Month Ten

Okay, I'm obsessed with this girl. I'm not sure if all moms feel this way about their kids or if I'm just super sentimental, but I don't know how else to be. I never thought I'd say this, but I want her to stay exactly the way she is. I don't want her to grow up! But grow up she must, and I guess that's cute too. After all, it brings with it all of the following fun things:

• The dancing. Oh my gosh, it's so adorable. She shakes her head and bounces to the beat, and she smiles so big when Mommy and Daddy dance with her. 
• She loves climbing the stairs, and she's really fast. My favorite part is that she talks very animatedly as she does it, going "Tut tut" and babbling with excitement. Even though she doesn't need any help, we insist on following behind her when she makes her ascent, just in case. If we're not inclined to exercise though, we block the stairs with her toy bucket and car seat. This makes her sad.
• If you ask for them, she'll sometimes give high-fives. She often needs a reminder of what that means, but then she does it enthusiastically.
• She's quite the acrobatic thrill-seeker. She still loves playing Baby Catch and hanging upside down. If you hang her by the feet, she puts her hands out in front of her and lowers herself to the ground (in order to not smash her face). It's smart! She also likes it if you pretend to drop her while you're holding her. Sometimes when you're holding her, she'll throw her head back to indicate that she wants to go upside down.
• To mimic the feeling of being upside down, she'll sometimes tip her head to the side and look at us. If we tilt our heads the opposite way, she smiles.
• Like most kids, she loves dropping things on the ground and waiting for you to pick them up. In her case she drops it, looks down at it for awhile, and then looks at you. She looks back and forth between the item and you until you get it for her. Then she smiles and kicks her feet.
• One of her favorite things to eat is Kleenex. I don't know why. We have to keep all Kleenex boxes well out of her reach; otherwise there's trouble. She also likes to lick the floor vents and put her whole mouth around the knob handles of our kitchen cabinets. Hey, babies are weird.
• She hates wearing shoes and pulls them off whenever she gets a chance. She refuses to even try walking in them.
• "Words" she says include "Mama," "Diddy," and "Yeah." She'll also repeat "Yay!" if you say it first.
• When you say "Yay!" and/or clap your hands, she claps too. Sometimes she just does it randomly, which is funny. I worked hard to teach her to clap, and the rewards are well worth the effort. It's so stinkin' cute.
• She's a troublemaker already. When you say "No" to something she's doing, she smiles mischievously and keeps doing it. If you come to stop her, she hurries to do/touch the forbidden thing before you get there. For instance, she loves pulling up on and banging on the kitchen trash can. It's gross, so we always stop her. But when she sees us coming, she hurries and rubs her hands all over it before we get there. Same thing goes with the books on our kitchen shelf. She'll hurry to touch/pull off all the books before you can come and stop her.
• Then there's the tantrums. I didn't expect those yet, but they happen. If you try to block her from getting to the trash or if you won't let her play with your phone or computer, she flails her arms, arches her back if you're holding her, and cries. When I wipe her hands/mouth or try to get a foreign object (like Kleenex) out of her mouth, she violently pushes my hands away and voices her displeasure.
• One of her favorite tasks is pulling all the books out of her book basket. If you keep putting them back, she'll keep taking them out.
• She has become a more difficult eater. She refuses to keep her bib on, and she spits her food out when she doesn't want any more. She also throws her food on the ground, which is fun. But she always smiles when you pull out a canister of puffs. And to be fair, she's eating the food we eat now and does a pretty good job most of the time. She particularly likes soups.
• I think she's part bloodhound. If there's anything on the ground that she could pick up and eat, she'll find it. Even after I've swept, she finds it. She's a little scavenger and has no problem eating old food off the ground. This is a good incentive for me to clean up well after meals.
• She loves playing with balloons, either by crawling around after them or by playing "keep off the ground" with us. Daddy holds her and maneuvers her to kick and headbutt the balloon, and she just laughs. As a result, she now crawls after balloons with her head down, charging at full speed to headbutt them on her own.
• Reading to her is a fun experience, as she is obsessed with turning the pages of the books and often cares much more about that than she does about the story. She reaches forward to turn the pages, often well before you're ready. And if you stop her too many times, she throws a fit. Then, when the book is done, she grabs it and tosses it on the floor. It's just part of the routine.
• She can stand on her own, but she doesn't like to for some reason.
• Her "talking" has become so animated. She actually has inflection to her voice now, so it almost sounds like she's saying real words. I love to hear her talk. 
• Diaper changes are a wrestling match these days. She refuses to sit still unless you sing to her, and then the appropriate song is always different; you have to keep guessing until you get it right.
• She loves looking out of windows and playing with the blinds. She'll shake them around and then hold them up so she can peek out the window.
• When she is resisting a nap, she throws her pacifiers out of the crib and then cries until I come give them back. Then she smiles when I come in, as if she has won. She also tosses the pacifiers out in the morning when she's decided it's time for me to come get her.
• She'll fake laugh with you. If you say "Ha ha ha," she'll repeat it. It's so cute and usually makes me laugh for real.

