Audrey update

I pulled this out of my journal- just kind of an update on Audrey. She is such a chatterbox and loves to make up stories and sing songs to herself as she plays. She also recognizes that letters all by themselves are different from pictures, and every letter she sees she calls the letter H. She is fascinated by counting, and can count to 5 (repeating after me, although she sometimes remembers 2 to 3 without help, and from 4 to 5 without help, but she still says "cat" for the number 4.) Sesame Street is her absolute favorite- she loves all her muppet friends and asks for them often. She learns new words from Sesame Street too- that's where cookie and dolly and the letter H came from. With the melting of the snow, we've discovered she is still obsessed with sticks and has brought several inside the house to keep. She had her 18 month checkup this week and the doctor says she is doing great- 30% for weight and 60% for height. She's still in the 96% for her head size... so I guess she's really smart... She knows there is a baby in Mommy's tummy and that his picture is on the fridge, but she calls her tummy a baby sometimes too, so I don't really think she gets what it all means. She is going to nursery now and doing great- she does a lot better if Thomas drops her off instead of me. She is very social. She is doing a lot better at sitting quietly during prayers and folding her arms for more of the time. She also is learning to recognize that Mommy isn't the only one who can say prayers, and that sometimes she needs to sit still when other people pray in church. She loves looking at church magazines or the Nursery handbook, and loves finding pictures of Jesus in them. She will sit for most of the Sacrament part of Sacrament meeting looking at a book with pictures of Jesus in them. I could go on and on, but here is the list copied from my journal.

I wanted to make a list of all the words Audrey can say as of today. She will try to imitate pretty much any word you ask her to, but I wanted to make a list of words I know she knows what they mean and uses them independently without me prompting her. Parenthesis are what you hear when she says the word. Some words sound exactly the same as other words.

1. Mommy
2. Daddy
3. TV (Tee-tee)
4. Binky (Meenee)
5. Blankie (Bennee)
6. Food (Boot)
7. Light (Yight)
8. Doggie/Arf
9. Kitty/Meow
10. Duck
11. Horse (she neighs)
12. Cow (she moos)
13. Sheep (she baas)
14. Piggie (scrunches nose and sniffs a bunch)
15. Car (Vroom)
16. Snowing (No-een)
17. Truck (Duck)
18. Stuck (Duck)
19. Up
20. Down
21. Done
22. Yucky (Uckies) *anything on the floor like fuzzies or string or bits of paper or anything is "uckies"
23. Ernie (Ehnee) *she is obsessed with Ernie. He's her favorite.
24. Bert (Ehnee) *she used to call them both "Boht" for Bert, and now she calls them both Ehnee for Ernie.
25. Big Bird (Bo-Bo)
26. Cookie
27. Grover (Goh)
28. Count (Coht)
29. Snuffy (Nunny)
30. Coat
31. Shoes (Tooes)
32. Toes
33. Nose
34. Eyes
35. Mouth (Mots)
36. Neck
37. Socks (Tock)
38. Apple
39. Banana (Mana) *She turns a lot of words that begin with "B" into words beginning with "M"
40. Bread (Beht)
41. Bed (Beht)
42. Spoon (Poon)* she calls a knife and fork "poon" also
43. Plate (Payte)
44. Hi *she will wave and say hi to any ladies or kids regardless of if she knows them, but not to men- she tends to be kind of afraid of men until she gets to know them
45. Hello (Ewow)
46. Bye-bye
47. Trees (Tees)
48. Teeth (Teet) *she is obsessed with brushing her teeth.
49. Wipe (Wi-PE!)
50. Baby
51. Ouch (Out)
52. Jesus (Dees-dus)
53. Man (Manuh)
54. Book
55. Toys (Towees)
56. Egg
57. Juice (Doose)
58. Cup (Puck)
59. Train (Too-Too)
60. Monkey (Ooh-ooh)
61. Owl (Ooh-ooh)
62. Chicken (Bock-bock)
63. Bird (Bowt)
64. Please (Pees)
65. Poopy
66. Potty (Poddy)
67. Grandma (Mo-mo)
68. Ride (Wite)*this one she loves- it's like telling a dog "walk" or getting out the leash or something
69. Dolly (Towee)
70. Puppy
71. Box (Baht)
72. Uh-oh
73. Girl (Goh)
74. Boy (Bowee)
75. Bowl (Bow)
76. Fruit (Poop) *this may also mean Winnie the Pooh but I haven't confirmed it
77. Stick (Tick)
78. Pretty *she almost always whispers this one- I've only heard her say it out loud a few times and only recently
79. Phone (Bone)
80. Amen (AH-men)
81. Shh *I don't know if this counts as a real word or not, but she says it whenever she sees someone doing it

Life

I was telling Thomas about this but he made me stop because it made him sad. I had to come finish telling someone. I just watched Gianna Jessen speak on YouTube. You can watch it too, here and here. Gianna is a woman who survived an abortion in 1977- her parents were both 17 years old, and at 30 weeks along decided they didn't want her, and turned to an abortion clinic. The procedure was unsuccessful, as Gianna was born alive instead of dead, and was put into foster care with cerebral palsy as a result of the attempted abortion. She walks today with a mere limp, something her doctors never thought she would be able to do, but her spirit is so strong as she speaks of things she is passionate about. I have never met her but I love her for her passion for life and her determination to be an advocate for good. I am shocked into fascination by her story. I won't tell it all here, she does that much better than I could. I am confused and outraged at a man who tried to take her life but ended up signing her birth certificate, and is proud and passionate of his accomplishments of murdering over a million children before they had a chance to live. I truly do not understand how people cannot see it as murder. I think of Gianna's mother- as I sit here just a few weeks further along than she was when she chose to end her pregnancy. I do not understand how, feeling this baby boy move and live within me, anyone could in good conscience not feel that this baby is living and deserves life. I cannot understand, remembering watching early ultrasounds of both my children and marveling at how much they moved and kicked and danced inside me without me even feeling it, that people could not consider that life, and deserving of life. I would never be able to live knowing that I ended that for someone so small and helpless, someone God trusted me with the care of. How could anyone betray that trust, no matter what the circumstances? A mother's body needs nourishment to nurture babies, whether they are inside or outside her body. I love my baby boy, my Little Brother, and I am so excited and proud to give him life- to be giving him life every day.

