Monkey baby

Just like her daddy, Audrey loves bananas. It wasn't always this way, when she first tried them seven months ago she turned up her nose. But now she demands a banana every morning, reaches out for them anytime she sees them, and even has a word for them, "nana", which she uses to name food in general as well. Not that she needs it for banana noshing but her fifth tooth poked out through the gums today. Well, enough blogging for now, I've got to get to the store...we are out of bananas!

One year stats

Audrey had her one year check up a couple weeks ago, here are her numbers:

Weight: 18 # 9 oz
Length: 28"
Head: 17.75"
Teeth: 4
Steps: 15,000
Words: 4

Happy birthing day to me

Today is the one year anniversary of the day I gave birth to my beautiful baby girl, also known as Audrey's first birthday. What an amazing day that was, what a lot of work, effort, and pain instantly forgotten when I laid eyes on that lovely little girl.




It is incredible how much she has changed and grown since a year ago. It has been so fun to watch and be a part of this amazing life.

Here she is in her birthday suit this morning, checking out my birthing necklace and opening a present.






Audrey doesn't know how today is any different from any other day but we do and I have been enjoying the memories of the day of her birth. Now I understand why my mom always said she was celebrating my birthday even if I was thousands of miles away.
Speaking of my mom, she celebrated a different kind of first birthday a few weeks ago when she received a stem cell transplant and her body started rebuilding after a massive dose of chemo killed the myeloma cells that had been causing trouble. She is in the hospital under close watch so the doctors can monitor complications, such as the mass that was discovered in her lung a few days ago; she is having a bronchoscopy today to gather more information, so send your hope and healing thoughts, energy, prayers.




Love makes life worth living. I love you Mom. I love you Audrey.

Audrey's first birthday party

We had some friends over for a little celebration. There were balloons, cake, singing, crafts, even a crown..good times.

Check the YouTube link for footage of Audrey's first taste of chocolate (spoiler alert: it's not messy).

Walker

This past week Audrey has become a full-on walker. Gone are the days of taking a couple steps followed by a dive into mama's lap, gone too are the days of crawling as primary means of transport with walking as experimentation only. Here are the days of walking all over the house, falling down and getting right back up again. It is very fun to watch

Making faces

Audrey has been becoming more and more animated and interactive. We have been able to capture by photo some of the great faces she makes, but not all. There is one very distinctive face where she tightens up her lips and becomes evasive, this is a sure sign she's got something in her mouth that should not be in there. There is another face where she puckers her lips, puffs out her cheeks and looks serious, to which Chris always responds "whatchu talkin about Willis?"

She was busy making all sorts of faces for this little photo shoot:



























This must be her "I want to fly" face:









Here's a couple shots of her silly smile face:

Outstanding blocks

Audrey has been checking out her collection of awesome letter blocks created by amazing family and friends. It is so fun to see the variety of decorations and pictures.





Some of the blocks are especially delicious, and they all fit in this beautiful box created by our friends, Katy and Mary. Thanks ladies!


She has been trying to spell her name but is missing a few letters! D, E, and Y are outstanding, along with C, F, and L.



For those folks that haven't been able to execute a creation, there are eager block makers that have offered to take on another couple letters so that Audrey won't have to grow up illiterate. No shame in passing on the task, just let me know if you are still working on it or if you've given up.

Thanks again everyone and especially Katy for bringing the idea into reality.

Kelly family reunion

Back in July we took a trip to Michigan to join my mom's side of the family for the 24th annual reunion. Audrey had fun meeting many great aunts and uncles and cousins.

She got a lot of love as she passed amongst the crowd.




It was especially fun and cute to see her meeting relatives her own age



There was a lot playing, eating, drinking, swimming, riding, running, yoga, tennis, what am I missing.

...bocce ball

...a hike along the coast of Lake Michigan



We are looking forward to next year!

Canoeing

We took a little spin in the canoe on Pearl Lake. Audrey was tired and hungry so that made for less than ideal conditions, but she did okay considering.

First tooth!

Audrey has a tooth showing itself after a month or so of symptoms. She does NOT want to show it off and gets really pissed when we attempt to look at or feel for it, as can be seen below.










Daddy apologized and all was forgiven.

Summer in Steamboat

It's a big day for blogging today seeing as I'm laying on the couch recovering after taking an unlucky fall while mountain biking yesterday and ending up with six stitches in my leg. Chris and Audrey met me at the emergency room (because they weren't riding with me), all the medical personnel told me how cute she is and the security guard gave her a teddy bear.

Other summer activities have included camping,













hiking,




wading,



picnicking,





watching hot air balloons float through the backyard,




along with other fun activities that haven't been photographed such as, swimming, riding in the bike buggy aka Burley going to free concerts, playing at the park, and so on.