Summer is Here!

After a week of rain, finally the sun is out and it's getting really warm! Add to that a trip to the cottage this past weekend, and it certainly feels like summer has arrived.

Last week was a pretty crazy week! In addition to days of rain (which equals one ants-in-the-pants, crazy, cabin-fevered Audia), Chris started his NEW JOB! Plus our Anniversary was on Wednesday, Chris' birthday was on Friday, and we went to the cottage this weekend. BUSY week! But so much fun.

Chris' brother was in town, so he and Chris parents all met us up at the cottage for a weekend of fun in the sun. Audia had such a blast with her uncle and grandparents (and Cooper!), and pretty much every time we had to go inside, she threw a fit because she wanted to be outside exploring and playing in the sand. I've said it before and I'm sure I'll say it a bazillion times more: She really is an outdoor girl!

This year was about a bazillion times better than last year when it came to putting her in a life jacket and taking a ride on the boat. She was such a great sport, and loved helping daddy drive!

Yesterday, we drove down to Rochester to have a play date with N and A. Audia always has so much fun with Autumn. And I, of course, love N's company, so spending time with them is always a blast. N is due with baby #2 any day now! So exciting!

In other news, Audia started saying "Love you" last week! She frequently says "Mommy, Daddy Love you!" It is just to die for! So cute. She also started saying her name perfectly yesterday! Before she always said "Audi" but yesterday finally started adding the third syllable, which is so fun to hear :-) I can't believe that in only one season, our little girl is going to be TWO!!! She is growing up so fast!

Talking Up A Storm

Audia has been one heck of a Chatty Cathy lately! She's speaking in sentences pretty regularly now; usually it's only 2 or 3 words strung together, but every now and then she suprises us by saying things like "Walk in a circle!" or "Up on the couch!". She's even started singing her ABC's (granted, she's only made it to "D", but still!) In addition to being able to name pretty much every animal and color under the sun, She can recognize all numbers 1 through 9 now, and she can name about 8 different letters.

Our May has turned out to be more like April weather-wise, but the clouds and humidity have been phenomenal for my rekindled obsession with bubbles! We got a new bubble wand that makes GINORMOUS bubbles, and Audia just loves chasing them around the yard and popping them!

My parents got me a new lens as an early birthday present, and I have been having a lot of fun taking photos of my two loves with it :-) Enjoy!

The Zoo

Audia took her first trip to the Minnesota Zoo last week. Actually, her first two trips. It was a great time, and I definitely think she enjoyed herself.

On Tuesday, Chris and I took her. We saw all kinds of cool animals, like.....

a Tapir,

a Bear,

a Puma,

Sharks and Fish (among many other things.)

Audia loved watching all of the animals, and delegating which ones we watched next.

Because we got there in the afternoon, we only had an hour and a half to explore, so we didn't get to see everything that the Zoo has to offer. Lucky for us, N and A came up later in the week and invited us to join them there on Friday! The girls had such a blast together, especially on the monorail. They ran back and forth between the doors to look out at all the different animals, and it gave N and me a nice break from carrying/chasing/pushing the girls around the zoo :-) Whoever decided to build that monorail is my hero!

On the monorail

Watching the Camels

The past few weeks

So, it's been a while since I've written. Time has been slipping away from me! I think it's because spring came early this year, and we have been spending absolutely as much time outside as humanly possible. We can't get enough of the outdoors!!

So, a quick recap: The friday before Easter, we had a play date with N and A and took the girls to the mall for a little bit. While we were there, we decided to get a photo of both girls with the Easter Bunny. The girls were both so excited to see him again (even though he was a different bunny than the last one they saw), and I love the photo we got.

Easter itself was quiet and laid back. Audia got a bunch of new toys, including her first My Little Pony, and a drum kit, which she LOVES!

She can actually play the harmonica pretty darn well (if I do say so myself!). Check this out!

