Couch Kisses and Nail Polish

Oh, Aubrey. She's quite the firecracker. I guess it makes sense that her new thing is to say, "Can I blow fire at you?" and then blow air on whoever she asked. Here are some other details:

• When we tell her it's time for a meal, she often contradicts us about which meal it is. Example: If I say, "Aubrey, it's dinner time!", she says, "No, it's lunch time!"
• Sometimes she says, "Mommy, will you talk to me?" when she's eating lunch by herself or playing by herself. She also often says, "Mommy, I need to tell you something." It's usually nothing, but it's still super cute. At bedtime, she has started to say, "Wait, I forgot to talk to you!" when we try to leave. It's too cute to tell her no, so we chat awhile.
• She likes to have control, so she often asks me to change my hair. If it's pulled back, she asks me to let it down. If it's down, she asks me to pull it back.
• She has become obsessed with nail polish ever since I got a pedicure, so I told her I could paint her toenails. She got super excited and picked out pink sparkly polish.

• She wants to do everything herself. If we do something for her that she wanted to do herself, she'll throw a fit and then do it herself--even if it's already been done. Example: If I put her in her car seat but she wanted to climb in herself, she'll climb all the way out and then climb back in. 
• She has a weird palate. She won't eat any form of potatoes and generally won't eat chicken. However, she LOVES pork chops, and she always asks for "juice" (meaning the juice from the pork chops after they've been grilled and put on a plate to rest). While we were having breakfast in Utah, she was asked if she wanted juice, and she said she did. Then she held up her plate and indicated a spot next to her bacon. We meant orange juice.
• She's into the phase of thinking something is in her closet. For awhile there, it was always a lion in the closet during the day. Now, when we put her to bed at night, there are ghosts in the closet. We have to get rid of them for her before she can sleep.
• She loves bread dough. Whenever I make bread, she asks for some dough. She plays with it for awhile, rolls it out when I'm done with the rolling pin, and then eats it. I've given up on trying to stop her.

• Oh, and as you can see from the above photo, she takes her clothes off. All. The. Time. I don't know why she does it, but it drives me crazy.
• When I get upset because something went wrong/I spilled or ruined something/I got hurt somehow, she always says, "It's okay, Mommy." She also says, "Oh, I'm sorry, Mommy." So sweet!
• She likes to compliment me, so she often says, "Oh, I like your [insert random thing here]." It started with clothing items ("Oh, I like your pretty skirt") and has now moved on to funnier things (such as "Oh, I like your waffle" and "Oh, I like your pen").
• When we were in Utah, we told her we were going to church. She said, "No, I don't want to go to nursery!" When we said, "Oh, we're only going to Sacrament meeting today," she responded, "But I want to go to nursery!" That exchange is so representative of this girl.
• She started a gymnastics class at the YMCA. For some reason, she has decided that the teacher is "not nice," so for her second and third classes, she refused to do anything. All she'd do is the low beam with me (and only me) helping her. Finally, this last time, I got her to do everything but the bar (which they hang on, swing on, etc.) with the teacher's help. I had to go with her to do everything, and the teacher actually let me help her on the tall beam, but at least she did stuff. Then she did the trampoline tumble track for the first time, but I had to hold her hand the first time she went down it and then hop/walk alongside her (on the ground) nearly every time after, but she loved it! She kept saying, "Is it my turn again?" I have high hopes for next time...

• One of her favorite things to do is play picnic. She has a box of fake food behind the couch, and she fills her little toy picnic basket with things from it, brings it over to the rug in the living room, lays down her little picnic blanket, and pulls out each item to set it down methodically. Once the basket is empty, she says she's going to get more food. On her way to the box full of food, she says, "Bye, Mommy! Have a good picnic!"
• She loves putting things behind her back and saying, "What do I have?" She gets a big smile on her face and then slowly brings it from behind her back, showing it off in such a proud way.
• She has started calling me "Mama," and I find it so sweet. She also says, "No, silly Mama!" all the time. 
• One of her most-used phrases is, "say the words." She uses it in many different ways. When we ask her to say the prayer for dinner or before bed, she says, "I don't want to say the words." Or sometimes she'll say, "I want you to say the words." She will also sometimes say, "I don't want to say the words" when we ask her to apologize for something, and she says, "I want you to say the words" when she's trying to express something but can't figure out how to. It's very interesting.
• When she goes upstairs for bed, she gives whoever is not putting her to bed a kiss and a hug, which means either me or Daniel and then Carter. But recently, she has added the couches. Yes, she kisses and hugs each couch before going upstairs. No idea where that came from, but it's too cute to put an end to.

"I can scream if I want."

• If one of us (me or Daniel) is spending time with Aubrey and then we start having a conversation with each other, she'll say, "I don't want Mommy to talk to Daddy" or "I don't want Daddy to talk to Mommy." Similarly, she'll sometimes say, "I don't want Mommy/Daddy to talk to me," usually when she's upset or when we're trying to discipline her. Today, she said that when she was upset, and when I said, "I'm trying to make you feel better," she said, "I don't want mommy to make me feel better." Well then.
• During dinner one night, she kept putting her fists over her eyes and whispering, "Where'd she go? Is she in the [random place]?" Then we would start saying, "Is she in the [random place]?", to which she'd say, "Nooo." The best part was that she would drop one of her hands to eat grapes while she waited for us to guess different locations. Finally, she'd remove both hands and say, "I was in the chair, and I forgot!"
• When she wants to watch videos, she'll say, "Can I have three [or two or four] videos please?" while trying to put her fingers up to indicate the number.
• She loves hand sanitizer (because of using it in nursery), but she calls it "handsitizer."
• When we read scriptures as a family each night, we always start by saying, "Tonight we're talking about [insert person's name here]...", and she always responds with, "He's not a good man." It all started with the first night we read scriptures together and mentioned that someone wasn't a good man. Now they're all not good men (even when they're women!).
• She dances on tip-toe, and it's adorable.
• We watched the movie Zootopia, and she is now obsessed with the Shakira song "Try Everything" that plays during the movie's credits.

