She's very interested in what letter different words start with. But instead of saying, "What letter does 'red' start with," for example, she'll say, "What starts with red?" It's pretty cute. She always knows the answer; she's getting very good with her letters and phonemes. And she has the spelling of her own name memorized!
She loves eating bleu cheese. By itself. Won't eat potatoes or chicken or anything basically but sloves bleu cheese... Weirdo.
One of her favorite things to do is reenact the opening scene from Frozen (not the part in which they break all the ice, but the part in which Anna wakes up Elsa and they play). She has the whole thing memorized, and she gets really into the acting.
Speaking of reenactments from that movie, she also likes to perform all of "Let It Go." She dresses in her Elsa costume and has me braid her hair over one shoulder and put the song on. Then she walks around the living room/kitchen doing all the same movements Elsa does and singing along to the song.
With her, everything is a race. She always says, "I won!" when no one even had an idea there was a race. Who finishes their food first? It's a race. Who closed their car door first? It's a race. I've told her over and over that not everything is a race, but she firmly disagrees--unless she's losing. If we want her to eat dinner better and we say, "Aubrey, Carter's winning!", she always says matter-of-factly, "It's not a race." Punk.
One time, less than five minutes after Daniel put Aubrey to bed, I heard the knob on her door turn once. And then again. And then again. Finally, I heard the door open all the way. I said, "Aubrey, what are you doing?" She replied, "Sleeping." Hmm, nice try, kid.
Ever since visiting her cousin Emma and hearing her talk about dance class, she likes to pretend she's doing ballet. She stands with one leg stretched out behind her and also tries to do pirouettes. She didn't actually know what a pirouette was at first, so I showed her a video. Then she tried to copy it.
She started asking us who the fourth chair at our kitchen table is for. When we said Carter would sit there when he got older, she said something like, "Then we'll have a new baby to sit in Carter's chair" (referring to his high chair). She hasn't let go of the idea and is now convinced she'll have a baby sister named Raspberry.
I'm trying not to be worried that she sometimes kills off her dolls when she plays. Sometimes she says, "Nora died." And recently, Nana said she had Cinderella kill Belle because she was going to marry Jaxon (our only boy Barbie-type doll). Ummm... what?! We had a conversation about that one...
She really likes the song "Phantom of the Opera." She told me once that Christine is her favorite character in the musical because she has the same name as her and Grandma. Awww! She also does a great impression of her... haha.
She has started to go into her room and play by herself, usually after meals. It's really nice, haha.
She often calls things "lovely," which is adorable. She sets up pretend picnics and says, "I made a lovely picnic for you!"
Awesome Aubrey quotes:
"Do you know what 'cabiffable' means? It means you're drinking scissors!"
Shouted as she bid goodbye to someone who had just given her candy on Halloween: "Bye! See you next time!"
After barfing in the car on a road trip: "I'm never going to eat M&Ms ever again. I'm only going to have lollipops and chocolate chips!"
Spoken after climbing in bed with me one morning: "Mommy, I can smell your voice."
"When people get mad, they freak out and have a tantrum. But when people get happy, they just eat!"
Man, this girl has too much personality to fit into such a small package. It's not possible to write down all the things that make this stubborn, crazy girl so wonderful. I feel like I could write twice as much as I have, but that would be ridiculous. So here's what you get.
Live and Learn
Since we moved to Colorado, we've started hiking a lot. Aubrey's such a trooper! She sometimes gets tired and asks us to carry her, but when we tell her no she pushes on. She's done some pretty difficult hikes for such a young kid, and she's rocked them! We hiked to Castle Rock, which was a very uphill hike, and she did it all herself! She's done several 2-mile hikes already. And she loves it.
Our new neighborhood has a pool for residents only. We got Aubrey a set of water wings, and she's gotten very confident! She is working on blowing bubbles in the water and can swim well with the wings on. She asks to go swimming pretty much every day.
With Aubrey starting preschool, we had to finally bite the bullet and for-real potty train her. We had tried a few times before--using charts, bribes, etc.--but she decided she didn't want to do it. She was completely capable but completely unwilling. So we told her she had to be potty trained to go to preschool, and then we talked up preschool in a major way. And it worked! We had very few accidents (and just in the first couple of days), and she proved she was able to hold it for long periods of time. We had trouble with pooping (she held it in for a couple days, refusing to try, and got really bad stomachaches) and with using public toilets, but it worked itself out within a couple of weeks. Yay!