So really, what's not to love??

Month Nine

Well, it's a new year, and with it have come some new and exciting changes in Aubrey:

• She is quite the climber. She loves to pull herself up to a standing position on anything she can reach. She also likes trying to climb the stairs (her personal best is three stairs).
• Out of nowhere, she started giving kisses. A few days before Christmas, she leaned in and kissed Daniel. Now she does it often, either by request from us or just because she wants to. They're slobbery and gross, and they're the best things in the whole world.
• She's starting to eat the food we eat, and she's getting good at eating with her hands. Utensils are still a ways off though, I think.
• Sometimes she'll stop crawling and get on one knee, as if she's proposing to someone. Only she sits on the foot of the other leg, which proposing men don't often do.
• She likes watching strangers and doesn't have any fear of people she doesn't know, which is really nice. We'll see if this changes though...
• When she wants to get somewhere fast, she puts her head down and crawls like a charging bull.
• She can walk around with the little toy walker we gave her for Christmas or by holding onto chairs, the couch, etc. I think real walking isn't far off...
• One of her favorite noises to make is the Chewbacca. It's amazing.
• She's afraid of dogs. They make her cry. It's sad but cute.
• She has two little teeth on the bottom and is working on some up top.
• One of her favorite games is Baby Catch, in which Daniel and I toss her back and forth between us so that she flies through the air. It's safer than it sounds; I swear. Anyway, she loves it. She also loves hanging upside down and enjoys "Ride a Little Horsie."
• She loves the monkey and alligator song ("Five little monkeys swinging in a tree, teasing Mr. Alligator, 'Can't catch me!'...") and flutters her eyes when it's time for the clap.
• One of her favorite things to do with toys is push them around the floor as she crawls.

Month Eight

Wow, I'm super behind on this. In my defense, it has been a crazy few weeks. My parents were in town, then Aubrey and I got sick, and then Daniel went to California for a few days. Up until now, I've just been trying to keep me and Aubrey alive and happy. I declare success (mostly).

So without further ado, here are some highlights:

• She really likes "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and is often calmed by just the song if she's upset.
• Happily and sadly, she can pull herself up into a stand--on the couch, the coffee table, her crib, Mommy and Daddy's bed, etc. We will never have another moment's rest.
• She finally bathes in the regular bathtub like a big girl. And she loves it.
• She recently started going "Hah. Hah," but not like a laugh. She does it very seriously.
• Her hands hold infinite interest for her. She often holds them up and flips them back and forth, studying them.
• Thanks mostly to Daniel's efforts, she can hold her own bottle now, which reduces snuggle time (sad) but helps us get more done (happy).
• She has two teeth (the ones in the bottom middle).
• When we've blended up our dinners for her to eat, she hasn't been a big fan. We're wondering if it's just a texture thing... the meals do get kind of pasty. Must add water next time...
• She likes to bang her head on things intentionally. Babies are weird.
• She also bangs her head a lot unintentionally. She's, like, really clumsy. I'm not sure if all babies hit their heads this much or if I should be worried. She just had another black eye, and today she got a nice bump and bruise on her forehead. *Sigh*
• She LOVES her stuffed tiger, Mr. T. She kicks her feet and waves her arms when we bring him to her. And then she hugs him and eats his face.
• She really hates having her nose wiped. She'll shake her head back and forth really quickly if you try and scream bloody murder if you succeed. Hand wiping is also frowned upon.
• We're pretty sure she can climb up steps. She's done it twice--once at church and once at home, one stair each time. We haven't given her a chance to do it more than that.
• If you try to grab her arms and make them do something (like "Patty Cake" or "Wheels on the Bus") she gets mad and pulls her arms away.
• She likes to karate chop the air with her hands. I think she's a natural-born ninja. 
• If you put her to bed or down for a nap before she's tired enough, she rotates around and kicks the crib slats. It's really loud. She also does this when she wakes up from sleeping.
• She finally smiles at strangers! Sometimes.
• One of my favorite things is when she opens her mouth really wide and softly goes, "Ba ba ba." It's like a little whisper. And if you do it back, she smiles.
• If she disapproves of me doing the dishes, she crawls over to me, lies across my feet, and cries. It's super helpful.
• She loves the dishwasher, the fridge, the pantry, the bathrooms--all the places we don't want her to get into--and will make a beeline for them if the doors are left open. She's surprisingly observant and surprisingly fast.
• She likes to headbang and go "Ahhhhhh."
• When she likes something (like food) or is excited, she makes fists and pulls her elbows in quickly, as if she's going, "Yes!" or "Ching!" or something. While she does it she goes, "Eh! Eh!" This is another one of my favorite things.
• She has taken to putting things in her mouth and crawling around with them, much like a dog.