• When we take her to the splash pad at the zoo, she plays on the outskirts and gets only her feet wet. Then, when she gets soaked by something, she runs away crying.
• Once, right after I'd gotten her undressed for bath time and was trying to get the water to the right temperature before putting her in, she ran into her room and peed on the floor of her room. She came running back in and said, "I spilled pee pee." Similarly, the first time Carter spit up in front of her, she said, "Oh, he spilled!"
• She's very jealous of the fact that Carter gets a pacifier whenever he wants one and she doesn't, so she keeps stealing his and running away. She doesn't even really put it in her mouth; she just holds it. 
• She has a bunch of Little People characters, and she likes to sing the "Monkeys Jumping on the Bed" song while making them jump up and down before hitting their heads on things each time she says, "One fell off and bonked his head." She also likes to throw the Little People down the stairs in what Daniel calls a "mass suicide."
• When we get in the car, she says, "It's hot. Let's turn on the ABC."
• She often refers to herself in the third person, saying, "She wants..."
• When she asks me for something while I'm sitting down and I say yes but don't get up right away to do it, she says, "Do you want to get up?"
• When we try to stop her from doing something or take something away from her, she'll say, "No, please!" or "Please, please!"
• She has started to ask for something and then say, "I asked very nicely" in a super sweet voice. After months of us saying, "Ask me nicely," she now thinks she can have anything if she just asks nicely. Oy.

• When we ask her to repeat something or say a prayer or say she's sorry, she almost always says, "I don't want to say the words." But she does say prayers sometimes, and they're so sweet.
• She likes to put a blanket over our heads (we call it "tent") and have me play the mouse game. It's really just me moving my fingers quickly from her feet up to her neck to tickle her, but she loves it. Her laugh is the best thing I've ever heard. Plus I love how she says, "The moouuuse" to ask me to do it.
• Recently she has started making up songs. She sings random words or describes what she's doing or even just sings back to us the words we have just said to her. This girl loves music, and I'm so glad.
• She used to say, "I love you very much, dear," when she hugged me, which she totally got from the movie Tangled. She has recently dropped the "dear" part.
• She likes to slide down the stairs on her stomach (feet first, going backward), and when she reaches the bottom she says, "That was so far!"
• Sometimes, when she's calling for her daddy, she'll shout, "Daniel! Daniel!" Then we explain to her that he's "Daddy" to her.
• These days, especially as Carter starts to use things that are or used to be hers, we hear "Mine!" a lot. "No, it's mine!" It's definitely not my favorite.
• She does the most adorable fake laugh when everyone else around her laughs and she doesn't know why.
• When we eat meat for dinner, she likes to dip her meat in the juice that has come from it (like grilled pork chops). She always says, "I need more juice."
• Sometimes when I ask if she wants something, she'll say, "No, it's not my favorite."
• She randomly puckers her lips and talks in a slow, low voice. I always respond in the same voice, and she laughs.

• This girl LOVES butter--even more than I do, if it's possible. She always asks for more butter on things that have butter, and she often just licks it off of bread. She once scooped her fork in the butter dish as I brought it past her, getting a big glob of it and eating it on the spot. Then she asked for more. 
• In the car last week, she told Daniel to stop whistling. "I can whistle if I want," Daniel said. In response, Aubrey screamed at the top of her lungs. When Daniel said, "Please don't scream," she replied, "I can scream if I want." I think we're going to have our hands full with her. 
• She says, "Oh, sorry" like Pumbaa does in The Lion King. She also randomly says, "Wup ee attum, wup ee attum," ("Lemme at 'em,") which Timon says in The Lion King 2 (she's seen a few scenes from it on YouTube... it looks dumb).
• One time she said, "Have a good day, Mommy" as she left the house with Daniel. 
• She has a bad habit of saying, "Ow!" when she's frustrated, which often makes it seem like we're hurting her when we're not. Sometimes she also shouts, "Help!" We worry about her doing this in public and having someone call CPS on us. Oy. 
• When her nose is runny, she says, "I have snot."
• As a result of watching me, she loves making "lists." She just scribbles all over the notepad that I use for lists, but the mimicry is so cute.
• She loves making up crazy stories and telling them to us, usually at the dinner table. She gets so animated! Luckily, Grandma caught one such story on video. Unluckily, I can't download it. So here's a video of her singing a Primary song instead. 

