23 Months

Rocking her new antlers from Sarah, dress from Mama,
and boots from Marie. Festive outfit indeed.

I seriously can't believe that next month I'll be writing her 2 YEARS OLD post!! How in the world did that happen?

This update will be less writing, more pictures...I'm sure you'll be fine with that.

To start the month off we headed off on a weekend getaway to celebrate Thanksgiving and Dada's birthday. Audrey was a champ during a very chilly hike:

She also got to try her first crab.

Back at home we watched the rain fall (later snow!) and pretended to drink right out of the milk carton.

She then decided it was time to start potty training her doll. 

(She's up next!! The day after we return from visiting Candyce in New Hampshire WE'RE GOING FOR IT!! She's totally ready. I say that now; hopefully I won't be eating my words next week. But I am so so so ready to be done with cloth diapers.)

We did some Christmas art projects.

Dada taught her how to shovel the driveway.

And she actually loved the snow this year!! It was the quickest I've ever seen her adjust to something new. 

Check out the smiles!

She even threw snowballs.

(And, believe it or not, she's in the same pants she wore last year.)

She was one happy girl when we finally came back inside. 

Is this not the cutest picture you've ever seen:

Then JiJi came for a visit! Last time she was here Audrey spent most of the time in the hospital, so it was fun to get to play more this time.

One of our activities included Audrey's first encounter with Santa. Now, I hadn't really talked about Santa much at all before this day, nor was I entirely convinced I was going to subject her to what was sure to be torture, but we were headed to the mall anyhow, so we stopped by to watch the other kids take their pictures. Audrey watched with curiosity, Santa waved at us, and there was zero line...soooo, we went for it. She was clearly hesitant when I started walking towards the big stranger, which meant that I had to sit down and smile for a pic to see if that would ease her in. 

It did not:

the winner...
mainly due to Santa's expression

She was a little less terrified looking at the end, but we still needed to do something to make it up to her.

Luckily we found this guy:

Still big and white and fuzzy, but much less scary

He got lots of hugs, 

and belly kisses.

She also loved his reindeer friend.

The day JiJi had to leave Aunt RaRa came! But I'm saving those pictures for the next post because there are plenty of cute ones.

The last thing that has to be mentioned in her 23 month summary is her newfound LOVE of the mailman. Or "MayMan!" in Audrey-speak. She knows the sound of the truck and eagerly squeals while heading to the window to see if she can see it. Not to mention the fact that with ordering the majority of our gifts online we got a lot of package deliveries. So every doorbell ring was 70% exciting with a little dose of her normal fear mixed in. But it melted away quickly when she got to ooo and ahh over the boxes and say "MayMan!" as many times as she could. 

More Christmas pictures to come!

Oh Christmas Tree

The first Christmas tree that went up in our house this year was a tiny silver one on Audrey's dresser. Its ornaments are her hair clips, and she finds it pretty cute.

The second Christmas tree was a felt one sent to Audrey from her cousins Carina and Zach. It was handmade with love and is now the focus of much daily play time. She especially has a thing for all the "tars" ornaments. (for some reason the "s" goes at the end of "star" in her language.)

Then it was time to head out and get a real tree! The weather and Ryan's schedule finally cooperated, and we took off down the road to the same tree farm we visited last year. We also snapped the same sort of pictures as we did last year:

2012 selfie

2013 selfie
(and she's still not really looking at the camera)

2012 forced photo op

2013 forced photo op
(but with a much happier face)

however, it still didn't last for long

Then it was time to decorate! 

Last year she touched the tree with us but thought it was pretty prickly, so that was as far as we got.

2012 decorating

Except for the amazing little pictures we snapped of her looking so festive sitting in front of it:

2012 portrait

This year she was all over it! 

As soon as we got set up she kept pointing to it and calling it "baby." We had said it was a baby tree because it's about a foot and a half shorter than the past ones we've gotten, and since anything baby make her incredibly happy the description stuck. A term of endearment, I'm sure. 

I strung the lights while Ryan modified our snowflake topper, and Audrey watched with much excitement. Then it was time to get out the box of ornaments! Ooos and Ahhs were spoken for each one I held up. And every time I asked "Do you like it?" "Yeah!!" was the quick response. When I showed her how to hang one on a branch she caught on so quickly you would think she had been doing this for years.

