10 and 11 Months

Happy Fall!!! My goodness how time flies.  It feel like yesterday I was bringing this baby home from the hospital and now she's pulling herself up on the side of the couch.  She decided it would be easier to scale the walls and couch than crawl.  

She's been busy teething.  It seems as though her teeth never stop. It's once every other week which makes for a little bit of a crabby baby.  She has 8 teeth now.  I've never known a 10 month old with 8 teeth!  She is all smiles though.  I would say out of the two Rae is the most smiley baby I've had.  Audrey loved to study people and was such a serious baby.  She reserved her smiles for people she felt comfortable with.  People commented on it all the time. 

Rae is still not a fan of strangers but until they come close she is all smiles and laughs and the most social baby I know....at least from a distance.  :)

She is the best singer.  Every time I sing to her at naps and when she goes to bed she sings along with me.  It's the sweetest thing.  Someday I hope to get it on video.  

She loves to dance.  Every school morning we dance to our favorite song and Raelyn can't wait to dance.  She smiles so big from the minute the music goes on until it goes off and if she's not being held while we're dancing then she starts crying.  We're not allowed to dance without her!  

She now says hi, yay, Daddy, and Mama (hardly ever).  The fact that she doesn't know many words do not stop her from talking.  She responds to everything I say which makes her very easy to talk to.  She is also very good at whispering.  We were in Young Women for class one Sunday and she was being so loud and such a distraction to the girls.  I finally turned to her and in a whisper said, "Rae, you have to whisper!"  She then whispered back in a perfect whisper, "Da da da da!".  Now whenever I whisper she whispers and it always makes me smile.    

 She recently started blowing kisses to everyone at night which I think is the cutest thing. Especially when she says, "mah" when she does it.  

At the end of her 10th month is when she finally decided to start crawling.  She doesn't crawl normally.  To her defense it does not feel good to crawl on cement which is what our laminate is laid on.  She instead uses one of her feet and then pulls her other leg along underneath her. She's pretty fast and I'm sure it's much more comfortable, not that she crawls that often.   If there is a wall or something nearby that she can walk along, she prefers that to crawling most days.

Two of her favorite things to do right now are swinging in her new swing her Dad bought her and walking out to the mailbox to get the mail while I hold her hands.  There are many times she has cried when I've pulled her out of her swing to head inside.  She doesn't care how cold it is, she just wants to swing.  She cries and bangs on the window if Audrey is in the backyard without her because she wants to be with her sister swinging.  She loves the mailbox because it combines two of her other favorite things which is walking and being outside.  

Lastly, one of my most favorite things is when she lays her head on my shoulder.  I always say, "aww...sweet" and then she picks up her head, smiles at me and then lays back down.  It doesn't last long because she's the most busy baby I know but it melts my heart.  

I tell her all the time she's the best baby.  I'm so so grateful for her and I don't care if I spoil her with all the love I can possibly give because she seriously brings so much joy into our lives.  I wake up everyday still wondering if it's all a dream.  I don't deserve this beautiful life but I'm glad it's real and that I get to kiss those cheeks everyday!

 

Science with Friends

This year we decided to do things a little differently and invited friends to join us for science a couple times a week.  Audrey has loved having her friends join us and I have loved the much needed time spent with my friend after science is over.  We have all benefitted from science class.  

This year we've been learning about Energy.  I love teaching and learning right along side Audrey.  The best part of homeschool is that I learn in preparation and Audrey actually learns science which they weren't teaching in her school here.  

Paul follows up my teaching with a lot of real life application which always wows and amazes.  His mini lessons have always been more exciting and impactful than most of my teaching and experiments.  Here are a couple pictures we took when we talked about the type of energy it takes to run a camera and how a camera works.  These kids are the best little students!

 

Summer Bucket List

 This summer we made a list of things we wanted to do while the days were warmer. We made it through about half of it.  One of the things on our list was frisbee golf.  We even bought ourselves some frisbees.  Audrey was not a fan...she said it was too hard and all she wanted to do was play at the park.  We forced her to keep going.  I remember enjoying the long summer days where my family would play frisbee golf together.  In my mind I was the best at throwing a frisbee but I'm sure my adult self would not agree. If we were keeping score I'm sure Paul would have been the winner. Maybe if we start smaller Audrey will grow a love of frisbee golf.  :)  We'll see...

