Fashion Don'ts

Here are some fashion don'ts from Audrey Claire.

#1. Don't wear lavender heels with fall colored clothes.

#2. Don't wear heels that are three sizes too big for you.

#3. Don't wear socks with open toed shoes.

#4. Don't wear turquoise and brown with dark reds and purples. (She saw me hanging this fleece jacket in her closet and insisted on wearing it. We had to make her take it off so we could run errands with a matching kid!)

#5. Don't mix and match patterns.

Gobble Gobble!

We have already had a busy, fun Thanksgiving weekend and it's only halfway through! It started out with one of Andy's old college roommates and his girlfriend coming up for dinner on Wednesday night. We haven't had people over in a while and I had forgotten how much fun it is to entertain. My lower back didn't like all of the cooking and such, but other than that, we had a great time!

We spent Thanksgiving with the Farbotko side of the family. We had some munchies then took the kids outside to play. Andy got out his old wagon and took the kids on a ride.

Ian wasn't so sure about Uncle Andy's crazy driving...

so he got out and let Audrey risk her life with her Daddy.

Audrey ate her dinner fairly well. I'm not sure if she tried the turkey, but she loved the corn and cranberry sauce. For dessert, she picked the chocolate chips off of some peanut butter pie and ate a bunch of whipped cream!

Today is Jason's birthday, so Audrey and I went over to Jan and Steve's for a birthday brunch (Andy has to work today). We went to their neighborhood playground afterwards and right now, I am listening to a way overtired girl trying to fight her 2 - 1/2 hour late nap.

We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving too! Here is a video I took last night of Audrey looking at her favorite "animal book," which is a Time photo magazine.

Christmas Photos

I scheduled an appointment today to get Audrey's two year and Christmas photos done. Our morning started out with Audrey waking up with a major runny nose. I also realized about a half hour before I needed to leave that she didn't have any cute shoes to wear with the two outfits I had for her.

We made a mad dash to Kohl's in hopes to find some silver ballet slipper type shoes, which of course they didn't have. We did find some pink ones, so those had to do!

Audrey isn't a fan of doing anything that she doesn't want to do, so pictures were a little challenging. Luckily, the girl got some cute Christmas shots, so we switched rooms and outfits to get some generic two-year old shots. Unfortunately, Audrey had had enough and had a little meltdown. Her face was getting all blotchy from crying and she wouldn't go anywhere near any of the props, so we had to settle for only Christmas photos.

I, of course, went over what I planned on spending, but after I picked out the shots I wanted plus Christmas cards, I only had to spend $15 to get the whole photo CD for free. So, I picked out another pose, but I could only buy 3 sheets of a pose, not one - that's how they get you!!

So, I have a zillion photos of Audrey. If you are related to me or know me fairly well, expect to be getting some photos of Audrey soon!

27 Week Belly Shot

Can you believe that this giant belly has three more months to grow? It amazes me how much the human skin can stretch!

The Wiggles!

The Wiggles concert was a success! Luckily, we had half a row b/c Audrey didn't stay in one seat for very long. I think she sat with everyone except me and Andy, and was with Tyler most of the time. He loves his cousin Audrey and kept reaching over and giving her hugs and kisses on the cheek!

Here she is with Aunt Tina. She eventually made her way all the way down to Uncle Jason too.

The show opened with some ballet dancers dressed as clowns. After they did a dance, the Wiggles came out in their big red car. I think Audrey was a little overwhelmed at first because she watched the first two songs with her hands over her eyes, although she did do a little clapping too.

After a while, she got really into it and I've never seen her dance so hard! She was pumping her fingers in the air, twirling, and jumping. During one song, Anthony pretends to be certain animals, and Audrey was jumping like a kangaroo with him and lying on the oh-so-clean arena floor pretending to be a snake!

They saved one of their most popular songs, Hot Potato, for last, and asked all of the parents to get up and dance too. Tyler noticed that Uncle Andy was still sitting in his chair and made him get up too! Audrey must have heard them say that it was the last song, because half way through, she starting waving and saying "Bye bye, Wiggles!"

Besides trying to steal popcorn from the lady behind us, Audrey did very well at the concert! As soon as we got back into the car, she was asking for her Wiggles CD, but mean 'ol Daddy insisted that he did his dut

Happy Birthday Weekend To Me!

