. It is now officially a part of our ever growing family ... and she is now the proud owner of six balls--eight counting the smaller plastic ones that are for a specific game Auntie got her for Christmas.)

She can now roll the ball, throw the ball, try to build towers with all her balls (which, of course, doesn't work, but she hasn't understood this yet), and now she's gotten down kicking the ball if I hold her arms ... and did I mention she can say the word ball? Heh.

Today she made me very proud though when I asked her to get her (new) blue ball (as we were going outside), and she went straight to her book of colors, turned the pages to the color blue, where there was a blue ball. I love this smart one :).

Proud moment!

You know those those stacking rings that all babies should have? (If you don't know what I'm talking about, here is an example of what one might look like.)

This afternoon Audrey stacked all six rings on her own! Of course, I had to hand the correct ones to her, so that she'd do them in the right order, but she would place them on her own.

We were so proud of our little girl! Watching her achieve something (whatever it may be) brings so much satisfaction.

I want to catch this on film ... tomorrow! (And we'll see if she will perform. Children tend to know when they are meant to do something and just ... not do it.)

10 months!

I forgot to post this. It's been in draft for a while. I was waiting for pictures, but they haven't yet been moved to my new computer. Soon you'll be hearing me say "It seems like only yesterday I was saying she was 10 months," and that's because it was, heh. 

Another month has passed--too quickly I'm afraid. I feel like I only recently posted the last post announcing her progress, the milestones she's passed, and all she has learned. Although not much is too different from her 9th month, there are new things she does.

It's about that time that I think some mothers wonder whether their baby will begin walking. She stands up holding on to furniture or to Papa or to me, and will sometimes let go of one hand, but she hasn't shown any interest or bravery in venturing out on her own two feet. In fact, if I try to help her a long by hold both her hands or arms, she will insist on getting on her knees to crawl. She loves crawling and will crawl everywhere.

I was hoping that she would be saying even more words by the 10th month, but it seems as if she has digressed. She now only says one words and feels that this word is sufficient for all words. Actually, it's not even so much a word, but the letter "b." She clearly says ball, bear, and sometimes bell (they are all similar), but everything else is dubbed "ba." Except for me. I'm "Mmmma."And she sometimes will say Papa, although she will resort to saying ... you guessed it "ba."

It's fun to play with Papa ... He comes up with all these creative ways to play
with the toys :). 

This is only the tip of the ice berg. Every day he comes up with something
new. I should collect pictures of them. 

Though her vocabulary has digressed, her need to communicate with us has progressed, which has resulted in some moments of insanity. "Ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba," she'll go on and on, and while most of the time, I will hold a conversation with her and say the words I think she means to say correctly, there comes a time (usually toward the end of the day) when I start hearing myself pray that she will learn at least another sound! But it seems as if she feel that we understand what she tries to tell us for the most part, so why use other sounds to express herself? Bu ... ! (That, my friends, is a true Italian expression for "don't know"--and sometimes "don't care." Though we do care!)

She's growing in her love of animals. She makes the fish sound, can show you how the elephant goes, and loves looking at pictures of animals. Going out is for the sole purpose to see if we will see dogs, birds, or get sight of any other animals. We were at the Vigevano park today and we got to see a whole lot of pigeons, two swans, and a few ducks--which was very exciting :).

She enjoys the being outdoors. 

She couldn't get enough of the birds. We spent a lot of time following them
around the park. 

She can also tell you where her head is, her tummy, and is copying hand motions more and more.

There are more challenges for me as a mother in my care of her. Shes no longer a baby content with just feeding, sleeping, and playing. It's a lot more involved now to care for her, and I need to pay attention, otherwise, something happens that sets her in a wrong mood and it takes sometime to set it right again. It could be that I'm not giving her enough attention, or that she gets very bored just playing on her own (this is when I need to focus on work), or perhaps she hurt herself and I didn't see, and I think she's just being "fussy." She's reacting so much more to the world around her, picking up fears, insecurities, emotion, etc., and I need to pray to make sure that I am there for her when she needs me and that I give her the right amount of space so that she will become the independent girl she needs to be. Of course, she isn't only experiencing things that make her sad, she's changed in her humor and will often find something to make her laugh. She will talk to herself and break out in laughter, or play with a toy and find something funny about it, or we will play, be silly, and laugh together (which is a highlight of my day).

Trying to look up and at the camera at the same time is hard
work. 

Bath time with her toys is such a great way to end the day ... makes her happy
and gets her in the right mood for bedtime. 

Reading books together is becoming more interesting. She notices the big and little things--such as the moon and stars in the sky; the butterflies and bees flying around; and, of course, every single ball or thing that looks like a ball. I tell you, this girl is ball crazy! She loves balls and anything that looks like a ball. She has also grown an interest in things with wheels--driving or pushing them around. She can remain occupied with a toy that has wheels for up to 20 minutes these days. Which is awesome! I don't know how long that will last :).

She has always shown fear of being higher than us or going up high, so here's
to show that she's forgetting she had that fear or just getting braver :).

We went out to the local mall to enjoy Carnivale with the
Italian children. Oh yes, and I recently cut my hair ... check it out!

Crazy munchkin

This little munchkin was up late last night. She fell asleep close to 9pm, and rightfully so, she missed a nap during the day. I thought I would have some sweet hours to catch up on some work, but as a mother there's one thing you learn quickly: NOTHING goes as planned.

She refused to fall asleep until midnight, the stinker. But meanwhile, we had some fun and laughs. Here is a clip I took of her being a rascal--something she does well these days.

Snowy February

We received quite a bit of snow this month. The first snowfall that I posted on my FB was nothing compared to what came after. It was beautiful and fun while it lasted, but now we're happy it's going away. After a while it becomes sparse, sooty, and icy. Not so fun.

