my sweet little lovely

Dear Audrey,

It has been a long time since I have blogged about your sweet smile and sense of humor and the beautiful girl you are inside and out and so I am taking full advantage of the still silence to write you a little note.

Oh, sweetheart, how you make my heart happy...You are so kind and outgoing and funny and I love being your mom so much. You are very sensitive to the needs of others and extremely smart and funny. You have been getting up several times a night for the last month or so...this is not typically your schedule and I have been worried about you. You do not wake up crying though and you don't ever ask for milk or food or more blankets or anything...no, you always want to play. Two nights ago, you woke your father and your mother up at two in the morning. Your dad went to get a drink of water and I came in to put you back in bed and as soon as i opened the door I saw your eyes twinkle and you giggle because you had pinned your blanket with your chin so you could bang on the door and hold up your blanket over your body at the same time and you said, "dress" and walked a few steps and said it again. I called your dad into the hallway and of course you repeated your "show" for dad. It made us laugh so hard and you laughed and laughed. This is vintage Audrey. You are always doing things for a reaction. You love to make people laugh.

You love music and always grab our hands and want us to dance with you when you hear it. I know when you like a song because as soon as it ends you ask to hear it again.

We had such a fun Christmas with you. You love your car and sit and spin and each day rediscover a new toy from Christmas. You love putting your new purse (complete with lip gloss, cell phone, keys and debit card) into the trunk, turning to us waving and saying "bye bye" as you drive off. You also like to put sippy cups and dollies there. You had a hard time going to bed on Christmas Eve because "sansa" paid you an early visit with a toodles (this is your word for minnie mouse) pajamas, a christmas pillow case and a princess snuggie. You knew he was coming and thought you would miss his visit by falling asleep. You loved the Chinese food on Christmas Eve. Your favorite was the hot and sour soup. You also loved to say "spicy" and take big spoonfuls.

You got Beauty and the Beast for Christmas on DVD and you LOVE it. You love to watch it over and over. You wake up in the morning and ask for "beast" as you come running out of your room. You are very sensitive and after the beast yells at bell to get out and she leaves, when beast looks down at the ground in regret, you point to the TV and say, "sad, sad" and you visibly look sad. You are so aware of emotions of other people and are always happy to give hugs or make people smile and laugh.

Your daddy and I were deciding what to do for dinner. I asked you, "do you want soup?" and you said, "yesth" but you often get in a yes mode (and sometimes, though not nearly as often, thank heaven get into a no mode too) and will say yes to whatever someone is asking and so your daddy asked you if you wanted ham and potatoes and you said, "no" and it kind of surprised daddy so he asked again, "do you want ham and potatoes?" and you said, "no, STHOUP" hahaha.

We love you so much, sweetheart. Your vocabulary is growing every day. I was not feeling so hot today so I was laying on the couch watching "pillow talk" and after the song "roly, poly" ended you looked at me and asked, "more poly?" and we watched it four more times in a row and when it was done you brought me the punky brewster dvd and opened it and were trying to put it in the player.

You understand that breakfast is breakfast but both lunch and dinner are "nunch" and you love to have oranges cut up with your lunch every day. You love your little people nativity set from nana (ana) and grandpa and a dolly that you got from your grandma for Christmas and because of these two toys, you have started to understand the concept of batteries. When your dolly was turned off (it is motion activated and we have it on for a few hours a day, tops, haha) you brought me a pack of batteries and your doll, saying, "dolly...batteries" because you knew that we had to buy batteries to turn it on the first time. Nana and Grandpa got you a little people noah's ark set that you have truly enjoyed. You found a pack of batteries, opened it and stuffed it in the top of the ark and pressed the button on top to make the song play. Now it just so happens that this little people set doesn't play a song but it has the same buttons on the top for the characters to sit that the angel sits on in the nativity set and that one lights up and plays a song when it is pressed. i watched you (and tried to explain that this one doesn't play music) as you placed each and every animal figure on top trying to make it sing.

You create chaos at every turn. you love to empty drawers and unroll toilet paper rolls and curl your eyelashes with mommy's eyelash curler and you love elmo and are very good about brushing your teeth and learning how to use the potty (thank heavens for elmo stickers) and hate when we take naps...haha! if we are resting (or sometimes reading) you will take a throw pillow and throw it at us while screaming, "bake up, bake up" and then you will giggle. Even though you make a lot of messes, you don't really like them. if you spill something, you will say, "oh, MESS!" and come and ask for help to get it cleaned up. You also love to have your diapers changed. Pampers have elmo and Huggies have toodles and you will often say you are "ninky" just so you can be changed, even though you aren't. You also love to wash your hands and ask for your hands to be washed several times a day. You have started to wash your own hands at your play kitchen you just got from the Wards several times a day as well. You love to use your hot pads to bring out a pot of whatever you have been making (since I have been sick with a cold since christmas it is often tea, you like to "bake tea" haha) and you will say, "hot, hot" just like i do when i am opening the oven.

your new favorite drink is strawberry milk and that is what you rang the new year in with. you always ask for a straw and i think it is your favorite part of the little half pints we buy you...not the milk, but the drinking it with a straw and of course, that it is pink.

i love you more than i can express and this is just a few stories of hundreds that show us how smart you are and keep us laughing. You are the best!

Love,
Mommy

p.s. at night, i always kiss you (so does Daddy) and tell you that i love you and as i close the door I always say, "you're the best" and you always repeat the word best before you close your eyes for a night of slumber. the other night after i told you i loved you I was just looking at your beautiful face, enamored. you said, "best? best?" and I knew that you hear me and and feel it when I tell you how much I love you and that you are the best daughter in the world and that made me so happy. I hope with all my heart that you will always know and feel that.