Heureux, Heureux A En Mourir

Friday, July 27, 2012

All About Audrey

It's been a while since I did an update on Audrey so I thought I would dedicate this post to her. She has changed a lot in the past 6 months and has learned to do a crazy amount of things for a ten month old! I often find myself thinking she's still just a little baby, then I look at her climbing stairs, pulling herself out of her exersaucer and standing on her own for longer periods of time. She is slowly becoming a toddler, although she hasn't yet had her first birthday. The first 9 months out of the womb goes by much quicker than the 9 months I spent watching her grow on the inside!

I've been terrible at writing in her baby album, but thanks to the wondrous technology that is the iPhone, I've got a page full of little notes about Audrey. Every time she does something new, I simply record it there and one day when I have the time, I can write all the memories in her book for her.

Most recently Audrey has learned to stand up in the middle of a room with nothing around her. She usually needs to pull herself up on something, but not anymore! She has also discovered the joy of dancing. She dances all day long. Literally. Even when there is no music playing, I will catch her bobbing her head and wiggling back and forth. Who says babies can't get songs stuck in their heads too?

She loves to listen to music on my iPhone, and every time I put a song on for her, she instantly starts to shake her head back and forth. Recently, her musical table has prompted her to wiggle her hips at the same time as she is nodding her head. It's pretty cute.

I'm especially proud of the fact that she loves Celtic music, and also the song for which my blog is named, by Edith Piaf. I've been listening to the 1940s version of La Vie en Rose since I was pregnant, and it turns out Audrey loves it too. Any time I play it she calms down and starts to dance and sing and smile at the black and white photo on my screen. Bliss.

Here are a few more things about Audrey:

1) She's a go baby. Meaning she never stops moving. Ever. Even in her sleep.
2) She started crawling at 6 months, and by 7 months was furniture walking.
3) She's tiny for her age. Only 18 pounds despite nursing, bottle feeding and eating 3 solid meals plus snacks daily. (see #1)
4)  She adores our two dogs, Holly and Maija. She especially loves to feed them her snacks while she's in her exersaucer.
5) She can say Mama and Dada and Yaya and I swear she once grabbed Holly, buried her face in her fur and said "Dog".
6) She always sleeps on her tummy with her hands underneath her and her butt in the air.
7) She prefers to eat while standing in her high chair, with one foot on the tray, despite my best efforts to keep her seated. She does the same thing in shopping carts.
8) She will eat anything, but especially loves dirt and rocks from my garden.
9) She loves to look at books, especially her favourite "Touch and Feel Zoo".
10) She recently grew her 7th tooth (4 top and 3 bottom).

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

I'm back

I must be crazy. I somehow thought that I would be okay to go back to work full time, take care of my baby girl, be a good teacher, work on my masters degree and blog all at the same time! Needless to say, something had to be left behind, and once again it was my blog! I don't seem to have a good track record, and once my procrastination and busyness sets in, it's hard to break the habit. Not to mention that I just finally got my own laptop as my old dinosaur computer was not very fun to work on.

But now it's summer, and the blog is back on my list. I actually got to finish work on June 15th, which for teachers is two weeks earlier than the norm. That's because Mike ended up needing to go back to work early in order to get his transfer! Yep, that's right. We are leaving the North. Not that it hasn't been good to us, because it has, but I'm SO looking forward to being near our families again. Audrey is going to really love Victoria! And I'm excited about all the things I can do with her on the island.

So for now, I'm a stay at home Mom again, which is just where I want to be. I love spending every day with Audrey and not feeling like I'm torn between either being a good teacher or a good Mom. It's really hard to do both!  I've been working on this HUGE to-do list for the past month, and I've finally wittled it down to just a few little things. The house renos are complete, the rooms are neat and tidy and organized, I've applied for jobs, registered for next year's classes and now I'm ready to do some writing. I'm trying to make a short list each day of three things that I need to accomplish in order to have a stress-free sleep. Today's list included blogging, so that's done!

Tomorrow marks my 9 year wedding anniversary. We are planning a big trip for our 10 year so this year we are likely just going to go out for dinner. But, it will be our first dinner out without Audrey in nearly 11 months, so this is a good thing. My lovely neighbour is going to have Audrey at her house for a few hours while we go out. So, where do we go? Well, there are only about 5 restaurants to choose from, so it shouldn't be tough to decide. Good night folks! I'll likely be catching up on months of readings from your blogs, and hopefully you'll be reading more about me too.