Happy Friday!

And Happy Friday especially to Audrey's Grandma Wetzel, who is having the happiest Friday of them all. Happy Retirement Linda! (That's a lot of "happy".)

2nd Cubs Game

We had a fun day at Wrigley Field with my parents and good friend Kristy today, even though the Cubs lost and poor Mike was stuck at work for 12 hours. We had great seats and great company. This was my second time taking Audrey to a baseball game, but I was still a little nervous about how she would hold up the whole afternoon without a nap and stuck on someone's lap. It turns out, I had nothing to worry about. Audrey totally enjoyed herself and was content throughout the entire game. I think she whined maybe three times. And I got to watch a lot more of the game than I was expecting. Having three other laps there for Audrey certainly helped! One other fun note--Kristy and I ran into a sorority sister from our years at Valpo. It was great seeing you Allison!

Audrey was very interested in watching everyone around us, waving, smiling and laughing at anyone she could catch eye contact with.

This is how Audrey watched part of the game. Sitting on the cement ground, inspecting the cup holders.

This is my paparazzi shot of Cubs owner Tom Ricketts. And yes, our seats WERE that close!

Official First Word

Audrey can say ball clearly enough now that other people are starting to notice. I think we can make it official that besides mama and dada, ball is her first word. This last week or so she has been really blossoming. She has become more interested in books, taking to table foods fairly well, making strides on being mobile (literally), and really just being a content baby. I suppose this means tomorrow she will wake up grumpy!

Taking Steps

It's been fun to see the progression of Audrey becoming more mobile, from rolling to crawling to pulling up to stand and now taking some shaky cruising steps. A few months from now, this will seem like small potatoes, but Mike and I were crazy proud yesteday.

Mmmmmmmmmmm Meatball...............

As we progressively try to get Audrey to eat people food it is a challenge to find things she likes. Hotdogs=not so much. Grilled cheese=10 on a scale of 1-10. Meatball=yoube the judge. Shannon did try giving her tiny bites first but made the mistake of taking a bite of a whole meatball in front of Audrey, like an apple. So Audrey wanted the whole thing, too.

Adventures in Eating Day One

Now that Audrey has six teeth and is 10 months old, she's showing signs that she is ready for table food. We've been giving her bits and pieces now and then, but we've decided that it's time to make a concerted effort. The goal for this week is go give her at least one table food item per day. The first day I started with a grilled cheese sandwich and cooked green beans.
The grilled cheese was a big hit. The green beans, not so much. To be fair, they did get pretty cold fast.

Mommy's Girl

Audrey is going through a bona fide mommy stage right now where she only wants to be held by Mommy. This can be trying at times, especially at the end of the day when I feel like I've been wearing an Audrey purse all day. But it's really okay because boy is she so much fun right now! Having a little audience that finds everything you do amusing and hilarious is quite a boost to the self esteem.

Speaking of Audrey purse, Audrey had some fun with my purses this morning.

Drinking milk from the sippy cup like a big girl.

Who needs a play gym when you have a table?

I See You

Lately, Audrey has been experimenting with transparent things she can look through. She likes to spy through plastic water bottles, plastic tote bags and, as seen below, translucent bowls.

Peek-a-boo!

Audrey Gets Excited About Mom's Books

For the past week, Audrey has started to say "whoa! or wow!" when playing with her toys. Yesterday she also started this excited gasping thing that I think she got from Mike. I get a kick out of the random things that get Audrey excited these days.

Cincy Zoo and Fun With Cousins

In front of the polar bear pit. I dropped the ball here and failed to get the bear in the picture.


We had beautiful weather at the zoo and all the cousins had a great time. So great, they all fell asleep in the car on the way back to Shawn and Jess's house within minutes.


Playing in the boys' tent (in the dining room!). This is the closest I got to a picture with all three cousins. Another dropped ball.


Audrey loved watching Ben play with his cars. She loved watching Ben do basically anything.

Cincy Children's Museum

Audrey loved driving the car in the infant area of the children's museum.

Lil' Cubs Fan

We headed to Cincinnati this weekend to visit Mike's brother Shawn and family and to take in the Cubs-Reds series. Sunday we took Audrey to her first baseball game/first Cubs game. She was a trooper even though it was during her nap time, and for the most part she was in good spirits. She enjoyed smiling at the teenage boys behind us, which I hope is no indication of how she'll be in 13 years.

Audrey here is not happy with Alfonso Soriano's bonehead play.


All in all, we had a great weekend with Shawn, Jess and the boys. We went to the Cincinnati children's museum Friday and Zoo Saturday morning. More pictures to come!