Twinkle Star

Oh, Aubrey. She just gets better and better every day. My list of cute things she does is starting to be ridiculous. And because I've been so lazy and haven't written in awhile, some of the things I've written down are already outdated. But I'll include them here anyway, because they must be remembered.

• Common words and phrases:
• "Dare diz" for "there it is" (though she actually does say "there is" now)
• "Dare goes" for "there it goes"
• "Here come" for "here it comes"
• "Hold it"
• "Do it"
• "Go get it" (sometimes she'll say this about things we can't get, like a dog she hears barking in the distance)
• "Stay"
• "Faffle" for "waffle"
• "SPA-kiki" for "sparkly"
• "Ohh yeah!" (with great enthusiasm)
• "Hurt"
• "Kiss" when she wants me to kiss an ouchy
• "Better" after I've kissed said ouchy
• "Kids" when we get to the park and she wants to play with other kids
• "Oh course" for "of course"
• "Oh dear"
• "Lookit!"
• "Hold you" when she wants to be held
• "Biiiiig"
• "Poopagots" for "polka dots"
• "Lap"
• "Siwwy" for "silly"
• "Scooch" when she climbs on a kitchen chair and wants to be pushed closer to the table
• "Mogurt" for "Yogurt"
• "Cay we woo" for "carry you" (basically when she wants to be picked up)
• "Way" when putting something away or throwing it away
• "Knock!" (always accompanied by knocking on something)
• "Need that!" when talking about her pacifier (because I always say, "You don't need that.")
• "New one" when she wants to hear a different song or read a different book
• "Push! Push!" when she has to push something to make it work
• "Come on!" (repeated whenever Daniel or I say it)
• "Geez!" (repeated when Daniel says it to mock something I've done)
• "Don't choke!" (spoken while she's eating)
• "Beep-a-goo" for "Peek-a-boo"

• She often refers to clothes as "cute." I wonder where she got that from, haha.
• When she hands something to you, she'll say, "Thank you!" She also says it when we do things for her, which is nice.
• When she asks for something, I always repeat it to clarify. She then always responds with "OK," as if I've convinced her. (Example: "Crackers?"  "You want crackers?"  "Okay.")
• She has recently become very into nursery rhymes and action songs, so she's always asking me to do them. Favorites include "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes," "Itsy Bitsy Spider," "Baa Baa Black Sheep," "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," "Clap Your Hands," etc.
• She likes to sing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" herself. It's soooo cute. She only says, "Twinkle, twinkle star" and "Up ub ub pie" (for "up above the world so high"), but it kills me.

• Speaking of stars, we put some glowing stars on the ceiling above her crib, and when we turn off the lights at bedtime, she always goes "ooh" or laughs to show her satisfaction. And she'll say, "Stars! Ceiling!"
• When she finds trash, she's very insistent on throwing it away. We have the kind of trash can you have to step on to open, which she can't do, so she always knocks on the can and asks us to help. Then she says, "Thank you" as she throws whatever it is away. 
• She likes to play a game in which she runs to the corner of the room, looks at me with a mischievous smile and starts wiggling her fingers at me. When I wiggle mine back at her, she laughs and runs at me (sometimes with her eyes closed, for some reason) until I grab her and pick her up.
• For a while there, she'd randomly growl and then say, "Tiger!"
• When I'm lazy and lie on the couch as she plays, she'll often say, "Sleeping!" which means I'm supposed to pretend to be asleep. Then she waits a bit and shouts, "Awake!" to wake me up. When I jump awake, she laughs.
• She has a number of her books "memorized." She'll flip through and "read" them to herself out loud. She knows what's written on a lot of the pages, and she'll say what she can. There's one book, a re-imagined version of The Three Little Pigs, which has a particular sequence that is a combination of actual text and the sound effects I make when I read it to her. She'll often just randomly recite it out of the blue: "Weeee! Uh-oh! Crash! Oof!" I have a lot of these videos, so that may become a separate blog post... 
• In the meantime, here she is saying "You came back!" while "reading" Llama Llama Misses Mama, in which Llama gets upset when his mom leaves him at school. Aubrey had a hard time with nursery, so we used this book (from the library) to teach her that we'd always come back, just like Mama Llama. So she always read this particular page with great enthusiasm. SO cute. (The video is super short because I'm a turd and spent the whole time trying to get her to say something else instead of enjoying what she was already doing. So I cropped it.)

