So, without further adieu, and with my apologies for the crude bullet point style and less-than-perfect grammar, here is the January 2012 recap of quips/quotes/other riveting news that did not make it into a Thankful Thursday or other previous post:
- We had maternity pictures done the first weekend of the month. On a side note that only two of my readers will truly appreciate (AMP and MH), I have been growing my hair out for over a year, knowing that I wanted long hair this pregnancy. I imagined how pretty and feminine it would look, especially in maternity pictures. Being January, I'd hoped it would be chilly with low humidity and, therefore, my straight, thin hair would actually hold curl. Alas, it was sprinkling that day and five minutes in, it looked horrible and stringy. I kept thinking of the quote in "Little Women" where Amy says to Jo after she cuts off all of her hair, "You've lost your one true beauty!" Because let's face it, when you're this pregnant and this large, your hair is just about all you've got going for you. Oh well. Look for pictures soon. Stringy hair and all.
- We've been touring and researching preschools for Audrey. Registration for fall begins in February and she'll be attending on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:30 - 1:30 beginning in September. For a split second, I thought to myself, "Eight hours a week?!? WHAT am I going to do with myself for eight free hours a week? I'll be such a better wife and mother because of all that I can accomplish in that time. I'll be able to focus more on Audrey and not worry about doing as many errands, as much housework, etc.!" Then I remembered...I'll have a second kid by then. No worries. It'll only be 3 1/2 more years before I get that kind of time alone. Piece of cake.
- Audrey's imagination is flourishing these days and is cracking us up. As often as we can, we bombard her with questions to get her thinking about the next part of a story she's telling or the next step in a problem she's thinking through. One of my favorite examples was during bath time a few weeks ago. She said she was going on a trip. I asked her if she remembered to pack her suitcase. She answered, "Yup! Here it is!" as she held up her green bucket. I asked what was in it. "Strawberries," she answered, without batting an eye. At least she won't go hungry.
- One Saturday morning, we went to get her up and then all crawled back into our bed together. We laid there trying to get another minute's rest (futile, of course) and at one point I told her she was on my pillow. She took her thumb out of her mouth and said, "Well, what do you want me to do or say about it?" and stuck her thumb back in. I almost started a pillow fight.
- Speaking of thumb-sucking, we're trying to remind her not to do it quite as much. I don't harp on it, because I think it's completely pointless to try and break that habit before her world shifts with a new brother, but every once in a while we'll remind her. She's not at all interested in our nagging, though, and even told David the other night, "Don't look at me while I climb up on the couch behind you and suck my thumb, okay?"
- In the store the other day she came running up to me saying, "This is how I roll! This is how I roll, Mommy!" Such a ghetto saying from a two year old surprised me until I looked up and saw her rolling one arm over the other in a patty-cake/dance move motion. Nice.
- I was doing some cleaning in the upstairs bathrooms using bleach. David and Audrey came upstairs and David said, "Shew! It stinks!" Audrey said, "No Daddy! That smells good!" That's my girl!
- She knows we've gotten super strict about our nap time and bedtime routines and expectations. (Didn't think that was possible, but nonetheless...) Recently when David was putting her down for a nap, he was singing one of his usual songs. As if she was anxious to get the inevitable over with she told him: "Just do it, Daddy. Just put me to bed. Do it."
- We've also been trying to crack down on the whining and fake crying that comes out of that child's mouth each day, so we created a reward system. I made a smiley face and a frowny face, laminated them, and created small circles attachable with velcro dots. Each morning, she starts the day with three circles/dots on the smiley face (four if she slept through the night without crying.) If she disobeys, whines, or does that awful fake cry for no good reason, she has to move a dot to the frowny face. She can also earn more dots for good behavior, but we rarely do this because we want her to realize it's expected as the norm. For every dot she has left on the smiley face right before nap she gets a mini M&M. Then, we start fresh after nap time with three more circles until bedtime. So far, it's been relatively worthwhile! I must admit though that it's slightly disturbing how little it bothers her when she has to move a dot. It's almost like she enjoys the distraction, I guess. She'll immediately stop crying and say, "Okay" and then inform whoever is around that she has to move one. Whatever, my little rule follower.
- I ruined our set of place mats in the washer and told her we needed to get some new ones. She promptly replied, "Bed, Bath, and Beyond has some with chickens on them. Do you think you'd like those?" What on earth?!
- On the monitor the other morning I heard her say, "Bbb. Bbb. Bbb. Booger starts with B!" At least I knew what was awaiting me!
- Her little brain is learning so much these days and lately she's been into similarities and differences. Just making conversation at dinner one night without either food present, I asked her how a tomato and a strawberry were similar. In a split second she answered that they were both red fruits. (Yes, technically a tomato is a fruit.)
- One a recent trip to Wal-Mart there was an alarm going off in the baby department that was driving me crazy. I told her it was annoying me and then had to explain the word annoying several times. A few minutes later, I brought up the awful sound again. "It's okay, Mommy," she told me. "Just move on."
We don't need to revisit her stomach bug, our awful colds, or the scary pregnancy cramping, but they were certainly also big moments this month! For the much happier times we had in January, see these posts: Our Babymoon, Luke's Baby Shower, and joining our church.
And don't forget to review the new pics in the gallery! There is one for the Babymoon, the Baby Shower, and January 2012 (which is all play dates - we've had a lot of them the past few weeks!) Enjoy and here's hoping that the recap for February 2012 will include Luke stories too!!!
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