And that is all. Actually, that's a lot. Whatever... I love this girl! And I want to remember everything about her at every stage.

Month Seven

• She goes to bed between 7:30 and 8:00 every night and wakes up around 6:30 or 7:00. She'll babble a little bit and then be pretty quiet, sometimes until as late as 8:00. The extra sleep this provides makes me feel very spoiled. When I go in to get her from the crib, she has found her pacifier and put it in her mouth. That's why she's so content and quiet!
• Every morning, I make her bottle while holding her. I shake it up and put it on the end table as I sit down on the couch and get us situated (cushions pushed in, burp cloth in place under her chin, blanket over us for snuggling, etc.), and she immediately begins to cry, as if I'm not going to feed her the bottle I just made. She has no faith in me, even though I feed her the bottle every time, haha. Oh, and the cry is really sad and pathetic, which just makes me laugh. (Am I a bad mom?)
• She likes anything we give her to eat, which so far includes rice cereal, oatmeal cereal, carrots, peas, green beans, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, peaches, applesauce, blueberries, mangoes, spinach, pears, plums, prunes, bananas, corn, and pineapple. We've finally moved on to "stage 2" foods.
• After she eats solid foods, I always go to the sink and wet a paper towel, and when I walk back over to her high chair, she scrunches up her face in anticipation of having it wiped off.
• She knows that when I clap my hands twice and wiggle my fingers in a "come here" kind of way that I'm going to pick her up, and she starts smiling and kicking her feet.
• She is still an amazing sleeper, and now she's incredibly easy to put down. At night and usually for naps, we can put her in the crib and walk away, and she'll fall asleep on her own. And if she wakes up on her own at night, she almost always puts herself back to sleep. We never really had to do any sleep training or cry it out. We feel very lucky!
• She loves chasing things that roll, especially empty water bottles.
• One of the only downsides to her crawling is that she can now track me down and cry at my feet while I'm doing dishes or cooking. She can also follow me. When I took out the trash one day, she crawled after me, crying pathetically the whole time. Then she just sobbed at the front door until I came back and picked her up. Killed me.
• She likes to squawk, and she thinks it's funny if you mimic the sounds she makes. We'll often have long squawking conversations with her!
• When we read to her, she tries to grab things (words or pictures) out of the book.
• She likes to babble, and she mostly says "Blah blah" and "Ma ma." I like to pretend she's saying my name. :)
• On Halloween, when we were all dressed as pirates, she got really scared and cried both times Daniel said "Arrr!" to her. So sad cute!
• She can stand on her own if she's holding onto something, like the couch. Oh, and she stands on her tippy-toes rather than on flat feet. Is that a typical baby thing or just a her thing?
• Unfortunately, one of her favorite things to do is pinch people's neck skin. It's surprisingly painful. (She also pulled fistfuls of Daniel's beard before he shaved it. Apparently that hurt, too.)
• She doesn't like being held facing you. Instead, she likes to look out at the world. It's cute, but it's also sad, because she's totally not a snuggler :(
• Though I'm ashamed to admit this, she is OBSESSED with the Taylor Swift song "Shake It Off." Showing her the music video, playing the song, or sometimes even just singing it will make her stop crying EVERY TIME.
• She experienced her first snow on Sunday, November 2nd. Poor girl.
• Right now is actually her first time being sick (with a cold). She's still a total sweetheart, though the waking up every hour in the night earlier this week wasn't so fun. I haven't so much enjoyed all the snot and barf on me either.
• She loves being outside and going for our daily walk, even if it's windy and cold. The other day, I opened the front door while holding her to check the weather for our walk. When I closed the door, she immediately started crying and didn't cheer up until we actually went outside. What are we going to do during the winter? *Sigh*
  
  

Month Six

Holy crap, Aubrey is six months old! Craziness. Regrettably, her six-month "birthday" hasn't been superb for her... she seems to be having tummy issues and is pretty fussy. Still, I managed to snap the following picture and gather some cute highlights:

• She loves watching the laundry spin around; it always helps to do laundry when she's fussy.
• When you change her diaper, she grabs whichever of your arms is closest to her, making it very difficult to continue. She also lifts her bum up when you pull the front of the diaper forward before folding it up, so the diaper often slides right out from under her.
• She's an amazing eater! This makes us so happy. She particularly loves bananas, but she'll eat anything we give her. As she waits for the next bite, she just sits expectantly with her mouth open. So cute!
• When she's tired and fussy, she likes sitting on her daddy's legs and listening to him drum out a beat. It will always get her to stop crying (and she starts crying again if he stops)!
• She gets really excited and kicks her feet and waves her arms if she thinks you're going to pick her up when you walk by. Sometimes, she'll cry when she realizes you have no intention of picking her up. Sad cute!
• She wants to crawl SO badly. She moves the right way, but she hasn't quite mastered it. Instead, she army crawls to get around. She also loves to roll all over the place.
• When she's dragging herself along the ground with her arms, she makes her way to the hardwood floor and runs her hands up and down to make a squeaking noise.
• She's finally sitting up like a champ, and next time we go shopping she'll be sitting in the front of the cart. (I've been dragging her car seat around and throwing it in the main part of the cart, thereby taking up most of the room. So annoying.)
• One of her favorite games is pulling a blanket/shirt/burp cloth/anything fabric over her face and sniffing really hard (as if she's trying to smell it really well) until someone takes it off with a flourish and some sort of fun sound effect. As she does it, she makes a funny squished-up face that I love.
• She also likes "Wheels on the Bus," but she always locks her elbows, making it difficult to get that circular motion with her arms.
• I'm pretty sure she knows her own name. She seems to respond to it.
• She loves any form of peek-a-boo, and she laughs harder the more you can surprise her/make her jump.
• A person blowing his or her nose can make Aubrey jump through the ceiling and maybe even cry.
• In the late afternoon, as we're waiting for Daddy to get home, she often wants to be held and walked around. If I try to put her down in her Exersaucer, play mat, swing, or high chair, she just cries. But then, when Daddy gets home, I hand her off to him, and she lets him put her down without a fuss. It's so annoying (mostly because of how smug Daniel is about it, haha).

And there you have it! I tried uploading some videos to illustrate these things, but Blogger isn't cooperating. Oh well. Maybe later!

My Baby Has a Black Eye

Well, yesterday was quite the day. It was Rosh Hashanah, so Daniel had the day off. We decided to finally tackle our bedroom walls and get rid of that lavender paint once and for all (seriously, lavender?).

We got everything all ready and put Aubrey on the floor with some toys outside our room. We also took a full-length, unframed mirror (which we plan to hang on the wall after we paint) and propped it against the wall outside our door. This not only got it out of our way but also made a nice distraction for Aubrey, who loves looking in the mirror. Daniel even propped it up nice and straight for her so she could really see into it.

Oh, for the record, the mirror looks like this:

See those sharp edges? Yeah, you can probably see where this is going.

The worst thing is, I even had that nagging thought, "Maybe we shouldn't put this out here with her. She might knock it over onto herself and get hurt." But did I listen? No. Instead, I rationalized, "Well, we'll watch her and make sure she doesn't get too close to it." And actually, I did watch her, and she never went near it. Ironically, she'd have been better off if she had. If she had knocked it over herself, it probably would have landed on her and bonked her head or something. I don't think she would have been cut by it. But as fate would have it, she was just about exactly the length of the mirror away. Bad news.

You see, Aubrey started to get fussy awhile into our painting. It was getting to be nap time. So I decided to leave Daniel to finish the room while I handled Aubrey. Only I'd stepped in some paint and needed to clean off my foot before I walked all over the carpet. So I hopped to the bathroom, grabbed a wipe, and started scrubbing my foot. But Aubrey was really sad, so I decided to sit by her while I cleaned my foot off. I plopped myself down by her and talked to her reassuringly, and once the paint was off, I pulled myself up by the door frame. And in the process I somehow--I still don't really know how--bumped into the propped-up mirror ever so slightly. And because it was propped up so straight, it never stood a chance.

