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

Easter 2009

Jedd and I spent the early part of Easter doing some not-so-fun things. I had to finish up a grad school project that's due today and Jedd unexpectedly went into work after they had some trouble the day before.

I got Audrey all dressed up and she was such a good girl. As I was getting ready to go, I noticed Audrey's favorite part of her Easter dress was that she could flip it over her head to chew on it. Awesome.

We ate dinner at my parents house and Jedd's mom and my sister both joined us. We forewent the traditional ham and had steaks instead. They were amazing!!! Since I worked the day before and Grandma Gardner watched Audrey, she had already gotten her gift from her--- a white mini rocking chair to put on our front porch with our rocking chairs!! It's adorable and Audrey just loves sitting in it!

Audrey also got an Easter basket from Grandma & Grandpa Howard. Actually, it wasn't a basket at all--- it was a Vera Bradley purse! It's from their new collection and the purse is actually called "Audrey". She loved it!!!

We had a great day with our families and Audrey really seemed to enjoy her 1st Easter!!
Here are some pictures:

Audrey's new rocking chair from Grandma & Grandpa Gardner!

Her new Vera Bradley "Audrey" purse

Her goodies from Grandma & Grandpa Howard

My happy girl

Showing off her pretty Easter dress

She was so happy all day!

Audrey and Mommy

Had to get her the headband!!!

Hope everyone had as much of an enjoyable Easter as we did!!!

RIP Harry Kalas

Sadly, the Phils announcer, and the voice of the team, passed away today in the pressbox.


The Phils games will never be the same.
RIP Harry.

1st day= SUCCESS!!

So, as I blogged about before, I'm starting a new job for some extra "fun" money! Today was my 1st day actually working--- although I am DEFINITELY still learning! I am getting paid $7.50/hour and then anything I make in tips is mine to keep and I don't have to claim. Most customers come in for a drink or two, or to golf, or to gamble. Well, since the rain was still coming down this morning I didn't have a huge golf crowd. But there were definitely gamblers!!! I paid out $640 alone in ticket money!!!!

The nice thing about people that gamble (or at least the one's that come into the Legion) is that they tip their bartender WELL after winning. That definitely helped my tips!!! Most money on Saturdays will come from the golf crowd, but clearly that wasn't happening today. I ended up leaving work with $75 in tips. YAAAAAAAAAAY!!! So, figure that on top of $7.50 hourly wage--- I definitely cleared $100 easily on my first day. Not a bad first day at all!!!

I needed a day like this to talk me into doing this. I already made a list of things I'm going to do with my new "fun" money... but it wasn't easy getting up this morning to go in!!! I'm hoping I continue to enjoy it just as much every weekend.

Now I'm just waiting to snuggle my little peanut when she gets home from Grandma Gardner's house!!!!

Let the 5 day weekend begin!!!

I'm so excited to spend the next 5 days with this beautiful face:

Sleep and a New Job!

So tonight Jedd has his big sleep study. I've been trying to convince him to go for quite some time because I've been worried about his breathing at night. Awhile back he even woke up me up once because I heard him gasping for air! Hopefully after tonight we'll have some answers!

Tonight I started training for my new bartending job. I'm doing it to earn a little extra money and since I don't teach during the summers, it gives me something to do a few days a week! I was only there for about 2 hours and I earned $6 in tips. Ok, so that doesn't seem like much at all--- but there was only a couple drinking (no food), a man drinking (no food), and a man drinking (with food). So for 2 hours, I was pleased! To start, I'll only be working on Saturdays from 7:30am until 4pm. Jedd is pretty upset since it will damper weekend plans, but it seems relatively easy to get a day off if I need it.

Nothing else really new with us. I have 3 more grad school classes left for this semester! Thank goodness!!! Tomorrow is also my last day of work this week. We have a nice, long 5 day break starting then! Just gotta get through tomorrow and then I get a long break with my baby girl!

Some updates!

So this week has been one of the craziest weeks. On Monday morning, on my way to work, I got a call saying that one of my former students had passed away on Friday. I was devastated. I taught life skills for 2 years, and yes, I fully understood that our students walked a thin line with their health, but it's still one of those things you NEVER want to hear. 13 years old. It's still hard to believe. Especially since I saw her in the hallway on Friday and we had a nice little chat. I'm very thankful for that chat and I'll hold onto that forever.

I got a new (part-time) job!! I'm going to bartend 1-2 nights throughout the week (I'm hoping only 1) and then on the weekends to make some extra money. My paychecks took a HUGE hit by taking off on maternity leave, so I'm happy to make up some of that. Also, I have taught every summer for the IU and since I have grad school now, I'm unable to do that. So this is a perfect way to not waste away all summer! I'm also looking forward to putting away some money to help Jedd finish our basement. The poor guy wants his man cave sooooo desperately!

Audrey is still growing! I swear she gets longer every day! She's still a little congested so we tried putting a pillow underneath the one side of her crib to help her breath better at night. It's been working great!! She's still babbling away and drooling like CRAZY! Her gums are starting to feel like little bones so we're thinking the teeth are on their way! I'm just hoping she handles it pretty well. For now, she's been great--- just chewing and biting on things a lot! She reaches for EVERYTHING now too. So, if something is in her way, she'll grab it. Time to start being careful what's around her!


She is also getting MUCH better with tummy time! I think now that she's strong enough to lift her head for a substantial amount of time, it really interests her. I'm sad to say I think our bouncer has lost it's "appeal factor" for her though. She really wants nothing to do with it. The swing seems to be her favorite thing again and she's getting too big for it! I'm hoping she starts liking the jumperoo soon! It's sitting in our computer room VERY unused.


I am going to be heading down to Ocean City, MD for 2 weekends in a row! I'm going with my family on Thursday evening until Saturday evening (Jedd is staying home) and then we are leaving the next Thursday (the 3 of us and even Charley too) to go down again until Sunday! I'm really looking forward to taking Audrey to the beach for the 1st time and going shopping at the outlets!!!

Hope everyone is having a good week!!! I know how much I'm looking forward to the weekend!

Wordless Wednesday

Well, almost "wordless"....



Miss Audrey babbling away.....

23 weeks old!

I can hardly believe it! It's been 23 weeks (or 161 days) since I met my precious baby girl. 23 is one of my favorite numbers (probably because we were married on June 23). Since I've been slacking with the updates, I'll put extra pictures in of peanut today! She is growing like a weed. This past week she's been really trying to babble too. Her voice octave is much higher and she's really babbling away. Mostly it comes out sound like "dadadaddadada" or "bababababa" but she just goes on and on. Of course we're still going through all of the drooling and chewing too. No teeth yet, but I know they aren't far off!

My all-time favorite thing about Audrey is when you catch her staring at you and you glance over at her and a smile just lights up her face! She's so amazing!

So, here she is. My ENTIRE world:

Audrey's 1st St. Patrick's Day:

Drooling everywhere and chewing on everything!

The new talent:

Our happy baby girl: