Audrey: 8 Months

Audrey is 8 months old. She has entered the fourth quarter.

She is so much fun right now. Changing so much every day. She seems to have mostly gotten back to normal in terms of sleep. Which still isn't ideal, but it is better than the awful that was vacation sleep.

In addition to going to 4 new states and seeing the ocean for the first time, she has started crawling!

Yep, life with a baby has gotten real in this house. The little lady is army crawling all over the place.

This means several things.
1) She will be for real crawling soon, which means she'll be moving way faster. That should be fun.
2) We need to baby proof. Bad.
3) We will be cleaning our floors much more frequently because oh my goodness are they dirtier than they look. Little lady is like a little mop.

Also, I'm not sure if you have tried Army crawling lately. But I have and it is HARD. Like really hard. I have a lot of respect for that doots dragging her body around!

Audrey is becoming more like a toddler all the time. She is starting to really enjoy food. Especially if is she is able to feed herself. She loves peaches.

I took this peach from her when it split at the pit and she lost it until I got her a new peach. Like really lost it, she was not done with that peach. Yet another example of how big she is getting. Little lady knows what she wants and she's not afraid to let you know.

One change I am absolutely thrilled with is a recent increase in cuddliness. In just the past day or so she has seemed to want to cuddle with me more than normal. I am not complaining about this at all. I love cuddling with that baby, I'm glad she has seen the light.

Cuddling with mama.

Audrey also loves her dad. He gets the best laughs from her. Especially when he swings her around or makes funny faces. She loves it all. She has started mimicking funny faces a lot more. It is pretty darn cute.

She is at such a fun age right now. Changing every day. Sometimes I feel like I pick a different baby up from daycare than I dropped off. This is sad and exciting at the same time. 

 

Let's get to the list.

Things Audrey loves right now

• Crawling
• Balls
• Maracas 
• The pets
• Peaches
• The iPad
• Getting into everything
• Mouth noises
• Roaring
• Being swung and tossed
• Walks and runs
• The beach
• Baths

Things Audrey hates right now

• Getting her pajamas on
•  Getting her face wiped
• Being confined
• Not getting to play with the remote, dog toys, paper, etc.
• Taking medicine. Especially grape or orange flavored medicine
• Thrush
• Getting dressed

Really, Audrey is a pretty happy lady. Not much phases her so her hates list is nice and short.

Just hanging out guys.

The Dog Olympics

Last weekend Shasta got to compete in The Dog Olympics. They were held right here in Lansing.

The son of a friend, and teammate, organized and ran the Lansing Dog Olympics. He ran that show like a champ. It was very impressive.

Shasta had a lot of fun, which I will get to later, but the bigger story is how cool it is that this little guy got to create something he dreamed.

The mastermind behind the dog olympics is 7 years old, I believe. He told his amazing mother he wanted to host the olympics for dogs. So naturally his mom said, "sure we can do that!" and the whole family pulled together to make it happen.

When I say they made it happen, they really made it happen. There were ribbons for first, second, and third place for each event. Every dog got a uniform (bandana) and a bag of homemade dog treats. There were prizes for the top three dogs overall and even a mascot.

It was perhaps the coolest thing I have ever seen. He was in charge, his dad, brothers, and mother were his assistants. His dream came to fruition through hard work and help from his family. It. Was. Awesome.

Inspiring parenting to be sure.

Participating in this event will definitely help me to think twice before I tell my child "No, we can't do that." When they ask to host the Olympics for dogs or some crazy thing. Often there is a way to make those dreams happen. Which, it turns out, is not only a great way to make memories but also a great lesson for life in general.

So, thank you Firecracker for being an inspirational parent.

I know you are all waiting on pins and needles to hear how Shasta fared in the games.

There were about 10 dogs competing in the games.

 The events were, hurdles, fetch/catch, a bone hunt, and a race. Swimming was also an option but it turns out none of the dog owners wanted to let wet dogs in the car to go home, so uptight.

Shasta competed in the hurdles, fetch/catch, the bone hunt, and she raced. She would have also done obedience, which she is actually pretty good at, but we were late. Sorry Shasta. She got second place in the hurdles, even though she only actually jumped over 1 of the 4 hurdles. Though, to be fair no dog jumped more than two. She didn't fare so well in the bone hunt or catch, but she did get third in the race.

At the end the top three dogs got overall awards. Shasta got third place! Way to go Shasta.

Dexter the Bernese Mountain Dog won it all. He was a tough competitor.

She was very proud of her performance as were JT, Audrey, and I.

 She had so much fun she slept the whole rest of the day.

I have to mention one more time how incredibly cool it was that a family made this day happen for a child. It was equally amazing that so many people came with their dogs to make the games great. So fortunate to have such a wonderful community.

Doots Goes to the Ocean

We were on vacation last week. Glorious, glorious vacation.

We went to the beach in North Carolina. We drove there in the Honda Fit and stayed in a four bedroom house with 8/9 adults and 4 kids. You aren't feeling jealous of our vacation are you?

Well you should! It was fantastic.

Audrey was incredibly good in the car. Like angel level good, so the drive was not bad at all. Two 7ish hour days to get there, a bit longer on the way home because Virginia is stupid.

The house worked out great. It had an amazing porch with a great ocean view and breeze. It was smallish for the number of people we had, but who needs to sit in a house when the beach is so close.

                                     View from the front deck. Apparently before hurricane Sandy there was 150 feet of beach there and that house was not in the water.

Best of all Audrey got to spend lots of time with grandma, grandpa, aunts, uncles, and cousins.

All of her cousins were there, including Seth and Luke who are 7 and 8. They both loved their little cousins, Audrey and Anders. They played with them so much.

My favorite though, was how helpful Seth was with Audrey, I truly mean this. He often would say things like "do you want me to watch her so you  can eat?" Yes, little man I do. That would be wonderful. He would then take her to the living room and make sure she didn't hit her head or eat the carpet or whatever it is babies do (we could see the living room we weren't making the poor kid be an adult).

I also loved how smitten Luke was with both of the little people. He could not get enough and it was just so cute. Love those little boys.

Audrey and Anders are still a bit young to enjoy one another, he is 18 months. So really, Audrey is young to enjoy him. But he was pretty darn cute with her. He kept bringing her toys to her, such a nice little guy. Audrey is blessed with great cousins. Her aunts, uncles, and granparents are great too but the cousins are just too cute.

Enough about family, most of you don't care about that stuff.

I was a slacker on vacation. I barely took any pictures. We didn't even get a family picture or a picture with everyone. I failed. But, at least I have some.

I did get the most adorable picture of Audrey on the beach BUT there was a smudge on my lens. I don't care, you are going to have to look at this picture smudge and all. It is just that cute.

Audrey loved the ocean. She was a bit unsure of the waves at first, but by the second day she was all about kicking and splashing in the water. It was adorable. She would watch the ocean and when a wave was coming she would kick her feet in excitement. So cute. She didn't even mind getting splashed in the face. Such a water baby.

She also loved playing in the sand. Though really, she just wanted to shovel handfuls of sand into her mouth. I am fine with her eating a little sand, let's be realistic. But I draw the line at handful after handful to the mouth, that can't be good for a baby.

It seems Audrey also finds the ocean relaxing. She fell asleep almost instantly every time she was in the carrier at the beach. This is not normal. She rarely falls asleep on walks in the carrier. She even fell asleep when I had her in the water wrap in the waves.

In fact, the ocean made her so sleepy we changed the noise on her sounds machine to waves. I can't say that it has helped her sleep but that is a story for another day.

Sleep is our only vacation complaint. Audrey was awful at night on vacation. She napped super well but night was horrible. Just horrible. However, we both agreed we would gladly take poor night sleep over screaming baby in the car for 7 hours. That would have been awful. Good choice little lady.

I would say the little lady had a pretty good first vacation. She got to got to the beach, try ice cream for the first time (it was only a tiny bit), spend lots of time with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, and hang out with mom and dad for a week straight. Not too bad at all.

We had a pretty fantastic time as well!

So Busy, So Behind

I am so behind on this blog.

Life has been so, so busy. Work has been crazy and then we were getting ready for vacation. And then on vacation. Hence the long silence.

You can expect a couple posts in the next day or two. Including a couple vacation picture posts and an 8 month update. Check back often!

Audrey is actually 8 months today. Here is a picture to tide you over. I haven't gotten to making the onesie yet.

Right now I want to do a quick update I had planned to write the week before vacation.

Audrey has teeth! Two little teeth are coming through on the bottom. Those suckers are sharp, all the better to bite you with.

I don't have any pictures of them yet. They aren't quite tall enough to show in a smile and there is no way she will let me open her mouth to take a picture. That girl won't let anyone near her mouth unless it is on her terms, just ask the doctor who was diagnosing her thrush. Baby girl has a strong jaw and strong will.

Of course getting teeth hurts. So, restful sleep was not really part of vacation. Which was especially painful because Audrey usually sleeps pretty well. Such is life. She has been steadily getting better the last couple nights so hopefully that will keep up.

Oh and she can hold her self up. She can't pull up on things yet but if she ends up in a standing position at a table or her crib she can stay there.

She made a couple other big jumps while at the beach, I will talk about those in a vacation post. Gotta keep ya coming back!

All of these big jumps have lead to either JT or I saying to the other "why is she so big?" "how did she get so big?" or something similar almost every day.

She is really starting to turn into a little person. It is fun, and challenging.