I heard a thud and then instant crying. I turned around to see Aubrey lying there with the mirror next to her and blood all over her face. It was the most horrible moment. I could tell that the corner of the mirror had just caught her on the face, but I had no idea what part of her face was hurt or how badly. I hurried and grabbed her from the ground and shouted, "Aubrey! Oh my gosh, Aubrey!" in such a way that Daniel knew something was really wrong. He came running out of our room, saw the blood, and sprinted downstairs to the kitchen. I followed, holding Aubrey tightly to me (and getting blood all over my shirt). Daniel grabbed a paper towel, and I held it to her face for a second, pulled it away to see what was actually bleeding, and discovered that there was a small cut under her eye and big gash across her nose. I held the towel there to stop the bleeding while Aubrey just screamed. It was awful.

I instantly burst into tears and kept apologizing to Aubrey and telling her I loved her. Daniel, much more calm than I, was quick-thinking and remembered to give her a Priesthood blessing. That helped calm me a little bit, and I thought to give her some infant's Tylenol. We then made some phone calls and ended up at our pediatrician's office (where we had never been before... what a great first impression!).

Long story short, Aubrey's eye was okay (SO grateful for this), but they weren't sure if her nose needed stitches--it was right on the border--so they sent us to the E.R. in Providence. We were there for four hours or so (ugh), but thankfully Aubrey didn't need stitches. They iced her nose (she was NOT a fan) and then put Dermabond on it. The doctor said she has "perfect skin," so it should heal well and not scar. We're really hoping it doesn't. 

In the end, it ended up not being too bad an injury. The cut looked better and better as time went on and it stopped bleeding. But just a little to the right, and our baby could have been blinded or lost her eye or something equally awful. And the amazing sweetheart that she is, she only cried for the first ten minutes or so after it happened, and then she was sweet and happy again. Man, I love her.

Now it's the first day after the injury, and the cuts are looking okay. But Aubrey now has a little black eye. I can't decide if I think it's pitiful or hardcore. Either way, we feel like awesome parents.

Month Five

Well, we're finally living in our new home (yay!), and Aubrey has adjusted quite well to her new surroundings. With the new change in location have come other good changes for Aubrey too, including the following:

• She has started eating solid foods! She likes rice cereal and bananas a lot, and she seems to be pretty good with carrots and oatmeal cereal as well. 
• Thanks to Grandma Mangum's efforts while she was here, Aubrey finally takes naps in her crib. And better yet, she takes a 2-hour (sometimes more) nap at least once a day! This is awesome.
• She continues to love music, and it's the sweetest thing to see how interested in it and distracted by it she is.
• When she smiles at someone, she often looks away all shyly.
• She likes to chew on the tags of stuffed animals, pillows, etc.
• When she's being really serious, she sticks out her bottom lip in a little pout.
• At her last doctor's appointment, she was in the 70th percentile for weight and 75th percentile for height. She had a huge growth spurt!
• She loves growling loudly and shouting at the top of her lungs. 
• When she sits, she often extends both her arms and legs and rotates her hands and feet around. 
• She finally likes tummy time! She's been trying to crawl for awhile now, but she has awhile to go yet, I think.
• Most of the time, she is one giant wiggle. We can't get her to sit still, especially during diaper changes!
• She likes to touch and grab people's faces.
• When she's ready to go to bed at night, she gets really smiley... like she's loopy from exhaustion!
• She loves grabbing her feet and playing with them.
• Thankfully, she's still an amazing sleeper, and she has become a lot easier to put to bed. She goes down around 8:30 and sleeps until about 7:00. A few nights a week she'll wake up in the middle of the night, but she goes down well after having a bottle. And sometimes she'll wake up and just put herself back to sleep! We love this.
• She rolls all over the place! I guess she finally remembered how to roll onto her back again.
• If there's a blanket or burp cloth or some other fabric around, she'll grab it and put it over her face. Then she just sits there calmly with the thing covering her face until someone removes it.
• When Mommy or Daddy is holding her, she'll often crane her neck to look up at us. Too cute.
• She has been on three flights, and she did great on all of them. This was a big relief to her mommy.
• In California, we discovered that she likes the pool. So much splashing fun!

I'm sure there's much more, but suffice it to say that Aubrey is still the cutest, sweetest baby, and I love her more every day! Seriously, it's ridiculous.