Thanksgiving

Here's a bunch of cute pictures of the cousin gathering in Denver. We spent the long weekend with all the Denver folk joined by Brian, Ashley, Jake and Lucy as well as Dan McG up from Durango. I'm very slow in posting partly because anytime I pick up the iPad Audrey sees it and yells "my turn! I need a turn on the padpad!!" and grabs for it, and partly because I have been absorbed in book 5 of the game of thrones series, but I'm done with that now and Audrey is napping so here's my chance ;)

We all ate at Lisa and Rahja's



and played

and bathed.

Cousin Lucy is four months older than Audrey.







Here's Gammy with six of her eight grandbabies: Jake (1), Noah (5), Lucy (2), Julian (4mo), Audrey (2), & Oli (10)

Roll over

Julian did his first rolls today. Two consecutive belly to back, here he is contemplating a third:






Audrey did a bit of coaching by showing him how she does it and by helping him push himself over.

Halloween

Audrey is two years old

...but if you ask her she will tell you she is "six nine".
I have no idea where she came up with this but when we started talking about her upcoming birthday a month ago she started saying it and has stuck to it. The other funny number thing she does is counting to 10, it sounds like this "one, two, three, four, nine, ten, eight, nine, ten", followed by clapping.
Audrey is a little explorer, discovering new fun uses for things,

creating interesting looks,

sometimes causing mischief, but generally just having a good time.
She got her first black eye a few weeks ago when hit by a stray flying cup at daycare.

She still loves to read and is sharing that joy with her baby brother.

She was very proud of the pumpkin she painted at her friend Piper's pumpkin painting party.

One last adorable anecdote, anytime you ask Audrey about what she dreamt about she will tell you "cows" and sometimes "cows eating nannies (trans:bananas)" or if it was an especially complex dream maybe daddy was eating nannies too.
So there's the snapshot of the life of Audrey at two, and here are the pictures we took on her birthday.

Two months

Things are different with kid number two, less stressful and worrisome, less attention to tiny details, such age in weeks. Parents have this quirky way of answering the question of "how old is your baby" with way more precision than necessary, leaving the person asking with a little math problem on their hands; for example I once heard a parent say the baby was 50 weeks old, not sure how tongue in cheek that answer was but it left for some calculating. Why not just say your kid is almost one?! Okay, I did that too, with Audrey, up to a certain point, but its just not happening with Julian, he has been two months old for the past couple weeks and probably will continue at that age until he is three months. But don't worry, I am keeping up with the weekly photo

Julian had his two month well child appointment today. Poor baby got poked three times for immunizations. Brave mommy held him for comfort. Another second baby difference: when Audrey got her two month shots the doctor had to hold me for comfort while I bawled my eyes out.

He is growing like a weed, he's gained about 5 pounds and grown just over 4 inches since birth, bringing him from 30th percentile at birth to 70th percentile now! He is 12 1/4 #, 1'11.75"

First snow storm

We got a foot of snow on Friday, so Audrey asked to pull out the skis and do a couple laps in the front yard.

Just Julian

This is a post dedicated solely to Julian because he is that special. Julian joined the family and our hearts grew.  He is a pretty chill baby, as his late arrival foretold, making our busy life a wee bit easier.  He has beautiful lips, a nicely shaped head with just enough fuzz to make kisses really sweet, and big hands and feet.  He has been a frequent sleep smiler and has started to smile while awake as well.  He is growing fast, weighing in at 11 pounds at 6 weeks old.  He just got back from his first camping trip, the annual Hullabaloo, although he splurged and stayed in the ranger cabin rather than a cold tent.

Smiling for daddy

He likes to make bubbles.

Such great posture

Hail to the Victors!


Gearing up in warm clothes for the hullabaloo.

Family hikes

We've been enjoying some hiking over the past few weeks.

Here's Julian on his first ever hike, on Uranium mine trail at Fish Creek.










Here's Audrey hiking with Gammy at Mad Creek.




Here's Audrey and Dan heading to Spring Creek







And here's the view from our most recent, non-creek, hike in the Flattops.