• When we go up the stairs for nap time or bedtime, she insists that Mr. T. "fly" up the stairs (which really means I just throw him). Then she scrambles up to get him.
• She randomly will say, "Ashes, ashes... ah down!" as if she's doing "Ring Around the Rosy."
• We made a photo book with all of our family members in it, and she's really good about recognizing people. Sometimes she'll ask to see a specific person. She says all of the names so cute, but my favorites so far have been "Stock" for "Scott" and "Uncolt" for "Uncle Colt." Oh, and whenever she sees the picture of Nana, she also says, "Necklace!"
• She actually really likes to pray. She'll randomly ask us to pray or sometimes ask to pray again after we've already prayed. She's pretty good about folding her arms, too. Just today she randomly said, "Prayer!" and said her first prayer. It was just "Heavenly Father, [babbling], Jesus Christ, Amen!" I almost died of sweetness.
• Also church-related, she recognizes pictures of Jesus and the temple and is very excited by them. She often says, "Father!" which means she either wants to pray or wants us to sing A Child's Prayer. Her most-requested song is I Am a Child of God, which she just calls "God."
• At night, during our bedtime singing, she'll turn around, whine, and point at my mouth if I stop singing. When I say, "You want me to keep singing," she says, "Yeah," And I melt.
• She sometimes points at the ultrasound image on our fridge and says, "Baby!" Other times she says, "Baby sleeping!" At my OB appointments, she gets very upset when anyone touches me. My cute protector!
• She likes to lift her toys up and down while saying, "Up, down, up, down..."
• She has started treating her stuffed animals (particularly Bound Hound and Mr. T.) the way we treat her. She pretends to feed them snacks, wipes their noses with Kleenexes, tells them to "lean back" and then lays them down, covers them with a blanket and says "sleeping" or "nap," etc. She also says, "Hi you!" to them, which is what I say to her.
• She has started putting small toys into bowls or other containers, bringing them to us, and saying, "Food!" We pretend to eat whatever it is (often it's Little People Disney princesses... I realize that's weird), and she is satisfied. Sometimes she also says, "Oven!" when she brings the "food."
• She likes to put on our shoes and then say she's ready to go.

• When we play upstairs, she likes to stand on our bed, count (sometimes with "4,5,6") or say "Set, go!" and then fall face first into the covers. And actually, whenever we say, "Ready?" she responds with, "Set, go!"
• She has started to get sad when we leave after putting her to bed. She'll ask whoever is doing it to stay. It breaks my heart every time. The worst was when she said, "Mommy gone" after I left one time!
• She's particularly interested in letters and pretty much knows all of them (including a word or two that starts with the letter). She also likes to count (unless you ask her to, and then she gets flustered and says, "All done!") and is learning her shapes. Colors are interesting for her... pretty much everything is green. Favorite color, perhaps?
• When I get frustrated by something (uncooperative bread dough, annoying drivers, my own clumsiness, etc.) and sigh, she'll say, "Hi! Hi!" until I say it back with a proper amount of enthusiasm. It's like she's trying to make me feel better, which is just too cute.
• Half of the animals quack when you ask her what they say. I guess she really likes ducks!
• Sometimes, when she's done something she knows she's not supposed to, she says, "Hey!" or "Oh, no!" before I get a chance to. Then she smiles mischievously and runs away. Punk.
• When she's having a hard time doing something but then does it without help (like stabbing food with her fork),  she says with great pride, "I did it!"
• When she wants someone to play with her, she'll point at the person and say, "Sit!"
• She likes to hold small things (snacks, tiny toys, etc.) in both hands and then say, "Where dah go?" Then she waits a bit, opens her hands, and says, "Dare diz!"
• When we ask her to do something or offer her a snack she has asked for, she often runs away while saying, "Aubrey!" I guess she's mimicking us calling after her when she runs away.
• When I change her diaper, she always says, "Poo poo!" And when that's not true, I say, "No," and she responds, "No poo poo, juss soggy."

Two, Three!

I have a problem: Aubrey does too many cute things for me to remember them all! I've taken to keeping lists all over the house so I can write things down when she does them. Case in point:

The food calendar on our fridge seemed as good a place as any, but Daniel made fun of me, as you can see. Anyway, here are some things I've taken note of lately:

• She says a number of words correctly, but most of what she says has to be interpreted:
• "Deez" for "please"
• "Duh-GEE" for "again"
• "WAH-ka-wah" for "video"
• "Foof" for "woof" (as in what a dog says)
• "TEE-ta-gee" for "Mr. T."
• "Seis" for "outside"
• "PAH-pa-ga" for "pacifier"
• "Ahdigah" for "octopus"
• "Foaf" for "fork"
• "Oh doh" for "Oh no" 
• "Waka" for "rocking" (in the rocking chair in her room)
• "Seat" for anytime she sits down on something
• "Hop" for "help"

• She says a lot of other words, but those are the new ones/my favorites.
• When she wants one of us to read a book to her, she says "tu-tu." She got this from hearing us ask, "Do you want me to read that to you?" I guess the "to you" part translated to "tu-tu," and that's the part that stuck.
• She likes to help me unload the dishwasher. She will grab each plate out of the bottom, one at a time, and hand them to me. She also likes to put her own little silverware pieces into the drawer. Other than that, she can't actually be helpful, so then I just hand her things from the dishwasher and let her hand them back to me to put away. She loves being helpful. She's the absolute sweetest.
• Every day, her friend from the neighborhood comes over to play. She's really cute with Aubrey, and it's nice to get a chance to relax a little.

• When she goes outside, she thinks she needs to wear her hat (which is a tricorne hat, incidentally). During the summer, Daniel almost always grabbed his hat as we went outside. And she's our little mimic.
• If a car horn honks, she gets scared, whines, and looks to me. I always tell her, "It's okay; it's just the car saying 'hi!'" And then she says, "Hi!" A similar thing happens with birds. Their squawking scares her, so I encourage her to say "Caw!" back to them. Then she smiles.
• I have a bad habit of grunting when I pick her up or bend over to get something, and she has started copying me. It took me awhile to realize that's what she was doing! Her little grunt is so adorable (unlike mine).
• When I say that something is yucky, she repeats, "Yucky!"
• She likes to count, but she has a tendency to forget "one."

• When we go outside, she often picks up my shoes and tries to put them on my feet for me. She also loves tickling my feet and gets a kick out of me fake giggling when she does.
• I had awful (awful!) allergies all summer, so I ended up blowing my nose a lot. Regrettably, Aubrey thought this was a thing to mimic, so she'll randomly take a Kleenex, ball it up on her face, and blow loudly into it--with her mouth.
• When we eat breakfast, she'll say she's done and I'll get her out of her highchair. But then she'll insist on sitting on my lap and grabbing at everything on the table and asking for my food. I've taken to eating standing up.
• She loves babies and will shout "Baby!" and point when she sees one. So far she's very good at being gentle with them.
• At night, when we sing to her before bed, she'll violently sit up and lean back in order to rock the chair more if we aren't doing it sufficiently.
• She LOVES going on walks and will often ask by shouting "Walk! Walk!" in a high-pitched voice.

• She says "Shoot!" a lot. I suppose it could be worse.
• She also says "Bye bye" really cutely. We've told her to say goodbye to things/people as a way of distracting her from being sad that we're making her leave somewhere/stop doing something. And now she's taken to saying it on her own before she even gets upset. I like it.
• When I'm standing and holding her, she'll sometimes put one leg on each of my hips and say "Oh doh!" and laugh to initiate the "Oh no, you're falling!" game that we play, in which I let go of her, she clamps on to me, and then I shake her off onto the couch.
• We bought her these $1 alphabet flash cards, and she loves them. She likes naming the picture on the back of each. I'm always surprised at what she has picked up!
• She is very interested in eyes and will often poke one of us on the eye and say, "Eye!"
• Even though we installed her new car seat several weeks ago. we still have the box it came in for Aubrey to play with. She LOVES it. And hey, it was technically free!

• She loves playing in the car as it sits in the driveway. She climbs from front to back and vice versa, pushes buttons, turns knobs, takes loose change out of its little container and throws it all over, and sometimes sits at the wheel and pretends to drive.
• One of her favorite things to do is flip through books on her own. She'll be entertained for quite awhile. She especially likes reading on our bed, and she'll bring a book from her room, ask for help climbing on the bed, sit and look through the book for a minute, ask for help down, and then run back into her room to get another book and repeat the whole process. She also likes reading in the glider chair in her room. She says "Rocking!" as she does it (though she used to say it "Walka").
• She loves jumping, but she can't actually jump. Most of the time, she ends up falling on her butt when she tries.

