Crawling...?

At day care, Audrey has been transitioning from the non-mobile infant room into the mobile infant room. This was her first full week in that classroom. Last Friday, Josh and I made a bet: He said she'd be crawling within a week, I said two weeks. So tell me, is this crawling? She gets where she wants to be, that's for sure.

Easter

Audrey's first Easter was a great one! We woke up bright and early and did the Easter basket.

It was filled with books...so many books...and some bunny ears and bubbles. We kept it pretty simple, everything was from the $1 bins at Target. Maybe as she gets older we'll get more into it, but for now she got just enough stuff.

Which one should I read first?

Haven't seen these two in a while...

After we were done with baskets and breakfast, we packed up the baby and the dog and headed to Maryland to visit with family. The weather was absolutely perfect! Josh, Audrey, and I hid Easter eggs for the kids. Matthew and Cristina loved it, but Ian wasn't interested at all, and Audrey of course spent the whole hunt being a model for photos. 

We ate lots of yummy food, opened Easter baskets, played, chatted, and had a great time. We are already excited for the next family function. We need to do these more often. 

Art Work

Audrey's first artwork:
Hers is the pink egg on the top left. The rest are the other babies in her class. So sweet.

She also painted these bunny ears for Easter:

She has two other pieces of art that are still on display in her classroom. One is a hand print and the other is random marks that she did with a paint brush. I can't wait to bring them home! I was a little sad at first because I had looked forward to her first finger painting...something I wanted to be a part of. Oh well, I guess I waited too long! I'm very glad that her day care does things like this, though. They keep her busy!

Moving Up

Audrey moved into her "big" car seat over the weekend. Her infant seat only goes up to 27 inches long and 22 pounds, so she was right at the height limit for a couple of weeks now. I ordered her the Britax convertible car seat that goes up to 55 pounds, so she should be in this seat for a few years, at least. Initially I ordered one seat, but then realized that since this seat isn't easily transferred car to car, we really need two since Josh takes Audrey to and from day care and then she's in my car any other time. It fits nicely in both of our cars, and Audrey looks so snug!

Look at how little she was way back in October when she was just two weeks old:

Look at those skinny little legs!!! I didn't take a picture of her in her seat before it was packed up, but her toes were sticking off the edges. Here she is in her new big girl seat:

She likes it, I think! It is much more spacious on the sides and she is more upright in this than she was in the infant seat. The one thing I do not like is that I can't just carry her around in her seat like I used to. When she falls asleep in the car, I have to wake her and carry her inside. Today we went too see some houses, and about 15 minutes before we left she started to get sleepy-fussy. Before, I would have just put her in her seat to fall asleep and then I'd put her in the car when we left. Not anymore. Ugh! She really is growing up. 

Eating It Up!

Our little girl sure does love food! She is eating two "meals" per day now, one in the morning at daycare, and one in the evening with our dinner. She LOVES it! So far she has had avocado, butternut squash, carrots, green beans, bananas, sweet potatoes, and nectarines. She likes the orange foods best - sweet potatoes, squash, and carrots. We've tried avocado quite a few times but she just doesn't like it very much, even though I've tried serving it to her in different forms (thin, mashed, with milk, without, mixed with bananas, warm, cool...). I want her to like avocado because I like it so much, but maybe it just isn't her thing yet. She ate the nectarines but I think they were too sweet for her at first, especially since she hasn't had many other fruits. Last night was her first time eating green beans and I thought she wouldn't like them as much since they are her first green vegetable, but she really liked them! I am going to make applesauce this weekend, and then next week try some peas. I look forward to every meal and even more so when it is a "first" meal. I hope to introduce finger foods sometime soon-ish. I want to encourage her to work on her pincer grasp, but at the same time, I don't want to rush her into anything she isn't ready for. Maybe some small chunks of banana would be good for this? I am tempted to try Cheerios, but I am so terrified of choking. It is ridiculous how worried I am about it, really. Even though I am only serving her thin purees, I think she's choking about once per meal (poor Josh just looks at me with that look...). I know I am being silly, but I can't help it! This is probably because I don't know infant CPR or what to do if she actually IS choking.

...And off I go to look up infant CPR classes.....

Precious Chunks

I love waking up to this.

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

That's her motto right now! Audrey is trying desperately to crawl. About two weeks ago when my mom was here visiting, Audrey suddenly pulled her legs up underneath her torso and pushed off with her arms (umm, wrong limbs honey!) and went backwards. Mom said this was "one step forward and two steps back!". Isn't that how it goes sometimes? Now she is doing the backwards crawl nonstop until she backs herself into a corner or under furniture, as she did at my dad's house this weekend. She has also managed to get into the "bridge" position and hold her body up and rock back and forth for a short while before she pushes herself backwards again. This must be incredibly frustrating, but she doesn't act like it. Usually she seems more surprised than anything else. It is becoming a hassle at bedtime because she no longer wants to sleep on her back, but when she's on her tummy she can't help but try to crawl. I have read that this is common when they are mastering a new skill such as sitting up or crawling, that they'll "practice" in their sleep. She used to go down at night without any problems. Now she is having a harder time falling asleep, but she is staying asleep better once she does fall asleep. Although, her sleep is more restless - she kicks and squirms trying to get comfy in her sleep, especially if she rolls onto her back. This apparently is no longer comfortable for her.

I've tried to take so many videos of her attempting to crawl, but like always, she gets stage fright whenever the camera comes out. Here is a preview:

I hope that she'll master this skill soon, even though it means my baby is moving towards toddlerhood sooner and sooner.