she's a cereal girl, livin' in a cereal world.....

Well, it's official. She's an addict. To cereal. We've known this for quite some time now, and I guess we're eventually going to have to have some type of intervention. In all seriousness, if she had it her way, some days she would eat cereal for 3 meals and 2 snacks. Fortunately for the betterment of her health, we are here to guide her along :)

She is still not feeling well, though, and everyone knows that when you're feeling under the weather, it helps to eat food that you like. With that in mind, we've been "giving in" a little more to the cereal requests. Well, we ran out so of course the next time we were at the store we went to the baby aisle in search of the Gerber Flakes. Gone. Ok, no big deal...wait a day or so until we go to another store. Gone. Slight panic, but we're still ok. We eventually go to Wal-mart - they are supposed to have everything. No Gerber Flakes. Now we're in trouble. (Technically this might be a good thing - but not while she's teething)

Finally, I go to Target. Why didn't I start there???? I always go there!! Anyway, there they were. Little boxes of heaven. BUT they were on clearance!! Shame on Gerber for trying to eliminate Audrey's favorite.... so I bought every box they had. ha ha....

We have BIG NEWS at our house!! Audrey went tinkle in her potty! I just posted not too long ago that I thought we were really a ways from this...but it just happened. Ryan and I were sitting at the kitchen table talking and Audrey was running around the kitchen playing. She ran over to the gate and said "potty!" So we looked at each other and we both figured "why not?" So, we lift her over the gate, she climbs up the stairs, we get her pants and diaper off, and she sits on her little potty. She gets situated (this involves raising and lowering the lid and the seat a few times and decided how she wants to sit) and I hand her a book. Ryan and I are both sitting in there with her...we shut the door so she couldn't escape. We figured she'd just run around and play in there if nothing else and we could talk about how big girls use the potty. Well, she never got up like she normally does. She just was flipping the pages of her book and all of a sudden the little potty went NUTS! It was playing a song and saying "Yay! You went potty!" So we had a potty party :) High fives, hugs and "you're a big girl" all around....I don't know why we were so shocked. We talk about it all the time. I guess b/c she never sits still, we just figured she had a long way to go. I actually almost cried....over this.... geez.

The other day after I changed Audrey's diaper, she looked at me and said "phew, I feel better!" We dont' know where she got that, but it was so cute. She is still loving preschool, and she talks all the time about her teachers and even one of the carpool assistants that she only sees for about 1 minute each time she goes.

Well....please keep praying for her poor little mouth. She's still in a lot of pain, and we're all 3 losing a lot of sleep.






She still doesn't get the concept of smiling for the camera, so we've resorted to "show your teeth, Audrey!" It kind of works..... :)












This is when she was coloring the birthday card for Grandpa Clay. She is focused....


















...and she was watching Barney too!


















This is what happens when you put too many starter logs in a chiminea.....


















This is Audrey's Grandpa Clay lighting the new chiminea all us "kids" gave him for his birthday. "It says only put one log in...eh...it's not a big deal. Three will be fine...."







....and it's Grey's Anatomy night so off I go :)

...and I can't get that stupid Madonna song out of my head now.

McWeekend

Well, things are shakin' up a bit. Mom and Dad actually signed on the dotted line and bought a new house. I think I might be in more shock than they are....well, maybe not. I'm excited for them though. However, all the excitement aside, I have been given a deadline. :) I now have to finally clean out all of my stuff from the house. YIKES! We bought that house when I was in 6th grade and the amount of "stuff" that I accumulated could fill a dump truck. They were gracious enough to let me slide for this long....but now I'm paying the dues. I went yesterday to start.... technically I have a little while since they are building a house from the ground up....but you never know...their house might sell tomorrow so I want to be prepared...and try to do this one day at a time.

I cleaned off 2 shelves in my closet and I succeeded in filling one huge garbage bag of trash, brought home the first of many loads full of things I can't yet part with, and I stuck one box under my old bed when mom wasn't looking. ha ha...I'm saving that one for later.

