Going up a size

    Oh my goodness! Aubrey is just growing so fast and it makes me sad and excited at the same time!

    I went through a bin and couple boxes with Aubrey's old clothes to organize them in piles I like :)

    It was fine seeing her old 9-month outfits and even 6-9-month ones, but once we got down to my favorite 3-month ones, I started freaking out about how big Aubrey is now! And at the bottom of the bin was some newborn outfits. She used to be SO TINY! And now she is wearing 18-month clothes!!!

    But she is so stinkin cute in everything she wears so I think I'll be ok. 

    I even organized her things by accessories, burp clothes, headbands and gender neutral outfits. If we decide to have another and it turns out to be a boy, I'll already have a few little outfits for him to wear. But that's a long way into the future. 

    I guess sometimes I just can't believe how big Aubrey is. She's now walking and making silly noises and she understands so many things! Aubrey used to be so little and couldn't even more around. Now she's going everywhere!!!

    I love my little girl!

Walking around church, strutting in her 18-month dress! She's all business!

Potty Training and Bragging

    I got Aubrey a potty training seat! I know I'm jumping the gun a little bit and starting super early, but Aubrey is a smart girl. I think she'll pick up on it, she'll just be stubborn and refuse to do it. 

    The reason I am starting this so early is that she hates diapers. She hates being changed, she gets uncomfortable in them. So I'm thinking maybe she'll like doing it herself. Aubrey is getting very independent now that she walks. 

    I'll put little updates up every now and then. She's still going to wear a diaper during the night, but during the day she'll be in pull-ups. 

    If anything, this will be a fun project and experiment!

    So here is the bragging. Aubrey is just so smart! I play games with her all day and she loves pointing to things and making an inquisitive sound that sums up "what or who is that?" with just one syllable. 

    We've been trying to teach her body parts like nose, eyes, ears and all that. I play with her toes and do lots of little hand games like pat-a-cake or the itsy-bitsy-spider. She never repeats what I do and half the time she points to my nose instead of her own. 

    But yesterday, I was on the floor and thought I would review what we've learned the past few weeks. I would say the body part and she'd point to what it was! She pointed to her nose, ears, eyes, mouth and teeth! She wriggled her toes and her fingers! Jared got home and she patted her own head!

    She refuses to say words, but she totally understands when I say "find Eeyore!" or "find your milk." She'll go to her room when I say it's time to change her diaper. 

    At night, we say prayers, brush her teeth, read her a book and put her in the crib. Jared got her to fold her arms so when we say "say your prayers," she'll totally fold her arms and sometimes kneel on the ground with Jared. Love it! Then she'll immediately run down the hallway to the bathroom to brush her teeth. Then she goes to sit on the bench to read!

    Aubrey can be a handful, but she is awesome! Now the games will include colors and we'll start working on pieces of clothing. 

Official Car Name

    We've had this car for the past few months, and we named it a few days after getting it. 

    The name we decided on was Froderick. For those who watch Young Frankenstein every Halloween like we do will understand that. 

    Every time I see our car in the parking lot, I always think "FRODERICK!"And I laugh to myself. 

    A little bit ago, Jared finally got our car registered here in Indiana and we got our license the other day. The license plate solidified our car's name. 

    FRODERICK THE PIRATE! That's the official name. The letters on the plate read ARG. So it was destined that Froderick is supposed to be a pirate.

    And we absolutely love it! What a fun name! Our last car was David Bob Dixon. No car can replace him, but Froderick is a fun second car. 

    We love coming up with fun names for things!

Aubrey at 15-16 months

    Aubrey is such a nutcase!

    Because she is so tiny, I forget sometimes that she is so full of personality!

    She refuses to drink while sitting up. That's partly our fault, but she's comfortable with how she does it. When Aubrey first started drinking on her own, we loved it and took full advantage of it. We'd lay her on the floor and she'd hold it up and drank.

    But now that we're trying to get her to drink from sippy cups and everything, she won't sit up! All she wants to do is lay on her back. I've tried sitting her up and holding her in place. I've propped her up on the couch. I've held her arms up to show how to drink the cups. But she just refuses! I've just resigned to the fact she'll eventually decide to do it one day. Like walking.

    For months, she never showed ANY interest in walking! She would hold on to things and cruise around furniture, but if ever we held on to her hands and tried to help her walk, she would pull her legs up. Wouldn't even stand for more than a few seconds at a time without holding on to something.

    It wasn't until a couple weeks ago that she decided she wanted to walk. Now, she is walking like a pro and walks a whole lot more than crawling. Sure, she'll still drop to her knees, but she knows she is faster walking so she pops back up!

    I just don't know what to do with her and her stubbornness! I'm sure potty training will take forever. I'll show her everything and help her figure it out, but until she wants to be out of diapers, she'll fight!

    She's so fun though! Aubrey loves reading. She'll bring me books all throughout the day. And I always have to drop what I'm doing to read or she'll get mad and throw the book at me.

    Aubrey has an AMAZING throwing arm! We have a couple balls we let her play with and she can throw them all a pretty good distance for a 15-month-old. She can throw a golf ball, bouncy ball, plushy ball and a tennis ball! We like to play catch during the day. She'll sit on one end of the room and I'll be at the other. We just throw the ball to each other (really, I roll it in between her legs and she picks it up to throw) and it's so fun!

    We love going outside and playing on the grass. Aubrey will just roam everywhere and pick everything up. She also loves going in the pool and walking around the pool. I get a pretty good tan while she plays in the water. It's a win-win! And then she wears herself out and is ready for nap or bedtime, depending when we go to the pool. 

    Well, that's all that I have for today. This post was mostly for Sabra who is a wonderful and devoted reader :) 

    Love you Sabra!