And now she's in preschool! And it's been great. She was apprehensive about me leaving the first few times, but she's gotten over it. But she does always say, "Kiss and a hug!" before I leave. And then she asks to give Carter a kiss and a hug. It's pretty dang cute. We did have a bit of a problem with preschool at first in that Aubrey refused to say "May I please be excused?" after snack time. She apparently said to the teacher, "I don't say that at home." But not for lack of trying on our part! Punk. Anyway, we've worked on it. And on the second day of school, the teacher said to me, "She was less stubborn today!" So yeah.
Sour...
When she's mad, she threatens to throw things in the trash or just generally throw things. One time she threatened to take Carter away from me.
When she gets mad at me, she sometimes calls me "a bad mommy." It feels great.
She often knocks Carter down when he's walking. She just walks by and hip checks him. It drives me crazy.
When she wants something she hasn't gotten, she says, "I told you [insert demand here]." (Example: "I told you to get me chocolate milk!") And it's never something she's actually told me she wanted. Oof.
... and Sweet
When I put Carter down for a nap (or down for bedtime when Daniel isn't home), she always asks if she can read him books and sing to him. It's pretty dang cute when she does it.
She loves texting Daniel emoji messages during the day. She gets really excited when he responds back. She also does the speech-to-text thing sometimes. Once she sent him the following: "Dr do to Deedee which prime up the times for fines. Prime mind when mine run crying and dozers of four, three, two, one goes away. Come away when you apologize." It totally sounds like an angsty poem!
When Carter gets hurt (not by her, haha), she says, "Oh, I'll go get him a toy to make him feel better!" And she does. And it's super cute.
At school, when they were making one of their craft things, she said to the teacher, "I need to make a second one." When the teacher asked why, she said she wanted to make one for Daddy "because he does so much." Heart melted.
Fun and Games
She likes to make up silly words to songs she likes. She also LOVES dancing. I wonder if musical theater is in her future... haha.
She likes to super dramatically pretend she's falling down stairs. When she gets to the bottom, she lets out a dramatic "Oh!" and then lies there motionless for awhile.
One of her favorite games involves bringing me fake food and describing what's in it and giving it a funny name. She often includes the made-up word "durlik" in her food names.
Funny Girl
In sacrament meeting back in Massachusetts, someone said from the pulpit, "I struggle; we all struggle." Aubrey was apparently listening and responded very matter-of-factly and kind of loudly, "I don't struggle."
From Daniel's Facebook post: "I explained the concept of liberty to Aubrey today by telling her that it means that we could live the way we wanted as long as we didn't hurt other people and that it is important to fight for our freedom. She replied by saying, "Ok, if I ever see a bad policeman, I will fight him."
One night she said, "Mommy, can you sing "sha la la la"? I sang, "Sha la la la la la don't be scared, you've got the mood prepared. Go on and kiss the girl," and she responded, "Mom, it's dinner time; it's not time to sing." Well then.
She really likes the movie Enchanted and is getting into Wicked songs, but she can't get the characters' names right. "Giselle" is "Gazelle," and "Elphaba" is "Elphabet."
She still hasn't mastered asking politely for things she wants. One day she demanded I turn on High School Musical songs. When I said, "You need to ask nicely," she yelled, "Ask yourself!"
When we try to hold her hand to cross the street, she says, "No, I'll hold my own hand." And she actually does.
When we met with the lawyer to close on our house, the lawyer mentioned something about our bank. Aubrey was apparently listening and said excitedly, "I have one of those! It's a piggy bank!" AH. DOOR. AH. BULL.
The other day I went into my room to have a solitary break, and Aubrey followed me. She informed me, "If you want to be alone, you need a friend!" Of course.
When we're out doing errands or hiking or whatever, she almost always says, "You know, it's pretty hot today. Maybe we should go get some ice cream!"
She changes her outfit at least once a day. She'll go into her room wearing one thing and come out wearing something else. And she's very concerned about matching. Of course, her idea of matching and my idea are somewhat different... haha.
Oh man. We already have a threenager on our hands, guys. This girl is SAS-SY. She knows what she wants and usually how to get it.
Live and Learn
She got a Lego Duplo set for Christmas, and it comes with a little boy and a little girl. I recently discovered that she named the girl Mercutio. Thanks to the Baby Lit version of Romeo and Juliet for the inspiration!
She's learning the stories and characters from the Book of Mormon. We have a kid-friendly version, and it's really been good for her. It's fun to see how much she learns, even when it seems like she's not listening. She's really into the Tree of Life story right now, which she can tell to us now.
