Ok, so I know I have been a horrible record keeper the last 3 months and I probably forgot half of the stuff that Aurora has done and all that, but she changes so much every day that it started to get very overwhelming keeping track of everything. And it’s hard enough to keep up with her and her energy levels let alone write about it later. But I will try my best to hit some highlights and bring people up to speed.
Lots of fun stuff has happened since my March updates. Here’s a list and some pics:
1. (April) Easter
We did an egg hunt and everything! Aurora had fun collecting the eggs, but more than anything she wanted to pick up rocks... We got to celebrate with Brittany and Jared since Phillip was in Florida for flight schoo1. Mom made way too much amazing food as usual and it was a good time with family/friends.
Cake Pops!
2. (April/May) Cheryl's Wedding Festivities:
Breakfast at Tiffany's Bridal Shower
Bachelorette Party. Can you tell the theme was 80's?
Wedding
3. (April) Nick's Mom got married! She is now Mrs. Dennis Moak and has since moved to Colorado.
4. (May) Aurora and I took a trip to CA for Darryl’s graduation. We got to go to Knott's Berry Farm. She's been before her daddy! She LOVED Snoopy.
5. (June) Camping with Dominic, Krystal, and Logan.
I had no idea Aurora could even get that dirty. She had fun playing in the dirt, but was not the biggest fan of hiking. She didn't sleep great so she spent some of the time tired, but she got to try some fun new things. Like S'mores!
S'More face:
6. (June) Mt. Lemmon trip
Aurora had much more fun hiking this time. Maybe she'd gotten enough sleep or something. Whatever it was it was nice that I didn't have to carry her the whole time. Part of the time, but not the whole time.
Walking with Grandma and Grandpa:
Help from Uncle Taylor:
Sean & Megan:
But again with the dirt. This time she was intentionally smearing it all over herself.
7. Aurora’s first trip to the lake.
She had fun, but hated the life jacket. And wasn't ready for the raft yet. But I went water skiing! I haven't tried it since I was 17, but I was still able to do it - hooray!
We are still doing our Little Movers and Shakers class once a week and Aurora loves it. She loves climbing on things. She's not great with the organized song time - she just wants to play with the toys. But they are good about moving things along. We are also taking a sign language class. It's more for me to learn the signs to use them at home, but we do music and stuff that Aurora likes. And she has fun signing. She catches on really fast and only needs to see a sign once or twice before she does it. We've kind of stopped going to storytime (baby time) at the library because it’s now when her naps are. She was getting kind of old for it anyway - it's time for her to move on to toddler time.
Aurora has all 4 front teeth on the top and bottom and her 4 molars. Still several to go, but she’s got quite a moth full now.
Aurora is a complete temper tantrum thrower. She does it on almost a daily basis. We are talking throws herself on the floor, stomps her feet, flings herself around, slams into walls, screams her head off fit. It’s usually because she wants her binky (which she only gets when she is sleeping) or wants to watch TV and I won’t let her. Her favorite thing is the TV and she is constantly asking to watch and I am constantly having to say no. It’s sad because she likes it so much, but someday she will understand. I hope. Her favorite shows are the Wiggles, Barney, and Dora the Explorer. She Wiggles her ears when she wants the Wiggles. It’s pretty funny.
She went through a phase where she would wrap one arm around my leg and drag me to where she wanted to go in the house. That was hard because I couldn’t walk when she did that. Now she holds my hand and takes me places. She likes having me in the room. She will play somewhat independently for a few minutes, but I have to be in there with her.
She is going through some separation anxiety. She especially doesn’t like to be left with strangers or people in the nursery at church. One Saturday night she didn’t make it all the way through the service and we had to go get her. I have since gotten to know a few of the women that volunteer in the nursery and it sounds like usually as long as they hold her she is OK. That’s nice. The other children run around and play with each other, mine needs to be held for an hour and half.
Aurora hates shopping carts and strollers. I think the last time we tried using a stroller was in Hawaii in February. It was just too much work to push it around and carry her at the same time so I’ve pretty much given up. We may try again when we go to Disney World next month, but I don’t have high expectations. I’m a little nervous about that whole situation as it is – Aurora is in the very bad habit of taking off the second her feet hit the floor. She just picks a direction and runs. Not cool.
Aurora is becoming extremely picky about food. She will always eat chicken nuggets, frozen blueberries (she prefers frozen fruit – weirdo), cheese (sharp cheddar only) grapes, and happy melts (freeze dried yogurt). But that’s about it that I’m guaranteed she will eat. Otherwise it’s hit or miss. Sometimes she likes PB&J, watermelon, mac ‘n cheese, and burritos. It’s so hard to know what she is going to eat. It doesn’t make me want to spend a lot of time preparing food, that’s for sure. I’ve been trying really hard to make sure that she is on a good schedule and not eating too many snacks, because if she snacks then there is no way she will eat her meals – even food she likes. I think a lot of it has to do with her milk – she LOVES milk. Some days she drinks 4 cups. She also LOVES juice, but she doesn’t get that every day – otherwise she gets addicted.
Talking wise she says quite a bit. I’m not counting her words or anything – there are certain things she says a lot like Mama, Dada, milk, juice, cracker, grapes, chicken, cheese, Dora, etc – mostly things associated with things she wants. She is doing a really good job at repeating things that I say and she certainly knows how to use her voice.
Her stuffed animals are still her favorite toys. Mr. Pickles is still her night time buddy. But she has formed a recent attachment to a brown teddy bear that used to be mine. I named him Sepie, but she calls him “Ses.”
She loves animals. Especially dogs. She is really funny because she doesn’t call animals by their names, she calls them by their sounds – ruff, baaa, quack, meow… I guess that’s easier for her (?)
She is funny about giving hugs and kisses. She will give them to almost anyone that I tell her to, but when Nick or I ask for them she runs away and things it’s a game. She is getting better about it though. I’ve been getting “smooches” on a more regular basis so that’s nice.
I guess that's it for updates for now. I know I've missed a lot, but it took me over 3 hours to write this post, so I'm going to sleep now. But a few more pictures:
