"Yes, my dear Mommy?"

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 As a result, some of the things are out of date now, but whatever.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).

Couch Kisses and Nail Polish

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

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

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

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

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

"I can scream if I want."

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

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

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

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

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

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

"I'm with my mom."

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

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

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

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

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

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

Before:

After:

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

Aubrey's Tiger Birthday Party!

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

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

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

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

Another view of the spread:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Aubrey Turns Two!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

She immediately put on the stickers...

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

... and asked for M&Ms.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Big-Girl Bed

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Man, we have the greatest kid.