We have had a very busy birthday weekend, which started with me having to take my Xterra to the shop all day Thursday to get a sensor repaired so my truck would pass emissions. Luckily, Grandpa Pete works for Goodyear and helped me save $225 from what the Nissan dealership was going to charge me. They are such a ripoff! Grandma Mary picked Audrey and I up from the Goodyear shop and we spent a nice day shopping while my car was being worked on.

On Friday night, the whole Farbotko clan came up and Mary made Chinese food for dinner. Audrey and Ian had a great time chasing each other around the house. She really wanted Ian to sit in her chair with her, so I stuck him in there and got this cute shot:

Saturday evening, the Hoffman side of the family came up. Mom made a big pan of lasagna and the kids ran around like maniacs. Jack wanted to watch a Baby Einstein video, so Andy stuck it on while we were finishing dinner and got a rare shot of all four kids sitting still!

Tina brought over some baby pool toys that Jan wanted to get rid of. Audrey found the yellow float suit and wore it on her head while quacking like a duck. What is wrong with her?? :)

The funny kid quote of the night came from Tyler, who called Jack a girl. When Jason told him that Jack wasn't a girl, he said "But he's so pretty to look at." Too cute!

We have The Wiggles concert tonight, so I'm sure I'll have some great pictures to post soon. Audrey and Jack were singing Wiggles songs together last night, so I can't wait to see what the two of them do at the concert!

To Potty Train or Not To Potty Train?

Although I think she's still a little too young for it, Audrey is starting to show us signs of understanding using the potty. She will tell me if her diaper is really full and she gets embarrassed if she has a poopy diaper. If you ask her if she has poopies, she'll say "No!" and then go run and hide in a corner! A couple of weeks ago, she sat on the twins training toilet and said "I go potty! I go pee pee!"

Yesterday, she was playing with her Little People dollhouse and I asked her what the Mommy was doing. She grabbed the Mommy, stuck her on the little toilet and said "Mommy go potty!" She might have done that because she always sees me going potty now since her little sister seems to be sitting directly on my bladder!

While I was changing her for bed last night, she said "No diaper" and ran off naked. Andy told her not to go potty on the floor, and she said "Potty!" and ran to the bathroom. Andy sat her on the toilet and she just sat there and giggled. Every time he took her off, she would want back on to "go potty." She never actually did anything, but she's getting the concept!

My big dilemma now is whether to wait until I am on maternity leave to potty train. I figured it would be easier for me since I'll be home every day, but I don't want that to be too much for Audrey to deal with (new baby plus potty). I would absolutely love it if she was out of diapers by the end of February so I don't have two in diapers at one time though. Decisions, decisions...

Here is a photo of Hazel (in Audrey's chair of course - she's actually napping there right now) that I snapped this weekend:

Audrey gave her all of her plastic animals and kept saying "Say thank you. Say thank you, Hazel." Being the ingrate that she is, Hazel never did thank Audrey for piling all of her animals on her! ;)

Take A Baf?

Audrey continues to amaze us with her ever-expanding vocabulary. She is also becoming the master of stall techniques at bed time. There's the ever popular "Take a baf?", plus "Brush teeth?", "More juice?", "More diaper?", and "See Roscoe and Hazel?"

If we come home from somewhere and it's dark out, she'll ask to go see the moon when I get her out of the car. We'll walk out to the driveway, find the moon, and she'll say "Bye bye moon. See you tomorrow!"

She also picks up on songs quickly and can sing at least a dozen songs, getting most of the tunes and words right. Along with songs like Twinkle Twinkle, Old McDonald, and Where is Thumbkin, she also knows Jingle Bells, various Wiggles songs and the theme songs to the Mickey Mouse Club and Little Einsteins.

There is a new older lady in her room at daycare that is always gushing over Audrey when we pick her up. Today she told me that Audrey is the sweetest little girl that she's ever met. I guess Audrey saves the Drama Queen personality for home!

Enough bragging about Audrey... the pregnancy is going well. I had the yucky one hour glucose test on Tuesday and spent the evening barfing up a storm. I'm not sure if it was from the glucose test that morning or the Wendy's that I had for lunch. It could have been either one! I don't know when I get the results back but hopefully I passed so I don't have to take another test. I plan on taking it easy this weekend b/c I had a little bit of spotting this morning. The nurse said that it was probably from lifting something (Audrey perhaps?) or overexerting myself.

Here are some pictures of Audrey, Ryan and Batman playing on the tire swing. Ryan was spinning everyone around and singing a little song about spinning. Audrey thought he was pretty funny, and Mommy thought Jack was pretty funny in his Batman jammies! He always has some kind of costume on when I see him!