• When she takes a bath, she dips her fingers in the water and then wipes them on her face like a raccoon washing itself. 
• If I ask where something is, she'll do a little shrug with her upturned hands out in front of her. It's adorable.
• She has very strong opinions about what we read to her. Just today, when we read before her nap, I held up each book and said, "This one?" She said "All done" to each one (she doesn't say "no") until I picked the one she wanted. Then she said her cute "Yeah!"
• I finally found a TV show that she'll sit and watch. It's Mother Goose Club. The whole thing is singing and dancing and nursery rhymes. She likes sitting on the coffee table to watch it. Not sure why.

Everything says, "Raaaah!"

It's time for another update on my favorite girl! Here are all the things I don't want to forget:

• What she's saying:
• "Wa-wa" for "water"
• "Kuck" for "truck"
• "Tuh-tul" for "turtle"
• "Hep" for "help"
• "Raaah!" for what a pirate (and any animal whose noise she doesn't know) says 
• "Qua" for the sound that any bird makes
• "Two" when we count things
• "Sta" for "star"
• "Sta-sta" for "pasta"
• "La-la" for "love you"
• "Shoe"
• "Out"
• "Hot"
• "Oh wow"
• "Up"
• "Down"
• "Weeeee!"
• "Woah"
• "Cup"
• "Hat"
• She always says "dee-dah" when she wants something. We're not exactly sure what words she thinks she's saying, but it's cute.
• She has started trying to scare people by hiding behind something and jumping out while saying, "Raaah!" If we fake scream when she does it, she laughs.

• Sometimes, after we or she laughs, she'll do a fake "ha ha ha" laugh.
• She tries to put her own pants and shoes on sometimes. She can't do it alone, but I like that she tries.
• If we let her sleep in her zippy without pajamas, she takes her diaper off. Not my favorite.
• She likes to point at (poke, really) our eyes and say, "Ah" and our mouths and say, "Muh."
• In the bath, she spends almost the entire time filling up her plastic cup and pouring the water on her chest. She does it over and over and over.
• Because it has been so hot, I've gotten into the habit of turning the car on to get the AC going before getting Aubrey in her car seat. This turns the radio on so that it's already going when Aubrey gets in the car. As soon as she sits down and hears the music, she starts dancing.
• She is obsessed with the oven mitts and likes to "help" me bake by wearing them.

• She has started to become more affectionate, which I LOVE. She will give me long hugs now (when SHE feels like it, mind you), and she hugs her stuffed animals up between her head and shoulder and goes, "Mmmm." 
• If I say a stuffed animal is soft, she'll pet it gently. Speaking of gentleness, she will randomly stroke her own face and say, "Juh-ahh" (her word for "gentle").
• She will not keep her shoes on for any amount of time unless she is actually walking. Then she tries to eat the shoes (gross).
• She loves ducks and dogs and will actually pet dogs now! She still gets a little afraid of them if they move too quickly, but she will approach them now.
• She likes to grab our old phones/her toy phones/anything shaped like a phone and pretend to talk on it. Too cute.

• When she gets her hands on a paper towel or Kleenex, she will wipe her face, the floor, my face, the table, or anything else she thinks needs a good cleaning. Parenting win.
• We wash her hands as she stands on a little stool, and when we're done she grabs the hand towel with a couple of fingers to "dry" them off, and then she runs away.
• She likes to sit on the Bound Hound (large stuffed Boston terrier) and act as if she's riding him. Then she lets herself fall forward onto her face.
• When we take her for walks, she likes it when we each take an arm and swing her. We count to three and then say "Weee!" as we swing her. If we take too long to count and swing her, she'll lift one of her legs up and say, "Weee!" as if we did it.
• During meals, when she's done eating something, she'll say, "All done" and hand the food to us. Hey, it beats throwing it on the ground! And when she does throw it on the ground, we make her pick it up.
• Sometimes she cackles like a witch. It's awesome.
• When she's done eating, we stand her up in her highchair and brush any remaining food off her clothes. Now she has started to do it to herself as soon as we stand her up.
• At the end of the day, when we clean up her toys, the only way we can get her to start helping is by getting out a bag--any type of bag, really--and asking Aubrey to put things in there. She can't resist. Yet if you tell her to put things in the toy boxes, she'll run away. The bag is our secret weapon.

Degas, Degas, Degas

Aubrey just does too many cute and new things each day, so I have to update this thing often! Here are some of our current favorite Aubrey-isms.

