Get me!

Hello All, hope that the weekend is treating you well!  It's been a little while since the last family update, so here it goes. 

We'll start with our little star I suppose...  Audrey is fully enjoying her ability to get outside.  With the weather so nice, it isn't unusual to see her dashing around the house.  It's not unusual for her to give me a sly look and say, "Daddy!  Get me!" and then take off in the opposite direction- usually in the direction of the maple tree in the front yard.  She could go round and round that tree for hours it seems.  Now that she has her little buddy Chase next door, she can run, her running grounds have expanded somewhat.  Those two run from yard to yard.  Chase finds extra joy in checking out Audrey's toys while she often times works in the opposite direction to make sure she isn't missing out on anything new that she doesn't already have.  It is kinda funny to see the two of them interact when they each have their own little tantrums.  Audrey makes a special effort to give Chase a hug when he is having a little meltdown and vice-versa. 

Audrey has taken up digging worms in the garden from time to time.  No fishing yet.  And finally just today really got into kicking a ball to me before she started hacking a lung from the cold weather.  Still getting over her week-long cold.  But it was finally nice to see her take some interest in what a father might consider athletic activity beyond wind-sprints around the yard.  She rarely obliges a round of basketball in her mini-hoop.  Rarely do I get more that two "slam-dunks" out of her.  Imagine Audrey's frustration when she would set down our family basketball to kick it down the driveway, and the ball started rolling down before she could give it a good punt.  She chased the ball down the driveway as it rolled toward me, brought it back to the top of the driveway, only to set it down and find it rolling down again without actually using her foot. 

Can I brag more?  Of course I can, it's my blog!  So this most recent wednesday Audrey skipped her first class.  She passed the intro swimmers class and will start in level 2 instead.  Woo hoo!  She had a mini tryout that gauged whether she could tolerate water or not; the trickiest part of the tryout was taking a cup and pouring water on her head and getting her own hair wet.  Given her anxiety over showers and get soap in her eyes, I was a bit fearful that she wouldn't do it.... but she actually did quite well.  Amazingly enough, the next step is to work on a back float with minimal assistance from a paretn and holding our breath under water for 5 seconds!  If they can get Auds to do that, I will be truly impressed.  It seems like a dramatic step compared to pouring water on yourself...

Auds is very much into her princess dresses, but has curious found herself only willing to wear dresses that go down to her ankles.  She has a pink tutu that Nama made her that she can't tolerate (it's clearly not long enough) and even the knee high Snow White dress results in a tantrum every time.  Jen finally ended up hiding it, since she would beg for us to help her into the dress, only to result in 10 minutes of tears afterwards.  Her Ariel dress is apparently long enough, thank God, and so is her white Easter dress.  She has worn the latter 3 or 4 days a week since easter....just not outside. 

We're also really into hiding, especially in Mom and Dad's bed.  She loves hiding under the covers with one of us, know that the other parent is going to find her any second. After dinner, she loves being chased up the stairs.  She says "Momma is going to get you" (as she has her pronouns mixed up, she means "Momma is going to get me"). This is inferring that it's time for Dad to bring her up the stairs and time for Mom to chase us down- usually resulting in us hiding and being found in the master bed. 

Unfortunately, I do have sad news.  Auds is not yet potty trained.  She does understand the rules of bribery however.  She gets a piece of chocolate for sitting on her potty.... now if she could just GO in the potty, that would be nice as well.  I'm trying to get Jen to agree to go to straight underwear...but the mess would be...interesting.  Ok, I'm tired.  Night night!  See you tomorrow Rara's baby- the big shower is tomorrow!