Milk

Tonight Audrey made the sign for milk (squeezing her hand as if milking a cow) when she wanted to nurse. Pretty cool. We're hoping she's really learned it and that it wasn't just a fluke.

Funny coincidence - as I logged on to the computer to write this on the blog, I got an email from Mom with the subject "Milk" - only she was talking about the movie. :)

Crazy night

Thursday night was pretty crazy. I had an urgent defect due Friday morning at 9 a.m., but didn't get started on it until about 10 p.m. because I spent way too long at the grocery store. Finished it up at 1:15 a.m. Went to bed in the guest room at 1:30.

Shortly after 3, Hosanna came in with Audrey, who had been wide awake for a couple hours. Hosanna was clearly at the brink of insanity and couldn't take any more. So I got up, threw on a sweatshirt & sweatpants, got Audrey and went downstairs.

Since I was working late, I hadn't cleaned up the kitchen yet. So I washed dishes like a zombie, with Audrey in one arm. She was perky, content, and most maddeningly, cute as a button. She's got this astonishing talent for turning on the charm when you most want to be mad at her.

About 3:30, I finished up the dishes and started the dishwasher. After a few minutes, the sound started lulling Audrey to sleep. By about 3:45, I managed to rock her to sleep. Her head was on my chest. It had been a long time since I was up late rocking her to sleep. In a weird way, it made me really happy to be doing it again, despite being upset at being awakened after such a short sleep.

About 4 a.m., I managed to sneak over to the couch and half-lie down, with my legs up and my head propped up on a pillow. Amazingly, Audrey didn't wake up. In the old days, the second my ass hit the couch, she'd open her eyes.

About 4:15 (I'm guessing here), I fell asleep.

About 4:45 (another guess), I woke up to the sound of Aria crying really loudly. I got into a little bit of a panic. I didn't know if Hosanna heard the crying; it seemed to be going on for a long time. But I couldn't move, because Audrey was still dead asleep on me, and I didn't want to wake her up. At some point I heard Aria say "I DIDN'T WANT YOU TO GO AWAY AGAIN!!!!!" Then I finally heard Hosanna moving around up there, and a few moments later, the crying dies down. The whole episode was probably only a couple minutes, but in that sleepy state, time seemed suspended, and it was impossible to tell how long things were really taking.

About 5:15 (really wild ass guess here) I fell back asleep.

At 6:00 a.m. on the nose, Audrey woke up and wanted to nurse. I took her upstairs to find Hosanna and Aria both awake in the bed, chatting away. WTF? Turns out they were awake since the crying happened. Hosanna told me then that the crying was actually the second time Aria woke up - the first time was while I was downstairs doing the dishes, and Hosanna went in her room for a while and then left.

So I handed Audrey over to Hosanna, climbed in the bed with my clothes on, and closed my eyes. By about 6:30 a.m. we were all asleep in the bed together. First time that's ever happened. It was really crowded, but we were all so exhausted that we scarcely noticed.

At about 8:00 a.m., Audrey woke up. Hosanna got up with her, leaving me and Aria in the bed. We fell back asleep and woke up at about 10:00.

So when I added it all up, there was a total of six hours sleep in there... never mind that half of it was either dozing half-upright on a couch or squished in a bed with three other people. Just one of those nights, I guess.

Easter catch-up

It's Easter Sunday again. As I write this, Audrey is pulling open our filing drawer in the office, presumably in preparation for pulling all the papers out and eating them. Aria is downstairs, getting ready for an easter egg hunt and playing with the little toy boat that came in her easter basket. Nana and Aunt Lynn are here too. It's a nice family day. So we figured we'd celebrate it by... um... getting dressed up and taking pictures?!? OK, why not:





Audrey is crawling everywhere now. I had a lot of trouble getting video of her when she was first doing it, because Aria would insert herself and her "woobie monsters" into every video I tried to take - which was cute, but frustrating. But, I was able to persevere and get some token footage at least.

This is when she was doing the soldier crawl:



And here's one of the first times she did a real hands-and-knees crawl:



She's also pulled herself up to standing several times already. Here's a picture of her first official standing up moment. She's in the cosleeper. We put her in there sitting up, so she had a head start. We thought she was going to try to hop out. (We put the cosleeper away shortly afterwards.)



Here's the first time she pulled herself up from lying down:



A couple days ago, she pulled herself up on the piano stool, then maneuvered herself over to the piano.



Speaking of the piano, she LOVES to bang on it. She will do it for an hour if you let her. She doesn't get tired of it.





She also loves to go to town in the bouncy chair. Now admittedly, I'm not the most experienced with babies, but I have never seen one go this nuts in a bouncy chair.



Oh. And it wouldn't be a discussion about Audrey if we didn't talk about her sleeping, or lack thereof. There are still plenty of nights where she doesn't stay asleep for more than an hour at a time. Her napping is haphazard at best. And sadly, the days of her napping on me are just about gone. But occasionally she'll let me shush her into a nap. A recent day when Hosanna was out for a while was such an occasion. Aria took this picture of us:



We're slowly introducing some solid food for her. She's still only marginally interested in it most of the time, although occasionally she will eat a few spoonfuls of rice cereal. Here she's trying out some pureed carrots for the first time.



So with all this talk about Audrey, you might wonder what Aria's up to.

Well...

She's turning somersaults:



And writing songs:



And finding creative ways to write words (this spells "Sheep", starting with the backwards S on the left):



And occasionally finding the time to help Mommy change a diaper:



And today, she got a special Easter basket, with bubbles, a special pencil, and yes... some candy...



...and an easter egg hunt.