Between her love of playing the drum, piano, xylophone, and harmonica, and her hourly (literally) requests for the people around her to sing, I am pretty sure music will be a big part of her life.

As I said, we've been spending a ton of time outside. Between playing in the back yard,

going to the playground,

going for multiple walks a day,

and going to a park near our house,

Audia hardly wants to be inside at all anymore! Lucky for us the weather has been killer nice for a couple of weeks now, but I am really worried what will happen if we get a bunch of rain (as is typical for MN in April)! I suppose we will spend a lot of time at Como Conservatory!

Quick Post

Just a little post to say I've uploaded a bunch of new videos, which can be found here. Enjoy!!

The Easter Bunny

Last weekend, the Mall of America had their annual Spring Festival, which included events such as a petting zoo, face painting, learning the bunny hop from the Easter Bunny himself, and of course, photos with the Easter Bunny.

Audia had seen the Easter Bunny at Southdale earlier in the week; he didn't have any kids with him and played peek-a-boo with Audia from across the rotunda. She LOVED it. The rest of the day, she said "bunny! bunny!" over and over again.

Chris, Audia, and I met our friends N and D, and Audia's BFF, A, there bright and early (they were giving free bunny ears to the first 300 kids!). Boy, did we have a blast!!

Audia and A both LOVED the Easter Bunny (which is quite a difference from this December, when they met Santa Claus). Audia kept looking up at him to see what he was doing, and mimicking his actions. It was also so cute to see them interacting with the baby animals, and watching the butterflies in the butterfly garden. Audia LOVED getting her face painted. She sat patiently while the lady painted her face like a bunny.If only the paint dried a little bit faster; she of course wanted to touch it right away when she looked in the mirror, so we ended up with some smudged whiskers. She still looks darn cute though, don't you think?

Miss Talksalot

So, I know I've mentioned in the past couple of posts how quickly Audia's vocabulary seems to be expanding. I figured it was time I actually delve into some of the specifics of her language development, just as a point of reference for her and I for later. Mainly because it feels like her vocabulary is growing exponentially, and I am sure in a months time I will simply be used to these new things she's discovering now, and on to being amazed about something else.

So, last week she said Octopus. She knows a ton of animal names at this point, though she still calls dogs "Arf"s and Cows "Moo"s.
She's finally seemed to master the concept of color (for a while, when you asked her what color anything was, she would always answer with "Bll" (for "blue"). She still defaults to Blue if she doesn't know what color something is, but she now knows Blue, Green, Red, White, Purple, and Pink. When asked which color she likes best, she answers "blue" every time. :-)
She also is mastering numbers! She won't count on her own (well, she will, but she says "one, one, one, one") but if you start counting, she knows which number to say after the number you've said up to four! And she recognizes visually numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6!
She's been saying "please" ("peehs") for a while, but just a few days ago started saying it on her own, without someone saying "what's the magic word?". She also said "Thank You" ("Tuck-ah") on her own twice yesterday!
But the biggest improvement/surprise recently is her understanding of opposites. She has a mini board book, which is only 5 pages, that depicts Grover from Sesame Street and shows different opposites, which we've been reading to her on and off for a few weeks. Well, just yesterday she pointed at the ground, shook her head, and said "down!" and then immediately put her arms up and said "Up!" with a big smile on her face. Then, today we were in the laundry room and her jacket was hanging on the line (I washed it yesterday). She wanted it and said "Jacka!" Chris said "no, honey, it's not dry." And she said "wet!" SHE IS A GENIUS!!! Lol. It just blows my mind! Now, I can't find any "official" studies on when kids start understanding opposites, but based on vocabulary milestone lists I've found on various websites, they all state that kids should start understanding opposites at around 5 years!!!
There is no doubt in my mind that all of this crazy development is why she's been having some troubles sleeping through the night. It's certainly improved from my last entry about the 18 month regression, but we still have a way to go. At least she's not waking up every half hour to hour all night long anymore, though!