Happy Thanksgiving 2010

It's that time of year again! I can't believe how fast Thanksgiving (and winter!) have crept up on us this year. We certainly have a lot to be thankful for this year!

• I am utterly and hopelessly thankful for my amazing husband. I feel so lucky every single day that I was able to marry my best friend in the whole world. A man who is patient and understanding and smart and supportive, not to mention the most wonderfully hands-on dad and an amazing cook to boot. He keeps me laughing, engages me in intelligent debate, calls me out when I'm being unfair, and understands when I just need a break. I can't imagine my world without him in it, and I feel like the luckiest woman on earth to be married to him.
• Words can't even begin to express how thankful I am for my beautiful daughter. Audia, you make your mom so proud and happy and grateful every second of every day. You are so smart, funny, cheerful, curious, sprightly, and strong-willed. You make every day brighter than the last. You are everything in the world to me.
• I am so endlessly thankful for my family. To have such wonderful, intelligent, supportive, loving, and generous people to look up to and share life with and lean on when I need to is such a gift.
• I am thankful for the truest of true blue friends. It is not often you find someone who will stick with you through anything, and I feel so lucky to have a multitude of friends like this in my life. People who keep me on my feet and laughing and help me through the toughest of times; people who I can disagree with but love me anyway. And who I will always love and be there for no matter what
• I am thankful for our health! Can you believe that Audia is 2 years old and has only been sick 4 times in her entire life? I consider that a miracle. And for Chris and I to have only been sick twice each in the past year. I feel genuinely blessed.
• I am sooooo thankful for Chris' job, and for him to be working for a company that really seems to value his time and knowledge and efforts. Part two is that I am so thankful that he has a job that pays enough to allow me to be a stay at home mom.
• Last, but not least, I am thankful for our new furbaby, Fievel. He has turned out to be such a great match for our family, and more specifically, for Audia. He is so patient, playful, and forgiving with her. And, he is the best lap kitty I could ask for.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Updates

So I haven't really written any updates lately on things Audia's doing or is into.
Here's a quick rundown of her personality these days:

• She still loves baby dolls, and takes very good care of them, pushing them in her stroller, feeding them, even strapping them into her high chair.
• She has recently started asking, very frequently, what things mean. I'll be in the middle of saying something to her and she'll interrupt me to ask me "what does ****** mean?" where ****** is a word that I just said.
• She loves making funny faces at us, and for us to make funny faces back at her. She's quite the mimick!
• Her interest in play doh has waned and developed into an interest in stacking the play doh containers. She'll stack them as high as she can and then knock them over.
• She LOVES flash cards. She got a set of alphabet flash cards as a gift from her cousin a month or so ago, and she loves going through them, naming the pictures and the letters on the cards.
• She is really into the puzzles she got from Auntie J for her birthday. She turns them all over, letting the pieces fall to the floor, and then puts them all back in the right places.
• She is still obsessed with books. Some of them she even has memorized, and I can hear her reciting them as she flips through the pages in her bedroom. She will literally spend 30 minutes taking each one off of the book shelf in her room, flipping through the pages and reading to herself.
• She still loves hot dogs, green beans, pretty much any pork product, pears, bananas, and tator tots. She has added to this list Mac and Cheese, fruity candy (from halloween....she has little interest in the chocolate,) graham crackers, carrots, and hummus.
• She has finally started showing more interest in Fievel, and they are a great pair! She will play with him and chase him around, then stop only to have him start chasing her! He puts up with so much, it still suprises me. Though I have found him hiding out, sleeping, in the front hall closet once or twice so I do think he gets tired of her from time to time :-)

Things I want to do before I die

So, this blog is obviously mostly a chronical about Audia and my adventures in (and feelings about) parenting. But, my hopes for this chronical and purposes for this documentation are not solely so that Audia (and any future children) can look back and see what they were like before they remember, or to help remember special times. I also hope that our kids can gain an insight, when they are a bit older, into who I am on a level that is a bit beyond "mommy." I have been thinking a lot lately about who I have become since I became a mother, and how my life's plans have changed, and how my life's desires have changed, vs how they haven't. There are some things that were dreams that I no longer have any interest in. And, there are some things that are dreams now just as much as ever. I thought it would be fun to make a list of these dreams that still hold true, and maybe do so again every 5 years, to see what things I've accomplished and what dreams have changed. Both for myself and for my kids.

Long introduction to a short list. Here goes.

Things I Want To Do Before I Die

• Return to Sweden. At least once. And maybe even move there eventually
• Return to Jamaica.
• Take a trip to Africa
• Take a trip to Alaska
• Bring the kids to Disney World every 5 years minimum
• Learn to play the Steel Drums
• Learn to blow glass
• Return to jewelry making, maybe even get my own setup at home complete with soldering torch and station, dremel, anvil, etc.
• Relearn to speak Swedish fluently.
• Find one thing I am really truly talented at.

Halloween 2010

Halloween this year was so much fun! It was fun last year two, of course, but this year Audia really understood the idea of it, and we went trick or treating for the first time, which she absolutely loved. She's still asking me if we can "go trick or treating tonight?"

A couple months ago, I started talking to her about it, and asking her what she wanted to be. The answer was always the same: "a doggy!"

We started celebrations by meeting up with N, D, A, and baby M and some of their family at the mall for some indoor trick or treating. Audia and A held hands right away, something that melts my heart everytime I see it! They really do seem to enjoy each other thoroughly, and it makes me so happy! They looked so cute together, little Minnie and puppy dog walking hand-in-hand. They were by far the cutest kids at the mall (though I'll admit that just maybe I am a little bit biased)

After the mall, we said goodbye to our friends and went to my parents house to hang out and have some dinner. Audia's favorite part of Halloween already proved to be sorting her candy. I cannot tell you how many times she took her candy, one by one, out of her bucket, making Grandpa tell her what each one was before setting it down on the table. I am still doing this with her on a daily basis!

After dinner, Chris and I took Audia trick or treating around my parents neighborhood. We know a few of the neighbors, so it was fun to see some friends. By the end of the night, Audia was a pro at ringing door bells and yelling "Trick or Treat!"