23 months

We've had a really busy month this month. All the holiday festivities kept us hopping and made the month go by so fast. I really can't believe I'm writing the last monthly blog before she turns 2. I just can't think about it too much without getting teary so I'll just move on to the highlights.

***We have pee-pee in the potty! On Christmas Eve, Todd was getting Aubrey out of the bathtub and she said "potty." So he sat her on the potty and after a few minutes, she actually managed to pee and Todd went nuts. I was downstairs cooking when he starts yelling at me to come upstairs. I run upstairs thinking something is wrong and he tells me she peed in the potty so I go nuts with him. We are trying to make it a big deal so she'll keep doing it, but so far she's only done it 1 more time. But, its a start!
***She had her first white Christmas. So beautiful.
***She's using even more 2 word phrases, such as telling Bailey to "sit down" and telling us "right here."
***She had her first request from daycare to be out for 24 hours because of too much "number 2." She was fine and had no fever, so we went shopping while everyone else worked and went to school.
***She also threw her first full on kicking and screaming tantrum in public during that shopping trip. That was not fun for anyone.
***She took her first shower and was not too happy about it. So, we'll stick to baths for now.

White Christmas

It started snowing late Christmas night and by the time we woke up the next morning, it was gorgeous outside.

The dogs had a blast playing in the snow after Allie got over the fact it was cold.

Todd drug Aubrey around on the sled, which she thoroughly enjoyed.

She thought Todd would like to be pulled around too and told him to "sit down Dada" so he sat and helped her pull him for a bit. She worked so hard and was "rewarded" by falling down in the snow, which Todd found pretty funny.

While the snow was not much fun for getting other Sunday chores done, it was so much fun to play in.

Christmas 2010

We were pretty excited about Christmas this year. While Aubrey still doesn't understand the meaning of Christmas, she does understand the excitement that comes along with it. We started the Christmas season by helping Todd's parents decorate their house. Aubrey did her own version of helping by taking decorations down, which was not very helpful, but still cute.


We then went to pick out our tree and Aubrey loved walking around and looking at all of the trees.


We then let her help decorate our tree and hang her stocking, which were very cute to watch.

The week of Christmas always brings the tradition of traveling to Raleigh for Todd's dad's family Christmas. Christmas Eve always starts with a big breakfast.

After breakfast, Aubrey, Betty, Traci and I all took off for our annual Christmas Eve shopping trip. It was a little bit more difficult to shop with Aubrey in tow, but we managed to make it with only a few tantrums. After shopping and socializing, it was time to eat. The family always roasts a pig for Christmas, but Aubrey decided she only wanted to eat chocolate-covered cereal instead.

Santa always comes by the house on his way around the world to see the children and give out an early present. Aubrey did not disappoint with the expected meltdown when Todd tried to place her on his lap.

Sitting with Aunt Traci didn't help much either.

We somehow got this picture with her none the wiser about Santa sitting right behind her.

Presents seemed to help things seem better.

We drove back home Christmas Eve so we can wait for Santa's arrival. And Santa was very good to Aubrey this year.

Her face realizing that all those toys were hers was priceless.

She loves, loves, loves the Crazy Coope and we have a hard time getting her out.

The ball pit was a big hit as well.

We then traveled to see Gma, Grandpa Jimmy, and Traci to see what Santa delivered there for us.

We went back home and picked up Grandpa Barrett and traveled to Kernersville to see my mom's family. It started snowing on the trip up there and made everything so pretty.

We enjoyed hanging out with the family, but had to leave early to get home before the roads got worse. We then had Christmas dinner at our house with Grandpa Barrett, Lacey, Jeffrey, Gma and Grandpa Jimmy. During dinner, it started snowing pretty heavy so all the family left us to get home. Todd took Aubrey out and all she kept saying was "its snowing, its snowing." She got to experience the first white Christmas in our area in 47 years so that awesome.

All in all, Todd and I agree that this was one of the best Christmases ever. This is what we dreamed about when we decided to become parents and it was so much fun to share with Aubrey.

22 months

The last month has not brought about as many milestones as in the past, but what she didn't do in quantity was made up with quality. Everything is bigger and better (or worse, depending on which new skill). Someone asked Todd yesterday how old she was and he told him almost 2 and I sighed because he's right, as much as that saddens me. I've already scheduled her 2nd birthday party and I almost cried afterward because she is getting so big. But, after holding a 4-week old newborn last week, I realized how young she still is after she flipped out because she didn't want her mommy holding any other baby. If she were older, she might understand better, but because she is so young, she doesn't understand and this comforted me in a strange way. It did worry me a bit that she freaked out because that could be in serious trouble in the future, but we've got plenty of time to work on it. We promptly added a baby doll to her Santa list to help us with that. The other thing I realized from holding a newborn is how much I love a toddler's independence and personality. Babies are squishy, lovable things, but toddlers are much more fun.