Raelyn was a peach and enjoyed sitting in her stroller while we played.  After playing Audrey won and we spent some time at the park next door.  Rae has recently found a love of swings and cries when we take her off.  These pictures are of her first time.

Celebrating our Girl

I can't believe we've arrived at double digits.  I've had the pleasure of being this girl's Mom for a decade.  She is a fireball to be sure.  She is dramatic, imaginative, independent, artistic, stubborn, sweet, kind, and thoughtful.  I've often said that she's a walking hallmark card because she gives out the best hallmark card phrases at just the right time.  She also throws out similes like it's her job.  I guess that's why she's such a descriptive writer.  

One of my favorite thing to do with Audrey is read.  We've been reading daily together since she's been tiny.  We have missed very few days.  Our reading adventures have changed over time.  We first started reading very simple books and I felt it most important for her to follow along while I read so she could get to know new words. I did my best to keep her entertained so that she wouldn't mind the chore of paying attention to both the storyline and the words while we read.  Then around that time we started reading, " The Chronicles of Narnia" I started reading in voices to make it more entertaining.  Since then she hasn't allowed me to not read in voices and if she doesn't feel like the voice I've given a character fits then I have to try again.  I give her a hard time but in all seriousness I love it.  

Her birthday was all about her including her desire to let her hair be wild and free.  She doesn't really like to have her hair done and she feels like she needs a day off every now and then so I made her dreams come true.

She had a birthday list hanging on the fridge for a month before her birthday with very detailed birthday plans (she's my planner). She made a menu, she had a list of what she wanted as gifts, and a list of the things she wanted to do.  

She wanted a key lime pie, pancakes for breakfast, and Zoupa Toscana for dinner.  She is definitely consistent.  She's never changed her love of pancakes and soup.  

This year she wanted a book and some puzzles for her birthday.  We also bought her a chess set because she has been obsessed with it for a year now.  She was excited about reading her book but it turns out I failed in choosing a book this time. We may have to re visit reading this one later. Audrey is a little sensitive and this one was a little much for her.  

She enjoyed playing chess with her Dad though and we sat and put puzzles together for a couple days as a family.  

I wanted to do a friend party for Audrey this year.  I felt like 10 was a big birthday and I wanted her to enjoy it with her friends so instead of a full out party I decided we'd do Audrey's favorite meal (breakfast) and we'd make paracord bracelets which turned out to be the perfect compromise.   The kids loved it and Audrey enjoyed time with her friends.  

Part two of this post is about Audrey's hair donation. She decided a couple years ago that she wanted to donate her hair to cancer patients when she found out it was possible through an article in "The Friend".  She did it in the name of her cousin Wyatt.  I was so proud of her for thinking of others, especially when the day came around to cut it.  It was hard for her to let it go but in the end she did it and was glad she did.  She now looks back at herself with long hair and prefers it short.  I feel like it makes her look so much more mature.  I couldn't get over the fact that she was looking like a young woman instead of a little girl.  

Happy Birthday Audrey!   It's a gift to watch you grow!

 

Balloon Glow

I love summer evenings for this very reason.  The sun doesn't go down till 9:30 and there's always something to do.  It's always an adventure when we try something new like this.  We showed up and Audrey insisted she was so hot that she needed an umbrella like her sister.  

I'm always in for a taco truck meal but sadly the line were terribly long and nothing looked really good.  Someone please tell me where I can find a good taco truck?!?  We obviously chose the truck with the shortest line.  They made crepes and at the price I was expecting something a little more fantastical but it was still pretty good.  Not the kind you dream about at night and can't wait to try again but good.  

The highlight of the night was really the balloons.  It was amazing to see them and even more amazing to watch them all glow at once.  There are a few pictures in here where you can see the excitement written on Audrey's face.  I was a summer night for the books.