Slow and Steady

Audrey Grace has finally decided to walk full-time. It really happened overnight. As as I said in my last post, she would walk a few steps and if she fell, she preferred to crawl, but now she prefers to walk. She is still not fast, but she takes her time and keeps her balance. If she starts to loose her balance, she will slow down to catch it! She kinda looks like a little old lady! She will walk from room to room looking for something to get into. She has also learned several new words...bow, socks, shoes, knee, pipi, melmo (for Elmo) and milk are the ones coming to mind. She knows what these words mean too. She is absolutely obsessed with her pipi. I dread the day we take it away. I probably should have listened to those who said to take it away at 6months, but I didn't. I had a pipi until I was 5!! I think I turned out ok... AG continues to get more and more teeth. Her molars are coming in. I am really not sure how many are back there, but when I was rubbing some orajel on her gums I felt teeth everywhere!

Audrey Grace and I stayed in Columbus for the weekend after the MSU/LSU football game. AG and Laura Lea stayed with a babysitter while Ryan, me and the rest of my sister's family went to the game. On Saturday we rode on the golf cart to go feed "Spot" the horse. This horse lives down the street from them and we have no idea what his name really is. The Sharp girls have named him and love to go feed him carrots.

These pictures are out of order. The top one is where she is smiling at the horse once she realized he wasn't going to get her.

The bottom picture is when we got off the golf cart and she was not too sure she wanted to get any closer!

My 10 year class reunion was the weekend of September 23rd. Our plan was to go down Saturday for the family lunch picnic and then Ryan and I would go to the dinner that night at Anthony's in West Point. Well, Friday night, Dru called to let us know that Annie was in the ER with a kidney stone. She came to spend the night with us and she was in so much pain. There was no way Ryan could leave her. So, AG and I went to Columbus by ourselves. My mom came to the picnic too since the parents were invited. I was really disappointed Ryan could not be there but I still had a great time seeing old friends.

AG showing off her new skill of walking! One of my best friends from home, Anna's little boy Farrell. AG was not so sure why he was so close to her

Then she decided she liked him and she would hug him back MiMi, AG and Mrs Lucy Harpole
Sara, Kristi, me, Nichole and Kate

I took AG to get a treat at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. I really don't know what I was thinking by letting her eat this in the car! She thought that chocolate covered oreo was the best thing ever!

You want some?

Ready for my school pictures!

15 month check up

Audrey Grace technically turned 15 months on August 24th but we went to her 15 month check up on September 15th. She is growing and developing perfectly, but of course we knew that, right?! Audrey Grace weighs 24 lbs and 10oz which is 75th percentile and is 33 inches long which is in 90th percentile. She is finally walking! She has been taking a step or three but then goes down. Labor Day weekend she started taking more like 5-8 steps. She still loves to crawl and knows she can get anywhere fast by crawling but she will walk first now. If she looses her balance, she will get up and try again; as before, she would just crawl because she was already down. I think her feet are too little for her body. As you can tell by her stats she is a healthy, long girl, but her feet are little. Her feet don't quite measure a 4, but they are so thick, she wears 4.5 or 5's so her feet will fit into the shoe! She is still very serious and has to "figure you out" before she is going to acknowledge you. She is beginning to follow commands like, go get your book, or shoes, or lets eat supper and she goes to her highchair. She loves to talk, and her new thing is to sing. We love music around our house. Usually when we get home from work, we play music instead of watching TV. She loves to stand up and dance! I usually leave the car running when I pick her up from daycare, so when I am putting her in her car seat she will be dancing to the music that is playing on the radio! Maybe she will be musically inclined because she has started singing too. Of course we have no idea what she is singing, but it is really cute to hear her sing. She still loves books and has recently discovered how much fun magazines are. She will sit in the floor for 30 minutes flipping through a magazine. She would much rather have a kid magazine (pottery barn kids) or toy magazine. She will flip the pages and point, and say something and laugh. She still will try to repeat anything you tell her. She can tell you that a cow says moo, a cat says meow, a lion says roar, she knows what a cow, duck and frog are in books. She can point to her eyes, ears, head, hair, nose, mouth, belly button and toes. She is pretty obsessed with pointing to and showing you her belly button and nose. She knows what shoes are and where they go. She knows how to give hugs and loves to pass out kisses and say night night when it is time to go to bed. We got her a cozy coupe a few weeks ago and she thinks it is the greatest toy ever! Now, that I have told you all the perfect things, on to the not so perfect. Audrey Grace has learned to hit. I have talked to mom's with kids in daycare and out of daycare, and this just seems to be the age when this starts. She doesn't do it daily, but she will do it at the most random times. Usually she is tired, but like yesterday, we were in the floor playing and laughing and she just swatted at me! Then she looks at you like "what are you going to do about it". So I have decided we must do something every time this happens, so she will know it is not right or nice. We are learning to discipline our 15 month old. For those of you who have not been through this, it is hard. Right now we are just raising our voice some and telling her it is not nice and putting her in her bed with no toys, blankets or pipi's. Then after a minute or so we go get her and she will give hugs and kisses. This little technique did work with her throwing her food off her tray. Now I can give her "the eye" if she even pretends she is going to throw food and she will shove it in her mouth. At school they don't do anything but say not nice. She has only gotten a bad report one day for hitting but it was because someone took her toy. I would hit them too! Not really, but I know school doesn't help this issue. I know this is the first of many things she will learn that we will have to teach her is not right, but right now this seems major.

Audrey Grace giving Annie her birthday present (on August 19th)


Of course she had to help open it too!