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:

Twinkle Star

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 And because I've been so lazy and haven't written in awhile, some of the things I've written down are already outdated.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

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

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

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

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

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

Two, Three!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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