2013 decorating

She was very careful and very particular about each spot she chose.

She has two ornaments from last year that say "My First Christmas." A little wooden owl from Aunt Sarah and this picture frame one from us. They are easily her favorites. Plus a fat little santa that spins in fast circles when she shakes him. "Roun-n-roun-n-roun" he goes.

Reach up high!

"Hep, peeze"

I'm crazy about the cheeks in this shot! For sure my favorite of the night:

TaDa! All done!

She was more than willing to take a picture in front of her beautifully decorated tree.

So much so that we even got her first ever cheesy, head-tilt pose...

2013 portrait
she's turning into quite a ham :)

Leaf Pile Baby

The fall colors in our corner of Pennsylvania were amazing this year! The past two years there were freak storms in late October that must have changed the cycle of the trees enough that most didn't reach their full potential of reds and oranges. Oddly enough, though, the tree across the street that took our breath away the past two years with its unbelievably yellow leaves was far less impressive this year. So yellow trees and red/orange trees must have different ideals when it comes to the timing of temperatures (?) Anyhow, we have two big trees in our front yard that turned a brilliant orange, along with most of the trees lining our street. It was the most amazing surprise, since we had only ever seen them go almost straight to muted brown. So naturally once they started falling we had to go outside and play in them for a little impromptu photo shoot!

Dada raked them into a pile for us, and then the little one went to town! In her own way...that is. She's never been much of a crazy terror that would run through the crunchy pile, squealing and kicking leaves and making a huge mess. But she happily sat and admired the individual leaves, grinned and giggled like crazy when we made them fall down around her, and gave us some precious smiles.

look Mama! a leaf!

cheese!!

Oooo, another one

am I cute or what?!

We try to teach her to be wild and crazy sometimes, but she's more the type to insist that you wipe her hands between every sticky bite... So Mama did all of the leaf throwing, but she had fun watching!

This one made it onto the Christmas card :)

And in case you don't remember how it went when we staged a similar type of photo shoot in last year's snow you might want to check it out (click the link) and get super excited for how it is going to go this year! I have a feeling she'll be way more into it :) But maybe I shouldn't get my hopes up...

We're off to get our Christmas tree this afternoon!! Woohoo! She's going to love it so much! She's been so captivated by all things Christmas. Here are a few snipits of Christmas through Audrey's eyes so far:

-I put up little twinkle lights in her room, and she is in love with them! She watched me arrange them in complete awe-filled stillness, interjecting little "wooow"s every once in a while. She now wants to sleep with them on instead of her nightlight and insists to turn them on each time we enter her room.

-Everywhere we go she loves to point out all the Christmas "ites!" that she sees. And we have to say good night to the lights on our neighbors' houses that we can see from her bedroom window.

-When we passed the tree (multiple times) in the grocery store the other day she gave the most appreciative ooos and ahhhs I've ever heard :) The people around us thought it was adorable.

-She has been carrying a little stuffed snowman around the house, proudly calling him "man!" And, of course, there are plenty of those in decorations out and about, too, and she points them out with an enthusiastic "man!" as well. We'll definitely be building a real one in our yard asap.

-We've started our advent stories out of The Jesus Story Book Bible. Such a great book. They're pretty long stories for her attention span, but she follows along well enough. I'm so excited for the day when she'll really be able to understand the stories and see the connection between Christ's birth and the storyline of the entire Bible.

-Grandma sent her a nativity to play with, and it's the first doll house-ish type of toy she's had. I excitedly set it up during her nap one day and then brought her in to see it. Of course, she loved it! She toted baby Jesus around with her yesterday and even gave him a blanket and snacks. She's figured out that Mary is "Mama" but doesn't quite know what to make of the other guys. She thought she was pretty funny the other day when she put the camel up on the perch for the angel. She came over to me giggling and pointing, and when I saw why it made me smile. The girl's got a sense of humor :)

-And last but not least, she thinks Rudolf is a moose and gives some good grunts every time she sees a picture/sticker/figure of a reindeer (thanks Grandma). I have to get her some antlers to wear. She'll seriously do laps around the house grunting like a moose. Just wait till we move to Alaska, kid... You'll have plenty of moose to ooo and ah over.