17 months

Another month has come and gone and with this month came even more entertainment and amazement as we watched Aubrey grow. She is becoming such a ham and loves to show off her new found tricks...repeatedly. So when she does something new there is no denying if she did it because she will usually repeat it again many many times. But, it's so cute that its hard to get bored with it.

17 month milestones
*Says about 18 words now, with the best one at this point being "whoa" ---gets me giggling every single time
*Loves to bring a book and sit in your lap while she "reads"
*She is getting better at drinking more milk
*She loves being outside more than anything
*Her feet have finally started growing- she is now in a size 3 in most shoes and a 4 in her Crocs-- I was beginning to think she'd never move out of the 2's
*She has starting waving hey and bye again
*She has discovered that squealing gets a major reaction out of us--so she does it A LOT
*She is starting to transition to the toddle 2 room at day care
*She really understands a lot more now--when we say go night-night or let's take a bath she walks to the baby gate because she knows we are going stairs
*She knows what sit down, lie down, and get up mean and is usually pretty good at following the commands
*And speaking of bath, she goes completely nuts when we say the word bath. The girl loves a bath more than anything
*She gives mouth wide open kisses and hugs and knows how to high five
*She is still working with a spoon and making a bit of progress
*Her top 2 canine teeth broke the skin on 6.24.10, only 6 more teeth to go
*She's still mostly wearing 12 month clothes, but because of her Buddha belly, a few 18 month shirts fit pretty well

Since we haven't had any tongue sticking out pictures in a while, here is an outtake.

Father's Day 2010

I've always like Father's Day. For the past 4 years, Todd and I have thrown a family Father's Day party at our house. We didn't want to have to run back and forth between Mooresville and Mount Holly to make sure we spent time with both of our dads, so the solution was to have them come to our house. We always grill some yummy steaks, gift out gifts, and then enjoy each others company.

This year we added the fun of watching Aubrey and my nephew Dameon play with the water table and baby pool. They had a blast. It is so much fun watching them "play" together. Or, let me rephrase...Dameon played, Aubrey just giggled and splashed the water. They did really well together and I hope we can enjoy watching them play that nice as they get older.

Sadly, there was no surprise gift for Todd for Father's Day this year. For his birthday, I bought him tickets to the Atlanta Braves game for June 26th so for Father's Day, I am paying for us to stay at the Ritz-Carleton in Atlanta after the game. He got both gifts in May, so he's known about them for a while. We've been needing some time away from Aubrey to just be us again, so I thought it was the perfect combination. He was pretty excited about his gifts and I can't wait to enjoy them myself. Todd has been such an awesome daddy to Aubrey and she is one lucky little girl to be his daughter. I love watching the 2 of them together, especially when he makes her giggle or when she does something sweet for him, like gives him a kiss. It's just what I wanted for both of them to have and I am so happy to witness it.

Good-bye

We found out 3 weeks ago that my Grandpa Bud (my mom's dad) had been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. This was to add to his diabetes, COPD, and prior heart bypass surgery. The doctors said with chemo and radiation, he probably had 9-24 months to live and without it could be weeks. So, he started chemo and radiation and his poor body just could not take it. When we went to visit them in Kernersville, NC about a week after the diagnosis, it was so sad to see how sick he really was. And I could tell he was just tired because I told him we would come back to visit again soon and he told me it was just up to the man upstairs now. About 2 weeks following the diagnosis they met with hospice workers because he was going downhill fast. He went to hospice on June 5th to try to stabilize him before going home. Sadly, he never left the hospice house and died at 3:10 AM on June, 8, 2010. I am so glad that I got to see him the week before. And I am even more thankful he is not hurting anymore. I know he's gone to Heaven and that is comforting. I hate that he didn't get to see Aubrey grow up, but I know he can watch from Heaven and he will get to meet her again some day.

With my grandparents at our wedding

I only have 1 pic of him with Aubrey and this was taken when she was around 8 months old.