Ten Months Old

We celebrated today by going to Rita's for some mango italian ice--yum. I let Aubrey have a taste, but she didn't enjoy the coldness of it very much. She loves the balloon she got though!




I also thought this picture was funny. She was sitting and smiling at me when I pushed the button to take it. No sitting still for her!

A Fun and Busy Memorial Day weekend

First we went to Great Falls National Park and looked at the rushing water and then went for a nice long walk in the woods.

Then on Memorial Day we had a picnic at Burke Lake Park with some friends. We hung out and ate on a picnic blanket

Aubrey ate watermellon for the first time and loved it! If you look closely at this picture you can see the juice running down her chin.

Bill hung out with some other dads while they were letting the moms eat and chat.

Then they got to play some volleyball.

Lastly, we went to the pool. Aubrey's first time! She was pretty fascinated by the water and enjoyed kicking in it and splashing. She didn't go all the way in--it was a bit cold!

An Aubrey Moment--I don't want to be here

So here I am sitting on the living room floor. I have plenty of toys in reach, my sippy with water, and some cheerios, but what I really want is Mommy's full attention. But she told me that I need to sit here and play while she drinks her coffee and reads emails. Not cool! Aaaah! AAAAHhhh! WwwweeeHHh! hmmm, that isn't working, she knows it is a fake cry. I know! I'll throw my toy out of reach. Wwaaaahhhh! Bummer. Mommy said that if I want that toy I should go get it myself. What else can I do? (creeps forward with hands, gets up on knees, then flops onto belly). Waaah! Mommy, I fell on my tummy! Humph. Mommy said she saw me do it on purpose. fine. (flips over onto back to think) *cough* Hey, Mommy, just gave me a worried look. Maybe she thinks I am choking on a cheerio or something. *Cough, cough, COUGH* Yay! it worked! Mommy left the computer and her coffee to come make sure I am fine. Oops, as soon as she got over here I gave a big grin and giggled. I couldn't help it, I was so happy to have figured out how to get her attention.

We had a fun weekend of seeing lots of friends and family. First we stopped in New Jersey to visit our friends Jen and Scott and their adorable daughter, Rileigh. She is five and a half months old and has a great personality (look at that grin!) and an awesome head of hair.


We then spent the rest of the weekend in Pennsylvania with Bill's family. Our nephew Peter celebrated his sixth birthday with a big family gathering.

Aubrey and her cousin Kaelin.

Bill and Aubrey playing with second cousin Josiah. He is 18 months old and so cute--his vocabulary is amazing!

The kids (minus Aubrey who was napping) waiting eagerly to dig into the R2D2 cake which Bill's brother Jim created. It was an impressive design and even tastier than it looked.

Tastey Toes

This is one of Aubrey's new games. She bends forward and chews on her toes, then sits up and squeals and "talks" about it while wiggling her feet then bends forward and does it all over again.

It's not all pink, all the time..

Here is Aubrey getting in touch with her masculine side--wearing blue and playing with a truck.

Who me? Masculine? but the blue brings out my eyes so well!

It only took a short time until she turned to a more traditionally feminine pursuit....

Ah, a girl after her mommy's heart--loves shopping. Well, at this point she loves how the bag has handles and the receipt is really crinkly, but we are headed in the right direction.

Happy Mother's Day

My Mom and the little one who made me a mom. :)

my Mom-in-Law (and hubby)



my mommy again--love you!

Aubrey and I today.

(If you click on the picture to make it bigger you can see all the teeth she has now!)

It is amazing what one and a half cups of coffee can do for you.

I am on fire this morning!

During Aubrey's morning nap I have

Put away two loads of clean laundry from yesterday
Put the sheets and towels in the wash
Unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher
Vacuumed the main level
Steamed and pureed carrots
Steamed and pureed broccoli
Trimmed my bangs

and now I am eating my power breakfast of cold oatmeal mixed with yogurt. Sounds gross but it actually is really tasty. It has been almost one hour since I put her down to sleep, I probably have about 10 minutes left, maybe I'll relax. Nah, who am I kidding? The dog needs to be groomed, sheets and towels put in the dryer, highchair scrubbed down...I had better run!

Six Words

I was tagged by my sister in law, Daisy and was challenged to write the title of my memoirs in six words. I haven't ever been tagged before, so hopefully I am doing this right! Anyway, a bunch of funny things came to mind: Help, my house is a mess!, I lost my brain to motherhood, etc. But those are just titles to chapters in my memoirs and are certainly not the whole story. And since I have the tendency to spend way too much time overthinking these things I am going to nip that in the bud and hurry up and post this one that came to mind.

Child, Wife, Mother by God's Grace

Everything that I do and am is only by God's wonderful grace. He has allowed me to be born and marry into a loving family, marry an amazing man, and be mother to a beautiful baby girl. Here is another title that came to my mind--I am a Reflection of Christ--this is a life that I aspire to.

So now I am supposed to tag five other people, but for now I am going to tag only two.

Hayley
Kelly

the rules for this MEME are as follow:
Write the title to your own memoir using 6 words.
Post it on your blog.
Link to the person that tagged you.
Tag five more blogs.

Saturday Morning Playground Fun

babyfood math

During a recent shopping trip to Whole Foods* to buy organic produce to steam and puree into baby food I was questioning whether it was all worth it. It costs about $50 per month for Aubrey's foods including the cereal and yogurt and other snacks. I was looking at the huge pile of fruits and veggies on my counter thinking of all the work I was going to have to do to turn it into baby food. Wouldn't it be so much easier to just buy Gerber Organic? (I have "cheated" a few times and bought their prunes and green beans because I hadn't had much success trying to make those myself.) So out comes the calculator and I try to guess how many little tubs Aubrey would eat per day and multiplying the cost from there. The number I came up with astounded me. $130 per month! Whoa, an $80 difference. I had no idea that convenience came at such a high cost! And really making the food isn't that hard. Two or three afternoons of work a month isn't all that bad, and now that I know that it is saving us so much money I will be happier doing it. It really does provide a great sense of accomplishment seeing a freezer full of cubes of baby food knowing that I am not only doing the healthiest thing for my baby, but also the most cost effective.

*yes, Aubrey eats way better than Bill and I do.