Thanksgiving

We had a really nice Thanksgiving with Grandma Lala, Papa Rod, Aunt Ashley and Paul. It was our fourth Thanksgiving in Arizona. That is hard to believe. I think back to that first year here when we hosted the holiday without any furniture! We've come a long way...we actually used the china this year! I also cooked for the fourth year in a row so I'm getting the hang of it now. I really love it and I NEVER thought I'd say that about cooking anything.

Natalie decorating Papa Rod with roses from a bouquet they brought for her

(which, incidentally, is still looking gorgeous on our table.  Those are some long lasting roses!).

sweet little storytime

Ash and Paul

(these two are responsible for all of the pictures)

the group...minus Corey

the group...

minus Dad but randomly including the hallway. 

Grandma Lala is always up for an art project and reading stories

and Natalie could do both all day  long.

It was a fun weekend.  Thanks for making the trip, Mom and Dad! 

And thanks for eating two Thanksgiving dinners, Ashley and Paul.

18 Months Old

Audrey is 18 months old.  What a sweetie pie she is...

 

• Unlike her big sis, Audrey isn't a fan of bugs.  We have to cross a pedestrian bridge on the way to Natalie's classroom and there was the teeniest, tiniest ant on our path the other day and Audrey would NOT go near it, let alone hop over it and keep walking. She stopped in her tracks,  pointed and screamed until I carried her over the bridge. 

• With her arm stiffly stretched in front of her, she has the cutest way of using just her hand and fingers to motion us to follow her.   With the addition of those big eyes and the head cocked ever so slightly to the right, it's impossible to turn her down.  Last night, after motioning Corey to follow her, she also patted the seat next to her once she sat herself down.  So sweet.

• She loves a good old fashioned game of chase and, of course, prefers to be the one on the run that we try to catch.  But when she gets too excited, she has trouble running so she just freezes in place laughing with her eyes closed waiting to be caught.

• She doesn't technically say "no" yet but she shakes her head from side to side so fast, undoubtedly making herself dizzy and unmistakably communicating the same thing.  The best is when she's in the tub and Corey asks her if she wants to get out.  Shake, shake goes her head.  Then he asks her if she wants to get out and watch a bedtime video with Natalie.  Her head starts an instinctive shake, stops  midway and up go the arms signaling the deal has been sweetened enough that she's willing to get out.

• She likes to say "shh" (I'm sure she picked it up because of all the shh-ing we've been doing in her ear to get her to go to sleep for the last 18 months!) holding her index finger against her front tooth. She "shh"s me when she sees a bird, hears a plane overhead or after she's been reminded that Natalie and Daddy are still sleeping.  But the best was the other day when she was having a noisy little tantrum and all of a sudden she stopped, sniffed, and shushed herself.  Classic.

• She loves being read to.  She'll bring a book to me 20 times a day and sits so patiently while I read it...as long as it's a short book.  If it's too long, she shuts it when she loses interest and hands me another one.

So serious

 

Obviously, I'm too afraid to trim her bangs after that last snip gone wrong. 

A professional trim with a hair stylist, you say?

Tried it.  

A screaming, flailing, head-whipping disaster. 

Everyone in the salon (and possibly the building) will need earplugs when we dare to try that again.

 

 

Very rarely she lets me put a bow in her hair and keeps it there. 

 

 

Such a cutie pie. 

And she's sleeping better the last few nights (and days) so that makes her even cuter! 

Happy half birthday, cookie!

Tutu Cute (times two)

Grandma Lala came to visit a few weekends ago bearing tutus.  Well, actually, just a purple tutu for Natalie.  But with a new purple tutu in hand, Natalie felt generous enough to share her favorite pink tutu with Audrey.  It was a little big for Audrey but she made do.  These opportunities don't present themselves often (big sister sharing super cool stuff) so she was more than willing to put up with a tutu that wouldn't stay on her tush.

I shot some great pics of the girls but, unfortunately, I failed to capture Grandma Lala in any of them.  Sorry Mom.  We love you so much and are so grateful you came for such a fun weekend.

Grass Angels

For children without snow, a grass angel will have to do.  Natalie was having a great time this afternoon in the neighbor's front yard and said, "look, Mom, I'm making a grass angel!"  The poor winter-deprived kid. Of course, Audrey had to follow suit even though she had no idea what it was she was supposed to be doing.  She just loves any excuse to copy her big sis.

Sleepless in Sun Country

After many months of relatively good sleeping (it is Audrey, mind you, so I use the term "good" very loosely) we seem to be back in a very restless and wakeful night time pattern.  I say we because although it's only Audrey who is having trouble going to sleep and staying asleep she, of course, brings the whole family down to the depths of exhaustion right along with her.  We've done everything we can think of to make her bed an inviting place to be but she just doesn't seem to want any part of it.  She'd happily sleep in my or Corey's arms all night, provided we don't stop rocking, swaying or singing!  But once in her crib, she immediately wakes up angry and downright insulted that we had the nerve to lay her down.   It's like having a 22 pound newborn! 

And naps are no better.  You'd think a kid her age who gets only 8 (numerously interrupted) hours of sleep per night would crave a long afternoon nap but she fights those, too.  I'm not sure what she runs on.

 Maybe she's mad because I make her remove her Turkish dress up shoes before she goes to bed.

We actually had a great night last night so we may be on the upswing.  Here's to hoping!

Jumping Beans

Natalie is the proud owner of a lively family of Mexican jumping beans.  Corey brought them back from a recent business trip and I venture to say these are the most cared for jumping beans in the world of jumping beans.  In the 48 hours that she's owned them she's bathed them, dried them, decorated their cases with stickers and sequins and created a blanket for them to keep them warm (and still) at night.  She actually relocated the beans while she decorated their cases because she didn't want them to breathe in any damaging glue stick fumes. 

So, now we have about 12 lively little beans that dance all day and sleep all night.  It's hilarious...and noisy! As long as they're covered up and don't get a glimpse of light, they are relatively quiet at night.  So, that's a DOZEN more creatures in this house that sleep later than Audrey who is rising a whopping 2 hours before sunrise these days!

Natalie insists she's now ready to move on to owning a hermit crab and a guinea pig of her very own.  I told her we'd think about the hermit crab.  I asked her what the appeal of a hermit crab was and she said, "because I can decorate it's shell with paint and stickers!" That's our girl.

Little Sister

Never before have I thought little sisters have much to complain about. I was an older sister. I thought we were the ones that suffered. Our stuff was never sacred, our secrets were rarely safe and our curfews were much, much earlier! But now that I see sisters in action from the motherly perspective I can honestly say that the little sisterhood is no picnic.  (my belated apologies, Ash!)

Audrey wants everything that Natalie wants. Period. It doesn't matter if she's ready for it, if it fits or if it's even fun...she wants it. She wants to ride Natalie's 2 wheel bike. She wants to wear high heeled plastic dress up shoes. She even wants to puff on Natalie's inhaler and cries when we don't give it to her. And when she does get her hands on something that she's coveted, it usually gets yanked away from her by Natalie in a not so gentle and loving way.

Audrey is a much more emotional toddler than Natalie was and I truly believe it's because she hears NO a lot more in a day.  Our house was Natalie-proof, for the most part, when she was this age so she didn't hear many NOs.  But Audrey is tempted by all sorts of forbidden fun like choking hazard dress up clip-on earrings, ink pens, glitter paints, glue sticks, and lots and lots of Disney Princess lip glosses.   She has two parents and one preschooler removing items from her sticky little fingers all day long.  That can be tough on the spirit.

But when the cat's away...the cute little mouse does like to play.  And she prefers to play in Natalie's dress up clothes.  Audrey brought me this dress the other day (needing a bit of assistance) and then put on the heels herself.  She clickety clopped through the house like a true princess-in-training.  What big sister doesn't know won't hurt her!

Thank you, Nana!

Nana was here for almost two weeks and we didn't want to let her go home.  This was her third Halloween with us and such a fun one for her to be a part of. I've decided the ratio of 3 adults to 2 children really works well for daily life but especially during Halloween festivities! Each of us could be in charge of a kid and the third could snap pictures! 

Because Natalie was in school every morning, Audrey had a lot of one on one time with Nana!

And Natalie, of course, got her special Nana time, too.  She'd venture to the camper (a.k.a. our casita!) bright and early each morning to wake up her Nana.  She's a pretty sweet little alarm clock!

Thank you so much Nana...for EVERYTHING.

We love you!

Happy Halloween

We had an awesome Halloween this year.  And this is coming from someone who never really liked Halloween in the past.  But it's such a fun holiday with little ones.  As long as they're happy dressing up as sweet little cupcakes and furry little kitties, I'm on board!

Our
furry little kitty:

 her picture face is even cuter with whiskers!

she really got into character for a while there



And our
super sweet little cupcake:

They were both so into it this year.  Natalie had a Halloween parade at school on Friday and loved prancing around in her costume!  Then she got to eat cupcakes at her class party...an all around fantastic day for our little cupcake lover! 

Friday night we went to a Trunk or Treat and both girls had a blast.  Audrey frequented the same "trunk " of candy all night.  She'd walk up to the candy bowl, grab a piece in each hand, run around for a while and then go back to the same bowl to deposit her now warm and squishy candy bars and select two fresh ones.  The ladies in charge of that particular bowl of candy thought it was hilarious but I'm sure the kids after Audrey who all got warm and smooshy candy bars didn't think it was very funny. 

And I thought the Trick or Treating might be a bit much for Audrey but she just walked up to the front doors with Natalie and happily held out her kitty purse to be filled with candy.  It was so heavy after a dozen houses that we offered to carry it for her but she INSISTED on carrying it herself!  Because "Trick or Treat" and "Thank You" aren't yet part of her collection of spoken words she, instead, waved and said "bye bye, Daddy!" when we left each house.

The Halloween-a-thon is over, once again, until next year!  But what a time of it we had!