A Quiet Book for Aubrey

I made a quiet book for Aubrey!

For some reason I just felt like being crafty. And Aubrey has a difficult time staying entertained and quiet at church. She's either entertained and loud, or bored and also loud. She is also loud here at home. So I thought I'd try making a quiet book!

I don't know why, but I always thought felt was more expensive than it really is. But I just got a few packets from Wal-Mart that had a variety of colors. Perfect!

Here is the book:

Nothing amazing. But in the pocket at the top right, I put the letters of her name.

Now we can work on her recognizing her name in print and she can learn a few important letters!

The "first page" is to help her count. She can move the bead across the pipe cleaner and it was the number next to it to help her make the connection. Aubrey already loves moving the beads back and forth.

I only did upper case for now. And I tried to make an apple, a banana, a clock and a door. Start with the first bunch of letters and eventually move on from there. If I get motivated, I'll cut out lower case letters too.

I did a few normal shapes and a few extras to learn. That way it's not just the same ones over and over. I also wrote the name of the shape inside it. I figured she'll have this book for a while so might as well make it a little difficult. That octagon really threw her off the first few times!

These pages are more interactive and fun. She can put apples on the tree, or pick them off and put them in the basket/pouch. And the flowers are a little bit harder for her. She has to button the little piece on to the big piece. Right now she is just matching colors and putting the piece on top. But I'll start showing her how to button them soon. 

Last of all are the Thanksgiving pages! She has to put the 3 long strips on the football, which is also a pouch for the turkey. She can put the feathers and feet on the turkey. I might make a little top hat and write T H A N K S on each feather. We'll see. 

Already been Aubrey-approved!

Anyways, that's my book! I'm really proud of it and I'm excited to keep adding to it. After Thanksgiving I'll do a Christmas page. And I'll keep adding holiday pages and some harder activities. 

It's been a lot of fun figuring it out as I went. I learned a lot and I have so many ideas to try to implement!

The last molar

Aubrey is finally getting her last molar. She has all the others and I figured out the pattern. The bottom teeth always came in pairs. Then one at a time on the top. 

A couple weeks ago she got all cranky and was driving me crazy. So I did some checking and found the sharp tip emerging from her gums. 

I let her crankiness slide because I know it's not really her, it's just the pain and uncomfortableness. 

Now that I'm in my third trimester, I'm not as easily forgiving as I was last time. I can't move as quickly and I can't do all the energetic things she wants me to do. 

When she starts to throw a tantrum because I can't read her mind, I just let her cry. She'll fling her arms all over and smack the floor. Once or twice she'll go back to hitting her head on the floor. But she has made great progress in her speaking, so if she wants something, she can tell me. 

I'm not going to get up out of my comfy seat and offer her everything in the kitchen when I THINK she MIGHT be hungry. I will make ONE meal that I know she has eaten regularly before. If she won't eat it, then she can have a slice of bread later and maybe some yogurt or a banana. 

I've even gone so far as to do the silly old wives tale of putting an egg in a sock over her door. These mood swings are exhausting and there isn't really much I can do. I figure, if the egg and sock doesn't work after a few days, I'll just use it in my next batch of cookies. Then at least the egg won't be a complete waste.

Jared is good with Aubrey. He's not home all day with her craziness. So after he's eaten and has a chance to unwind from work, he'll rough-house with her and keep her entertained for a while. 

I'm not excited at all to go through all of this again next year with a new baby. With Aubrey, I had NO IDEA she had teeth coming until I saw them pop out! At least now when I notice a mood change around 4 months with this next baby girl, I can go ahead and assume it's teeth. Once Aubrey gets this one out, she'll be done, which is awesome. 

2014 Halloween Season

October was such a fun month with so many things going on!

We went to a wedding in Ohio that I posted about a couple weeks ago, which was great! It's good for me to get out and about while I still can!

We took Aubrey to the same pumpkin patch we went to last year (Hilger Family Farm) the Saturday before Halloween. Last year she was so cute and helped us pick out pumpkins!

Found her pumpkin 2013

Helping Daddy buy the pumpkins 2013

Now she is so big! But she had as much fun as she did last year!

And we had to get another photo of us in the corn maze. Might make this a tradition!

Aubrey enjoyed a fresh honey crisp apple on the way home. Ate basically the whole thing herself!

The next week was pretty busy with all the crazy and fun things happening!

Jared and I carved our pumpkins. Nothing amazing. But we have a good time doing it together. Aubrey was having a rough night so she wasn't invited. Don't worry, she still had her chance to decorate her pumpkin later in the week.

I did Dracula - Jared made an awesome pumpkin face

My twin brother, his wife and their 4-month-old baby boy William came mid-week! This was our first time meeting baby William and we hadn't seen Chris and Alicia for quite a long time!

Aubrey did pretty darn well with a baby in the house! She wasn't bothered at all by the usual baby noises, fussing and crying! Which is a good sign for me, because she's getting a baby sister in 2 months! She wasn't quite sure what to do about Chris. He's pretty large and she wasn't used to people his size. But I think she warmed up to him, even if it was just a little bit!

And we had to get a little family picture on Halloween, the night before they left for a USA v New Zealand Rugby game.

This was our first Halloween in a house and we were so excited about getting trick or treaters! Aubrey would run to the door with us to hand out candy. I wanted to get a few pictures, but parents would probably be creeped out by that! It was cute seeing Aubrey hand out a few pieces of candy.

While we adults watched Hocus Pocus, I had Aubrey paint her pumpkin. She did a great job! Kept 98% of the paint on the pumpkin! Of course, there were a few bumps to the pumpkin with her elbow and the paint would drip on the paper, but that was to be expected!

It was such a great Halloween season!

Now that it's November, all Halloween specific decorations are down and packed away. There are still a few things up that relate to fall. Our next big adventure is Thanksgiving in Ohio. It's a family tradition that is easy to keep up, seeing as how we're just a few hours away!