10 months!

My dearest Audrey turned 10 months old on August 15. It is now time for me to get in gear planning her 1st birthday party! I have decided on a ladybug theme (it was our sorority's mascot). I'm so excited to gather family and friends to celebrate the life of our miracle!


A little about Audrey at 10 months:

• She wears 9 month clothing and some 12 month stuff now too

• She has 3 teeth--- the two bottom middle teeth and the top right canine tooth (odd, right?)

• She sleeps through the night from 9pm- 7:30am

• She STILL continues to wave at absolutely everyone and if you tell her to say "hi" or "bye" she knows she should wave

• She crawls like a bat out of hell---- and each day it only gets faster

• She now eats every type of baby food (nothing she doesn't like either!) and she has moved to the stage 3 jars so she has some chunky food now

• Her favorite snacks are puffs and wagon wheels and if you say "snack" she follows you to the kitchen to get her little cup.
  

• She says "dada" and seems to start registering that's for Daddy. She says "gup" for up. She says "ba" for bottle. She knows "dog" for Charley. And the other day she shocked me by saying "cat" VERY clearly. The only time she says "mom" it comes out "momomomomom" and when she wants me....other than that, I have no name.

• Her favorite activities are climbing on Daddy and Charley and pulling Charley's hair.
  

• She has a huge interest in pulling herself up on anything she can and then she stands there and laughs.

• She still has big blue eyes and strawberry-blonde hair (although it seems more blonde lately)
  

You can see her hair is getting out of control!!!!

Exam and Beach!

So tomorrow is finally the day.....the qualifying exam is happening! I couldn't be more excited and ready to get it over with. Basically you prepare your essays ahead of time and just wait for them to email you the number you get and then send that essay back. After having a pretty brutal professor this summer, another professor decided to look over our essays to make sure we were on the right track. Luckily, mine needed next to nothing fixed! I looked over it again tonight and it's ready to go for tomorrow morning! I will be so relieved to email it and know that it's done! We'll find out the results in about 3 weeks....

Saturday we leave for vacation. We're taking our annual trip to Ocean City, MD. I couldn't be more excited! We've had quite a whirlwind year--- baby, grad school, promotion, etc. Vacation is definitely needed! Jedd scored tickets to see the Red Sox/Orioles on Saturday night so we're going to the game (yes, Miss Audrey is joining us) and then leaving from there to continue the rest of the way to the beach.

I'm sure I'll have lots of updates and pictures to post when we return!

9 months old!

Audrey turned 9 months old last Wednesday, July 15. I can't believe it. Audrey has now officially been outside of my belly longer than she was ever inside. I think 9 months was the first time it really hit me how fast time is going. When I was pregnant with her, 9 months took FOREVER. Now, I feel like I'm trying to hold on to the last 3 months that I can still call Audrey a "baby".


A little about Audrey now:
-She weighs 17.9 pounds and is 28.5 inches long
-Her head circumference is 44cm
-She wears 6-9 mo and 9 mo clothes
-She is in a size 3 diaper
-Still only has 2 bottom teeth (but 2 top teeth are so close to pushing through)
-She sits up by herself
-She crawls EVERYWHERE and gets faster by the day
-She tries to pull up on anything she can
-She's starting to stand for longer periods of time
-She waves hello and goodbye to everything (When someone leaves a room and comes back, Charley, people on tv, etc. )
-She still refers to most things as "baba" or "dada"
-She eats all different types of fruits and veggies
-She now eats Puffs as well and feeds them to herself (apparently he learned how to take the lid off the Puffs too!)
-She loves swimming and being in the pool


As I reflect back on the last 9 months I just can't express enough how grateful I am to have such a healthy and happy baby girl! She is truly the love of our lives!

Wedding, 8 months, Anniversary, Concert!

Well, grad school is completely kicking my butt this summer! I'm only taking 6 credits (2 classes) but it's MUCH different with a baby to take care of! Audrey keeps me entertained as I'm writing papers--- she babbles next to me the entire time.

