Audrey

I was looking at some of my recent pictures of Audrey last night and I have decided something.

Her eyes are gorgeous and expressive. I can almost tell what she's thinking when I look in her eyes. You can't tell in the picture below, but her eye color is a lot like my mothers; cool blue. I don't know if they will change anymore before they're through. Plus, I'm jealous of her naturally arched eyebrows... mine only arch when I take the time to pull out the little hairs I don't want.


Secondly, I love her neck. I don't know what it is about it, but she has such a perfect neck! Maybe it's because when she was a baby, you could never see her neck, she had so much fat face in the way. Whatever the reason, I love looking at her neck now. I imagine that she'll have a lovely, long neck when she's older.

Maybe it's just because I'm her mom, but I think she is amazingly beautiful. I think she may be a heartbreaker when she's older. I'm hoping her love for books will keep her oblivious to boys for a long, long, long time.

I'm not THAT unbearable, am I?

On Tuesday, I was quietly reading and minding my own business. There was a sudden, but whispered, sound; like the flap of owl wings followed by a soft plop. I looked up curiously, though nothing was readily guilty of the noise. All I knew was that it came from the general direction of the TV. Hmm.
I was ready the next time the sound came, minutes later, and I caught the culprit in the act. By golly, my tulips were committing suicide! I bought them on Friday to console myself that Ben and Gabe were going out of town. Lovely, tall spring flowers were just the ticket to cheer myself up while bereft of my adult companions. To my surprise, my sweet-smelling friends didn't seem to reciprocate my affection and the petals were simply falling off the stems to their wilting doom behind the TV.

Sigh.

Plants never love me as much as I love them.

Photo Shoot - Updated

As promised, here is the link to a few of the pictures taken yesterday downtown! Super FUN!! At some point I'll get my own copies to peruse and share those as well. I'm pleased with what I see!!!
Just between you and me... I sortof felt like a model!

http://moniquedukephotography.blogspot.com/2009/01/first-fresh-face-family-fun.html

Just by way of an update, don't forget to change your browser window to full screen when you look at the pictures. I didn't do that and it cut off the right portion of the picture for some strange reason. :)

Awesomely Fun Day!!

I need to stop thinking my fun days are going to be anything other than completely and utterly exhausting.

We got up this morning at a decent hour and took Audrey to Explora! which is a children's science center. The kids get to touch, explore and play with all the displays. At 9am they have a toddlers only hour. Audrey loved the Toddler Jam (music time) and played with all the instruments that she could get her hands on. She also loved the water currents display. She got to play in the water and not get in trouble. Her shirt was soaked by the time she was done. We looked at almost everything and I'm pretty sure that Mama and Daddy were more worn out by the end of it... at least Mama was! Shortly after the general public (I.E. big kids) started coming in, we headed home.

Then, Ben's Elders Quorum President, John came by to look at our troubled electrical system. The electricity in Audrey's room and half of the 3rd bedroom has been out completely since last fall. After playing with our breaker box for a while, he wanted a look at the outlets in Audrey's room. Long story short, the outlet behind Audrey's bed is a GFCI plug. You know, one of those outlets that has the little reset button you can press if you overload it. Apparently, all the wiring in Audrey's room and half the 3rd bedroom is controlled by this plug. If it pops, everything goes. John said, "Now, don't get mad at me, but I'm going to try something." He tested the plug with his little machine, "Nothing." Then he pressed the reset button and tested it again, "Yup. You've got power." WHAT?!?
So, Ben says he feels like a doofus because it was something so simple after all. I just chalk it up to experience. That will be the first thing we check if that ever happens again. John also offered to help rewire that room so that plug is independent from all the others. So, if it ever goes out again, it won't blow the whole area. At least we didn't have to hire an electritian to figure that one out.

THEN...