Milestones this month:
*Her vocabulary is getting larger and much easier to understand. Hearing her say "bless you" following a sneeze cracks me up every single time. She has started using 2 word sentences like Come, Awie (Allie) and Outside, pwease.

*She still struggles with the "l" and "r" sounds

*She's pretty good about saying "thank you" when you give her something.

*She can answer when you ask her what her name is and what is my name. I threw in my real name one time and she gave me the deer in the headlight look.

*She is understanding ownership by saying Aubrey nose and Mommy nose.

*She is learning the family names, including Gma, Gpa, Gwanpa, Wacey (Lacey), and Twaci (Traci).

*The tantrums are getting more insane and louder. And they are so random. Sometimes, she'll go off over nothing and other times let big stuff go. I really think sometimes she just likes to hear herself scream.

*She gets so frustrated when she can't get something right the first time (no clue where that trait came from!) and she just screams.
*She(ok we) survived her first big boo-boo after she fell on the sidewalk and busted her lip. It was not pretty, but she was fine 5 minutes later.
*She has started enjoying the tv, especially Yo Gabba Gabba.
*She loves to dance.
*She wants to be thisclose to you at all times, including when she eats. She is not happy when either one of us leaves her sight.

*She hasn't made much progress with potty training, but continues to tell us after she goes.
*She learned to pull herself up on the kitchen chairs and is getting worse than the dogs about begging for your food :-) You would think we never feed her.
*She is now fascinated with helping me cook, or get under my feet, how ever you want to look at it.
*She enjoyed her 2nd Thanksgiving and loved watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade

Movin up to the big girl salon

I have been putting it off for a while, but finally I had to admit it was time. Aubrey had to have a real hair cut. We did a mini-hair cut back in May, but she need a full on hair cut because the mullet was just getting out of control. So, I found a kid's salon called Snip-Its in Birkdale and figured we'd give it a try. This place was pretty awesome, especially for those under, say 10. They have video games, bright colors, snack, movies, pretty much everything you would need to get a child's attention. The stylist was so nice but the minute she went to put Aubrey in the chair it got ugly. My child does not like strangers and she really doesn't like strangers trying to strap her in a bright pink chair. And, sadly, animal crackers did not help. Enter receptionist/entertainment who became bubble lady. That got Aubrey's attention really fast. The stylist managed to cut a squirming toddler's hair in 5 minutes and even managed to get her bangs even. I was impressed. Afterwards Aubrey got a prize which I thought was just fabulous (ok, fabulous for me because it was a Tootsie Roll). While the cut itself was a bit expensive, it was well worth it for them to do such a great job on a difficult subject. Luckily, she won't need hair cuts that often so we can afford to go there when we need it.


About a week before


During


After

I love it...

Aubrey's age, I mean. Aubrey is so much fun to watch. She is so independent and loves to create her own fun now. We were outside enjoying the gorgeous weather over the weekend and she found a random shovel and starting playing in the dirt. She had a glorious time getting dirty and cried like crazy when I brought her in to eat (yeah, she actually said "no eat eat." So not my child).

Since its Thanksgiving week, that means there is a lot of extra cooking is going on. Aubrey was in the kitchen with me when I started cooking for work and she kept saying "cook, cook" and I thought she wanted a cookie so I tried to give her an animal cracker and she didn't want it. After a few minutes, we realized she wanted to help me cook. We pulled a chair up to the counter and gave her a spoon to help me stir and she loved it. I told her she could eat a piece while we stirred and every time I turned around, she kept grabbing another piece. She was so sad when I put the casserole in the oven and she just stood there with her face plastered to the oven door to watch it cook. I loved having her help me and I look forward to teaching her how to cook as she gets older.

Halloween

I debated for a while this year how to handle Halloween for Aubrey. I wasn't sure I was ready for her to go trick-or-treating. In my opinion, a child should be able to say "trick-or-treat" before they get candy. On the other hand, I really didn't want to miss the chance of dressing her up in a cute costume, even if she wasn't actually participating in the festivities. So, the cuteness won over and I found an awesome Tinkerbell costume for her (probably the last costume I get to pick out, I am sure). I decided to dress her up for a while to take pictures and then let her help hand out candy later. The taking pictures part went really well. I got the chance to put my birthday present to use (Todd gave me a backdrop stand and 2 rolls of seamless paper) and I enjoyed using them. We then moved outside and gave her a little bucket to carry up and down the street, which she loved. She wasn't happy about coming back inside after pictures and became quite whiney. She refused to leave my side while I was cooking dinner, so she missed out on the handing out of the candy. After dinner, she acted really fussy and tired so we decided to send her on to bed. I can't wait until next year when she can go out with the big kids. I loved seeing the other kids dressed up and was pretty jealous of those parents outside snapping pictures away. Next year, it is on!

First shot with the new backdrop. Not too bad, but I learned some things to do differently next time.

She loved the bucket and the pumpkin.

She was fascinated by the Frankenstein in our neighbor's yard.