Jedd and I enjoyed my pledge sister Lauren's wedding in DC on June 13. It was our first night away from Audrey and we did well! It was a beautiful day and a beautiful wedding! So happy for her!

Some of my lovely pledge sisters and I

Jedd and I

The beautiful bride

Audrey turned 8 months old on June 15. 8 MONTHS?!?!?! She's so amazing.

A little about what she's doing:
-Babbling non-stop (she has mastered ba, da, and occasionally ma and la)
-Wears 6-9 month clothes
-Size 3 diaper
-Can sit independently for a little longer...but still being LAZY
-Gets up on all fours and rocks back and forth
-Can move to where she wants my scooting (she also crawls with her head DOWN!)
-Has TWO teeth--- the bottom 2. The second one came in on June 11.
-Eats solids--- she has tried carrots, sweet potatoes, oatmeal, rice, and we're still adding new ones
-Loves being outside
-Loves Charley and pulling his hair (he's such a good sport)
-Holds her own bottle and feed herself-- with ONE hand
-Sleeps on her belly with her feet tucked under her and her butt up in the air

Almost crawling...

On June 23, Jedd and I celebrated two years of marriage. We went back to Allenberry again (where we were married and had our reception) to take pictures. We've been going back each year to get a picture on the rocking chairs on the front porch of the mansion. It's a cute tradition and we LOVED having Audrey to share it with this year!


This weekend we also spent an evening away from Audrey. My best friend Melissa go us tickets to see Kenny Chesney, Lady Antebellum, Miranda Lambert, Montgomery Gentry, and Sugarland in concert. It was AMAZING!!!! We were definitely feeling the effects the next day!

My best friend Melissa and I

Lots of ASA girls at the concert!

Jedd and I

Other than that, nothing is really new! I'm amazed that time is flying by so quickly. July already in a few days....I only have 8 more days of grad school left and then I have a huge qualifying exam I need to pass to move up in my program. After that.... I'll update much more frequently!

Sweet Summer!

I'm baaaaaack!! I can't believe it's been nearly a month since I posted!

Audrey is now less than a week away from being 8 months old!!! I can't even believe it.
It's been a crazy few weeks for us. School officially ended on Friday but I've been going in to finish up all my paperwork (special ed, gotta love it) and getting my room ready for summer cleaning. I started one of my grad school classes last night. It's an online course so we only have to meet 2 times all semester which is nice. I start my other course on Monday and that's everyday for 5 weeks--- YUCK!

Jedd bought me a Canon Rebel XTI for my birthday!!! I almost couldn't believe it. I've been able to capture some absolutely beautiful pictures of Audrey!!! I feel like a professional photographer now!




Jedd and I are heading to Washington D.C. this weekend for one of my dear pledge sisters weddings! I'm really excited about seeing all my best friends from college but absolutely devastated to leave Audrey for the first time overnight. I'll post pictures after this weekend!!

I'm still here!!!

I promise I have not disappeared forever! We had a really busy weekend--- Audrey was 7 months old on Friday (5/15), Jedd and I went away for the day to Atlantic City on Saturday, and Sunday was my 25th birthday!!! To top it all off, allergies hit me like crazy and I was super sick for it ALL! I'll update with pictures and stuff over the weekend!!!

Hope everyone had a great week! Mine went so fast!!!

Happy Mother's Day!

Today I celebrated my first Mother's Day as a mom. Wow, suddenly you realize what this holiday is all about. Last year I was a little over 4 months pregnant and Jedd made sure it was a special day for me, but today was even better! We carried on our annual Mother's Day tradition and had a bushel of hard-shelled crabs! YUMMMM!! Jedd and I were able to celebrate Mother's Day with both of our moms which is extremely important to us.

Jedd was so cute--- he went out and got me flowers, a card from Audrey, and a card from him. My mom treated me to bali blue Vera Bradley flip flops too!! Of course, her card made me cry too!!!


My life has been forever changed by Audrey. Suddenly, I realize my purpose in life--- and it is to love and care for her. I feel blessed beyond words this Mother's Day.