• She often says, "degah, degah, degah." We have no idea what it means, unless she's telling us that she's a fan of Edgar Degas. We're actually thinking of getting a poster of one of his paintings for her bedroom. 
• Current words she says:
• "stuh" for "stuck" (one of her most-used words somehow)
• "dah" for "down"
• "oooooh!" and "ohhhh"
• "ohhh wuhhh" for "oh no"
• "tuh" for "toes" (and then she grabs them)
• "kuh" for "truck" and "milk"
• "cah" for "car" (it's that Boston accent, you know)
• "baba" for "baby"
• "ahhhh duh" instead of "Amen"
• "cah-cah" for "cookie" or "cracker"
• "gah-gah" for "doggie"
• "bah" for "ball"
• "uh-oh" (only a few times)
• "hah" for "hot" or "hair" or "hat"
• "hi"
• "Ah-buh" for "Aubrey"
• When there are numbers or countable things in her books, we always point at them while counting them. So now, if you ask her to count things, she'll poke them with her fingers repeatedly.  
• She loves waving and will wave at every car that passes and nearly any person, too.
• When she plays outside, she loves to grab the broom on the deck and "sweep" for us.







• If you ask her what the cow says, she'll say "muh." If you ask what the sheep says, she'll say "bah." The horse says "heeeeeeh" (with a shake added to it to mimic a whinny), and the duck says "kuh."
• I often tell her to pick her own book when I'm going to read to her, and she gets very excited. The most common choices are Goldilocks and the Three Bears; If You Give a Mouse a Cookie; Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus; Quantum Physics for Babies; Love You Forever; and Oh, the Places You'll Go.
• When I ask if she went "poo poo," she grabs her diaper.
• If she sees a mirror, she'll point and say, "Ooosaah?" It's her way of saying "Who's that?", which is what I always say when we see her in the mirror.
• She likes to feed me her snacks. When I let her do it, she opens her own mouth as she puts the food in mine, and then she goes "Mmmmm." I don't exactly want her to do it, but it's hard to say no when she's so dang cute.
• She can't say "please," but she understands the concept. So if we tell her to say "please," and sometimes just on her own if she wants something, she'll say "duh" with an intonation that is obviously copying ours when we say "please." It's fascinating and super cute.
• She's learning how to eat with utensils. We often put food on her spoon and then hand it to her so that she can put it in her own mouth. She can also stab her own watermelon and eat it. We're working on scooping things up. She always flips the spoon/fork upside down to put it in her mouth, so that leads to many spills. If she doesn't have a fork but wants one, she'll try stabbing food with her index finger. It actually works with French toast.

• She loves spinning around and will do it if you tell her to.
• I'm not sure when, but she figured out how to use a straw. And she LOVES doing it. If I have a straw with my water, she can't help but come over and take sips every few seconds. She gets pretty upset if I say no.
• She has discovered her tongue again. If you say, "tongue" or stick yours out, she'll stick hers out. And then she laughs.
• Sometimes she'll stick her arms straight back behind her and run around like a reverse Superman kind of thing. It's awesome (and kind of weird).
• She loves balls and actually has a really good arm (for her age, obviously). Maybe she'll be a softball player?
• She loves older kids and will run up to them, hug them, and then chase them if they walk away.
• She can point to different body parts on herself. Head, ears, mouth, tummy, and feet are all easy. Some of the others, especially her nose, are a little more difficult for her.
• She loves to brush her hair with any comb/brush she can get her hands on. She likes to brush my hair, too (often with items that are not actually brushes).
• When I unload the dishwasher or fold laundry, she helps by taking the dishes/clothes out of the dishwasher/basket and handing them to me to put away or fold.

Funny, Crazy Girl

Aubrey is so much fun! She's so curious and full of energy. It's kind of unfair (especially because I have to try to keep up with her).

She likes to play dress up...

... and is a Scrabble genius.

She doesn't mind getting her hands (and face) dirty...

... nor does she mind cleaning up (sometimes without even being asked, as below).

And, lucky for her, she has her mother's grace...

... and she knows all the right moves!

What can I say? She just has a real thirst for life!

Ahhhhh Duh

And again, I can't help but provide a little update on Aubrey. As soon as I decided to have children, I promised myself I would write things down so that one day, after the memories themselves had faded, I could look back and be reminded. It's the entire purpose of this blog.

