Pretty

See?!?

EVERYONE thinks you are cute! :)

Audrey,

Lately you have turned into SUCH a girly girl!!! You have a jewelry box of bracelets that you like to put on your little arms and then you twist them back and forth with your little hand out and say "pwetty!" as we all admire how good you look!

You love your sparkly pink glasses and bows and hats on your head. You LOVE pretty shoes and that's one of the words you use very frequently as you coo "SHooooooo" and try to jam the pretty thing on your foot. You usually get very angry when it doesn't slide right on due to the interference of a buckle or something, but this doesn't tarnish your opinion of the shoe - it's just something we need to be hollered at about.

You are overall a very happy baby except if - for any reason whatsoever, I have to put you down or attend to something else. You really hate it when I am not with you - even if it's just putting you down so I can pour something to drink or empty the dishwasher. It's all just completely unacceptable. What kind of Mom needs two hands? A good one can make due with one, right? :) I am both loving this close stage and anticipating it's demise. I know it won't last and I'll yearn for your closeness. I wish I could stagger it in wonderful doses! :)

Jack,

You are growing so fast now, it blows my mind. You are also ADDICTED to computer games and would be satisfied to spend the entire day sitting in front of the computer. You are SO addicted that the process of getting your attention when you sit in front of it is simply impossible. We have to put it away for you to listen at all and that only comes about after a screaming fit because the computer is gone and then angry yelling as you make us pay for taking it away from you for at least the next hour.

The house lately has been increasing in volume, but there are so many wonderful things to say about that, too! You are also loving to read chapter stories with me - right now we are reading the Captain Underpants books that are written apparently JUST for you! The jokes are right up your alley and some of the strike you so humorously that we repeat them for days - it's actually quite funny. The two you have enjoyed the most recently is when the boys changed a sign to read: "I shake my big butt when I swim in the toilet" and "mommy, my airplane is swimming in the piano!"

These jokes are SOLID GOLD. You can go from seriously pissed to laughing in seconds if I should utter one of these SOLID GOLD JOKES. :) Good to know, right?

Oh, and another thing - your friends are always right. If they ever state something as fact and you repeat it to us and we dare to try to correct the obvious error in communication, you will tell us so definitively that we are WRONG - that it hardly leaves any room to argue the point with you. You are certain that every one of your young friends are like a million times smarter than your parents.

I didn't expect the teen years yet.

Love,

Mommy