Audrey enjoyed being surrounded by snow. Just not touching it. Next year she'll probably enjoy it more :).

February is a dud--blogwise

I thought I was on a roll with this blogging stuff. New year, fresh start, great start ... blah blah, but February came along and Audrey has grown into a phase where she needs a lot of attention. I thought she needed a lot of attention before, but she's older now, gets more bored, and seems to think that anytime I'm at the computer means that it's to watch a "beheoo" (I love how she says it!).

I have been taking less pictures and forgetting during the day what I composed for my blog during the wee hours of the morning when I couldn't sleep.

I'm also busier with my part time work, which doesn't help. But I hope to do better in March. She's learning so many things, taking on new characteristics, and heading into a big milestone (walking). I want to be sure I don't miss anything important.

It has become a bit more challenging to parent Audrey. In the last week she's gotten more picky about what she wants to do, and if we don't do that thing, she lets me know how displeased she is, ahem! She's also trying to "communicate" more. It sounds a bit like she's saying "blah, blah, blah, blah." Not exactly, but when she goes on and on for a while, it really does begin to sound like it. I don't always understand what she's telling me, and when I don't, it gets very frustrating for the both of us. She becomes unhappy with everything, and I become exasperated because I can't figure out what she wants.

We are working through this time--learning to understand each other better. For the moment, I'm praying for more patience. If any moms have advice on how to work through the stage where things are not well understood between baby and you, I would be grateful!

But no matter how frustrated I can feel, my love for her continues to grow. It's amazing how that works.

Flashback

Audrey and I were going through some video clips of when she was young. We watched this one together three times, because she found it very funny. It reminded me how small she was, full of drool, and absolutely sweet (still is sweet!).

I may post more of these, as there are quite a few cute ones I didn't post, because at the time I wasn't sure how to post media. 

Aversion

The last three days Audrey has not taken her bottle. At first it started out by appearing that it was hurting her gums, and I do think that this is the primary cause. However, today she got angry at her bottle. She asked for it as usual after her bath, so I prepared her a very little bit, and she took one look at the bottle and pushed it away angrily. She then turns to it again apologetically, but then gets angry at it.

I'm happy this love-hate thing she has going on isn't toward breastfeeding. She has actually preferred this even more lately--wanting it more often. 

I am sure it has to do with the new teeth coming in. She's been going through some fussy times, the poor thing. (And poor mom.)

On another note: Happy February :). 

"Helping mom."

She looks angelic when she sleeps ;).

She sleeps on my lap so I can work. She still hasn't gotten down

In her toy bag ... Papa put her there :p.

Winter fun, part 4 (The iPhone version)

I finally got the pictures off my mom's iPhone. She had some great shots. So I will take you through our mountain vacation once again, this time through my mom's eyes :).

Morning glory!

Alisa heading out to one of her morning snowboard lessons.

We three ...

Pretty mom.

First time Audrey wore her sunglasses. She had the appropriate cool stare. 

Here are a few pictures my mom took while we were in the cable car going up to Snow Park.

Mr. Suave and his snowboard--riding in style :).

So handsome ... sigh :).

"You talkin' to me?"

It was breathtaking. The photos are beautiful, but they don't do it justice.

I love this picture of her.

And this picture of us. Here we are going back down.

These next few photos were taken on my birthday. We found this cute cafe. They had the most original menu presentation. I wish I took a picture of it (I thought I did), but you can see it on the right top corner of our table. It's a wooden piece carved into it. It had a  cozy winter feel. They also had this huge TV where they were playing all these MTVs, which Audrey was determined to watch, and embarrassingly she would squeal at the most awkward moments.

Mom turned to look, but Audrey couldn't take her eyes off the TV ... thankfully
I was able to distract her from watching it for the most part :p. 

Mom and Audrey. 

We were returning to the hotel when we found this dog sitting, waiting patiently
for his master at the back of a four wheel motor bike. It was quite a site. There were
so many people gathered around taking pictures as well. 

Mom and Audrey at the Vietnamese restaurant. Sam and I really enjoyed the
soup we got and have been taking about it ever since :). 

Sam and Alisa may not be happy I'm posting this (sorry!), but here you can
get a glimpse of the food. 

My cute little ness.

The street from our hotel.

On the way to town.

The restaurant that had a decently priced lunch menu, that
we ate at a few times. 

They had hang gliding (?) done with skis, as then they would land on the slope
and need to ski for part of the way. Looked SO fun. 

On the last day, we had lunch on this balcony, that had quite a few restaurants
and many skiers and snowboarders ... at the lunch hour. Pretty festive.

This was a man that Audrey bonded with. We sat in front of this store while
eating our lunch, and she would look over to him and babble, smile, etc. I think
she thought he was looking at her. It was so funny! I have no idea the point the
advertisement was trying to get across. Maybe "The snow may give you a funny
goggle snow tan, but veggies will give you a six pack." 

Mom and Audrey again--so fun to have these photos of
her and I together. Here she's making her classic monkey face, heh.

Alisa before she fell asleep ... with her beautiful eyes and way cool hat that I want :).

We went again for the delicious brownie you saw at the beginning of our trip. 

Brownies and cocktails :). 

Sam making sure to get every last sip, heh.

At McDonald (where else?) on the way home (still in France). 

Mom captured a video of Audrey dancing to the music that was playing, sadly the video was taken upside down. I need to figure out a way to turn it right side up. She danced the whole time there, no matter what she was doing. The funny part was that the speakers were next to this portrait of a grizzly bear. So she kept looking at him and smiling, hailing him, waving at him, and dancing away. It looked like she was approving of his choice of tunes. 

She got her first itty bitty taste of ice-cream :). No major reaction. 

Audrey bonded with Grandma on this trip. It was so sweet!