Here are a few quips and stories of the last three months:
- She likes looking through pretend "'noculars" (like jamoms, this is an adorable sounding word we're not correcting). Whether it's the letters in her bathtub or her milk cup or even her own little hands, she loves peering through them.
- I didn't realize it, but I go through a checklist before we leave the house naming the things we need to take with us. She's picked up on this and will now ask, "Got phone, Mommy?" or "Got my drink, Mommy?" It came in really handy a few weeks ago when she said, "I need my shoes, Mommy!" Sure enough, I was about to take her out to the store redneck style.
- There were a few weeks that she was obsessed with boo-boos. Every small scratch or bruise on her become a huge deal. One night while we were giving her a bath, David asked her about one on her knee. I sighed loudly and he looked at me like, "What? What did I do?" For the next thirty minutes before we put her to bed, we must have heard her tell us about that boo-boo one hundred times. It really got comical when we were reading a Bible story and one of the characters was crying. Audrey knowingly proclaimed, "She crying because she so sad because she has boo-boo like Audrey."
- Speaking of boo-boos, she'll kiss herself when she gets one or kiss you when you get hurt. It makes it "Aaaaaaaaallllllll better."
- She has such an encouraging spirit. Whether it's cheering on an ant she sees crawling around outside ("Good job, ant! You can do it!"), complimenting the picture I drew ("Wow! You did great!), or yelling at Daddy through the window while he cuts the grass ("Yay Daddy! Good job!"), her sweet soul loves to praise others. One of my favorite mental pictures of her was when I was vacuuming the rug in the dining room. I looked up to see her jumping up and down and clapping for me. I couldn't hear her words over the vacuum, but I saw her little mouth saying "Yay Mommy! Great job!" That'll make even the most mundane housework better.
- She's also pretty good at coaching herself. So often while on the playground or while at story time waiting to get her hand stamped, I'll hear her whisper "Go! Go on! You can do it!"
- She has a magnetic zoo board she likes to play with. One day while we were playing we were reviewing the sounds all the animals make. She explained, "Mommy, this is a regular wolf. Regular wolves say 'Hoooooowwwwwlll', but big bad wolves say 'huff and puff'." Thanks for that important lesson, kid.
- While driving down the road, she was drawing on her doodle pro in her car seat. I asked what she was drawing and she said, "Daddy, Audrey, and a penguin." Why not?
- She's started to say something or someone is "the best ever" a lot. I'm "the best Mommy ever" and she's my "best daughter ever" as she likes to tell me frequently. I agree on both accounts.
- A couple of months back she had a little cold and I was wiping her nose for the millionth time. I finished and she patted my face and said, "Aw. You so patient, Mommy!" You have no idea what a struggle that is sometimes, kiddo!
- She had a tiny scrape on one knee where she'd bent down to play on the concrete while outside. When David came home she showed him and he asked her what happened. She answered, "That's where Grandmom messed me up." I thought for sure David's mom had jokingly said something to that effect to Audrey so after we finished cracking up, I sent her an email about it. Turns out she had said no such thing, but thankfully thought it was hilarious too.
- Heading to the park one afternoon she excitedly told me we'd see gooses there. I explained that when it's one you say goose and when it's more than one you say geese. "For instance", I told her, "Mommy is a silly goose but Mommy and Audrey are silly geese." She nodded and then shouted, "And Daddy is a stinker!" Don't know where that came from (honest!) but I agree!
- We were in her closet picking out her clothes for the day and she saw her teddy bear on the shelf. She explained to me that it was her bear from when she was little.
- David accuses me of turning her into a dork, but I try to use big vocabulary words or synonyms a lot around her. For example, instead of asking her to repeat "Please get me more drink" let's try "Please refill my beverage" or rather than "Yummy!" I'll substitute words like scrumptious or delicious. When she catches onto a new word and uses it on her own, it always takes us by surprise and cracks us up. For example, after chugging down half a sippy cup of juice, she takes it out of her mouth and exclaims, "I was parched!" The other day after struggling with a toy she yelled, "I am so frustrated!" I love it!
- While changing her awhile back, I was telling her she was my baby. "No I not" she told me. "You aren't?! Then who's baby are you?" I demanded. "Jesus' baby" she answered confidently. Can't argue that one.
- We work hard on instilling an attitude of appreciation and gratitude in her, which is often futile at this age. Still, we hope it's sinking in somehow. One evening when we were leaving the park, she began to whine that she didn't want to go. I told her that she didn't need to whine and cry. She needed to thank me for taking her and be grateful we went. She said, "I caaaaaaan't. I'm too busy whining and crying to say thank you." Yet another parallel between our relationship and my relationship with Christ.
- I walked into the kitchen to find her messing with the one childproof lock we own. "What are you doing?" I asked. No joke, she replied, "I'm putting this on right so I don't get in there." Aaaaand that's why we didn't bother childproofing.
- She recently moved up to the two year old class at church. When we went to pick her up after the service, they had her "artwork" outside in the hall against the wall with her bag on top like the big girl that she is. Yup, I cried. Then I laughed because all the other kids had used multiple colors and scribbled all over the ark. Audrey, on the other hand, had taken the blue crayon and colored in a little bit of water under the boat. That's my girl, ever the controlled realist.
- One particularly stressful morning, she was sitting in her highchair whining and fake crying up a storm. I said, "Audrey, you need to find your whining button and turn it off." There was a moment of silence as she looked for it and then, "Moooooommmmmyyyyy! I caaaaaaaaaannnnn'ttttt fiiiiiiiind it aaaannnnyyyywwwhhheeerrreee!!!!" *Sigh.
- I've explained to her that she is not to get on her rocking horse by herself. She needs a grown-up there to help her, mainly because it's so close to a table and the spindles on the railing I worry about her falling off and getting hurt. Anyway, I was - ah-hem - indisposed one morning and I hear a strange sound coming my way. She had dragged the horse all the way into the bathroom so I could supervise her riding it.
- Her Leapfrog laptop asks questions and one of them is "Who's your best friend?" One day out of nowhere she answered, "Charleigh." The next time I heard her answer that she immediately followed it with "And Grandmom and Granddad my friends too."
- The past couple of days we've used the portable potty in the back of the car. I try to face the woods or pull somewhere private (but not too terribly secluded) so we don't have an audience. Today before we went into the library, we were facing a bunch of trees, the breeze was blowing, and it was cloudy and sprinkling. As if she could hear my thoughts, she looked out and said, "Oooo. That's a little spooky, Mommy."
- I can't remember if I shared this one already or not, but it was too good to pass up:
Me: "Well, we aren't exactly sure, honey. Somewhere above Earth, but we don't really
know. The important thing is that's where God and Jesus are and all the people that
died believing Jesus is Lord. One day you'll have to decide for yourself whether you
believe that...." Etc. Etc. Etc.
AJ, with confused look, pointing to her head: "Where's heaben?"
Me: "Oh. Your headband is in the kitchen."
More to come, I'm sure!
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