• I don't know how, but she hates potatoes. In every form. We need to fix this.
• She likes to randomly whisper, "Quiet," and then shout, "Loud!"
• Although she's super sweet with Carter (and thank goodness for that), she has started to act out since he arrived. She throws tantrums and cries more easily, and she has started tearing apart her books and hitting/scratching/kicking us. We've had to take away all of her books except when we're reading them to her, and we can't get any more books from the library. It's really frustrating, but I'm just glad she doesn't take her anger out on Carter. 
• Before we took away her books, she would sit in her room reading them each morning, and when I came to get her I'd find several of them outside her door because she had shoved them under it.
• Daniel does a great elephant sound that Aubrey loves, and she always asks him, "Can you say the elephant word?"
• She says "mazagine" for "magazine."
• Much to our dismay, she can now open doors by herself. The first time she did it, she came out of her room and said, "One time I opened the door!" Our lives will never be the same again. *sigh*
• She always says, "Oh, he's so tiny!" about Carter and gives him hugs all the time. It's the absolute sweetest thing in the entire world.

• Sometimes, during the songs in Sacrament meeting, she'll shout, "I don't want this song!" Lovely.
• She gets very upset when she spills on herself or drops food off her fork or can't get food on her fork to begin with. She also gets upset if she grabs her drink when her hands are messy from eating. She'll cry and say, "Oh, my hands are greasy! I need a towel!"
• Sometimes she says, "I'm having a hard time." 
• When she gets in trouble for something she knew she shouldn't do, she covers her face with her hands. Lots of times she'll do it right after doing something bad, even before we say something to her.
• She loves pasta salad (just pasta with ranch dressing on it), but she calls it "salad pasta."
• When a song comes on that she loves, she'll drop whatever she's doing, shout "It's dancing time!" and run into her dancing spot in the kitchen.
• Instead of saying "yes" or "no," she responds to questions in complete sentences--"I am," "I do," etc.
• During the song, "I Just Can't Wait to Be King," she always shouts, "Ahhh!" at the part when Zazu falls down the waterfall in the movie. During the song "Nicest Kids in Town," she flings herself down on the ground at the part when one of the characters falls in the movie (and then she says, "She falls!"). During the reprise of "First Time in Forever," she always says, "Oh no, what's going to happen?" in the lead-up to Anna getting hurt in the movie. She has so many things she does for all of her songs, but these are some of the funniest/cutest.
• She LOVES being chased. It's her absolute favorite thing. Her most-said sentence is, "Will you chase me?"

"I'm with my mom."

• She likes having blankets/jackets laid over her chest, and when she asks for it she'll say, "I want it on my heart." 
• One time she came up to me and said, "I want to give baby brother a hug," and she bent over and hugged my stomach. I almost died. 
• She's starting to talk to us the way we talk to her. For example, one morning at breakfast she got down from her chair, turned to me, and said, "If you stay there, you can have one M" (referring to an M&M). Well okay then. 
• Whenever I say "shut up" (to Daniel) or "crap," she says, "Mommy doesn't say that." 
• When we're cooking, she'll come into the kitchen and say, "We need a couple of sugar." She also likes to grab random spices from the pantry, bring them over to where we're cooking or eating something, and "salt" things for us. Thankfully, she doesn't actually open any of them first.

• She loves looking at the pictures and videos on my phone, and when she wants to do that, she says, "I want to see pictures of you and Mommy and Aubrey." Sometimes she puts Daddy in there too. 
• At the end of Sacrament meeting one Sunday, we asked her to fold her arms for the prayer. She shouted out, "I don't have to!" I guess that's what we get for saying things like, "You don't have to, but we'd like you to..." 
• Speaking of praying, she will occasionally repeat the words of my or Daniel's prayer. One time she even said the dinner prayer herself. After Daniel said, "Let's say a prayer," she just started going. I believe she said, "Heavenly Father, we're thankful we can eat this meal together..." among other things. My little mimic. 
• Her favorite game involves putting all of her Little People (princesses, pirates, dwarves [she knows all seven of them by sight], fairies, etc.) in a circle and playing "Ring Around the Rosie" with them. It's a game she loves but refuses to play by herself. She also likes to ask for different shapes than just a simple circle--square, triangle, oval, rectangle, etc. My favorite (*sarcasm*) is when she asks for "a cake" shape. I have to explain that a cake can be many shapes; after much protesting, we always end up with a circle. 
• Another favorite game involves taking her smaller stuffed animals and shoving them through the door of her Little People castle.

• When she wants my phone, she'll demand it and then say, "I need to look for a recipe" when I tell her no. Yeah, nice try, kid. 
• Speaking of demanding things, she's in that stage where everything is "I need..." Our response is always, "How do you ask?" So sometimes she'll be screaming/crying about wanting something, and the second we say, "How do you ask?", she reverts to this affectedly sweet face and voice while saying, "Can I please have [object]?" It always makes me laugh. 
• We finally watched Beauty and the Beast all the way through, and now she randomly says, "He turned into a man! He's not a beast anymore!" 
• She likes to pretend my little mp3 player is a phone and call different family members. I love that she knows and remembers everyone.

• She often asks us to sing to her, and when she asks for a specific song, she'll say nearly all of the lyrics instead of just the title. For example, she often says, "Mommy sing head, shoulders, knees, and toes, eyes, ears, mouth, and nose?" Another personal favorite is, "Mommy sing driving, driving in my car, going down the far, down the street in my car?", in part because she has part of the words wrong. She also always says, "Mommy do ring a rosie, pocket full of posy, ashes, we all fall down?" 
• When she sings the alphabet, which she loves to do, she says, "W, X, now, and Z." Yet she recognizes the letter Y when she sees it. Funny girl. 
• When she's drawing or "writing," she says, "A, U, W, X, now, and Z! That spells [insert word here, usually 'Mommy' or 'Daddy']!" 
• She loves singing along to the songs from her singing Puppy.

