Audrey's Playdate

This Tuesday, we had a gorgeous baby visitor for a few hours while her momma attended a work meeting.  I watched Charlotte for "Miss Megan" and was so glad to be able to help her out!  I think Audrey thought she was a live baby doll just for her at first because all she wanted to do was touch her face and eyes.  After I told her "no" a few times, she was pretty uninterested in her friend--haha!  They must have had some sort of fun, though, because they both took two hour naps at the exact same time.  I was actually able to be pretty productive in that time, so I was happy!  I tried to get some pictures of the girls playing together, but these are all I could get:

Past those, Audrey would barely sit still and most certainly was not sitting still next to Charlotte.  I decided to take some pictures of Char by herself because hello gorgeous!  She is just too pretty (and still--haha) not to practice on.

I think this is her signature pose!  haha. 

Fast forward to a year from now and I'm sure these two will be having a blast posing for baby Gap ads and playing happily with their baby dolls together!  A mother can dream, right?

Parker's Last Day of School!

Last Thursday was Parker's "last day" of school for the year.  It was kind of sad but also a good day.  He started off the year crying every.single.time I dropped him off and continued doing that until this spring.  He potty trained this year, and his teachers all said that he has become more open and social with them and the other students.  He was such a good student!  Here is the comparison between the beginning of the year and the end:

In case anyone is wondering....I'm in love with the picture on the right.

Another picture from September!

Parker and his super-sweet teacher Miss Exner.  I wanted to get a "regular" picture of him with Miss Exner and Miss Susan, but he was being "shy", so this was the best I could get!

I am so proud of him for doing such a great job this year and am looking forward to seeing what a great time he has at "summer camp".

Audrey's First Birthday Party!

The theme for Audrey's first birthday party was "shabby chic" aka "southern vintage" aka "sweet and girly."  

 

 I had all 12 of her monthly photos on display in the living room.  Love these cheap frames from Michael's!  I also hung loads of pictures from her first year on the wall in the den.  The original plan was to have the party outside, but it was SO HOT, so we kept it mostly indoors.  This altered my decorating plans because everything in the pictures above (except for the flowers) was supposed to be hung sweetly on the fence.  Oh well--still loved them all! 

The kids had such a good time playing.  I couldn't get a non-blurry picture of them because they were all crawling around after each other!

Present-opening time was fun, of course:

Sweet dress!  My favorite part of the picture is actually her feet.

A baby dooollllllllllllllll!!

Opening presents is tough work--she needed to take a minute to lay down.

Apparently she also needed a water break!

 Best family picture from the day! 

"King" girls!

After the presents were open, it was cake time!

 

Quite possibly the best picture of Audrey to DATE.  Haha!  Photo credit: Aunt Lulu.

Happy girl!

This little sweetie pie took his cake straight to the stairs to eat it by himself.  I thought it was so cute!

Everyone except my parents, sister and Lulu left when we were done with the cake.  We went cleaned up a little and then went outside for the kids to play and to take a few pictures.

We got Parker a present for being such an amazing big brother for the last year.  Seriously--the child loves his sister more than anything and is so so beyond sweet with her (most of the time).  I bought him a scooter at Target about a month ago and knew this would be the gift.  His reaction to seeing it?

Totally natural to lift up your shirt in excitement, right?  haha. 

 The rest of the pictures were my attempt at getting a decent picture of the birthday girl in her birthday dress.  I got a couple good ones that I am happy with!

 

Proof that it was pretty hot out there.  Add some intense scooter-ing and you've got one sweaty boy!

 

I SO wish the car wasn't in the background.  SO important to look at what's back there!  

My favorite.  I was so upset because when I took this I was super-excited but when I reviewed the pictures it was WAY overexposed or something like that--super bright.  I played around with it a little and determined that it would look best as a b&w.  Going in a frame for sure! 

Love this one, too.  Such a sweet ONE year old!

Audrey is One Year Old!

Audrey

It's hard to believe that just a year ago you weren't even a part of our lives and I was scared of what things would be like once you got here.  I was so nervous about how our life would change and how your brother would react.  I wasn't sure how I could possibly love another child the same way that I love your brother--now, my heart is so full of love for both of you it sometimes feels like it could burst.  It's crazy because now it's getting harder and harder to remember what life was like before you were born.  Even though you are so different from your brother in what seems like every way, you've blended in so well and made life for our family that much sweeter.  Here's what's going on with you lately:

• You are wearing mostly 12-18 months size clothes.  You still wear some 6-12 months sizes in pants and even a 3-6 months size in a couple pairs of shorts.  You wear a size 3.5 or 4 in shoes.  You still wear a size 3 diaper!  
• At your one-year doctor's appointment today, you weighed 21.5 pounds and were 30 inches long.  The doctor was very impressed with your "social skills"!  He couldn't believe how unafraid you were of him and how talkative you were.  I told him that you take after your mother in that department! 

• You are almost fully walking.  By this I mean that you have taken several steps in a row (at least five or six) but aren't doing it on a consistent basis.  By next week I'm sure you'll be a walking fool. 
• Your current words are: momma, daddy, bye-bye, baby, night-night, NayNay, a version of thank-you, pretty, quack-quack, and the funniest "woof" I've ever heard.  You can repeat after us on some things, too.  It's so sweet to hear you talk!  

• You give sweet neck hugs and open-mouth kisses!  I would only accept kisses like that from you and your brother--not even your Daddy!  haha. 
• You have been a little "clingy" lately.  You tend to get upset when we walk out of a room.  Even if Parker is there, you sometimes will start scream-crying and it's a little intense.  You have been doing this at daycare too and driving Miss Donna a little crazy!  I have been working on leaving you by yourself more often and you seem to be doing a little better.  We will continue!

• We are still breastfeeding.  I am not in a super-rush to wean you and you seem to still enjoy it, so we will go onward for now.  I gave you cow's milk for the first time today and you were not impressed.  We will continue to work on it, though!  
• You LOVE baby dolls.  You have a couple now and love to hold them in your elbow or grip their neck like people hold dogs by the scruff of their neck.  You also "talk" to them.  It's pretty funny to watch you with your babies.  I can't wait to watch your "play" with them progress!
• You are SUCH a good eater.  It is just amazing to me.  You eat almost anything I give you!

• The only two things I can think of that you have flat-out refused to eat were tomatoes and avocados.  We will work on those!
• You have still been sleeping pretty well.  There have been a couple days recently where you woke up in the middle of the night and would not settle down without me coming in there, but other than those hopefully isolated incidents, you have been sleeping through the night.  You go to bed around 7:30 and wake up around 6.  It is SO nice to get a full night's sleep each night!  Keep up the good work, girl!

• You are a mischievous little girl.  You do NOT listen to the word "no" yet.  You are always trying to play with Reese's bowls and get into the cabinets you're not supposed to play in.  I can say "no" ten times in a row and you'll still crawl right back over to his bowls.  This is definitely something I need to work on more with you!

• You still have only four teeth.  This makes me nervous for ALL the ones that still have to come through!

Every picture in this post was taken on your birthday.  We decided to do a cake smash before your actual party to be sure that we got some "good" pictures without interruption or mass chaos.  I am SO glad I did.  I am happy with the few that turned out!  The other two above were right before you went to bed.  You had just opened your baby doll from Mona and we were all playing in your room before you went to bed.  

Thank you for being our sweet doll baby!  We love you more than you'll ever know.  Happy First Birthday!! <3 ....party="" :="" br="" come.....="" pictures="" to="">