We're still here...

Audrey was climbing so hard, her dress got hiked up, exposing her tights and diaper underneath - but she kept going. That's dedication.

Excited to get in the bath

Audrey has outgrown her baby pink robe and towels. We really need to get the girl a bigger pink one - it hurts me a little bit to see her in a boy's blue towel (even if it was Gabe's).

Cute legs. (Sorry to Audrey 20 years from now for sharing this photo!)

Audrey's first taste (literally) of grass. She didn't know what to do with it. Except try to eat it.

Audrey's reaction to her customized "stair gate". Notice how she is still trying to plow on through.

At happier times in the doctor's office (i.e., before her finger prick)

Ummm...you have a little something on your face, right there...

Getting cleaned up...I did deserve applause for tackling that little mess, if I do say so myself

Audery likes her SEEfood

Audrey going upstairs, and yes, she made it all the way up. Being sick is no fun!

Runny noses are really no fun.

Don't we all wish we could sleep this soundly?

Left hand up by head? Check. Right hand down? Check. Butt in the air? Check.

Sorry in advance for what is going to be a group of posts bigger than the federal bailouts. I'll be performing here all week, ha, ha! I have not posted to the blog in almost a month (whoops!), so I've got lots of catching up to do. Plus, I have not yet figured out how to get the right pictures uploaded in the right order, so they'll be in no order whatsoever. This first post is all about Audrey, while my next one will be for Gabe.

Audrey is now 9-months-old. She has quite a few accomplishments under her diaper: walking along furniture, standing on her own, climbing up stairs, waving, clapping, doing peek-a-boo, repeating words, and getting sprouting 4 more teeth. Audrey has started working on "real" food too, and on Thanksgiving, she devoured her turkey and roll, although she was not so fond of the mashed potatoes. She loves to take baths in the "big girl" bathtub, read, and play with brother's toys. (Again, gotta get the girl some stuff of her own.) When asked, "How big is Audrey?", she raises her arms really high and smiles. She also blows kisses, waves, growls on cue (yes you read that correctly) and gives lots of hugs. She is almost ready for calculus.

At 9 months, the top words I would use to describe her personality are: happy, loving, tempermental, and stubborn. Hmm...stubborn...don't know where she gets that from, and luckily, she's the only one in our family that is stubborn. The easiest way to make her mad, and I mean really mad, is to keep her from doing something she wants to do. Gabe has figured this out very quickly and uses it to his advantage. Overall, she is a sweet little (girly) bulldog.

She had her 9-month checkup a couple of weeks ago. She had to get her finger pricked to check her iron levels, and when they decided they were a bit low and had to do another blood check, they had to peel the bandaid off and squeeze more blood out. Boy was she TICKED OFF! The nurse even commented that her heart must have really been pumping, because blood was going everywhere. And I mean everywhere. It looked like a major surgical procedure had gone horribly wrong. Gabe told me in the car after we left, "Sis was so upset because she thought that nurse was going to kill her." (Gabe said he thought the nurse was merely going to "fight her".)

Luckily, she has finally started sleeping all night. Yay!! Gabe didn't do this until he was about 13 months old, so I had no expectations for her in terms of sleep. She goes to bed between 7:30 and 8:00 and sleeps until 7:00 to 7:30. It is almost jarring to have so much sleep all of a sudden. Every morning, I feel like I could go running -- almost...

Since my lunch break is now over, so too is this post. I'll continue on with Gabe and other issues of huge importance in our house (like the family pets, Christmas, etc.) as soon as I get a chance.

By the way, I just noticed that the date on this post came up as 11/25/08. I wondered how that could be correct, given it's now 12/9. Then I realized that was the date I initially started this post, but I saved it, and have been adding pictures since then, and just now posted it. What a slacker!

New Digs for Gilly; A new family member

We have expanded our family...but not in the human way. Gilly has a new life partner, if you will, with whom he can share his hopes, his dreams, and his chopped-up raw chicken liver.