Audrey's hanging in there. She is still teething and I feel helpless. I did take her to the pediatrician to make sure I wasn't missing anything. She didn't have an ear infection or strep, but she did say her throat was a little red. It makes me so sad when she doesn't feel well. She is still chewing on her hands and fingers and just isn't "herself" all the time.

There ARE little glimpses of her though. I took some pictures of her today while she was coloring a birthday card for her Grandpa Clay. She was so excited to be coloring which is a major change (thank you preschool) and she wanted to watch Barney at the same time. Pitiful, sick, adorable little girl....this wish I could grant. She was so cute sitting there trying to color and bounce to Barney music at the same time....I'm so glad I had the camera there. I'll post the pictures soon...I'm too tired to download them now.

Ryan and I chaperoned a homecoming dance this weekend. Talk about feeling old....I never pictured myself as one of the chaperones. I really don't see how Ryan does it on a daily basis - sometimes I still feel more like I'm one of the kids than one of the adults.....and then I come home and administer motrin and hold a crying baby who wants to watch Barney at 2:00 am and that feeling goes away :)

Well, have a happy week!

p.s. if you don't understand the "pop culture" reference in the title then you are really missing out......

teeth are overrated

Well, it's Sunday night and I'm sitting on the loveseat watching the end of the Dallas/Eagles game with Ryan. It feels nice just to sit still.

My heart is hurting for my friend Nicole. This past week she found out she lost her little baby like I did and had to have a D & C too. We were so sad to hear this news and I know she would appreciate prayer. From experience I know this isn't going to be an easy few weeks for her - no one knows what to say or what to do. Only God can be her true comfort right now.

Today Audrey and I didn't go to church. She hasn't been feeling well for a few days. At the end of last week we started noticing that she just wasn't herself. Apparently she is teething and by process of elimination, I have determined that she is getting her 2 year molars b/c she has all her other teeth.

Audrey has never been one of those kids that puts things in her mouth...but she has been chewing on her fingers and biting her arm. She literally had teeth marks all over her wrist this morning when I got her out of the crib. Poor little thing. However, the absolute worst part of her teething is that it upsets her stomach...terribly. And sorry for the graphics, but her little diaper area was so bad that it was bleeding and raw in some spots. Hopefully those little teeth will break through soon so we can move on....

The good news is that when she isn't getting her diaper changed and her tylenol or motrin is in full effect, she is a pretty happy kid. :) She has been playing with her books and her new little potty. Although she totally does NOT get the concept of the potty, she likes to sit on it for 5 seconds here or there. We have not even attempted the potty training thing yet - she doesn't even realize when she needs a diaper change or she doesn't care. I know she's young but I have seen/talked to quite a few people who have kids this age that are potty trained. Part of me thinks that I might prefer the diaper situation...I'm wondering how it's going to be when she is saying "mommy, I have to potty" about 10 million times a day. I know her...she does everything to the full extent :)

I have a story that everyone says that I need to put on here...so I guess that I will. Let me preface this story by saying that Audrey hates the vacuum and it also wakes her up when she is sleeping. The pictures in the previous post are from Sarah and Adam's wedding. We were both in the wedding so one picture is from the rehearsal dinner and one is from the reception. Anyway, the night of the rehearsal, Audrey spent the night with my parents. As the rehearsal dinner was wrapping up, I turned to Ryan and said "You know what we can do tonight???" Unbeknownst to me, he was getting some good ideas of his own.... but I follow up that comment with a very excited... "We can VACUUM!" You should have heard the laugh I got in return. Needless to say, he finds this hilarious...I guess that's what happens after
4 years of marriage :)

Hmmmm....what else is going on with us? My parents are contemplating buying a new house, I have become obsessed with Grey's Anatomy - the best show EVER, Audrey has decided she likes Barney (groan) and I've already started Christmas shopping.

show and tell

ok...the title is a lie. I'm showing...not telling. :) Gather what you can about these pictures and my crazy hair. I'll be back to explain soon....