Audrey-isms

Here are 10 fun facts about our 10 month old Audrey, things specific to her personality.

1. Audrey loves to be wrapped up in a towel.  Her favorite part of bath time is the getting out part, where we snuggle her up in her hooded towel with only her eyes and nose visible.  But those eyes are squinted so much that it's obvious she is smiling her biggest smile underneath that towel.  That tiny bit of Asian comes out in in those squinty little eyes of happiness!

this is our quick bath solution when she's late for bed but just too messy to not wash

2. She growls when she is happy.  I mean it.  Full on growls like a little bear cub.  The happier she is the deeper the growl.  A lot of times people ask if she's okay, and I'm like "Oh yeah, she's fine, she's great!"  She also makes another very strange sound with her mouth that I don't think I can even try to describe.  I hope we can catch it on video someday because it's really very…weirdly adorable.

3. She has her own dance move we like to call "The Audrey."  It's a combination of rock and roll head banging and reggae-like head bobbing.  We say, "Audrey dance!" and she's swings her head around with all the power she can muster.  Sometimes I worry she'll get dizzy like her mama but she always seems to be okay!

4. She is very good at using her pointer finger.  She will be playing with a toy and then suddenly stop and slowly use her pointer finger to touch something on it as if she just realized it was there.  Like a button on a stuffed animal or a flower in a book.  Recently she's started reaching up her pointer finger when I've laid her down for a nap and she won't roll over and go to sleep until I've touched her finger back.  I love it!

pointing

she loves to point at books.  pulls one out, points at things, then flings it to the side.  as you can see.

5. She's suddenly gotten more cuddly.  She'll be playing on Andrew's lap and then suddenly put her head down on his chest and rest for a few seconds.  Then she'll pop back up again and keep playing, every few minutes stopping again to rest her cheek on him.  In the mornings after her first feeding she'll cuddle into me and we'll just sit in the chair in her room watching the sun coming through the curtains.  I adore those special quiet moments.  The only sound is her babbling, the most beautiful sound in all the world to me.

i was trying so hard to keep my head perfectly still in this picture as she basically slept on my face!

6. She loves stuffed animals!  Especially the Ernie and Mickey we have.  Both are from my childhood.  The Mickey is from my elementary school friend Erika when she went to Disneyland when we were younger and brought him back to me as a souvenir.  And Ernie is from an amusement park I went to with some friends back in the day.  I've always loved Ernie since I was very little, and he is the one Audrey seems to love the best too.  We call him her boyfriend!  Things like that are special to me.  For years I would save little things to keep for my own kids, sometimes feeling silly about it.  But now I'm so glad I have kept them because it brings me so much joy to see her love them so much.  She especially loves when we make them play hide and seek with her.  Once she finally gets it from us she will hug it as tight as she can and smile and growl with happiness!

7. She loves Frozen.  LOVES Frozen.  As soon as anyone says "Do you wanna build a snowman?" she is instantly attentive.  That one and Let It Go are her favorites.  Mommy and Daddy are trying very hard to get her into other movies, other Disney princess songs, because we are so tired of Frozen.  But so far to no avail.  The one other song she loves is Touch the Sky from Brave!  When she hears that she gets so excited and looks at me waiting for me to swoop her up and dance around the room with her.  That one I love!  She also loves Sesame Street, particularly Usher singing ABC's with Elmo and Grover and friends.  That one always calms her down when she's upset.  Seriously it never fails!  It's like our new white noise….

excuse our messy house…but this is a typical 'mommy REALLY needs to get things done' afternoon in our house.  Frozen on the Tv, baby relaxing on the floor.  don't worry, i don't let her stare at a screen for too long.

8. She is a very focused, concentrated baby.  She is very deliberate in her actions, determined in her movement.  When she gets crawling, she knows exactly where she wants to go and will not be deterred.  She looks intently at books and always looks like she's thinking, contemplating, figuring something out.  She focuses in on the TV, whether it's Snow White, Avonlea, or basketball.  I love seeing the wheels turning in her head like this as she learns about the world around her.

one of her many adorable concentrated faces.

i know this looks like it happened accidentally, but i promise you it was very much on purpose.  she does it several times when sitting in someone's lap.  no one knows why…but AUDREY does.  and that's whats important it seems.

9. She loves to ride around on her little 'car.'  We try to go outside every evening when it's cool out and push her around as fast as Mommy doesn't freak out about.  She lifts up her little feet when she gets going fast and smiles and giggles the whole way.

10. She WALKS…with one foot.  As she cruises the furniture she'll only go in one direction.  She steps deliberately with her left foot and then just kinda drags her right foot along after it.  When we hold her two hands to walk with her we end up going diagonally because she just will not step with her right foot!

Basically all this cuteness is quite DISTRACTING.  In church today we made the mistake of sitting towards the front where she was able to see everyone behind us when she stood in between us on the pew.  The head banging, the growling, the pointing and the toothless grins got big smiles and snickers from her little audience behind us, but I think it was not that nice to the person who was speaking.

But more often than not the distracting she does is a blessing straight from God.  She distracts us from the hardships of life, the things we stress about.  She distracts us from watching Tv or being on the computer for too long.  On days when things are piling up around us- dishes, laundry, worries- she distracts us from being overwhelmed or just plain unhappy.  It's pretty impossible for Andrew and I to be unhappy for more than a few seconds when she's around.  She distracts me from feeling bad about myself, she distracts me from comparing myself to someone else.  She is the best, most beautiful, amazing distraction that ever existed.  She points to all things good and wonderful.  And we are so grateful she is ours.  Our perfect little distraction.