the life and times of audrey

little miss has been a joy and a trial these last few weeks. we are learning to get along, this includes sleeping from 7pm until 3 or 4am. she has also thoroughly taken to the solid food concept and has started to assist me in those feedings. she grabs at the spoon and tries to shove it in her mouth for me. i am not certain if this is because i am not doing it fast enough or if she just needs to be in control. i am leaning toward the latter. we have taken several trips recently and audrey has faired very well i feel. the first was a trip home in which she pleasantly rode in a car for 5 hours there and then repeated the act home. most of the time she slept but there were quite a few periods of quiet play in her seat. our next trip involved several plan rides to what turned out to be an annex of mexico located in the south of texas. she did well then as well. mostly i nursed her while she slept in my arms. the last leg of the journey home was not so pleasant because she did not want to nurse but rather have her own place to sleep. eventually she calmed down and slept on my lap. this was not until all of the passengers had decided to throw us out as soon as the door could be wrangled open. then she screamed during the entire car ride home. i believe that for a 5 month-old she did very well. joshua, however, has decided never to travel with small children again. and for the amusement of all, i include this photo. it was taken recently during what i like to call 'naked baby hour.'

messy

messy, originally uploaded by krisadair.

i am still having fun with the solid food thing. should feeding my child illicit such humor? obviously, i took more pictures. here is my favorite. she still looks at the camera with suspicion every time i bring it out. sleeping is still slowly getting better. she went down at 6pm yesterday and did not wake for her dream feed until 2am. then she slept until 6am. that made me happy. she is also asleep now. after a prolonged battle she decided to take a longer nap. i made have had a little influence in that decision. when i let her she will take 6 30 minute naps a day. i would rather she take 3 1-2 hour naps. i am currently winning this battle. it could turn on me at any moment though. we are going to a small town somewhere near corpus christy this weekend to be with joshua's grandma who is not doing well. travel is always fun with a baby. this trip will involve several hours on planes and in airports. i believe we even get to change planes. good times. i am wondering how i am going to pack everything. for instance, she eats in the cute little chair that helps her sit up. how am i going to get that in a suitcase? maybe joshua will know. actually, best not to ask him, he thinks there is little need for all of her stuff.

more sleep issues

nothing really exciting going on here. except the entire town is going crazy about the ncaa championship. the game is big news in a town that boasts the founder of basketball as its first coach. audrey and i are still working on sleeping. she has her good days and her bad. she mostly wakes me up a lot but i usually get to go right back to sleep as she is just crying in her sleep. tonight is no different. eventually she will actually sleep though the night and both of us will get some rest. i am reading a book by a woman who calls herself the baby whisperer. cheesiness aside it is actually a good book. she is british so the thing is full of references to mums and she keeps using the term ducky. supposedly it will help me get my baby on a routine in 2 weeks. we shall see.

pictures

she really is taking to the eating from a spoon thing. i only feed her solids in the evening and this morning she was eying my grits. i tried to tell her that grits are an acquired taste but she seemed to want some. maybe when she gets the hang of swallowing. on a happier note, we are all in various stages of sickness in this abode. i have allergies that have caused a cough and sore throat, audrey is teething with the accompanying runny nose and cough, joshua seems to have some sort of sympathy illness with unknown symptoms causing him to sleep a lot.





he was able to drag himself out of bed to go put a van downtown for the game. if you want to know about lawrence, ks read the ljworld.com website today and see how the town is preparing for the game. for instance, no missiles are allowed downtown tonight and you must be at the restaurant no later than noon if you want a table for the 8pm game. i bought audrey a shirt last week before the game and she is getting a lot of laughs for it when we go out. i am curious about downtown and may try to get down there some time today before bedtime. we will be asleep before the game starts so do not wake us with congrats when ku wins.

'solids'

several items of note: audrey had her first 'solid' food, we hired a nanny, sleeping is getting better, joshua is now working from home. also, i made a lasagna. this last item is major for me. i have tried and failed several times to make one and this time joshua had seconds, always a good sign. he even used one of my favorite lines while dishing his second helping, 'beware of showing competence.' i do not mind making dinners for him if he will eat them instead of poking and saying it is fine and then never touching it again. on another note, we went to the doctor this week for audrey's 4 month check up with it's accompanying round of shots. the shots went better this time but lil miss is not gaining weight as quick as they would like. the doctor strongly encouraged solids so we started with a little rice cereal. the instructions call for 1tbsp of cereal and 4-5 tbsp of liquid. this makes a runny mess that could hardly be considered solid. she had fun with it and joshua took a few pictures. they are up on my flickr if anyone cares or i will try to load one here soon.