If you very intrigued by now, as I'm sure you are, please keep reading.

This Grow-a-Frog company is pure genius, with a touch of evil as well. Back in October, we thought, "Oh, how cute. A tadpole that grows into a frog in its tiny tank. What a low-maintenance, easy pet for Gabe." Soon, as Gilly's tail disappeared and he began turning into a frog, I was faced with tough issues: the "double tube town tank" versus the single model; the use of bottled spring water versus tap water purified with the special company-backed crystals; sending our frog to state school versus private school, and so on. I finally decided on the "single tube town tank", and the company offered one free additional frog. Of course, I accepted without hesitation. I arranged for delivery to be either on Monday or Tuesday. On Monday, no frog. Due to Veteran's Day, the mail didn't run on Tuesday either. On Wednesday, the mailman, who I swear has a grudge against frog owners, attempted a delivery but since I was at work, returned the package to the post office. We were a bit concerned about the new frog who had been hanging out in the box for a few days now without food or at least some "magic powder" to take the edge off (see previous post).

In the meantime, Gilly was not supposed to eat the tadpole food. The Grow-a-Frog people told me that he could only eat tiny pieces of raw chicken liver until his frog food came. For THREE DAYS, I had to chop microscopic pieces off a chicken liver to feed this thing. I know people actually eat this, but I don't know how. I had never seen one before, but it's a unique combo: looks and feels like red, slimy Jello, but smells like chicken. YUCK!!

Luckily, we were able to pick up the food, the new tank, and the new frog first thing this morning. The frog looked a bit flustered, as we all would be having been trapped in a tiny baggie for three or four days without food, but he seems to be okay.

So now we have a Gilly AND a Billy. Gabe chose the name after briefly considering Jilly and Dilly. Oddly enough, Billy suits him. Unlike Gilly, he's completely transparent, which is a little unsettling when he eats his food because you can see it sitting there. Also, they still have to be in separate compartments, because Billy is a lot bigger than Gilly and the Grow-a-Frog people warned about the possibility that he might go all "Donner Party" on him. We couldn't quite commit to getting a white frog yet, but Billy is still quite a looker. And he was free.

Miscellaneous

Mainly, I wanted to post a bunch of pictures that aren't really significant except that I like them.

Also, I wanted to list a couple of Gabe's recent funny comments, which I have actually written down so I wouldn't forget.

• We were listening to "Ring of Fire", per Gabe's request, and Gabe said, "I bet Johnny Cash has a bad boo-boo." I asked him why he thought that, and he said, "He fell into a ring of fire that burned him."


• Today, we watched a bit of President-elect Obama's press conference and Gabe said, "But how does he really talk like that?"
  
• Discussing school, Gabe said "the only bad thing is that sometimes there are stinky shoes there".

Last day of Halloween

The Princess needed a quick power nap before trick-or-treating.

Gabe, nearing a sugar coma, shows off his treats.

In addition to the parties, Gabe and Audrey made the rounds to my office and to a couple of friends' offices and houses. First was the trip to my office right after his school party. Gabe, who I always describe to people as reserved and cautious, charged into my boss's office with his sword blazing and semi backed him into the other room. Way to go, Gabe - go all "pirate" on a man who is (1) an attorney and (2) my boss. Maybe next year, we need to dress up like something that is a little less aggressive, such as a rabid raccoon. Next, Gabe and Audrey both got little Halloween baskets (loaded, of course) from Grammy. The great thing about having a baby at Halloween who gets treats but cannot yet eat them..do I have to say it?

After a couple more stops, we finally got to go trick-or-treating. Gabe actually told our sweet old neighbor after she piled several candy bars into his bag, "don't forget about the orange one [a Butterfinger]". He also helped himself to extra treats when people weren't paying attention to their baskets. Not shy about candy, this one. That's my boy!

Still Halloween!

One of the little games

Captain Gabe and Princess Audrey

The big payoff

Princess Audrey held captive by the ruthless Captain.

A cute pair

These are pictures of Gabe's preschool Halloween party the day after the Fall Festival, which Audrey and I got to attend with him. I was very impressed with the number of games they had, although Gabe wouldn't play anything unless he was practically the only kid in line. Surprisingly, Gabe was the only pirate there out of about 40 - 50 kids, and he was not on his best behavior, beginning as soon as he saw all the people in that little gym. Audrey was completely mellow and I don't think she even realized she was wearing a costume.

Happy Halloween, matey!

Thanks, Mark and Jill and family, for the pirate tattoos! It really completes the look!

Dollar General pirate costume: $6.00. Wet 'n Wild black eyeliner used for whiskers/thick eyebrows: $0.99. Having your 4-year-old son tell you he'll "make you walk the plank 'til you get dead": priceless.

A strange thing happened this year - Halloween grew, hence the multiple Halloween posts. Last year, it was only one day. This year, it was three. I shudder to think what will happen next year.

This is Gabe's initial pirate dress-up (you were expecting a policeman or something?) for the church's Fall Festival. I thought his $6.00 costume turned out great, and Gabe certainly had the surly pirate thing down. I was quite proud of my makeup effects, but the facial hair seemed a little too familiar...maybe 1980s Tom Selleck? We remedied that later in the week (see later post!).

Pre-Halloween pumpkin painting

Sorry these are a bit late and keep getting out of order when they are uploaded to the blog.

These are some pictures of Gabe painting his pumpkins he got on the pumpkin hunt. Note that from one picture to another, he has changed his clothes (bottom picture to second from last picture). There was a very good reason for that, one involving bright pink paint + his nice dress pants.

Poor Audrey, as usual, only gets to watch the fun from afar. It's tough to be a little munchkin.

It's a boy...or a girl?

Meet our newest family member, Gilly. If you don't remember, Gilly is Gabe's not-found-in-nature, transparent, completely aquatic frog-fish hybrid. Yes, we are now proud members of the tight-knit Grow-a-Frog community.

We don't know Gilly's gender yet, but according to his/her instruction manual, we will know once it matures into a frog because the males make little noises. I personally think it would be easier to tell gender by whether Gilly is willing to change the toilet paper roll. Gilly's instruction manual had what I thought was the funniest frog gender joke I've ever heard (and I've heard LOTS) - it advised against giving the tadpoles boy or girl names because "imagine the troubles of a frog boy named Sue". GILL-arious! We were worried about Gilly at first, as our mailman left him in his truck for THREE DAYS before he decided to deliver him to us, which is a major no-no. Luckily, Gilly is a survivor and seems to be thriving in his little aquarium. (Also luckily, the Grow-a-Frog company provides a lifetime guarantee for what it calls "unfortunate mishaps" such as death by mailman abandonment.)

We are even thinking about getting Gilly new "tricked out" digs for Gabe for Christmas, including a bigger aquarium with a tube, the "magic powder" toy that makes it clap its hands (yes, it's legal and it's for sale at growafrog.com), other tadpoles, and maybe even a rare white brother or sister (also for sale at growafrog.com). Transparent frogs, tadpoles, white tadpole brother or sister...we will do for the frog-fish species what Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have done for international adoptions - assuming, of course, no unfortunate mishaps.

More brother-sister posing

Look in the background at Gabe's face...sheer joy.

The human roadblock

The roadblock won't budge.

Happy to have little sister in somewhat of a headlock.

Not so happy because she is now upright.

Anyone notice a theme here? The more unhappy Audrey looks, the happier Gabe looks.

Gorgeous Fall Scenery

Some of you may be in weather where you're already wading through snow, or even the reverse, still wearing shorts, so to that, I can only say...ha, ha, ha! Our weather and scenery right now are both awesome, as you can see from these pictures around our yard.