We went downtown for a photo session with a good friend of mime, Monique. She ran us all around the downtown area to cool looking areas to take pictures. She said she would have the pictures up sometime tonight, so I'll post a link to her site as soon as she's got them up!! I'm so excited! She's an awesome photographer!
Then we had a bite to eat and caught up with her and her family. We haven't seen them in over 5 years! What a day! But it was super fun!!!

Pregnant Hot Dog

Since I am not allowed to sleep on my back anymore, I have two body pillows that I sleep with at night. I hug one while I (try to) sleep and the other is stuffed next to my back in case I try to roll into the off-limits position while I repose. According to the books, internet, etc, the left side is supposed to be the ideal side to sleep on, maximizing blood flow. So, I usually try to start out my evening dutifully sleeping on that side. This typically only lasts a few hours at which time I will wake up and need to switch to my right side, tuck body pillows in around me again and sleep some more.
This typically goes on all night; every few hours changing position and restuffing body pillows accordingly. As you can imagine, I don't get a lot of sleep.

This morning, while trying to get my sorry self in gear for our 9am church session, I was pondering my night of flip-flopping. I turned to Ben and said, "I feel like a hot dog on one of those turner things."

"You what?" came the appropriate response. After explaining, Ben laughed and said, "You have to blog about that!"

Me, the pregnant hot dog. Turning, turning, turning... all... night.

Fish!

Ben and I have a season pass to the Albuquerque Biopark. This pass includes membership to the zoo, aquarium and botanical garden. (Probably some other things too, but I'm not sure.) Unfortunately, a membership to the zoo in January seems a little pointless. As a result, when hankering for observation of animal life, we go to the aquarium.

Before we really got started on the tanks, we spotted a little invertibrate station that had been set up off to the side. We went over to have a look. Audrey was very interested in the crabs that were crawling around inside the tank. While trying to explain to Audrey what was going on in the tank, I called some of the little spiny/shelled critters "fish". I was emphatically told that they weren't fish. (Oh heaven forbid!!) Anyone who remembers me as a child knows that at one time in my life, I probably knew more than all three of the workers combined about the animals they were displaying. I explained kindly that, to Audrey, just about everything living in the water is a fish at this point in her life.
One of the workers pulled out a sea urchin and invited Audrey to touch it. After a moments hesitation, she touched it and then tried to pull one of its spines off. It's interesting how a gentle prompting of "softly" can turn into "SOFTLY!!!" when under pressure. After the little guy got put back into the tank, Audrey decided herself that she was done and climbed back into her stroller.


The ray tank was fun. It took Audrey a few moments to realize that she needed to look longer than 2 seconds in order to see anything interesting. Here is Dad pointing out what she's missing.


I love this shot. Mainly because she was completely unaware of how close the ray was to her, having just seen a different one pass by.


Topside view. She almost didn't seem to realize that these were the same animals that she'd been seeing the bottom side of before. The rays get some sort of amusement out of coming close to the glass and flapping their wings out of the water. I wonder if they breach like that out in the wild?


"Hi fishies!"


Yes, I know. Same tank, but Ben wanted to get some Mommy shots in too.


Just before Ben took this shot, Audrey had reached out and touched the water. I think she didn't realize that the fish were actually swimming and not floating in mid-air. She looked at her hand and said, "Ewww!" LOL!


For some reason, all the rays seem to like swimming against the glass walls of the tanks. It must feel nice. :)


This poor little ray in the Shark Tank got chomped on. We wanted to let someone know that the little guy was hurt, but we couldn't find anyone. It was very sad. I'm sure they already knew about it; it's not like they can just swim in there any time they like and pull a wounded animal out. Criminy! There are sharks in there!


My two favorite pictures of Audrey next to the Shark Tank.



There are more pictures that I didn't post here. I will be putting them up on my Facebook page as soon as I stop feeling lazy. :)

Update: Laziness averted. Here is the link to the album on Facebook. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=80902&l=4cc7b&id=679802657

My New Favorite Thing

I adore whistling tea kettles. There is something about them that makes me feel at home. While I was in Utah visiting my parents, I used their whistling tea kettle to warm water for my hot chocolate. One morning, as I was doing this, my grandmother came down the stairs and said, rather practically, "You know, you can just warm your water up in the microwave."