She's very interested in how things work. A few nights ago she asked me, "Mommy, where does my food go?" So we talked about digestion. Her mispronunciation of "intestines" was downright adorable. She also has learned from Daddy about how trees provide oxygen. (I discovered this when she said in the car one day, "Mommy, the trees help me breathe.")
She loves doing puzzles. And she's pretty good! She does iPad puzzles as well as actual physical jigsaw puzzles.
She's also finally learning how to ride her little kiddie bike. She has trouble peddling and turning at the same time...
Fun and Games
She LOVES High School Musical (and both of its sequels). Those are the songs she wants to hear every day in the car and at bedtime. She particularly likes "Get'cha Head in the Game," "Stick to the Status Quo," "All For One," "We're All in This Together" (she loves it when the say, "Wildcats"), "Now or Never," and "The Boys Are Back." She has seen all three movies more than once. When we listen to the songs, she talks about what is happening during different parts. She used to ask who is singing (or playing, when referring to the background music), but now she pretty much knows all the answers. She refers to the characters by name and has actually pretended to be playing with Gabriella. And, my personal favorite, she tries to copy the dance moves. She especially likes Troy and Chad's moves in "The Boys are Back." Guys, this is seriously a dream-come-true for me. I have a kid to share HSM with! Okay, done geeking out. Moving on.
She has also gotten into the movie Moana and the show PJ Masks.
She likes to play the game SpotIt! She actually does pretty well. There are even some times she legitimately finds a match before I do.
She's gotten really into taking pictures on my phone and my camera. They're so artistic! Haha.
Like many kids her age, she loves playing pretend. And, I think like many kids her age, her pretend play is often influenced by the shows, books, and movies she likes. But in a uniquely Aubrey way (at least I think it's unique), she starts talking so fast and getting so excited that her brain can't keep up with her mouth. This is the point at which she descends into total gibberish. Here she is calling the Paw Patrol to help her fight some evil woman from Elena of Avalor.
Funny Girl
As previously mentioned, she loves High School Musical. One of the songs is called "You are the Music in Me." I overheard her one day saying/singing to Carter, "You are the music in... yourself!" I laughed, and now it's a thing she says to be silly and funny.
Similarly, she says, "I just want to be with Troy!" instead of "I just want to be with you." Again, she said it once and realized it was funny when I laughed. Now she always says it.
She often says, "I'm starving for [insert food, such as cake]!"
She also says, "Oh, all this [insert activity, such as playing a game] is making me tired!"
When Daniel puts her to bed, she always makes him sing the Sofia the First theme song, interchanging the same Sofia with every member of the family. It then becomes "Daddy the first" and "Carter the first" and sometimes "everybody the first." Tonight she actually had him sing "no one the first."
She's begun speaking in complete gibberish to be silly.
I often call Carter "Carter Barter," and she has misheard it to be "Carter Barber," so she calls him that now.
Out of nowhere, she became terrified of bugs. She freaks out any time she sees one, running away and asking me to "shoo" it. When we had a picnic recently, she said, "Mommy, keep your feet closed so the bugs don't get in here!" So I took a picture.
The other day, when we told her she had to come to the table and eat dinner, she talked some gibberish about not doing that and then said, "I'm not a little girl anymore." Well, that's good to know.
When she coughs or sneezes, I always tell her to cover her mouth. She often ignores me until she's done, and then she covers her mouth and does a fake, super-exaggerated cough/sneeze. Then she often makes weird gagging noises.
She got very into The Very Hungry Caterpillar a bit ago, and then she started being obsessed with stomachaches. She would say she had one or her baby doll had one or that she didn't want to eat too much of something and get a stomachache.
She once turned to me at dinner and said, "Mommy, did you ever kill anyone?" She was quoting Lilo & Stitch, which she had just watched a couple of times that week, but it was still so random.
She LOVES eating "cheese balls," which is just grated parmesan cheese I've squished together into a little ball. She could eat them all day.
Everything happened "last night." No matter how long ago something happened--and no matter if it ever even happened at all--she says it happened "last night."
She loves the story I told about how my dad threw me in the pool with my clothes on one year during my birthday party. She always asks me to tell her the story, and then she tells me the same story but says that Grandpa through her in the pool at her birthday party.
After a failed nap time/quiet playtime for the kids, I said, "Mommy needs some alone time. I want to be by myself. Alone. Just me." Aubrey, with sweet sincerity and apparent confusion said, "But you can't."
Sour...
