Happy Birthday, my sweet baby!

I have been dealing horribly with mommy guilt all week. Aubrey turned 1 year old this past Sunday!! How can that be? I wanted to post Saturday. I wanted to post Sunday. I wanted to post Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday - so here we are today. This WILL get done tonight! :)

Oh, Aubrey. I don't know if I will ever be able to convey to you what a joy you are! You always have a smile on your face. You love to squint your eyes and put a silly smirk on your face. You love to make others laugh!

I really can't believe that you have already lived a full year. The time goes by so quickly! You can take 7 or 8 steps at a time now, but you still prefer to crawl. You're really a speed crawler, which is probably why you still do it so!

You pretty much eat whatever we eat now. I've tried feeding you Gerber Graduates, but you're just not interested! You see what we have and that's what you want! You have 3 teeth on the bottom and 4 on the top. You're really working on getting some others in, though. They are making you miserable!

You go to bed between 6 and 6:30 and wake up by 7 or 7:30. You still take 2 naps, at 9:30 and 1:30. You LOVE your bed, so you have a very difficult time going to sleep when we're out of town.

The picture above shows what Sarah wanted to give you for your birthday. It's her "old" Bible, but she wanted you to have it so she and Emma can read it to you. Your sisters just adore you! They have never seen you as a frustration, imposition, or problem. They still fight over who gets to hold you and play with you. I LOVE it!

The nurse said you are ahead of schedule on your speech! You say "Mama", "Daddy", "Good Girl", (to all the animals) "no", "Night Night", "Uh Oh", and "Pretty". We just love hearing you talk!

Some of Mama's darkest days have happened this past year. You, my sweet angel, have been just the cure I needed! I began to notice that when I really found myself in a funk, you would be asleep. I wouldn't notice, though, until you woke up and I found myself joyful again - cherishing you. You are such a gift, in so many ways! You have brought so much to this family of yours - things we didn't even know were missing. I love you, Aubrey Claire. Mommy loves you for always.

And. . . she's . . . OFF!

My baby girl is growing up too fast! This video is from Columbus Day - she's 11 1/2 months old here. We were so proud, but she hasn't done it much since then! Methinks her big sissies hold her too much - why walk when someone will hold you? (Ignore the open bathroom door and crazy bedhead. Those are just in your imagination. Honest.)

** Update - Ya'll let me know if the video doesn't work for you. It's working on my computer, but that doesn't mean a THING! :) Have a happy day!

**Update #2 - I thought I had fixed the problem - I hadn't. I think I have again, but it's too late to call anyone and have them check for me. :) So, in case it's not, let's try this: click here to try to see in right on YouTube. Maybe it will work? I'm getting quite frustrated! Grr. . .

Aubrey-girl

This week's Blog Hop is our Favorite Childhood photo. This is one of my favorites - simply because Aubrey's eyes are just sparkling!! You can really see what a bright blue they are.

Saturday Morning Shop

Mama came down for the weekend, so yesterday we decided to take the girls to some yard sales. Emma and Sarah had just over a dollar each, and we'd spent half the day Friday convincing them that their buck would bring more at a yard sale than Wal-Mart.

Sarah got a DS cover, a pen, some eye shadow and 4 tubes of lip gloss for about 85 cents. Emma found a HSM radio, 2 eyeshadows, 1 lip gloss and 1 bottle of perfume for about 70 cents. Not too bad! I think their yard sale initiation wasn't too shabby!



Mama found this adorable Limited Too dress for Emma.

How much do you think I paid for it? $5.00? $3.00?

How about $1.00! I think this was definitely the deal of the day. I also found this cute hat for Sarah. It was .50, and it is just her style.

We all thought it looks pretty cute on Aubrey, too!

Of course, we couldn't have the camera out without the girls doing a little more posing!

This Magic Moment. . .

Remember that song? It's been stuck in my head the past few days.

My children NEVER fall asleep on me. I wish they would . . . every once in a while. But, alas, it just doesn't happen. If Aubrey is sleepy, she doesn't relax in my arms. She gets restless. And a little peeved frustrated. I think she wants to nurse - not sleep - so I don't make her happy. Now her Daddy? She loves to fall asleep in his arms. Nah - she's not a daddy's girl - not at all.

So, Saturday, one of Aubrey's top teeth was trying to break through, and she was none too pleased. The poor baby was miserable! She'd been fussy all day, and had not slept well because of it. I was getting frustrated, so I decided to hop in the bath and try to wash my cares away. Ivan had things under control - Cheerios seemed to be doing the trick at the time. He decided to lay her down when she finished - she was obviously VERY SLEEPY. So I'm relaxing the day away, and I begin to hear her screams cries. I tried to be strong, but I just. couldn't. handle. it. Don't get me wrong, I can usually let her cry if I need to, but I knew she was in pain. I had to try to help.

So, I hopped out of the tub, threw on my robe, and headed to her room. Ivan had her in his arms, to no avail. She was not happy. He passed her off to me, and I sat in the rocker to try to nurse her, thinking maybe it would help. She ate for just a few minutes, and then. . .

she just laid her head on my chest and looked up at me. I gave her her paci.

Within about 15 seconds, she was asleep.

It was heaven! I'm tellin' ya . . . because this NEVER happens, it was such a special moment. Crazy me, I was calling out to Ivan, as quietly as I could,

"Go get the camera!!! I have to have a picture of this!"

Cause you can bet your bottom dollar it will probably never happen again.

Those Weirdos at the Gas Station. . .

So, the fam and I headed to Monroe tonight. We needed to find a wedding gift for Ivan's brother, Jon Luke. The girls and I left the house around 5:30, picked Ivan up at the office and headed over to the Fieldhouse for dinner - with coupons, of course! We had Aubrey right at the table and I fed her some baby food - apples to be exact. We scooted on into town, and of course, took forever finding the perfect gift. Head back for home around 9:00 - it was overall an enjoyable, relaxing evening. As we got into North Monroe, I asked the I-man if he wanted to go on and fill 'er up - one less thing to do tomorrow, right? Just as we pull into Brookshire's, Emma says,

"Mommy, Aubrey stinks! I think she has a nasty diaper!"

Well, being the smart Mommy I (sometimes) am, I decided I should change her diaper there, so if she fell asleep on the way home we wouldn't have to wake her. I gather my supplies from the diaper bag and proceed to crawl out of the car. (We have a Pontiac Grand Prix - yes, with my hands full, it was a crawl) :) Emma gets out of the back seat so I can just sit in her spot to do my duty.

SURPRISE!!! Not only does Aubrey have a dirty diaper, she has a dirty everything! Remember how one of the dads looked in Look Who's Talking, when the baby was dirty? Well, that was me. It's all up her front, all down her back, all inbetween her legs. I call Ivan over - this is certainly not a one man ( or woman) job! Especially in the backseat of a Grand Prix. So Ivan grabs her and is just holding her out away from him. I proceed to pull her dress off - what do you know - her diaper is undone on one side! How in the world?!!! It certainly explained the mess, but boy were we in a pickle! Just try to picture it - you're at the gas station - you look over and see a man holding a naked baby about 3 feet away from him. With your second glance, you notice a woman trying to wipe said naked baby - but not doing a very good job! Ivan was holding Aubrey under her arms - those legs (and hiney) were moving all over the place! Ivan was worried about how she might be embarrassed - but I'm pretty sure I saw a sly, smug look of satisfaction on that little face.

So, if you were at the North Monroe Brookshire's tonight around 9:15, those weirdos at the gas station? Yeah. It was us.