I replied with a smile, "I know, but whistling tea kettles are so charming. I can't help myself."

"Yes," Grandma said, "they are charming."

Charming indeed. I love whistling tea kettles. So, with this conversation in mind, when I wrote out my Christmas Wish List to give to Ben, I put Whistling Tea Kettle at the top of the list. I had every confidence that Ben would get one for me since he knows my feelings all too well. So, I was exquisitely pleased on Christmas morning when I opened that particular package.

I use my new whistling tea kettle nearly every morning to fix myself some hot chocolate and I make sure to leave enough hot water for anyone else who would like a warm breakfast. Ben is partial to oatmeal, himself. My little heart receives it's fuzzies every morning upon the sweetly pitched call from the kitchen that my water is ready.

One day I'll have some pretty little teacups that I can happily sip my hot chocolate from. Maybe next Christmas.

Chattering

When I'm cold, my teeth chatter.
I'm not quiet about it either. I make a lot of noise when I do it. I sort of sing/hum while my jaw jiggles up and down. So, it sort of comes out as: "Rrrr-r-r-r-r-r-r-aa-aaa-aaa-rrr-a-a-a-ah!"

Ben looks at me funny every time I do it. I know it sounds ridiculous, but it somehow makes me feel better to make all the noise. Maybe it's just as distracting to me as it is to him. Unfortunately, it doesn't distract him from me being cold. In order to keep my teeth from chattering, I have to clench my jaw quite tightly, and that's not good either since I have a mild case of TMJ. I don't know why I do it. I can't remember a time when I didn't do it.

I bring this up because as we were putting Audrey in her carseat this evening, her teeth were chattering (she had dawdled on her way to the van). From the backseat, I hear: "Rrrr-r-r-r-r-r!" We were all very amused by this since the only person she could possibly have picked this up from is me. We asked her if she was cold and she continuted to noisily chatter her teeth. "Rrr-r-r-r-r!"

Eventually, she emphatically said, "Rrr-r-r-r-r-r-r, cold!" at which point Ben, Gabe and I burst out laughing. So, I'm sure we have set this little habit of Audrey's in stone.

I'm sure when she is my age, her husband will look at her strangely while she chatters away and she will have no idea and no explanation of when and where this habit began.

A Place of Her Own

About a week ago, Audrey developed the desire to sit under things. It started with one of our bar-height table chairs that we have sitting in the family room. She would crawl under or over the cross-bars and sit there. It took her a while to figure out how to get out without hitting her head or getting stuck.

Ben and I were a little bemused at first, but I figured it out after a few times. Audrey was looking for an "Audrey sized" place to play. I think we often forget how big our houses must seem to little kids because, after all, they aren't that big to us. Once I told Ben my theory, and reminded him of most every kids love of building tents (houses, clubhouses, forts, castles, etc), he was off to find a bedsheet.

The resultant structure is held together by the aforementioned chair, a toybox and the pink horse she got for Christmas. She goes in there multiple times a day. She will pull the sheet aside, say "Mama?/Dada?" and upon our reply, go into a lengthy babble about what she's doing or why she's feeling so happy. We usually don't understand a word, but we say "okay" and she'll go back to what she was doing.

It was hard to get candid shots of her in the tent since she is hyper-aware of us 90% of the time. She usually poses and says "cheeese" when she catches sight of the camera. But, she did take me on a little tour of her place.

Peeeeeek-a-booo! I seeeee you!

The Chair of Inspiration

The hair that Mom can't do a thing with. Sigh.

After the tour, Audrey and her mom took some glamour shots to commemorate the ocassion.

Double shot of blue eyes!

"Aren't my Mom and Dad awesome!!"