She takes toys away from other kids and waits to see their reaction. She's hoping they'll chase her, because she loves to be chased. Ah, my little manipulator.
She actually got kicked out of nursery a few weeks ago for kicking another kid. She full-on wrestles Carter, which he doesn't like, and does other very not-so-gentle things to him.
I actually had to tell her, "Don't break off the blinds and put them in the heating vent." Because she did. She's pretty destructive, regrettably. She likes to pull things apart. She also likes digging holes in her wall. When Daniel asked her about it, she said, "Oh, yeah! See, when I do this," referring to digging a toy into the wall--"it turns white!" Oy.
We tried potty training for real. It didn't work. She's capable of doing it (she can even realize on her own that she needs to go and make it to the bathroom in time), but she's unwilling. After a successful first day, she started refusing to use the bathroom and then freaked out if she peed her pants and I tried to change her clothes. So we gave up for now. When she wants to do it, she will.
She never wants to do something that wasn't her idea. Even when you give her a good reason for her to do something, she'll contradict you just to be, well, contradictory. Example: I tell her to put on her coat. She refuses. I tell her, "But it's cold outside!" She responds, "I like it cold." So she goes out without a coat, and no matter what--even if she's shivering--she doesn't say anything. I've even offered the coat at this point, and she's still refused.
... and Sweet
She has become much more affectionate. She will randomly say so sweetly, "Mommy, I love you." She also says "I love you too" now when I say it first. Heart melted.
She has epic tantrums, of course, but she has gotten really good about saying sorry afterwards. Once she has calmed down and we've moved on, she'll randomly say, "Mommy, I'm sorry I yelled/threw [item]/whatever." It makes me happy when she does that.
She loves being helpful--giving Carter more snacks, setting the table for dinner, clearing the table after dinner, cooking, doing laundry with me, etc. She always wants to be with me, even if what I'm doing is, to me, boring and mundane. It's so sweet!
One time, when she was holding fake flowers I just bought, she said, "I've got pretty flowers for getting married. Let's go get married to each other!" I explained that mommies and daughters can't get married because they're already in the same family, etc., and she responded, "But we belong together!"
When I was putting her to bed the night we returned home from Peru, she said, "Mommy, I don't want you to ever leave ever again." OH MAN, I just melted into a giant puddle of guilt and love.
Aubrey's actual birthday was on a weekday, so we didn't do too much on the day itself. In traditional fashion, we started with Swedish pancakes. Ignore my lack of artistry.
Then Pam drove down from Boston, and we hit up the local fro-yo place. It was raining, which sucked, but Aubrey got lots of chocolate fro-yo topped with sprinkles, cookie dough, and M&Ms, which was awesome. She's totally my kid.
Once Daddy got home (she was NOT excited about waiting), we opened presents. She got a doll house from Nana and Papa...
... spelling puzzles and an American-Girl-knockoff (named Nora), along with a bathtub to go with her, from Mommy and Daddy...
... and a doll bed for Nora, an Owlette costume, and PJ Masks toy figures from Grandma and Grandpa.
These last two gifts lead me to her actual birthday party, which took place the following Saturday. When it came time to plan the party, I decided to ask Aubrey what kind of party theme she wanted. She immediately said, "I want a PJ Masks party!" She had just started to get into the show, so it was really on her mind. You know how kids go through phases...
Anyway, this phase lasted all the way through her birthday party, so there were no requests for a last-minute theme change (thank goodness). I did the whole Pinterest research thing and tried to get creative (not my thing), and this is what we came up with.
I stayed up the night before making masks and bracelets (which turn them into PJ Masks superheroes) for all of the kids, but no one actually wore them. Those who tried often ended up breaking their masks. (Did I mention the crafty Pinterest party is not really my thing?) But oh well. Aubrey still has a couple of the masks and plays with them sometimes, so that's a win, right?
In her typical fashion, Aubrey refused to wear her Owlette costume that Grandma and Grandpa gave her... just because she was "supposed" to. She did put it on before the party though...
I also went heavy into the red, blue, and green thing for decorations, and I tried to have every food item be related to the theme. Weirdly, no one wanted to eat the "Catboy's hairballs" (AKA popcorn chicken bites). ;) Oh, and the things that look like Jello shots are just plain old Jello. I promise. Actually, they were Romeo's experiments!
Because Aubrey and her friends are three-ish, we opted not to structure their fun. We just let them run amok. I'm really sad I didn't get any photos of that. I was busy shoving my face with pizza and then cake and enjoying adult conversation...
