This week our play group was at a little girl's house in the country - gravel road and all (frankly, I didn't even realize there were unpaved roads in Fairfax county). This little girl has lots of animals - a dog (which was very kid friendly), a horse (which was showing off to try to get treats) and a pony (which mostly stayed in the barn). Audrey was fascinated and scared by the animals. She did the sign for horse and dog, but really didn't want either of them very close to her.
There are several dogs in the neighborhood and she loves to watch them out the window or chase after them, but again, if they come to close she starts to cry.
She also loves birds. Our neighbors have several bird feeders in their tree in the backyard. So from our deck, you can usually see a great variety - Orioles, canaries, and a pretty red bird are among my favorites. The only problem we have with seeing the birds is that she squeals with delight every time - which of course, scares the birds away. She also does the sign for bird. (Strangely, none of the birds have been at all interested in the bird feeder that Audrey and I made at playgroup with a pine cone rolled in pb and birdseed.)
Yesterday when we were shopping we past some Nemo towels. Audrey saw Nemo and stared pointing and doing the sign for fish. So her daddy took her over to the fish tanks (we were in Walmart) where she squealed with delight at all the fish. Later in the day after her nap, she looked up at me and did the sign for fish again - apparently she thinks we can produce animals on demand. So I went to the Discovery HD theater channel and sure enough, they had a show on coral with lots of beautiful fish.
Audrey loves to play with the one light switch she can reach - the one at the bottom of the stairs. She stands on the second step on her tip-toes and stretches and then she can reach the switch. While it is scary to watch, she is actually quite good at it these days.
Audrey loves to try to do things herself (over and over and over). Here she is seen trying to put on her own socks and shoes. She hasn't been too successful at this yet - she will get a toe in her or there, but never her whole foot. This morning she put her shoe on my big toe and then laughed about how clever she was. And she is quite a wiz at taking them off.
how she identifies things in sign language as she recognizes them (she also did fish, hat and book).
The other day she found an old pacifier in her toy box. She put her doll into a laundry basket and kept trying (to no avail) to get the doll to take the pacifier.
Audrey loves music. She dances to any and every beat - and she has since she was about 5 weeks old. She dances to classical, pop, holiday and children's. She also loves to sit at the piano at Grandma and Grandpa's house and play. Surprisingly, she doesn't bang away. In fact, until recently she only played one note at a time. Lately she has been pressing a few notes at the same time, but again, no banging - just gently pressing.
Our bedtime routine consists of: Eating a good meal, bath time (not part of it every night), changing into pajamas, brushing teeth, reading books (usually 3 - favorite of the day, Good Night Moon and Mommy Hugs), giving her the pacifier and baby doll and singing Edelweiss while rocking her on the way to her bed.
Grandma has a big bag of legos for visiting grandkids to play with (which currently consists of just Audrey in the local area). Audrey absolutely loves the legos and of course, her favorite part is the lego people. She actually has really great finger dexterity and loves to put the legos together just as much as she enjoys pulling them apart.