• We have a playlist of songs she loves. It includes "Barbara Ann" by The Beach Boys, "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" by Joan Jett, "Are You Gonna Be My Girl?" by Jet, "Black Dog" by Led Zeppelin, "Somebody to Love" by Queen, "Banana Man" by Tally Hall, and "You Belong With Me" by Taylor Swift. She also really likes "Strange Magic" by Electric Light Orchestra. 
• I know that she's my daughter because of her love for butter. If you don't stop her, she'll grab butter with her fingers and eat it plain. 
• After I said something about when baby brother comes, she said, "When baby brother comes, I can pet him!" 
• She often says, "I'm with my mom" out of the blue. I find it so incredibly sweet. 
• She has a weird obsession with dressing and undressing herself. She often takes her clothes off (and sometimes her diaper--not okay) in the morning before I come in or when she plays in her room alone. Or, conversely, she'll add on extra layers. She also will take her shirt off of her shoulders, pull it down around her waist, and say, "I'm wearing it like a belt!"

• Her nursery leader is named Sister Robbins, and she will randomly say, "Sister Robbins loves you." She just talks about nursery a lot in general. I'm so glad she likes it. Heaven help us if Sister Robbins is ever released! 
• Despite always having her own water cup, she wants mine. It's somewhat new, and she loves it. She loves pushing the button to get the straw out. She loves using a straw in general. So if she ever sees me drinking from it, she insists on having it. And I let her, simply because I'm just glad she's getting something to drink. 
• When we FaceTime with Grandma and Grandpa, she always asks them to sing to her (a special song they call "The Aubrey Song") and make animal noises. Grandpa gets to be a cow, and Grandma does her best chicken and monkey. Aubrey just loves it. 
• She calls daffodils "daffodiddles." 
• I finally cut her bangs. They were so long that they kept getting in her eyes, so I went for it. They ended up shorter than I meant, but it could have been worse. 

Before:

After:

• If I'm lying on the couch and she wants me to play with her, she'll grab my hand, pull, and say, "I'll pick you up." 
• She often says, "I'm a little big kid." Cute. 
• She always runs away from me--when we go outside and it's time to get in the car, when I try to wipe her hands or face after eating, when I try to dry her hands after washing them, when I tell her it's time to get shoes on, when we're at the mall play space and she realizes the door to the place is wide open, when we go for walks in the neighborhood, when we're anywhere in public if she's not in her stroller (or if I've just gotten her out of it), etc. This is annoying in general, but it's particularly problematic for me in my pregnant state. I can't run after her; she is currently faster than me. And she has been known to run into the street/parking lot even though she will say herself, "A car could hit you. We'd be so sad." As a result, we bought her a frog backpack with a leash. The second I showed it to her, she LOVED it. She asks to put it on and plays with it like a regular stuffed animal. We call the leash his "tail," and she's perfectly happy with it. Judge me if you will.

Aubrey's Tiger Birthday Party!

We opted not to do a birthday party for Aubrey's first birthday, considering that she 1) wouldn't understand, 2) doesn't have any family in the area, and 3) didn't really have actual friends or play with other kids so much as near them.

But a year makes a big difference in a small person's life, so this year we invited a few friends for a tiger-themed birthday party. After all, Teetagee (Mr. T.) is Aubrey's favorite, and she's always loved tigers!

I had this whole vision of only black and orange foods, but Daniel insisted we have a little more variety than those parameters allowed. Psh, party pooper.

Still, I did manage to work in a number of orange and black foods--orange juice, chocolate milk (an Aubrey favorite), Cheetos, black and orange Sixlets (another Aubrey favorite), olives, orange bell pepper slices, mini carrots, cheddar slices (again, an Aubrey fave), and blue corn tortilla chips (not quite black, but close enough).

Another view of the spread:

I also did a Pinterest thing! And I didn't even mess it up. Granted, it was really easy, but still. I present tiger-face clementines:

And last but not least, we made a tiger pizza. I had grand plans to cut the pepperoni pieces to make a better nose and a much better mouth. I also wanted to incorporate olives for the eyes, etc. But when everyone started arriving and the pizza hadn't even gotten into the oven yet, I had to simplify. So this is what we had.

Yeah, it's a little sad. But whenever Aubrey sees the picture of it on my phone (she loves going through my photo gallery), she says, "It's a tiger!" So I guess that's what really matters, right? Right.

Unfortunately, I was so busy doing food, eating food, and trying to get Aubrey to eat food, that I didn't get many photos of the eating and mingling portion of the party. Like, I got one. And only one of Aubrey's friends is in it. And he's blurry.

After food, we played Pin the Tail on the Tiger--as much as you can do any organized thing with a bunch of toddlers. Daniel Photoshopped an awesome poster (which unfortunately had printing problems just above her head) for the event. 

And again, I didn't get photos of all the cute kids putting their tails on. I was too busy handing out said tails and trying to keep some sense of order. But the finished product is fun. 

After the game, we did cake. I had this whole vision of a tiger-striped cake, but the orange batter was not at all orange, and the stripes just ended up as blobs. Oh well; it's cake.

Singing "Happy Birthday" to Aubrey proved to be the most amusing part of the day. She ducked her head down and got very serious, almost like she was embarrassed. Luckily, we got video.

(Incidentally, she has since become obsessed with watching this video. She claps at the end. It's adorable.)