Speaking of cake, I decided to carry on the Mangum family tradition of serving Texas Sheet Cake for birthdays. And I kept it simple by decorating it with the PJ Masks figures my parents gave Aubrey.
This year, Aubrey didn't get all weird when we sang to her! And she was actually able to blow out (most of) her candles by herself.
Perhaps I shouldn't have bothered with a theme for a 3-year-old's birthday party (Eh, live and learn, right?), but in the end she had fun. And that's what matters.
After all the birthday shenanigans were over, it was nice to see that Aubrey was putting her presents to good use.
So anyway, happy (at this point very late) birthday to Miss Aubrey, my sassy, smart, independent, helpful, willful, sweet, sometimes very difficult but always wonderfully entertaining girl. I can't wait to see what you make of your life!
Back in September, we decided to enroll Aubrey in a gymnastics class at the YMCA. At first, she was super shy and pretty much refused to participate. She was nervous about the teacher, Miss Alyssa, and wanted me to be the one to help her with everything. It was a really rough start, and we almost decided to pull her out of it. But finally, after a few weeks, she warmed up to the teacher and started getting into it.
She started out being a little scared of heights on the regular-height balance beam. She was too scared to do "airplane arms" and instead held on to the teacher for dear life.
She also needed help with the shorter beams and didn't feel super confident, for obvious reasons.
She did love the trampoline right away though, 'cause jumping...
Over time, she got more and more confident and excited about gymnastics. It was really good to see after those first few rocky classes.
Still, she had a tendency to be a little reluctant at times...
And she often ran a little wild...
But she's gotten stronger!
She's mastered airplane arms!
She's gotten better about following instructions!
And she's even at the point where she can do the medium-height beam all by herself!
Each week they mix it up and try to add new skills, like backwards somersaults...
... kicks on the beam...
... and the vault!
Long story short, she's loving it! And there are still a few months left for her to improve more, have more fun, and learn more things. Just today, in fact, she did some flips on the bar. I'll have to record it next time so I can add it here! But for now, here's a funny vault outtake.
I've decided to try something new with my Aubrey updates. Rather than have a long list of randomly placed bullet points, I've split the post up into categories. Here goes.
Toddler Talk
She loves to call things "fabulous." She also calls things "creepy," though she rarely uses that word correctly.
She always says "last year" when she means "yesterday."
She calls them "chocolate chippy cookies."
She says "snack" instead of "smack." Example: "Let's snack each other with the pillows!"
She will randomly say, "Up to? Up to? Up to?", quoting Sleeping Beauty. It's the part when Aurora asks the three fairies what they're up to, and they all say in succession, "Up to?"
She also talks about people pricking their fingers, like Aurora. Only she says, "She pricked her finger on a steering wheel." No amount of correcting her has fixed this (but I'm kind of glad).
Funny Girl
At dinnertime, she'll sit at the table and begin saying the prayer before Daniel and I have even sat down. Sometimes we don't even know she's done it until we sit down, ask her to pray, and then hear her say, "But I already said it!"
When Daniel told her to point her toes, she said, "There they are, right next to my feet!"
She calls Carter "chubby baby." One time she started calling me "chubby Mommy." I found that less cute.
When she eats yogurt drinks, she like to match the color of the straw to the color of the outfit the monkey on the bottle is wearing.
Sometimes, when we tell her to do something, she'll start to get upset but then say a reluctant, low-pitched "okay" when we insist. I find it hilarious.
Sometimes, when I suggest something to do, she says in a grave voice, "No, I don't think that's a good idea." Sometimes she says we might get hurt if we do it.
Today she got out her toy keys and said, "Look, my keys!" And I said, "What do your keys open?" She responded, "Ummm... the door!" Being silly I said, "Is one of those the key to my heart?" Her response was awesome. She said, "Oh, let me see!" and proceeded to put the key up to my chest. Then she asked, "Can I cut you open? Can I cut you open?" in a low, silly voice that might have been a bit creepy...
Sassy
If you tell her it's time for breakfast/lunch/dinner/bedtime/quiet playtime/whatever, she'll shout, "No, not now!"
One time when she asked for my phone and I said no, she said, "Mommy, it's not nice to take phones from little girls!"
When I do something "wrong" or not the way she wants it done, she says, "I already told you [insert instruction she never gave me]!"
She's definitely in a shouting stage. She shouts when she doesn't get what she wants and sometimes just screams at the top of her lungs. She also throws things. I'm not a fan of these behaviors. We're working on them.
She sometimes tells us we're going the wrong way when we're driving. She also tries to tell us which direction to go.
When she asked to watch videos one time and we had already said no, Daniel said, "You have two options: You can help me cook or you can go play with your toys." She responded, "I don't want those two options."
She has started to be anti-bath. I'm not sure why, but I don't like it. She used to be excited for them, but now she freaks out if we say she needs one. She says, "No, I'm not yucky!"
She gets stuck on certain Book of Mormon people when we read, and she gets upset if they're not mentioned. The big one is King Benjamin. After we read about him, she wanted every story to involve him. When Daniel says we're talking about a certain person, she says, "No, I want King Benjamin!"
Unfortunately, she's gotten more picky about food. Things she used to love and eat really well, like pork chops, she'll now refuse to even try. Arg...
When she keeps harping about something I've already answered her about, I'll say, "I'm not going to talk to you about this anymore," to which she responds, "No, I want to talk about this!"
Sweet
She always runs to me when a video or show she's watching scares her. I love it. Sometimes she shouts, "I'm scared!" while she does it.
She's getting a lot better about saying "sorry." In fact, she says it readily and quickly to me, both when she needs to and when she really doesn't. Last night, while we were putting her Little People back in her castle, she said, "Oh, sorry I knocked Sofia over." It's pretty cute.
She says the cutest prayers! She always starts out, "Thankful for Mommy and Daddy and Carter," and she often says, "Thankful for all the things we do." She also mentions going to see Grandma and Grandpa or Nana and Papa. Yesterday she said something about Halloween and wearing costumes.
The other day, I found myself staring off into space worrying about something. She came up to me with genuine concern on her face and said, "What's wrong, Mommy?" So sweet (and perceptive).
She reportedly went up to a girl in nursery and said, "Can I please play with you?" Parenting win!
The other day, I cut myself shaving. I put a bandaid on it to keep the blood off my clothes. When she saw it, she said, "My head hurts; I need a bandaid." When I explained I couldn't put one where her hair is, she said I could put it on her leg like mine and that it would help her head feel better. It was so cute, and she kept it on for a few days.
She loves helping, which is super sweet. She helps empty the dishwasher, make food (I let her dump pre-measured ingredients in), go get things for me, and even feed Carter. Recently she's gotten excited about helping me clear the table after dinner. I'll be sad when this phase ends!
She likes to hold Carter's hand and kiss it/hold it against her cheek. She also likes to knock him over and scratch him though, so...
Fun and Games
Her favorite bedtime story is about an elephant who wants to climb a hill but is too scared, so he dresses up like his favorite Disney princess (it changes from night to night) to feel brave. After awhile, the shoes hurt, so he takes them off. Then the dress makes him hot, so that goes too. Then the wig is itchy, so he removes it. Finally he reaches the top of the hill and realizes he didn't need the outfit to be brave; he could do it on his own. Then he usually runs into the princess at the top of the hill. It's a story I told once several weeks ago, and it has become the requested story every night since. I had to teach the story to Daniel for when it's his turn to put her to bed.
She's always singing and making up songs. She usually uses the tunes to songs she already knows and changes the words. Often, they're Christmas songs, like Jingle Bells and Away in a Manger.
She also loves the "finger family" videos on YouTube ("Daddy finger, Daddy finger, where are you? Here I am. Here I am. How do you do?" repeated with Mommy, Sister, Brother, and Baby fingers). They're super annoying, but it is pretty cute when she puts something (like a marker cap) on each finger in succession and sings it herself.
She's getting much more into coloring. She's more interested than she used to be, and she's getting better about coloring in the lines (though she still has a very long way to go, haha). She doesn't really draw things, but I think that's fine. Right?
She knows all of her letters and the phonetic sounds they make. She can mostly count to twenty (she needs help on the correct order after 15), and she can do it just fine counting from 20 to 29. We haven't taught her 30, 40, etc. yet. She has also gotten so much better now about counting objects. She used to just touch each object multiple times or skip objects and count to ten no matter how many there were. Now she grasps the concept. She also can hold up her fingers to indicate numbers. It always takes her a second to get it right, and her concentration while doing it is pretty adorable.
Her favorite movie right now is Sleeping Beauty, unfortunately. The one thing that makes me feel better about that is the fact that she loves it because of thedragon at the end. Whenever I say we can watch a movie, she says, "I want to watch Aurora!" Sometimes I can get her to switch to something else, but not as often as I'd like. She also loves Finding Dory and Lilo and Stitch.