Desert Rat Memories

I was sitting here and I looked up the weather for tomorrow, and it said "scattered T-storms" and I had this sudden memory of Arizona that made me miss it. I remember back at our second-story apartment in AZ, we had a bench on the front porch that we got for $10 at Bed, Bath and Beyond because it had some broken straps in the woven seat. We used to sit on it on nice days or evenings and just talk. I remember sitting on the bench in the summertime in AZ, in the evening as the sun was setting off to our right, and the monsoon storms rolling in on our left. I remember the feel of the hot wind and the smell of the wet desert air. I miss AZ monsoons- oh how I love them. I looked at the weather forecast and I was like, ooh, a thunderstorm! A real spring storm! It reminded me of the way I used to look forward to the end of summer monsoon season storms and how crazy and wonderful they were. I remember dancing out in the warm rain with friends SO many times. I think I will always be a desert rat at heart.

Well life is never boring! We've been sick on and off over here since January... and I guess kinda before that. I've kept getting sinus infections. Audrey got a cold. Thomas has a stomach thing right now. I got a real bad sinus infection a few weeks ago, but I think I've finally gotten rid of them all and now I'm just trying to stave them off for a couple months until I deliver this kid. Nasal rinses are my friend. I wish I could say we are all healthy right now though!

We've had a bit of excitement with this pregnancy- about the time I was getting rid of the last sinus infection I started having some real contractions- pretty close together. I'd had tons of Braxton-Hicks since around month 4 but these were definitely more real and they started happening every 2-4 minutes so we called our wonderful doctor. He said to take it easy and see how the night went, and to come in the next day. The night was fine- once I took a warm bath and put my feet up for the night things calmed down. We went in the next day and they checked me out and everything was fine- no dilating yet or anything. So they told me to "take it easy" for a few weeks, at least until 34 weeks along. After that point they said they wouldn't stop my labor if it actually happened. So... we've been taking it easy! I still get contractions, even if I'm totally at rest for awhile, but if I am sitting or laying down I only get one or two an hour. Anytime I stand or do anything of consequence I usually get more of them. Our ward has been wonderful and everyone is so nice and helping when we need it. I'm really still able to do a lot of things I normally can, just a lot slower with lots of breaks in the middle. Anything that has me lifting or bending is hard. Mostly my body is just really tired- muscles working hard with contractions and dealing with the pain.

Thomas is rounding the corner into his last month of school- just a few more weeks really and he is done with his undergrad! We are so excited for him to be done. He is starting to feel the "now what" syndrome- faced with career and job options and where our family will be next. We aren't quite sure yet what the future holds for us, but we are starting to explore many options. Our tentative plans are to stay here until September, but after that we aren't sure. If Thomas gets a really awesome offer somewhere before then, we might end up leaving sooner. Who knows! It's exciting, but kinda frustrating to have everything so up in the air. It's such a fun time of life though- we are so grateful.

The weather is starting to get SO beautiful here in Rexburg. It's warming up so it doesn't get SO SO cold at night, and the snow is all starting to melt and the grass is showing through. I didn't even wear long sleeves when we went out today- it was blissfully beautiful. We are SO SO SO excited for spring and summertime here! I know our AZ family is telling us it's starting to get a little warm down there... but we welcome the warmth!

Audrey is getting so big and fun to be with. She is going to Nursery now, as her 18-month mark is on Saturday. She's gone a couple times, and we still have some tears but we've learned that Daddy is better at taking her and dropping her off because she's less nervous about him leaving her. Plus they have snacks. That's always a winner. She is such a chatterbox and loves to tell stories as she plays by herself around the house. Her new favorite spot is on the low bookshelf in her room, sitting so she can look out her window and talk about all the things she sees outside. She is learning so many real words and I catch her practicing them and putting them into little sentences. A lot of her words are made-up but they mean real things, like "Meeny" for "Binky" and "Bo-Bo" for "Big Bird". She LOVES her Sesame Street, and it's gotten us through many days, especially as I'm not able to be as active as I'd like to these days. She's such a joy to have in our family, and she's excited to be a big sister (we think- she points to my tummy and says "ba-bee" and knows his picture is on the fridge, but I'm not sure she realizes quite what that means since it really doesn't look like any other baby pictures she's ever seen). She is getting better at saying "Jesus" instead of "doo-dee" and loves looking at pictures in the Friend, Ensign, or Nursery manual. This is largely how we get through Sacrament meeting without tantrums because she can't run free and wild around the chapel and halls. She is getting so good at sitting like a big girl in church. She knows to fold her arms and bow her head for prayers and she always reminds us to pray on our food. Such an adorable girl.

I'm getting really excited to have a new baby- but a little nervous at the same time. Mostly lately I'm starting to freak out pregnant-style about not having everything ready for him to come- "what if i go into labor right now and we have the baby tonight and he will have to wear girly pink clothes cuz we haven't gotten him any yet and we don't even have a crib mattress for him to sleep on yet and..." you get the idea. Just totally pregnant hormone love. I am excited to have him come into our family!