However, after all of that, I don't know if she even ate any cake. Maybe a little...

My biggest regrets were that I didn't get a proper photo of Aubrey in her tiger outfit (The hood has tiger ears!) and that I didn't do something cute with her hair (I just ran out of time for that one). But those are minor things. Aubrey had a lot of fun, and that's what matters!

Aubrey Turns Two!

Though she has been acting like a bona fide two-year-old for awhile now, Aubrey only officially turned two last week.

*Insert all of the she's-growing-up-too-fast cliches here.*

On her actual birthday, we had a mommy/daughter date at the local zoo. Unfortunately, it had snowed the day before, so it was a little chilly. I tried to dress her in some warm pants and a sweater, but she pointed at her closet and said, "Minnie Mouse dress!" And who was I to argue on her birthday?

When we got to the zoo, we bundled the birthday girl up with a blanket and set off. On the plus side, the lackluster weather meant that there were absolutely no crowds. It was me, Aubrey, and one other mommy/daughter duo that day. It was nice to have the place to ourselves! But the poor girl kept asking me for a picnic, which I had to deny her due to all of the benches being covered in snow. *Sigh*

Anyway, we started off the day with goats, and Aubrey was unimpressed.

The lions compelled her to get out of the stroller, however. And man, they were ready for their closeup! But Aubrey wasn't; she freaked out when I tried to take her picture with them...

... and when I tried to take her picture with me.

I did finally get one okay shot, but that was all she'd give me.

Her favorite animals were the lions, the sloth bear, the meerkats, and--of all things--the water monitor (basically a huge, creepy lizard). She kept telling the lazy guy, "Swim, froggy!" He ignored her.

But mostly, Aubrey was content to carry around a stick and glance at animals on her way past.

After we'd seen all of the animals--some more than once--we headed to a local ice cream place, where we split a chocolate shake (and I ate a whole huge plate of nachos by myself... but that's not really the point).

Aubrey was thrilled that I let her sit in the booth like a big girl. She hates those highchairs! It was a chore keeping her in the bench, but hey, birthday. See how happy she was?

Thankfully, all the people in the adjoining booths were very friendly and didn't get annoyed when Aubrey popped her head over the top of the booth and said things like, "They're all done!" and "He's eating rice!" She was feeling particularly friendly that day.

When we arrived home, Aubrey was ecstatic to have mail and insisted on opening everything right away.

She loved her school bus card from Nana and Papa, which inspired her to sing a familiar song. So glad I had my camera ready!

There was also a package from Aunt Karen and cousin Emma. In it were all of Aubrey's favorite things!

She immediately put on the stickers...

... and tried to blow up the balloons...

... and asked for M&Ms.

Amazingly, considering all of the inducements to stay awake, Aubrey took a decent nap and allowed me to get her presents wrapped and ready for when Daddy got home. And as soon as he did, she came down and dug in.

Well, kind of... it turns out she is a very slow unwrapper.

We got her sidewalk chalk and her own little rocking chair.

Nana and Papa got her a cute little table with a chair and stool, which she loves to use with her toy kitchen.

Grandma and Grandpa got her a bike that triples as an indoor rocker, outdoor push toy, and tricycle. She's only used it indoors as a rocker, but she thinks she's riding a bike and loves it!

In short, she was in present heaven and has been enjoying everything so much.

After opening the presents, we forced her to take a break to eat dinner (which led to tears... oh well). Cake was saved for her birthday party, which I shall write about in my next post. But hey, she had ice cream and M&Ms, right?

So all in all, it was a good day. Hooray for Aubrey, my favorite little person in the whole world!

The Big-Girl Bed

Well, we decided to go for it. With Jiblet due in June, we needed Aubrey out of the crib. And, of course, we wanted to make the transition well before baby boy arrives. After all, we didn't want Aubrey resenting her little brother for stealing her crib, and we had no idea how long it would take to fully transition her. So crazy as it may be, we put our not-yet-two-year-old in a twin-size bed.

Thankfully, she is a fan of all things "big girl" related, so she was very excited about the whole thing before it happened. When her mattress arrived, she jumped and played on it while saying, "My big-girl bed!" (Of course in the video I got, she's eating crackers and refuses to say anything, but hey...)

After all of the separate pieces arrived, we let Aubrey watch the process of putting the bed together. She was very excited. And when I unveiled her sheets and bedspread, she gasped and said, "Hearts! Hearts hearts hearts!" Total win.

There she was, all ready to go. We were hopeful but not delusional; we knew it would be a process. So when she came out of her room less than five minutes later (the stupid door handle was broken, so no problems there), we weren't surprised. Daniel threatened to put her back in the crib (which we left in the room as a safety net), and she said, "Yeah, crib!" This did surprise us, but we decided to acquiesce. 

I don't remember exactly what happened the second night. I think it was something fairly similar. Only we cheated and transferred her from the crib to the bed around 10:30. So then, when she woke up in the big-girl bed the next morning, I praised her for doing such a good job and sleeping in it! She totally bought it, and I think it helped her get over any fears... 'cause she'd already slept in it and been fine, right? See, lying to your kids is totally a good idea. ;)

On the third night, it finally stuck! She cried for us twice, and Daniel had to put her back in bed. But after he put her back the second time, she stayed and fell asleep. Woo!

To aid the whole process (and because our sound-only monitor started crapping out), we bought a cheap video monitor and installed it a few days in. This allowed us to determine some bedtime patterns (and make sure Aubrey wasn't using her new-found freedom to destroy things). 

