Notre Dame Wins! Audrey is 2 for 2!

For those who didn't see last night's battle between Notre Dame and rival Purdue, you missed a good one! Good ol' ND won the game with less than 20 seconds left in the game. Of course, Audrey made the final call- on fourth down Jimmy Clausen sent a scorching 2 yard pass to Kyle Rudolph for the touchdown. To be perfectly honest, my little pumpkin slept in my arms for all four quarters, but she and I will review the game tape when she perks up a bit. At this point, Audrey has been elected good luck charm of the season... and then there is always the possible promotion to team mascot.

Today Jen has a baby shower hosted by my mom Sally and sister Sarah- they have been working on this thing for weeks! Audrey and I made an appearance for the first hour and now are now having a somewhat restful Sunday afternoon- she's sleeping in my lap as I type this posting. I might have to join little Audramatic to hunker down for a nap as well, especially since Audrey has got her daytime/night-time clock mixed up. She has been having some trouble settling down at night...which means that her parents have trouble settling in at night. For the last 2 weeks we have been hoping that she will start using her thumb to settle herself to sleep- but after last night (where not a soul found any rest), Jen and I decided that we are not putting off the pacifier any longer. Fortunately, Jen is getting more than one pacifier at this baby shower- both grandmas came through once again!

By the way, Audrey was at her first wedding yesterday- absolutely beautiful wedding! Family friends Jodie and Tony make an absolute beautiful couple and you couldn't ask for a more beautiful wedding! Audrey wasn't the biggest fan of the louder organ music, but she did her best to sleep through most of the ceremony. I'll tell you one thing, she was a hit at the reception! Unfortunately we had to leave a little early as she was starting to get a little overwhelmed with the number of people and noise.

As a side note- it's pretty incredible how many nicknames our kiddo has at this point. I have contributed Audramatic, but others include Pumpkin, Sweat Pea, Baby Cakes, Pooh Bear. My favorite, I must confess, is the name that my wife came up with- Pumpkin Pie.

Unfortunately, I'm back to work tomorrow- but I have plenty to look forward to when I get home. I know Jen will have plenty of support from the Grandmas- it will be an interesting transition to get into a little pattern for the next 3 months or so. The good news is that Audrey is done with the bilirubin lights, is gaining good weight (5lbs 10 oz a few days ago)- now if we could just get her to sleep at night for a couple hours here and there! Hope all of you are enjoying the posting as we go along. If you have any questions- please feel free to ask them as a comment to our postings! Love, Ryan, Jen, "Pumpking Pie"

More and more pictures of course- I included her first trip to ALDI grocery store (a personal favorite!)