May!

Where the HECK has May gone?? I cannot believe this weekend is Memorial day weekend already! Good greif!

Well, Mother's Day was really nice. We spent it at home, hanging out outside and relaxing most of the day. I got some cute tops from Chris, Audia and my parents, as well as the book 'Columbine', which I finished in just over a week (quite a feat with a babe, but I couldn't put the thing down! Thank goodness for longer naps these days ;-)). I highly recommend it to anyone interested in an extremely thorough account of the Columbine shootings and events surrounding it.

The 12th was our three year anniversary, so that night my parents watched Audia for a couple of hours while Chris and I went to Redstone to visit John and have some drinks and appetizers (if you haven't been, their buffalo shrimp is to die for. I get it every time I go!) We sat out on the patio, which was really nice despite the forecast calling for rain; it was pretty dead out there because the threat of rain, so we got some good convo in and enjoyed listening to the birdies. It started to pour just as we left. We didn't get to stay as long as I would have liked; Audia STILL isn't taking a bottle or sippy cup (granted we haven't tried in a few weeks now...we should get on that!) But it was a nice evening regardless.

The 14th was Chris' birthday, which was a nice, low-key day. My dad grilled steaks, and we got some Leinenkugels and Wuollet cake to celebrate.

On the 17th, we got up early and headed up to the cottage to meet Chris' parents for a couple of days. We had a very nice, relaxing time up there. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, and despite being early in the season, Chris even caught a couple of Bass! (Lucky bastard....) The water is still pretty cold, but hopefully when we go up there again in a couple of weeks, it will have warmed up a bit and the fish will be more active.

Audia is still growing like a weed. It seems like she is doing something new every day. She is shaking her head "no" and clapping all the time now, and still is babbling like crazy! We even think that she signed "Eat" on Sunday morning. She woke us up around 7:30 and was playing in bed with us and suddenly started repeatedly bringing her fingers to her mouth. Chris said "Eat?" and she did it again. Then I said "Do you want to Eat?" and signed back to her and she smiled! She hasn't done it again since, but patience is a virtue :-)

She definitely knows the word "no"; she typically stops whatever she's doing to look at us when we say it. She also will often crawl to us when we call her.

She slept in her carseat both on the drive to and the drive from the cottage, so it is nice to see a pattern starting there, and she is also taking longer naps, from an hour to two hours!

She is also taking bigger risks when she transfers from the table to the couch when she's walking now, and will let go and stand on her own for a few seconds before sitting back down. I will probably curse myself later for saying this, but I am a little anxious for her to start walking on her own, without holding onto things. I am always so worried that she is going to slip and hit her head on whatever she's holding onto when she's walking! Granted she is very good at sitting back down on her own, but all it takes is a split second distraction for her to fall. Once she can stand without holding onto something, I think this anxiety will be eased (of course it will probably be replaced by about 500 other anxieties....)