We discovered that she would pretty much immediately get out of the bed after we left. Case in point:

She mostly spent her time "reading," but there was definitely some toy dumping and wandering around as well. Eventually, she'd climb on the bed--when she was good and ready--like so:

(Creepy that she's totally looking right at the camera, huh? She thinks it's a lamp. Heh.)

Anyway, then she'd lie down on top of the covers and wait to fall asleep. See her open, glowing eyes?

Finally, she'd fall asleep. Isn't she cute? D'awww.

Success! Sure, she played around for awhile instead of sleeping, but she never stayed up too long. And best of all, she slept until 7:00 or so and then played happily in her room until after 8:00. Mommy loves sleeping in. :)

BUT (there's always a "but" with these things), nap time was simply not happening. Which, for Mommy, was simply not okay. I'd try putting her down in the big-girl bed, but she'd be out of it before I even left the room. Attempts to put her back in the bed led to painful (for me) wrestling matches. Lying down with her in the hopes of inspiring her to sleep led to giggles and pacifiers shoved in my face. Leaving her alone to "figure it out" led to, well, this:

So in the end, she kept ending up in her crib for nap time. And one of those times, she was so upset about it that she ended up just crying off and on for an hour anyway--and not napping.

So when we disassembled the crib in a no-turning-back kind of move, nap time got shot to... yeah. It seemed that my only options were to stick Aubrey back in bed every time she got out--which, again, was a wrestling match too intense for this pathetic pregnant chick--or accept that the best I was going to get was quiet time with books in her room. No more nap.

But then, in a last-ditch effort to hold on to nap time, I decided to put Aubrey in bed with some books. "You can read your books," I told her, "but you have to stay in bed." And amazingly, she did. And better yet, she fell asleep in the process! Reading in bed--it makes everyone fall asleep, right? 

So although it's only been two days of successful bed napping, I'm hopeful about the whole thing. She's staying in bed at night (and playing around less and less). She's napping in the afternoon. And in the morning, if she wakes up too early, she can always fall asleep in her chair!

Man, we have the greatest kid. 

...if you want

Favorite Aubreyisms:

• "You okay?" or "You hurt?" or, better yet, "You need a (big) hug?" when I wince or say "ouch"
• "You want French toast?" when I get upset
• "I have heartburn." (obviously just saying something she's heard Mommy say a lot)
• "How about..."
• "You go too, Mommy?" when she wants me to play in her tent with her
• "Need help?" when it's clear I'm struggling with something
• "Robot" for "robe"
• "I sorry, [name of stuffed animal]" if they fall down or if she has decided that they are sad for some reason
• "No, I'm fine" when we ask if she needs help with something
• "W, X, W, X!" when she gets mad (she might think that's what I'm saying when I say, "What the heck?")
• "I need to work" as she grabs the laptop
• "Hold you on the ground" when she wants me to sit on the floor and hold her on my lap (usually when she's upset)
• "Here's [object]... if you want."

• She likes to climb into our laundry basket and say, "Beep beep! I driving a car!"
• One of our current library books is The Bear Feels Sick, which often repeats the phrase, "and the bear feels sick." Every time we read that line from the book, she says, "Awww."
• When she's eating something, she always offers some to us. She'll say, "Do you want some [food], Mommy?" She's a great sharer.
• She often knocks on a door or wall and says, "Is someone in there?" 
• Sometimes, out of nowhere, she'll say in a pathetic voice, "I'm sick." She gets a very sad look on her face, but it's clear that it's all an affectation. 
• She kisses her own owwies.
•  She still loves the library and is obsessed with a book called Ping Pong Pig. She often just mentions him or says something about the book being back at the library. 
• She loves watching song clips from movies. Her favorites right now are from the movies Frozen, Beauty and the Beast, Lion King, The Little Mermaid, Hairspray, Aladdin, Mulan, Mary Poppins, and Tangled. She can actually grab a phone or iPad, open the YouTube app, and select videos all on her own. It's kind of scary. When asking for the song "First Time in Forever," she says, "First Time Morever."
• On a related note, she randomly sings out "in summer!" from Frozen and says, "Please don't shut me out," which is from another song. She also randomly says the phrases, "diamond in rough" and "magic carpet" from Aladdin.
• Her current favorite song is "Barbara Ann" by the Beach Boys. She calls it "Bob Bob Bob Bob" and asks for it all the time. She's a fan of their music in general, actually, and calls it "dance music."
• She likes to "hide" by bending over and putting her head on the ground. She also likes hiding in the pantry.

• She's very interested in anything related to being a "big girl." She recently started eating a lot better simply because we took away the tray for her high chair and slid the chair up so she could eat at the table with us "like a big girl."
• She's excited about being a big sister (though she doesn't really understand that concept obviously), and she likes to gently stroke my stomach to say hi to baby brother. When I say we're going to Mommy's doctor, she says, "Hear the heartbeat!"
• One of her favorite books to "read" is a cupcake decorating book I keep with our cookbooks. She loves the pictures.
• She likes to play a game in which she says, "I need to go bye-bye" and then says, "I need a kiss" before saying goodbye and leaving the room.
• When we read to her (or when she's looking at books herself), she'll often "hug" the characters in the book by turning her head to the side and putting her cheek against them. She also does this with people on video chat.
• She insists on brushing her teeth when I brush mine, and she always says, "I need more water" and holds her toothbrush under the faucet for awhile.
• I say things like "nappy nap" and "snacky snack," and Aubrey has picked up on that construction and uses it freely. She has recently said things like "stucky stuck" and "dancey dance."
• She has started to say, "I can't get the [insert object she sees in a book]" as she tries to grab whatever it is. Her new thing is trying to pick up the rocks that are part of the asphalt sidewalk and saying, "I can't get those rocks."
• Sometimes she'll stick her lips out into a pout and talk in a really low voice to be silly.
• She has started singing along to songs she knows, and it's the cutest thing ever. She will also sing songs by herself, seemingly out of the blue. I particularly love when she sings the alphabet song, which is often. (Note: This video is not very good. I was trying to be sneaky, but she saw me. And she's not into performing for the camera, so this is the only video I've got of this for now.)

