The life and death of a skirt

June 2009: I bought Audrey this Fancy Nancy dress up skirt. Love at first sight. Over the next ten months, Audrey wore this skirt almost daily. The wear started to show. November 2009: See, it's always there.
February 2010: Looking a little flat, lost a lot of fabric, soon to lose most of the flowers.March 2010: Mom starts pleading with Audrey: "This tutu is so sad, maybe you should wear this new one from Grandma?" Audrey: "No." Mom: "Uh-oh, this tutu is broken!! You can't wear it anymore." (The elastic is worn out by this time). Audrey: "No." Mom starts to hide the skirt; Audrey starts to ask: "Mom, where's my sad broken tutu?????"
May 2010

We go to Disney World. Mom DOES NOT let Audrey wear the skirt in Florida, and keeps "forgetting" the tutu in the car afterward.

June 2010
Audrey mostly forgets about the skirt, but one day pleads for her sad broken tutu back. I cave, and give it to her. She gives it hugs and kisses and croons her love in a soft voice ("I missed you, sad broken tutu!"). I cringe, here we go. The next day, she puts it here:I guess after a month's absence, she finally sees it with my eyes. :)
Now she's wearing the new one from Grandma. I'm sure you'll be seeing it pictures to come.

Bath time

Ian is a huge fan of splashing.

Kids are so cute in the bath.

Making pie for daddy

While I think Mother's and Father's day are overblown "holidays," I still made a pie for my husband. And friends, as we were invited to an amazing dinner at the Croxalls. I'm working on an attitude change. And I adore my parents and in-laws and celebrate them often.

Daddy's girls! We love aprons--mine is a birthday present from Laura--lucky me!

Play me a song, Mr. Piano Man

Since I've rearranged the front room, the keyboard has been relegated to my bedroom, where, sadly, it is rarely played. Time and season I suppose. But any chance Ian gets to sit and pound on the keys, he takes it. This is part of the reason I hardly play: If he's awake, he will terrorize me until I get off the bench and let him take control.

Ian update

Ian is fifteen months old and a goofball. He loves to perform for a crowd. He is running, standing on his head, climbing up and down everything. He adds words to his vocabulary all the time. He can say Mommy, Daddy, ball, boo, car, wiggle, Audrey, no (of course), juice, cookie, bye, okay, go, and book. He also is learning to make animal noises: oink, baa, monkey sounds. It's so fun.
He is severely addicted to apple juice, he hates to nap, and he is binky free. He loves to dance to music, loves to eat dirt, sand, and beauty bark, as well as a great variety of normal foods, and has eleven teeth with two coming soon. He has a short fuse and throws a more dramatic tantrum than his sister. He loves the water and will soak whoever is giving him a bath with his splashing, and he has really enjoyed the pool.

Hanging out with the Wolfers

We had a fun summer week with trips to the gym, the gardens, the zoo, the mall, and more.
We met the Wolfers at the gardens on Wednesday and Carlie and Audrey had such a great time reconnecting. Here they are playing in the water area.

Here are a couple Ian videos, super short. He got a hold of a plastic rod from a play tent and started acting like a ninja, first using it as a bow staff and then as nunchucks. As usual, when I got the camera out he stopped performing, but these videos give a little taste of his action, which was pretty wild. At times I feared for my personal safety. Seriously, I did.

Ian's mad skills Take One (bow staff)


Ian's mad skills Take Two (nunchucks)