She's gotten into playing real games. So far she can play Go Fish, Old Maid, and Memory. She also likes to "play" one of our games that has a panda and bamboo stalks you can build.
Man, I've been sitting on this blog post for FOREVER. As a result, some of the things are out of date now, but whatever. Here goes!
When we were driving in the car one day, I started tapping my left foot on the left foot rest (also called a "dead pedal," apparently). Aubrey heard it and said, "What's that?" I responded, "I'm tapping my foot." A few seconds later, she said, "See, I'm tapping my foot too!" I turned around to find her tapping the bottom of her left shoe with her right hand. I almost died from the cuteness.
She often says, "You're my best friend!" to me and to Carter.
Daniel gave her a blessing a few months ago when she woke up very sick in the middle of the night. A few weeks later, after she hit her head on something and it was still hurting awhile later, she said, "Daddy, can you give me a blessing for my head?" I love that she thought of it and that she asked.
Speaking of churchy things, she has finally started saying prayers again. When we sit down to dinner, in fact, she'll often just start saying the prayer without being asked and without either me or Daniel being ready. When we say our family prayer before bed, she often volunteers to say it. She always says, "Thank thee that Carter could feel better" as the first thing and often asks that each member of the family feel better or expresses gratitude that a certain person feels better (You can tell she started saying prayers while we were all sick, haha.). Then she looks around the room and starts naming items she sees and saying we're thankful for them. She's also said some funny/cute things like:
"Thankful for our family"
"Please bless we'll have pancakes for breakfast"
"Thankful we can use the potty and get a chocolate kiss"
"Thankful we could talk to Grandma and Grandpa"
"Thankful for keys to drive the car"
Also on a churchy note, she likes to read the scriptures herself. Only she can't read yet. So when it's her turn to "read" (which she insists on), she opens up the Book of Mormon and turns the pages, occasionally saying "Jesus can help us" and "Nephi built a boat" and other such things.
One time she randomly said, "It's okay, Mommy, I'll protect you from the dragon!"
When Pam was over recently, Aubrey was playing with her trains. When Pam pointed to the coal car and asked what was in it, Aubrey looked at it and said, "It's meat." Haha!
She loves the "Happy Birthday" song and for awhile there would sing it randomly. Only she'd say, "Happy birthday to Carter. Happy birthday to Carter..." and use different names of friends and family each time. Now, she mostly just says, "Happy birthday!" randomly to me and Carter.
One of her favorite phrases is "kind of." And she uses it in really funny ways, usually before answering what something is. Example: When asked on Halloween what her costume was, she said, "It's kind of Rapunzel!"
She randomly started saying a few funny things. First, she started calling me a "silly muffin." She also started saying, "Yes, my dear Mommy?" when I call her name. I love it.
Most of the time, when someone tells her she's [insert adjective or noun here], she'll say, "No, I'm Aubrey." Recently, when Pam said she was a speed demon, she said, "No, I'm Aubrey." Funny girl.
When she does something she's not supposed to and I tell her to say sorry, she says, "Can you say the words?" and utterly refuses to do it. So obnoxious. When someone does something nice for her and I tell her to say thank you, she buries her face in her hands or shoulder and again refuses. *Sigh*
One of her favorite things to do is put her stuffed animals, dolls, and Little People to bed. She lays them on the floor and covers them with blankets. Then she shushes me and tells me to be quiet because they're sleeping. She also likes to make "beds" out of playdough by pulling it apart into chunks and lining them up next to each other. Then she lays her Little People on them. She gets very upset if they roll off.
Speaking of getting upset while playing, she is uber obsessive about how she plays picnic. She'll spend a lot of time setting up the food, and she's very methodical about it. She'll start to put something down somewhere and then change her mind and put it somewhere else. It's all very deliberate. And Heaven help you if you try to pick anything up or if you knock something over. If that happens, she starts flapping her hands in front of her and having a little anxiety attack until it's fixed. She shouts, "Oh no! My picnic!" (Also, I'm pretty sure she calls it a "pipnic.")
In the morning, she often covers one of her toys with a bunch of blankets and then tells me "I have a surprise for you!" when I come in to get her. She then unveils the toy with a flourish and beams when I get excited about it. She also arranges her play food and dolls in a long line.
She is also very particular about how her covers are done at bedtime. Everything has to be laid down just so and in a specific order, and she's been known to freak out and demand that we do it again, shouting, "It's not right" while flapping her hands.
One night, while putting her to bed, Daniel pointed at the video monitor in the corner of the room and asked her what it was. She said, "It's a lamp." When Daniel asked, "What does it do?", she said, "Weasel pasta." Awesome.
