Audrey Antics

Change seems to be the name of the game around her for Little Ms. Audrey.  She's firing out minute and monumental changes left, right and centre.  Sometimes I think it's happening because that's the natural progression of things blah, blah, blah and other times I think she's doing it on purpose to throw her poor mother for a loop. 

She's finally walking full time, at 17 months old.  It was so different for us from Bethany (while I don't compare them at everything, Bethany is our baby growing scale on which we measure Audrey and every other baby we meet.  Although Audrey's now being added to the scale).  B walked just shortly after her 1st, her wobbly steps unsure but once she started she didn't really go back to crawling.  Audrey's had the ability to walk for about 2.5 months, and would walk anywhere holding your hand, would scale the couches and if prompted would walk between two people.  But when it came right down to motoring, she would only crawl and it was driving me nuts!  She was grumpy, she couldn't carry things with her and would subsequently wack herself in the head with them as she tried to crawl, she wasn't keeping up to her big sister and that was not ok in her books, but as much as I tried to tell her "Walk already and STOP CRYING" she didn't listen.  Until about 2 weeks ago, she got up one morning and after her morning bottle, stood up out of her chair and walked over to give me her empty (this was a bottle of milk, not beer, in case you were wondering about the empties.  We soooo do not give the kids alcohol until after noon.) I just about fell off the chair.  From there she's been walking and running with purpose.  She still has a little tumble from time to time but for the most part she's got this walking gig down.  Yay!

On another scale, she's also decided it would be sweet to change up her eating habits.  This, for most families is a good thing, around these parts not so much.  See, AJ has always been my great eater, she'd eat any and everything, loving whatever I put in front of her and totally content to chow on anything her big sister did - aside from plain chedder cheese, she's loathed that stuff since forever.  And maybe it's because I've bragged shared with our friends once or twice, that she's a good eater or maybe it's because my children's only mission in life is to make me gray (I totally found a gray the other day, gah!) but she's decided to get picky.  Sometimes she'll eat her old favorites, and other times, like the night before last, she'll pick up her full plate and try to hurl it at the head of one of her parents.  It was awesome and a stinkin' good thing Mommy's quick on her feet and snagged that sucka.  I'm sure we'll survive, we've lived through all of Bethany's pickiness so far, I was just enjoying one kid I didn't have to be creative with or make up a special name for what she's consuming.

Audrey with her very bestest friend - Teddy. 

Which brings me to her 'Tude.  All I can say is, What the heck!  Where did that COME FROM?!!!  One minute she's sweet and is rubbing my back or kissing the love of her life - Teddy and then next thing you know she's freakin' out.  Her moods swing like the wind, but what throws me for the biggest loop is her absolute stubbornness.  I can put her in time out, say no and stand on my head and if she wants to keep doing something she'll keep trying to do it, in fact she'll usually look me in the eye, laugh and then carry on.  It usually takes 400 times of a consequence and a time out for Mommy before we actually accomplish victory and she doesn't do it again.  By then I'm exhausted and ready for bed, she however is energized and ready to head for something else she shouldn't do.  It's a spirit that while somedays makes me want to go insane, I also don't want to destroy.  As my Mother so often reminds me, it's that strong will (that she may have inherited from her insanely slightly stubborn Momma) that will protect her in moments of pear pressure, will help her acheive whatever she sets her mind to and will allow her to truly know who she is inside.  But for now, it's what is going to drive me completly mental as our personalities clash heads and I try to find a way to prevent her from being a terrible child.

And if all those changes aren't enough, her vocabulary is changing on a daily basis.  She's added new words and phrases that completely knock me off my feet.  A few of my favourites include "Dane-ga" for danger, "diap- ter" for diaper and "Rah-rah" for Sarah.  Listening to her chatter and talk is so sweet, it makes me melt.  Then there is the vocab that comes from listening to her big sister, she'll proudly say "I Do!" after anything Bethany says that too - eg, "Who wants a Bath?" B: "I Do!" AJ:"I Do" and then we head to the bath and Audrey starts saying "Nooooo!"  mmmhmmm.  It's cute and for the most part Bethany loves it.  There are moments when I'm pretty sure Bethany thinks to herself "This kid is driving me nuts, can't I just do it By MySELF?!" but she usually keeps it to herself and lets Audrey stay on her heels. 

Audrey Antics from Ashley Stone on Vimeo.

This copy cat stuff is also what brings me to the greatest and funniest developement yet.  Peeing on the potty.  That's right, Audrey is not only peeing on the potty but she's announcing that she needs to "PEEE!" It's so cute, watching this sweet little girl run, down the hall hollering "Mama! Peeee! Mama! PEE!"  The first time I followed her in and humoring her I put her on the potty.  Not 5 seconds later she peed.  I, almost fell over.  It's happened many times over and is a common occurance during the day.  However, there are more times that she get's on there and doesn't go.  She grins and then gets up, in all her bare bum glory and takes off.  It started out that she'd walk to her room shouting "Diap-ter! Diap-ter!" but no she just runs.  I've discovered that the desire to pee has been trumped by the desire to be naked.  And while, that may sound cute to you, for a mommy who actually wants her children to be clothed and presentable in public it's a slight problem.  But problem or not, I still end up following her giggling - you would too, if you could only see her.

She's my love, she's my Rosebud and my pal.  She's totally her Daddy and her Papa's girl, when they are around she generally wants nothing to do with the rest of us.  But she does love to garden with Grammy (even if she REFUSES to say Grammy, smiling and saying "Papa" everytime she's asked to say "Grammy") and will only cuddle Mommy to sleep at night.  She's strong willed and sweet and I'm truly looking forward to seeing and loving the woman she'll grow into!