Scary Moments

Since it is Halloween, I thought it would be appropriate to share one of the scariest things Audrey does - she walks down the stairs forward now. She holds onto the wall and precariously puts one leg down to the step below. Then she kind of plops down on her little behind and pulls her other leg over the stair.

I know this is the natural evolution of things, but it still scares me tremendously. There are so many times I am sure she is going to tumble, but she manages to recover just fine.

These pictures were taken this morning at the top of the stairs. Isn't her Halloween shirt cute!

Practice makes perfect

We thought it would be fun to give Audrey a chance to practice trick-or-treating at Grandma and Grandpa's house so that she would know what to do when the big day arrives.Here she is - somewhat perplexed at having to stand outside in the cold dressed as a duck instead of just going inside.
Then she was even more surprised that Grandma greeted her with a bag of candy instead of a big hug as per the usual. In the end, the practice was probably not as helpful as I thought it would be, but we all had a good time.

Fancy Carseat

Even though Audrey is still just shy of the recommended 20 pounds, we decided to put her forward anyway. Here she is chewing on her cell phone, wearing her beret and holding her baby doll - all the necessities for a girl on the go. We love her magic seat - she regularly falls asleep in it because it is so comfy.

Baby Sign

Audrey is learning baby sign language in an attempt to allow her to communicate before she can talk. So far she signs "more", "food or eat" and "baby".

It is precious to see her do it, especially because she gets distracted by her own fascinating fingers. For example when she does the sign for "more" (which is bringing your fingers together in front of you) she will often stop and just start playing with her fingers while she has them all together anyway. And when she does the sign for "eat" (which is bringing your hand to your mouth), she usually keeps going and ends up putting her fingers all the way into her mouth, just to see how they taste.

What's Up Doc?

The other day when I was cutting up carrots, I let Audrey gnaw on a large carrot. She was happy for almost a full hour cutting teeth on this carrot. Here she is outside on the deck gnawing away.

Upside Down

Audrey loves to be upside down. In fact, if you say, "upside down" she will put her head on the floor and look through her legs, as seen here.

Pure Cream

Yesterday I figured out a good way to give Audrey some extra fat in her diet without much sugar. After finishing her dinner, I put some heavy whipped cream (with a touch of powdered sugar) into a bowl and gave her a spoon. She was extremely pleased with this idea.

Aside from the mess, this seemed to work out famously.

15 Month Old Vital Stats

We visited the doctor yesterday for her 15 month well-baby visit.

Height - 30 1/4 inches
Weight - 18 pounds 8 ounces

As you can see she is a small but adorable little person.

Alumni Fan Club

Ryan helped Audrey create these pictures, so that he could rub in BYU's win to the Aggies in the family.

I'm talking to the duck in the mirror

This is Audrey seeing herself as the duck for the first time. As you can see, she was a little trepidatious about the big puff ball staring back at her.

Duck, Duck, Audrey

After much deliberation, the duck narrowly beat Nemo for this year's Halloween costume. This sneak preview at Grandma's house let us get a few early pictures. The funny thing about Audrey is that she seems to really like dressing up in these crazy getups. I think she just loves all the postive attention and gushing that she gets from being such a cute duck.
Now if we can only get her to say "quack quack"...

Dirt

Inevitably kids are drawn to dirt. But I was still surprised yesterday when I saw Audrey with a strange expression of distate on her face with a mouth full of it. With 8 teeth in various lengths, her mouth is a little more dangerous for mommy's fingers than it used to be. It was no easy task to get that dirt out of that little mouth.

Shoes

Audrey loves shoes. She associates shoes with going outside and there is nothing better than going outside. In fact, it seems to be her goal in life to spend as much time outside as possible.

If there are shoes anywhere within her reach she will bring them to me so that I can put them on her feet. In this picture, she is bringing both her shoes and my shoes to me. After I oblige and put the shoes on, she will take my hand and start pulling me either to the door of the porch or the stairs going down to go out.

Which brings up another interesting point, she says about 6 words consistently - daddy, uh oh, all done, cheese, shoes and out or outside. They usually go in this order - cheese (when I open the fridge door), uh oh (as she is dropping the cheese on the floor), all done (along with her signs for that), shoes (accompanied with pointing in the general direction of her shoes) and outside (while pulling me along).