She likes to put all of her dolls and Little People in one of her toy boxes to give them a "bath."
She also loves sitting in buckets and boxes and having me cover her in toys and stuffed animals. At different times, the game means different things. Sometimes she's taking a bath; other times she's taking a nap. When it's a nap, she asks me to cover her head, too.
Speaking of nap games, she loves to pretend like she's putting other people to bed. She'll have you lie down, and then she'll tuck you in. She'll "read" you two books and then sing "I Am a Child of God" and "I Love to See the Temple" before saying goodnight and closing the door. And when you get up, she says, "Don't get out of bed" or "Stay in your bed." She actually played this game with her friend Quinn, and when she got out of bed, Aubrey kept telling her she had to get back in. Poor girl started to get upset, so we had to intervene. Oh, Aubrey...
She also likes to pretend to be asleep in her car seat when we go to get her out. Then we're supposed shake or tickle her awake.
The all-time favorite game, however, is a weird version of hide-and-seek. She hides somewhere or covers her face with her hands or something and says, "Can you find me?" Then I have to pretend to look a bunch of different places and then act surprised when she finally pops out. We do this ALL. THE. TIME. It's cute and all, but oh man...
Whenever we're all sitting together, or if there's a picture of all four of us, she says, "It's all our family!" So sweet.
She loves the movie Alice in Wonderland, but she insists that it's called Alice in Wonderworld.
She has started to lie down next to Carter and tell him stories, just like we do when we put her to bed.
When she gets in the car, she often says, "Oh, I need to check on Carter." She then peeks over into his car seat before getting into her own seat. She also says she needs to check on him if he's napping (which really means she wants to go wake him up, so I always have to stop her).
Speaking of which, she always tries to wake him up if he's sleeping. I HATE it. She will say, "Wake up baby!" and/or try to smack him awake. Punk.
Through our efforts and--let's face it--the PBS Kids show Super Why, she has started learning what sound(s) each letter makes. She's so proud of herself when she gets them right, and she's very interested in learning to read!
We ate some pork chops with bleu cheese for dinner awhile back, and she ate the bleu cheese by itself and loved it. She was eating giant chunks of it that would have made me gag, and I like bleu cheese!
She has started imitating the way I talk to Carter, and she does it in such a funny, high-pitched voice. She mostly says, "Yeah? Yeah baby?"
Now that Carter is eating solid foods, she wants to help feed him. It's super cute that she wants to help, so I let her, but she often ends up getting more on him than in him, haha.
She's a very defiant little girl. Everything is a struggle. We're hearing a lot of "no" lately, and when we tell her not to do something, she shouts, "I'll [insert bad behavior here] if I want to!" She also says, "No, never!" and "No, not yet!" when we ask/tell her to do something.
She's also a little negotiator. When she asks for something and we say no, she often says, "Okay, here's a deal..." before launching into an explanation of how she's going to do that thing (it's usually watch videos) for just a little while "and then we'll be all done." Then she says, "Okay?"
We got her a Little People nativity, and she loves playing with it. The best part is that she has added the pirates to the mix, so they visit the stable and the nativity people sail on the pirate ship. Oh well.
She has started calling me "Little Lovey Mommy," which is so funny and cute. She also sometimes responds to me with, "Yes, my dear Mommy?" I (mostly) love how she mimics me.
When we put her to bed at night, she insists on turning off the light herself. When she does, she always turns it back on and says, "Oh, wait, I've got to check my [teeth, nose, throat, or whatever]." Then she turns the light off again and turns the fan on until we tell her to turn it off. Only then will she get in bed.
She likes to call everything "spooky" and "pesky." And, of course, she doesn't know what those words mean, so her usage of them is very funny.
She randomly says "boop bah dah" over and over again.
When we eat breakfast, she always wants my food. Even if she has the same thing or if I offer to get her the same thing, she wants to "share" mine. I know it shouldn't, but it really bugs me.
One night, she started saying in a sing-song voice, "Pieces of Mommy's eyes, pieces of Mommy's hair, pieces of Mommy..." When I asked what she was talking about, she said, "I'm going to cut Mommy up into pieces." Yeeeeah.
She can often be found singing utter nonsense songs that make no sense. She also makes up weird stories that she wants us to tell at bedtime. She says, "I want..." and it usually involves characters from Sofia the First, apples (eating them and climbing the trees), and dragons (sometimes nice, sometimes mean).