• She calls her stuffed animals "friends" and insists on taking them downstairs with her every morning. She designates to me which ones I should take and which ones she'll be taking. ("You take Teetagee and Pookie; I'll take Olaf.")
• Much to our delight, she has started saying "please" when she asks for things. She never says it when asking for food (instead it's always "I need..."), but she'll say it when asking for help or favors or whatever.
• She likes to pretend to make food for us. She'll ask if we want something (usually French toast), and then she'll disappear into the kitchen for a second before coming back with her hands cupped in front of her. She then hands us the "food" and offers us more once we've "eaten" it.
• We often say, "Do you want [something] or not?", to which she often replies, "Or not."
• She randomly says, "We don't say shut up." This is because she has heard Mommy say it to Daddy every time he makes fun of her (which is often), and now we've had to tell her it's not something we should say. 
• When we were in Colorado visiting the Jibsons, Daniel's sister gave her string cheese. She responded, "I need cheddar." That's my girl!
• When she got super sick in February and coughed so much that she couldn't sleep, there was one night she woke up at 3:30 and just never went back to sleep. The following day, she fell asleep while eating breakfast. 

Note that she actually had food in her mouth at the time!

Remember? Wipes. Crying. Tear.

Oh, Aubrey. Once again, the adorable things she says are never-ending. Here are a few favorites:

• "Snows" for "snow"
• "Soozic" for "music"
• "Looka you!" for "Look at you!" (which she says when she wants us to look at her)
• "Play hue" for "play with you" (it's impossible to say no)
• "No, don't want it!"
• "Thank you much!"
• "Great job!" when we do something she likes
• "I'm not scary" (instead of "scared")
• "Tear" after she has cried (this breaks my heart)
• "I make it the food" when she's playing with her toy kitchen
• "Backards" for "backwards" (when she walks backward, which she likes to do)
• "Hepper" for "helper" 
• "Ride shoulders" when she pretends one toy is riding another toy's shoulders
• "Magic carpet!", which she will say completely out of the blue (she likes Aladdin)
• "Change uh jum" for "change your bum" (spoken really quickly, hence "jum")
• "Spirsty" for "thirsty"
• "Eat time!" when it's time to eat
• "Pettermoni" for "pepperoni" (my personal favorite Aubreyism)
• "Wybaway" for "library"
• "It smell so good!" 
• "By you!" when I sit next to her (love it)
• "Sneaky!" when she find a pacifier and pops it in her mouth
• "Papiga away" for "pacifiers away" when she gets out of her crib in the morning (I love that she's learned this concept)
• "Oh, strong girl!" when she picks up something heavy
• "Shucks" (always accompanied by laughter)

Also:

• She has started grabbing me or Daniel by the hands and pulling us into the living room to play with her. She also says, "ground" when she wants you to play on the floor with her. Who could resist?
• She likes to pack her baby doll's diaper bag, put it over her arm, and say, "Go bye bye!" She also will say things like, "Be right back, okay?" and then leave the room we're in, shutting the door behind her (if there is one).
• She loves M&Ms and calls them "M's."
• She loves the song/music video by Tally Hall called "Banana Man." She sometimes gets confused though and calls it "Spiderman." Another favorite song of the now is "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" by Jet. She heard it on the radio and became obsessed. Now it's playing in our house on repeat pretty much all the time. Fun.
• She likes to stick her hand (or a toy) down her pants and say, "Pocket!" Not quite, sweetie.
• She loves "Ring Around the Rosy," which she likes to do only at home by herself and not at the library with other kids when we go to Story Time. Weirdo.

• She's very particular about which parent can do something for her, and there's no rhyme or reason to it. At dinnertime especially, she'll ask for a paper towel or want someone to take her plate/fork away, and if the wrong parent does it, she'll say, "No! Daddy do it!" or "No, Mommy take it!" In general, if she wants me to do something (like go get a toy she left upstairs), she'll say, "Mommy do it." We're working on "please." :)
• She loves Desitin (which she used to call "tin") and asks for it every diaper change. She also asks for powder.
• She is in the bad habit of taking her pajamas off (It was so nice when she couldn't work zippers!) and saying, "Shower!" 
• She loves the Primary song "Follow the Prophet" and will randomly start singing it over and over again. She won't sing on command though, so I had to sneaky film her while driving. (And yes, she says, "Don't go astrayps" rather than "astray.")