Happy Mother's Day to all the other Mom's out there--- we have the MOST important job in the world! How lucky are we?!?

Food and a TOOTH!

Thursday (May 7) was my Mom's birthday! Unfortunately, my older sister wasn't feeling well so we decided to postpone my mom's birthday dinner. We have a tradition that when it's your birthday you get to pick a restaurant to go out to eat to and everyone goes. I felt bad we weren't doing anything, so Jedd and I decided to do a dinner for my mom at our house.

Grandma and Audrey

Well, May 7 turned out to be a big day for other reasons! Finally, after 2+ months of constant drool and fussiness, Miss Audrey cut her first tooth!!! It's on the bottom left side of her gums and each day it slowly comes up more and more. It is TOO cute!!!!

We also decided to give Audrey her first taste of solids! We started her out on carrots and she LOVED them! I was worried she wouldn't think much of solids but she ate the whole container!! It was exciting to give her something other than a bottle. We have a Dr.'s appointment tomorrow so I'm looking forward to talking with him about what the next step is and how often we can give her solids, etc.

The first bite

Hmmmm.... what is that stuff?

I like carrots!!!

May 7 was a very important day to us for many reasons--- but mostly, it's the BEST Mom in the world's special day. Happy Birthday Mom!!!

No time for blogging!

I can't believe I let this thing go weeks in between when I update! I used to be so good about updating this nightly and now I can't even find the time!

As of Monday night, I am officially DONE grad school until June! YES!!!!! I just can't wait until I'm done FOREVER....but that will come with time. I'm only 9 credits into a 33 credit program--- gosh, that seems like sooooo far to go! I'm hoping to be done either by December 2010 or May 2011. Either way, it's not easy working full time, taking care of a newborn daughter, and going to school part time! I hate that PA makes us get these credits....makes you feel like your FIRST college degree is useless!

Nothing is really new with Miss Audrey. We're still going through the whole teething thing, but no teeth have showed up yet! The poor girl is struggling and evenings seem to be the worst. She doesn't seem to have any issues at night though because she's still sleeping soundly through the night (thank goodness).

Some pictures of my love (who by the way is 28 weeks old today!):

In her robe after bathtime

Learning to stand

Hamming it up for the camera!

6 months and BEACH!

Wow-- I'm back! Sorry it's been so long since I've updated.

Last Wednesday, April 15, we proudly celebrated Audrey's 1/2 year birthday!!! It's so hard to believe our little girl has been with us for 6 months already! We treasure every single day we've been blessed with her and we're excited to keep seeing her grow (so fast) right before our eyes.
Some things about Miss Audrey:

• She is still in her 6 month clothes (the pants are getting too short but they're still a little big around her petite waist)
• She rolls both ways and FAST
• She "scoots" around... if you leave her laying on a blanket, it's no problem for her to scoot 5 feet away from it!
• She's still sleeping through the night (9+ hours!)
• We are in the middle of teething!! They're getting closer by the day but no teeth have broken through
• She can push up with her hands and lift her chest
• She can sit really well with support but only for a few seconds without support (and then she topples over)
• She grabs EVERYTHING in sight!!! And it's a tight grip when she grabs!
• She laughs and giggles all the time (Charley is her favorite though)
• Her hair is getting lighter and lighter and it's now starting to grow back in where it was rubbed off when she was a baby

Now, granted, Audrey was doing some of these things before she even reached 6 months, but it's amazing to see how much babies grow in that short amount of time!

The only 6 month picture we got that is semi-decent

Then Audrey realized eating the paper is much more fun

The love of our lives!

This past weekend, Jedd and I took off work on Friday and we took Audrey to Ocean City, Maryland for her first official beach trip! We had a great weekend and beautiful 75+ degree weather! It was nice to leave PA behind for a little and just relax. Charley got to come too and he loved getting in the ocean water. We're really looking forward to our week-long family vacation down there in early August!

Outlet shopping wears me out!

Bath time in the sink!

Last time we were here together Audrey was in my belly! Sorry I was squinting so bad-- it was bright!

Jedd and Charley on the beach

The Gardner family