So... here are some things I want to be reminded of:

• Sometimes she'll start cleaning up her toys on her own. She'll carry them over to the toy bucket in the corner of the living room and throw them in. 
• She says "Ahhhhhhh duh" for "all done." It is the absolute cutest thing. She says it when she's finished eating or when she doesn't like what's going on (such as being in the car too long or having her diaper changed).
• Though she's not talking as much as I might like, she does try to repeat things we say. She always gets the number of syllables right, but she can't make all of the right sounds. Everything either involves a "duh" sound or a "kuh" sound or a "shuh" sound... even if it doesn't actually. But hey, she comprehends really well, so that's something.
• When I'm sitting on the ground, she likes to come up behind me and push on my back to make me fall forward. Then she laughs. 

• She stands up in the grocery cart and opens her arms for a hug, which I always happily give her, and she'll just hang on to me and not let go. Unfortunately, however, it's not affection. She's trying to get me to take her out of the cart. And when I sit her back down, she cries. But hey, man, I get great hugs! Even if they are a manipulation...
• At church, she likes to go up and down the stairs. One week, Daniel and I were trying to decide who should watch her and who should go to Sunday School, and in our moment of distraction, she leaned too far forward on her way down and went falling head first. I was at the top of the stairs (Daniel was at the bottom) and couldn't get there in time, but Aubrey put her hands out, did a handstand on the last stair, and flipped all the way over to land on her butt. And amazingly, she was unhurt! It did scare her though (understandably).
• She really likes to be helpful. She always says an enthusiastic "Yeah!" when I ask if she wants to be my special helper. Last week, after we did our big grocery run, she "helped" me put the groceries away. She didn't quite understand the concept though, so she actually just took each item off our bottom shelf and handed it to me. I would then turn around and put it on the counter behind me so that I could put the new things away. In the end, I had more things on the counter than I had started out with. But Aubrey just beamed with such joy whenever I said, "Thank you!", so I didn't mind.
• When she hears the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" song, she puts her fingers together and moves them around to mimic the hand movements.
• One of her favorite activities is playing on the couch surrounded by all of her "friends." She throws them off the couch one by one, so I guess she's not a good friend, but...

• She loves playing in the dirt and throwing rocks. She throws the dirt too, and it always gets in her hair. So fun.
• We have had people babysit her a few times now, even putting her down for naps/bedtime, and she has been great. There was no freaking out or even crying when we left or when other people fed her, put her down, etc. It's kind of awesome.
• She has three teeth on the bottom and three on the top, though some haven't fully descended. Is that normal?
• After she eats, I rinse her hands with water and then wipe my wet hand across her face. After I do that, she wipes her own face with her wet hand, going back and forth across her mouth. Cute little copycat.
• She has started to stick food down her shirt. Not my favorite.
• One of her favorite things to do is outrun things. So she likes to bring me a balloon and start running away from me, with the expectation that I'll hit the balloon after her. Same thing with this toy car we have (only I roll it on the ground rather than throw it... obviously).
• She really likes to touch plants and flowers. And she's finally learned to be gentle with them!

• Speaking of gentle, she'll softly caress my face with her little hand when I tell her to be gentle (because I've taken her hand and done that to show her what being gentle is like), but then she immediately follows it up with a few face smacks with that very hand. *Sigh*
• One of her favorite games to play with us is "tent." We basically just sit with her on the ground or our bed and put a blanket over all of our heads. She walks/crawls around under it and flings herself on us and just laughs. She gets very upset when one of us removes the blanket.
• She randomly will start sidestepping/backing up really slowly when she's standing. 
• We have discovered the power of neck tickles. She will go completely silent and still if we softly run our fingers across the back of her neck. Sometimes she looks like she's going to fall over or pass out when we do it. It's so funny. I need a video of that.
• When she wants to be picked up, she'll start kind of running in place and throwing her arms up in a funny little dance.

Shoes, Back Pats, and Cleanup

While I don't intend to do monthly posts anymore, I do want to write things down periodically so I don't forget what Aubrey is like at each stage. The following is a list I've compiled over the last... um... month and a half. Hmm. Maybe I'm not done with the monthly posts after all...

• If one of us lies down on the ground, she'll come and sit on us like a chair. The face is her favorite seat.
• She likes to hold the couch cushions against her face and then fall forward onto them.
• If you have something she wants, or if she is trying to give you something, she'll pry your hands open.
• She says "shuh" for "shoe." She's very enthusiastic about saying it, in large part because she associates shoes with going outside, which she loves doing.
• Every day we walk to get the mail (which is down on another street perpendicular to ours), and she always stops at particular houses on the way. One is the best-kept yard in the neighborhood, and she always points at things they have, babbles excitedly, and refuses to keep walking. The other house is right by the mailboxes, and it has fake bunnies placed throughout the foliage in the very front. She likes to pet and talk to them.
• As previously mentioned, she loves going outside. If you open the door and then close it without taking her outside, she will throw a conniption fit.
• She laughs if you chase her, especially if you're trying to take something away from her.
• When she dances, sometimes she clasps her hands together and twists at the waist. Other times, she just squats over and over again. So. Stinking. Cute.

• On her little singing puppy, she'll keep pressing the buttons until she cycles through to find the songs she likes the best. Then she looks at me with a proud look on her face.
• She says "kuh" for "truck." We always watch the recycling and trash trucks when they come on Tuesdays, and she gets so excited.
• Ever since our trip to Texas and California, she must sleep with Mr. T.
• To my great joy, she no longer throws her pacifiers from her crib and then cries when she doesn't want to sleep.
• She can finally go down stairs on her own! She sits and uses her hands and feet to scoot her bum to the end of each stair until she slides down to the next one. She's very careful about it, which is good.
• If she finds the bubbles container, she'll hand it to me and get upset if I don't open it and get ready to blow bubbles. But then when I do start blowing bubbles, she turns and walks away without even watching.
• She often brings books to us. When we say, "Do you want me to read this to you?" she says, "Yeah!"
• Speaking of books, Daniel is reading the Chronicles of Narnia to me, and Aubrey is obsessed with this front cover:

          She stares at it, points to it while babbling, and pets the lion. We have no idea why she's so enthralled by it.

• Annoyingly, she has started trying to stand up in grocery carts.
• She has started picking up items that she shouldn't have (my camera, a piece of candy she could choke on, etc.) and bringing them to me. It's awesome.
• When I say "spinning," she looks up at the ceiling fan. She loves it and repeatedly points at it when it's on.
• Oh, the food throwing. Unfortunately, that hasn't changed. She does it with such a defiant look in her eye too. Punk.
• She plays fetch with us. Like a dog. We throw the ball across the room, and she brings it back. It's one of her favorite games.
• When we're sitting on the ground, she'll come up behind us and pat our backs affectionately. We always do it to her, so I guess she's mimicking. It's my very favorite thing in the whole world.
• She leans in for hugs when I stand her up to put her pants back on after diaper changes.
• Sometimes, if we're really lucky, she'll point to her head or ears if we ask her where they are. But most of the time she's not interested in performing.
• She loves putting things (blankets and clothes) over her face and waiting for me to say, "Where's Aubrey?" and then, "There she is!" when she uncovers her face. If I try to uncover her face myself, she gets very upset.
• During bath time, she starts to giggle when I wash her arms because she knows that next I'm going to poke her and say "armpits!"
• She has two full teeth on the bottom and one on top as well as one coming in on top and one coming in on the bottom, just below the other. So far she has been a very easy teether, but she gets really mad if you try to look in her mouth.
• Out of nowhere, she started blowing kisses. I've done it a few times, but I can't believe she picked up on it. I love it though.

• She loves the Sandra Boynton book Horns to Toes and In Between. It talks about different body parts, and we always touch the places when we say them. When it comes time for the belly button, we poke it to make her laugh. On the page that counts the 10 fingers, she starts to point at the numbers like I do. And then when we get to numbers 6 through 10, she starts to push my hand away and laugh, because she knows that next I'm going to use those fingers to tickle her (as the page says, "We can tickle, tickle, tickle or just count them again."). At the end, I shake her around when it says "shake and shimmy." I love her cute laugh.
• We taught her to clean up! Every night before bed, she helps us pick up her toys. It's a wonderful skill; I love that she actually picked it up. (Hah, pun!)
• If we forget to close the pantry door, she immediately goes for the spices. And she somehow always chooses the celery seed to run away with, no matter where we have put it. So weird.
• She refuses to wear her hat. *Sigh.*
• One of her favorite things to say is "ducka ducka ducka." I really wish I knew what she meant by it.
• We discovered she really likes mini M&Ms (SO my daughter) and ice cream (vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry so far). 
• When we take her upstairs for bedtime, she starts saying "shh" to indicate that we should brush her teeth. One time she kept saying "shh" and then cried when Daniel walked past the bathroom without doing it. That's when we realized what she was saying.
• If we squeeze our eyes shut while looking at her, she'll copy us and keep doing it until we stop. She thinks it's funny.

1 Year Old

Well, I actually started this blog post on Aubrey's first birthday, but I never finished it. So when I went to write another post today, I came across this one and thought I should post it. So here it is, a couple of months late.

• When she really likes her food, she makes a "HmHmHm" sound that reminds me of the lead-in to an evil laugh (just missing the "mua ha ha" part).
• If you fake laugh, she'll copy you.
• She likes to put clothing, towels, etc. on her head/around her shoulders and walk around.

• She shoves her pacifiers between the bumper pads and the crib, making it seem like they disappeared.
• She brings things to us now.
• She loves watching cars and trucks go by.
• She had her first stomach flu and ended up at the ER. Thankfully, no fluids were needed.
• One day, we went to the park to walk around. When we put Aubrey down to have her walk on her own, she tripped and fell onto her hands. It had rained the night before, so everything was wet and gravely, and she got little rocks on her hands. This made her really unhappy. So we picked her up and carried her for a bit, and when we put her down again, she refused to walk on the asphalt. We thought she might prefer the grass, so we put her down there instead. But we were very wrong. Oh, the tears. She completely freaked out. And she continued to do this all day, crying every time we put her down on the grass.

• She likes to make the "sh" sound, especially after I say "splash."
• She loves waffles, oranges, Swedish pancakes, peaches, rice, meatloaf, peas, pasta, and chicken tacos.
• She babbles with a lot of inflection in her voice, but she hasn't said any real words yet... I don't think.
• Annoyingly, she uses her head as a weapon when she gets angry and kicks us during diaper changes.
• When she puts her cup down in the right place (rather than throwing it on the floor), she claps for herself.
• She does this cute breathy laugh that reminds me of an old man laugh.
• She always squirms around to sit forward in grocery carts.
• When you go to take a picture of her, she gives her cheesy grin:

Aubrey's First Birthday!

Well, Aubrey is officially 1 year old! We had a nice, low-key celebration yesterday in honor of her wonderfulness.

First she got to play in a pile of balloons (12 of them, to be exact) that her Daddy blew up for her the night before.

Then we had Swedish pancakes, of course! I totally copied Maren and did a 1 for Aubrey's age as well as some other shapes. She diligently posed for the first photo.

And then she realized there was a pancake within reach...

... so she grabbed it. 

And she chowed it all down, along with an orange and some milk.

Then the day was more or less normal for a few hours.

There was playing and napping and a walk to get the mail. It was such a beautiful day! Best weather of the whole year by far. And, of course, the balloons continued to be a big hit.

Still, birthday or not, the occasional meltdown did occur.

But when Daddy came home, the real celebration began. Aubrey opened her presents from us (with some help).

The new toys were well-received. They even passed the taste test.

Aubrey also opened a sweet card from her Nana and Papa. She gave it kisses (or, you know, tried to eat it... same thing).

Then Mommy took the opportunity to have a little pre-dinner photo session with the world's cutest girl.

But Aubrey wasn't super into it, so we just took a few.

Then it was meatloaf, peas, and mashed potatoes for dinner. And again Aubrey went to town! She loves Grandma's meatloaf. And we love our little carnivore. :)

After that, we had a nice video conference call with grandparents, aunts, and cousins so that we could at least pretend everyone wasn't so far away. There were some technical difficulties, of course, but it was still very nice! Nearly everyone got to see her open presents from her grandparents and have her first taste of cake.

She liked the frosting but had a hard time with the cake. I'm going to say it's that she didn't like it on her hands and not that she doesn't like cake. 'Cause that can't be possible for my daughter. I'd have to get a DNA test.

Anyway, all that cake smashing necessitated a bath before bed.

And then Mommy was a sucker and let Aubrey play with her new toys for a few minutes before bed. Needless to say, she's a big fan. I haven't seen her play so long on her own in awhile. Here she is enjoying the toys today.

All in all, it was a good day! The year has gone by so fast, but I can say without equivocation that it has been the best year of my life! And I'm pretty sure it's been the best year of Aubrey's life too. Just sayin'... ;)