• She's obsessed with splashes and splashing. She always asks to "splash" any of her leftover food in the sink, which really just means throwing it into some amount of water.
• When Daniel or I do something for her, she often says, "Good hepper!" It's nice to be appreciated! Haha.
• Whenever we go to my OB appointments, she gets very protective of me. She cries when they weigh me and insists on sitting on my lap if anyone is touching me at all. Then, when the nurse or doctor leaves the room, she's fine again.
• Daniel thought it would be funny to put a plastic toy hot dog down Aubrey's pajamas one time, and now she's really into putting things in her pajamas. She thinks it's funny (and it is). I found two pacifiers--one in each footie--in her pajamas two mornings ago. 
• She has decided she loves necklaces. She kept asking to wear mine, so we bought her two of her own. She loves them!

• She loves Ariel and The Little Mermaid, and she'll randomly sing, "Walk, run, [mumbling] the sun" from "Part of Your World."
• She likes to have her dolls hold hands and say, "Hold your hand!" It's adorable.
• When we ask her to say hi to someone new, she just says, "No" with a lot of attitude. Heaven help us.
• She has a routine at nursery. As soon as we say we're leaving, she starts freaking out, crying, and screaming, "Hold you!" Then, when we actually get out the door (which is sometimes difficult, seeing as how she chases us and tries to get through the door too), she cries in front of the door for a minute. Then she turns her back to the door and slides down it so that her back is against the door and her feet are sticking out in front of her. She sits like that for a few minutes and then decides the toys do look fun, and then she begins playing and is totally fine. Every time.
• She and Daniel play a really cute game called Rocket Baby. She boots up the rocket by pushing Daniel's nose, and then she counts to three. Daniel then flies her up in the air and eventually makes her crash.

And, finally, some super cute stories I want to remember:

• One evening, Aubrey was having a really hard time. She was tired or something, and she freaked out when I wouldn't let her watch videos on my phone. After 15 minutes or so of crying, I finally got her to stop by playing with her. I even had her laughing! But then she jumped on my pregnant stomach, and I cried out, "Ouch, Aubrey!" She immediately started crying even harder than before. Daniel asked what had happened, and I said she really hurt my stomach. I lay on the couch for awhile, and Aubrey was a nightmare for the next who-knows-how-long. It was then dinnertime, so we put her in her highchair (still crying). She finally calmed down and started to eat pasta that Daniel had given her. It was then that she turned to me--her eyes super red and puffy--and said something along these lines: "Sad. Crying. Hurt Mommy tummy. Sorry Mommy." My heart absolutely broke. It was the sweetest thing she has ever said, and the thought that she was so upset because she had hurt me still kills me when I think about it. I made sure to tell her I knew it was an accident and that I wasn't hurt or mad and that she was the sweetest and I love her, etc. And she said, "Love you, Mommy." I. DIE.
• When it snowed for the first time several weeks ago, she was so in awe of it. She got to see it falling from the night sky in big, beautiful flakes. She touched it and asked for more. But then, when we went out the next day, she slipped on some ice in the driveway. I had warned her to stay put and wait for me to unlock the car, but she's a toddler... so she moved. And even though I don't think she got hurt really, she was freaked out. For days she would randomly say, "fall ice" and then something like, "sad" or "crying." I think this made her afraid of the snow, too, because when we went to build a snowman a week or so later, she refused to walk in the snow. I put her down, and she whined. And then she didn't move an inch the whole time. Finally, she started crying and asking to get back in the car. So we got back in, and she was much happier. Weeks later, she still refuses to walk in the snow. She says, "Mommy, carry you?" and "Don't fall, Mommy" whenever we have to go out of the house or get out of the car in the driveway. It's cute but sad.

• In addition to being scared by the ice and snow, she also got really scared by the smoke alarm a few weeks ago. We had some people stay at our house during Christmas (long story), and they apparently overflowed something in the oven. So when we roasted some butternut squash at a high temperature, it smoked up the house and set off the alarm. Aubrey got super scared and ran to be picked up. She buried her face in my shoulder and held me tighter than she ever has before. I loved it, truth be told. But it went on for quite awhile, so when it was finally done, she kept saying "scary" and "loud" and "it's okay" for hours after. Then, for a few days after, she would look at the alarm on the ceiling and say, "I'm not scary." Love.
• She loves to watch trucks on the freeway, and one time she screamed and cried, "Orange truck!" for ten minutes because she wanted to see an orange truck. I explained I couldn't just make one appear, but that wasn't good enough, apparently!
• One time, right after a particularly traumatic diaper change (she's really not a fan of the cold wipes), she said, "Remember? Wipes. Crying. Tear." I almost died!
• There's an older single woman whom we've been giving a ride to church for the past several months, and she just gave a talk in Sacrament Meeting. After she got up and announced her topic--following the prophet--Aubrey said, "Follow the prophet!" She had been watching the woman, and I guess she was listening, too! Daniel and I were impressed.
• In San Diego, after not getting a nap because of the timing of church, she fell asleep during the 10-minute drive home. But first, she pulled every disinfectant hand wipe out of the container in the diaper bag.

• One time I had to buy an avocado at the grocery store because Aubrey had quickly grabbed it and bit into it like an apple before I could stop her! 
• She put my shoes on one morning, and the following conversation ensued: 
Aubrey: Going!

Me: Where are you going?

Aubrey: The airport!

Me: Oh, who are you going to pick up at the airport?

Aubrey: Jesus!

• She has also mistook a number of people for Jesus, including Harrison Ford (in a photo from the early Star Wars films) and a statue of a Texas Ranger in the Dallas airport.

And now, just because I want to, I present Aubrey, the musician: