A Time To Laugh: Audrey {19 months}

Oh, sweet Audrey. What a little ball of energy you are! Such personality! Such spunk. I love every minute of being your momma, but have to admit, there are some challenging days. One such evening you were kicking me as hard as you possibly could {you are one feisty kiddo!} after bath time while I was trying to dry you off and get your diaper on. I looked at your daddy and said, "I cannot wait for the day she is a mom and she is complaining to me about her difficult toddler and I can look at her and say, 'that's called payback!'". Ha. True story. I love you, still. Through it all you remain my sunshine.

Fun new things you have started during your 19th month:

Screaming {like at the top of your lungs}; you think it's hilarious, I want to run away and cover my ears.
Eating Cheeios and tipping the bowl to scoop up the excess milk with your spoon, which you then continue to slurp...you have been known to empty an entire bowl of cereal including the last drop of milk.
Potty training! You tell us when you have to go #1. And make mention of #2 {"stinky"}, but haven't yet gone on the potty. You went an entire morning letting me know every time you got the urge and your diaper remained dry the whole time! I am so incredibly proud of you.
Buckles, buckles, buckles! You unsnap/snap them all by yourself and if we try to help you, we hear about it! You figured out how to unsnap your chest buckle in your car-seat, so we have to be careful and remind you {sometimes often} to stay buckled until we stop and mommy says it's okay to unbuckle. Yikes!
Speaking of the car-seat...every time we get into the car to go somewhere you start listing off who you think we're going to see, "Nana, Bubba, Daddy, Grandpa, Grandma..." You even list off cousins {we've been working on their names}. It's adorable.
You repeat everything and you remember it! I bought some nail polish one day while we were at Target and called them "colors". You picked it up, said "color" and then put it up to your toes and said, "toes!". I am not even sure when you learned that, but mommy has polish on her toes and you figured out that is what the bottle of nail polish was for!
You are so independent {refer back to the buckles...}. You insist on doing things yourself and only until you are super frustrated do you concede to let someone help you {i.e. mom or dad}. I saw you openly let your grandma buckle your booster-seat the other day without a peep from you...I looked away chuckling.
You are such a big helper! You love to help mommy put away the groceries {or anything we happen to pick up from any store and bring home in bags}. You also get pretty excited about helping mommy with the laundry. You are so helpful stuffing the clothes into the dryer!
You fed ducks for the first time and absolutely loved it! Look how close we were! {pictures below}
We went up to Waite Park for your first swim in a pool pool. The water went up to about your hips and you were a natural. You dunked under a couple of times, but that didn't stop you. Our fearless little imp.
You love going outside {"side"} and swimming {you grab your swimsuit out of your drawer and bring it to me when you want to go} and most every day at some point you say to me, "bye-bye". You love being out and about!
You have been going through a I want my mommy phase. Daddy doesn't always feel appreciated when you don't want him and cry for me, but this too shall pass. You definitely have moments where you just want your daddy too!
Speaking of what you want when you want it you have definitely exhibited some monstrous tantrums. Early on-set of the terrible twos? I think so.
You still love babies. You feed them their bottles, attempt to change their diapers {i.e. remove their diaper and clothes}, wrap them up in blankies and put them down for "night-night". Whenever you hear a baby cry you say {in a very concerned voice}, "Ooooh, baby". You are going to be such a great big sister someday.
You are so enthralled with dogs and not just your own. You can spot them what seems like a mile away and you get so animated over them. Our good friends Adrienne and Stephen have a Vizsla, Maggie, and you adore her {and she thinks you're okay too}. =)
You had your second sleepover at Grandpa and Grandma's. This time you went to bed after 10 p.m., were up once in the night and then got up at 5:30 a.m. I felt so bad for them, but they took it in stride. You have some amazing grandparents who love you very much!
You continue to teeth. You still have just the eight teeth, but I suspect all the night wakings and fussiness are leading to some more popping through. I just hope it's sooner rather than later.

Audrey, you keep us on our toes...but we wouldn't have it any other way. We thank God for you and are reminded every. single. day. what a blessing you are. Mommy and daddy love you to the moon and back and back again. Happy 19 months!

xoxo,
Momma

Check out all that we have been up to this past month: