Audrey & Ian

Audrey met her new baby cousin last night. It was quite exciting - Ian slept and Audrey clung onto Mommy, ate Fruit Puffs, tried to pet Blue and babbled for most of the evening.

Audrey tried to tell Ian that it's not cool to scream from 12 am 'til 4 am, but he said that he needs to make sure his Mommy and Daddy are properly initiated into parenthood! Uncle Alex was asking if Audrey still had moments where she screamed and cried for no reason, and like the good mother, I told him "Not really. She's a pretty happy baby." Well... she decided to scream on the whole ride home from their house! She did have a reason though - she was tired and didn't want to be sitting in that stupid car seat!

I can't wait until all of the kids are bigger so they can run around and play together. Hopefully Ian will assist Tyler, Ryan and Jack in beating up all of Audrey's future boyfriends!

On another note, Andy bought this jarred, pureed macaroni and cheese. I thought I'd give it a try tonight. I only put a little bit in a bowl because it's such a different texture and flavor than anything she's had and I didn't think she'd like it. Boy, was I wrong! I swear on her first bite she said "Mmmm!" She ended up eating the whole jar and crying when it was done. She's definitely my girl - all about the carbs and the cheese! I'm going to have to stock up on that the next time I go to Kroger!

Power Puff Girl

We tried Fruit Puffs yesterday and they were a big hit! I put the first one in her mouth for her and she spit it out a couple of times before she realized that it tasted pretty good. I taste tested them first to see how fast they dissovle. They taste like the crunchberries from Captain Crunch cereal - yum!

I thought she would be really good at putting them in her mouth because everything she can get her little hands on goes straight to her mouth, but not these! She tried, but they are so small and they kept getting stuck to the drool on her hands and then they would fall. I'm sure the waiter at Friday's loved sweeping up a bunch of Fruit Puffs when we left. Hopefully Andy tipped him well!

Once she has mastered these, we can move on to Cheerios, bananas, green beans and other soft mushy people food.

I finally remembered this morning to take the stepping stone we made for Andy out of the mold. It turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself! Don't tell anyone but the "D" in "Audrey" is an upside down "G." I thought it was just a fancy "D" until a little later, but by then it was too late to change it! My plan is to make these yearly and we can have a cute little path to the garden.

Welcome Ian Patrick!

Our new little nephew arrived yesterday evening. Ian Patrick was 7 lb 8 oz and 20 inches long. He was quite content in his home, but he was six days late and his heart rate was dropping, so they had to go in after him.

It's amazing how quickly you forget how little newborns are. He is so tiny and light! I can't believe Audrey was that little only six months ago. Now she's a baby-talking, wiggle-butting, baby food-eating, very opinionated little girl! When they are as little as Ian, you can't wait for them to get a little bigger and start doing more things. Now, I kind of miss the little helpless baby, although it's so fun to watch her learn new things. :)

Six Month Stats

Audrey had her six month checkup today. Her weight was 15 lbs, 14 3/4 oz (50th percentile) and her height was 26 3/4 inches (75-90th percentile), so she is still a tall, skinny little girl! She has reached all of her milestones for her age and the doctor said she's okay to start Fruit Puffs, cheerios, bananas and other soft finger foods. We may wait a little though mostly because it's scary for us to be feeding her real food! She also said that it's okay to give her water in a sippy cup (which is good because I've been doing that for about a week!) but to wait to 9-12 months for juice and meats.

This is how I found the princess when I went to wake her up for her doctor's appointment. Butt up, foot stuck out and puppy under arm!

You Can't Handle the Tooth!

**I got this title idea from Emma's blog about her new tooth - thanks Amanda!

We had a fun Father's Day. We celebrated on Saturday night with Papa and the cousins. The boys wear me out just watching them run around. Poor Aunt Tina! On Sunday Audrey and I made a stepping stone for Andy's garden with her little footprints on it. I'll have to get a picture of it once it has dried - we procrastinated a little on making it!

Audrey's left front tooth and the little one next to it (I obviously don't work in the dental field - I don't think those are their proper names) have popped in. The right ones are not far behind. Her poor gums are so puffy and I think these hurt a lot more than the bottom two that just snuck in. She has been a grump for Andy today. It really pissed her off when Mommy came home and walked right past her to go upstairs and changed. The poor thing screamed until I came back and got her - sometimes you just need mommy to make everything better!

I had her six months pictures made on Thursday. The one below is my favorite. She has her checkup tomorrow morning, so I'll report back on her stats!

Going Batty

So... at around 8:30 I go into Audrey's room to check on her for the zillionth time. As I am leaving, I hear this little scratching sound coming from the front corner of her room. I went down to get Andy and we went up into the attic.

I thought that the bats were hanging out on the screen on the inside of the attic vent, but they have found a hole and are actually in the space between the brick and the OSB on the side Audrey's room is on!

There was a little bit of bat droppings in the attic - I suppose most of it has fallen down between the brick and house. I looked up the symptoms of histoplasmosis: "Symptoms of the acute lung infection are tiredness, fever, chills, chest pains, and a dry cough." How vague and generic is that? So now every time Audrey and I have a cold, I'm going to be pretty sure that we have histoplasmosis.

The poor kid probably has nightmares because she has to listen to that scratching for an hour or so every night while they all leave, plus I'm sure they make that noise when they are coming back at dawn.

Our Little Fishie

Audrey went to the pool for the first time today. She started out by practicing splashing in her baby pool on the back deck Saturday evening.

Once she mastered that, she was ready for the big pool!

She loved it. The only time she cried was when Daddy dunked her (and Mommy silently had a heart attack), but even that was a couple of seconds after she blinked the water out of her eyes. I think she liked being dunked. She's a lot braver than I am!

I had to add this picture to the post because it's so darn cute. She wore her Georgia cap to the pool and even though she pulls her other hats off, she left this one on.

The rest of her pool photos are on shutterfly:

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