Thanksgiving 2011

This year, it felt like Thanksgiving came and went in a blink of an eye. Jason and I had dinner at our house with both his and my family. We had a quiet afternoon watching football, cooking and doing a few craft projects with Audrey before eating dinner. It was so sweet to see Audrey prancing around in her turkey dress, socks off, enjoying the company. I'm so thankful for my family, health and happiness - the things that do not have a price tag.

No TV Thursday

Today, I decided I've had about all I can take of listening to The Mother Goose Club playlist on YouTube (Audrey's absolute favorite thing to watch these days). So I declared no TV, no YouTube, No dvd's, No Baby Einstein on the Xbox....nothing. I honestly thought I would cave in an hour later but Audrey was great about the idea and was all smiles this morning. I think I wore her out, she's in a deep sleep right now. LOOK AT THESE HAPPY SMILES!!!

Chauncey is smiling on the inside :)

Dr. Office

A little "behind the scenes" peek into our 25 minute wait at Audrey's doctor visit today. It can get pretty boring when you are waiting but thankfully Audrey kept me entertained while she rearranged the chairs, tried to open all of the drawers (good thing they were child locked), and finally settled down with a book on the doctor's chair. I'm happy to report her ear infection is completely gone and we are good to go for our plane trip in two weeks!!

First snow of the season!

We woke up this morning to a little dusting of snow. When we got to the kitchen Audrey took immediate notice.....

Mom....what the heck is this white stuff?

Toddler Feet

Two little eyes
Discovering what's new
Two little hands
Touching everything in view
A sweet little voice
Asking you why
A mischievous smile
And a whimpering cry
Two little feet
Jumping on the floor
A toddler's mission
is to explore

Fall Zoo Trip

Me: "Audrey, do you want to go to the zoo"?

Audrey: Giggles and runs to get her shoes

(She's been to the zoo one too many times and she knows exactly what I'm asking her)

The big thrill of the zoo for Audrey (and me) is the penguin exhibit. It's the first attraction as  you enter the zoo and it's always proven to be the best way to begin our journey through the zoo. Today, Audrey let out huge belly laughs as she watched the penguin's dance in the water. It was almost as if the penguin's heard her laughing and they seemed so excited to keep her laughing by swooshing past her. I'm not sure what was more entertaining: The penguin's or Audrey laughing at them?

Audrey's First Tea Party

When Jason and I bought our first house in 2003, we had absolutely no toys for obvious reasons. Our niece Jordan started sleeping over quite often and we always felt horrible that there was really nothing for her to play with. We took her to the Disney store and she picked out a Disney Princess Tea Set to keep at our house. She played with it all of the time and over the years, it became THE toy that all girls played with when they came to the Middaugh house. We even kept it in the original box, stored nicely away for the next child to play. Therefore, when we brought out the tea set for Audrey to play with for the very first time, it brought a tear to my eye. I never knew back in 2003 that I would have this amazing daughter that would fall in love with it just as much as Jordan did.

To make this tea party extra special, we invited some of my childhood stuffed animals to join us. Audrey was thrilled to have them and she immediately knew what to do, feeding the elephants tea and the kitty from a spoon, a memory that I will hold in my heart forever.


The tea set - still in perfect condition

The guests: Mr and Mrs Elephant (made by my Aunt Jocelyne when I was a child) and Kitty (a gift from my mom when I had my tonsils taken out)

Feeding Kitty

Pouring Tea

This just melts my heart!

Unexpected Halloween fun

This year, Jason and I were super excited to dress Audrey up. We had two costumes that were kindly given to us from past use - Lady from Lady and the Tramp and a Lady bug. I had planned to dress Audrey up in the lady bug costume for our story time and playgroup parties last week but those plans were squashed when Audrey came back from the doctor with an ear infection early in the week. So I had been building this Halloween dress up thing in my head all week. At first, it was a disappointment when we put the dog costume on and Audrey literally ripped it off in an upset panic:

Too bad she looked SO CUTE in this costume. So now Jason and I are thinking hey, maybe she just hates being a dog? Let's try the lady bug costume! Yes, great idea!

Yep, not so much of a great idea. Hmmm.....okay let's just take it off and give it a break for a few minutes. And this next part is exactly why I love Audrey for who she is. She immediately grabbed a book, sat in my lap, opened it up and calmed down when we started reading.

This is when we realized it was time to stop pushing her to do Halloween the "correct" way and let her enjoy it the way SHE wanted, not the way we THOUGHT she would enjoy it. In the end, we all had such a blast. Here is what we did:

Put Audrey's pj's on and set up with our candy bowl by the front door.

Chauncey and Audrey waiting for the Trick-or-Treaters. Audrey (and Chauncey) really had no idea what exactly she was waiting for but she was excited about it!

We taught Audrey how to trick-or-treat and she enjoyed carrying her bag around.

We coaxed one of our cats to hang out with us and let Audrey walk Chauncey around the foyer on his leash.

Okay, so our cat Lucy REALLY got into the action....

They were so cute passing out candy together!

And my favorite discovery of the night bowl spinning.....