Dance Class

Here is a little video from Genny's ballet class. This is her favorite part--where they make a train. Following this part they get a stamp on their hands and candy--another favorite part.

I'm proud of my little ballerina!

Welcome to dinner at our house....

Just in case you were wondering......

Here's a shot of dinner at our house tonight. I just thought it was really funny. You see, Audrey doesn't like to be left out. And even if she is sitting right next to me in her bouncy seat, it's not close enough. She'd prefer I held her through dinner. But that makes it more difficult to eat. So we've taken to setting her in her bumbo seat right on the table. That way she can see what's going on. And gnaw on the side of the bumbo. lovely, eh?

Tonight she got a little frustrated because although she could see her toes, she could not cram them in her mouth. It was rather upsetting. But at least I got to eat.

Happy Weekend

Here's Audrey smiling. That's about it. She was playing in her Toy and was quite thrilled about it.
And here's a trip we took to fabulous Lake WalMart. It has a real name, but my Grandma Millie always called it that when it was just a playa lake across the street from WalMart.
Now that it's fancy and has sidewalks, it's still just Lake WalMart to me. We took Genny's tricycle, hoping that the level wide sidewalks would entice her to ride.
But alas, no. It just turned into a trip of pulling Miss Genny on her tricycle.

The rice cereal tales...

First let me say I am not a fan of rice cereal. It smells and looks like paper mache paste. It really grosses me out.

However, because of Audrey's acid reflux, her doctor had encouraged us to try it.

Yesterday Audrey tried to get my ice cream, so I thought maybe she would be ready, and I had an opportunity tonight when Robert and Genny were at the grocery store.... and so here's the results!

She actually was rather agreeable to eating it, although she preferred to eat her bib. I'd say that I got approximately 17 calories in her tummy, and 5 of those were from the lint she got off the bib.... And just for fun, here's Genny at the same age, experimenting with rice cereal....

Audrey's zoo...

Genny wanted to entertain her sister today. She asked me to put down a blankie and then brought all her stuffed animals out and put them around Audrey. And if that wasn't nice enough, then she gave her sister her green blankie too. It was awfully sweet! Audrey's favorite was the tiger....

Wendy recaps the week for you..... because you wanted to know, right?

(They are watching Dora.) Well, it's been a week of being a parent.

Let me give you the highlights:

• Genny got in trouble at school. Gee, that's utterly humiliating. I'll spare you the gory details. Let's just say she got in trouble at home too.


• Audrey has started on meds for her acid reflux. This has improved her disposition, which has improved my disposition as well. We had reached a point where she was screaming for hours and hours and hours.... I couldn't leave her, couldn't take her anywhere either, which meant I couldn't go anywhere, which meant I was descending slowly into madness.... but that's getting better too.


• Genny has an imaginary friend. Her name is Slada, and she's a little girl with short brown hair. Don't know how she came up with the name. Fortunately Slada is small enough to fit in my purse (being imaginary and all). I wish I could get her to find my keys for me while she's in there....


• Potty training is going better. We have now reached the stage where Genny is fascinated by bathrooms at other places, like stores. You see, they have these little bitty (real) toilets at school. She loves them. Actually, I think a lot of the kids do. She seems to be searching for more little toilets because everywhere we go, she asks me if there is a little toilet there.
  


• This is Audrey's new toy. It's the coolest baby gadget ever. It's like a baby rowing machine. She pushes off the bottom panel with her feet and the seat goes up on a track and back down. And it actually plays pleasant, non irritating music. It wasn't hard to put together at all (I did it myself, and that's saying something.) It adjusts for height. It's AMAZING!

Hope you are having a lovely week!

just one hour...

Thursdays after school are always... exciting. Genny doesn't nap at school, and she's always very excited after school. So here's a chronicle of the hour between getting home from school and leaving for ballet class.

At the top of the hour, Genny hit Audrey with her Dora (inflatable, not harmful, but still hitting...)

I told her, "Don't hit your sister with Dora. That hurts her!"

Wide eyes. Genny is horrified. "You mean it hurts Dora??"

I think for a minute. Tell truth, or use any means to keep Genny from whacking her sister.....

"Yes, it hurts Dora. And Audrey. Don't do it."

Audrey took an unexpected but very welcome nap. So we made some cookies.

I let Genny choose what kind of cookies we would make. These are pink-oatmeal-chocolate-peanut-butter-chip-cookies-with-sprinkles. pink ones. They're not bad!

While the cookies were in the oven, Genny serenaded Audrey who had woken up by now and was watching us cook.

And by the way, potty training is going well.....

and then we got dressed for ballet. I asked Genny which tutu she wanted to wear, and she told me "a black one." seriously? we went for neon green instead.

And then we went to ballet.

Audrey Kate update

Here's a recent picture of my Audrey. I usually try to hide her monitor in pictures, but I wanted to give everybody an update on her health...

Audrey's doing really well. She is putting on weight. Today at her 4-month appointment she weighed 10.4 lbs and was 24 inches long. That puts her in the 3rd percentile for weight and 50th for length. She is still on her monitor, mostly at night. It goes off occasionally, but we continue to see improvement. We don't really know how much longer she will be on it, but we don't worry about it. She loves to grab things, and that monitor cord is one of her favorites.....

She is a cranky little booger. Hoping she grows out of that.

She sleeps well at night. Hoping she doesn't grow out of that.

Here she is with Genny. Genny loves it when Audrey comes to get her up from her nap and can lay down for a minute. I love that they are holding hands. Genny told me the other day, "Mommy, Audrey is my best friend!" Sweet.

Wendy unearths the camera and bombards you with pictures.

Audrey has started early with the phone. Actually this was a toy of Genny's and Audie loves it!

July 3rd we all went to MediPark and played and fed the ducks. It was fun!

Genny is modeling one of the tutus for my craft show. Doesn't she look beautiful!

Here we are in front of the new Poling Ranch sign at Robert's family reunion.

Wendy the transcriber

I'm behind. I'm sorry. I have a few things going on this week. And now please forgive me as blogger is not loading the pictures. I guess you'll have to survive on text.

So Genny is taking gymnastics with her precious friend Ben, who is 3. And each week we pick Ben up, and his mom meets us there since she's coming from work. And each week I get to listen to Ben and Gen talk in the backseat. It's nothing short of hilarious. So here's about how this morning's discussion went.

G: Sit down, Ben. Hold my hand.
B: Stop it Genny. And stay on your own side.
G: You too! Stay on your own side!
Both: AAaaaaahhhhhhh!
G: I'm going to 'nastics!
B: I'm going to a construction site!
G: No! You're going to 'nastics! Hold my hand. {she whacks him with her princess wand}
B: Stop it Genny. And stay on your own side.
G: (Singing and waving princess wand) Benny and Genny.....
Both: Benny and Genny.....aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh! (waving wand and hoisting blue puppy like a flag)
{and then, out of nowhere...}
B: Genny, they are building a new Wal-Mart down that road!
G: I did not know that. Hold my hand.
B: Look at the water tower! I want to see the water!
G: Look at the tractor!
B: That's a grater, Genny.
....
You get the picture. They crack me up.