Happy Mother’s Day! Audrey took time away from her sorting toy to give me this greeting.
Between my birthday and Mother’s Day, I’ve been quite spoiled this week: two dinners out (including our first real evening date since Audrey was born!), extra sleep, flowers, and more.
It’s been a beautiful weekend, so we had a cookout to celebrate Mother’s Day with Kenji’s parents today.
Audrey thoroughly enjoyed exploring the yard (in her cute dress!).
And spending time with her Nana and Grandpa.
I hope all of you mamas out there enjoyed your day!
We’ve had three Spain family visits in the last week—what a treat!
It began last Sunday, when my dad arrived in the D.C. area for a nearly weeklong work engagement. He made sure to build time into his schedule for a quick afternoon visit that day. Audrey thoroughly enjoyed grabbing Granddad’s nose and directing him to wear her hat and sunglasses.
Only a few days later, Audrey and I headed north to visit my parents and grandmother. Since my dad was still in the D.C. area, it was just us girls—four generations of us!—for a few days.
Audrey greeted Grandnan with a hug at the airport, and they shared many more cuddles over the next few days.
I still didn’t manage to get a photo of them together with Audrey smiling though. Audrey gets too excited about the camera and/or squirmy to capture it. At least I managed to get one of them both looking at the camera.
My dad got home the day before Audrey and I left, so they thankfully had more time together for tickles and giggles.
The day after Audrey and I returned home, my aunt and uncle stopped by on their way back to southeast Virginia. Audrey loved getting showered with even more attention from the Spain clan!
These days, she loves to sit in “big girl” chairs. (Notice the excited open-mouth expression.)
Audrey also loves to be outside, whether in our yard, the playground, or in a park. And yes, everything still goes in her mouth.
Our busy little lady currently enjoys climbing the jungle gym and riding down the slide. She’s also quite the social butterfly (although, when this photo was taken both she and Jad kept toddling off in opposite directions!). At our music class this week, Audrey climbed into the lap of a thirteen-month-old classmate. It was so adorable! If only I’d had my camera handy.
Eating and drinking continue to provide much entertainment in Audrey’s life. She’s just gotten very into sharing her food — feeding her doll (while saying “nom nom”), mama and daddy…
and even this finger puppet!
Audrey likes to help mama with chores around the house too. The vacuum is her favorite tool, but she thinks the broom is also pretty great.
Our little girl continues to amaze us with how quickly she learns and grows, and brightens our lives every day with her love, joy, and curiosity.
It’s only been a few weeks since Audrey started taking steps on her own, but she’s really getting around now. She’s evolved from walking with her hands high in the air, as if I was still holding her fingers, to carrying stuffed animals/shoes/toys.
At Annelise’s birthday party last weekend, Audrey took one of the balloons for a walk.
Audrey can also now get up and walk from anywhere via reverse (and adorable) squat. This is a big deal because initially she had to crawl over to a piece of furniture, pull up to standing, and then take off walking.
Happy Easter! Audrey (thankfully) recovered from her illness in time to enjoy a fun-filled day.
Kenji “hid” some eggs in our backyard for her first-ever Easter egg hunt.
She was very excited about shaking the eggs. The Cheerios and puffs hidden inside made great rattling sounds and were tasty treats.
You can see her in action, with mama’s help, here.
Audrey got her first Easter basket this year too. (She was so young at Easter last year that we skipped the basket and instead just put her in a cute dress and bonnet.)
Our yard is really pretty now with all of the flowers in bloom. I love Audrey’s look of concentration as she multitasked: walking, carrying an egg, and picking a flower.
After our egg hunt, we walked over to Saint James for a noontime mass. Audrey was a bit of a handful, but she took a shining to the woman next to us. This kind stranger held Audrey for half of the mass, bouncing her, flipping through the Bible, and letting Audrey pull at her necklace and earrings. She was amazing — and we didn’t even get her name!
We gathered with Kenji’s side of the family after church. Audrey was coordinated with her cousin Henry between her gingham and his plaid.
Audrey loved playing on the piano with her cousin Claire.
We posed for our annual family photo before all heading home. One of these years we’ll manage to get all three kids to look at the camera and smile simultaneously!
Poor Audrey has had a few rough days (or, more precisely, nights). She seems to have caught her first intestinal sickness. I’ll spare you details and photos. Let’s hope she is better tomorrow so she doesn’t miss out on the Easter fun planned for this weekend!
As I am sure everyone agrees, weekends are the best. The three of us get to be together all day, Kenji and I take turns sleeping in (I was in bed until 8 a.m. yesterday!), we grill, we see friends and family, we relax.
And now that it’s spring and we’re in a house, we do yard work!
Kenji bought our first lawn mower this morning and gave it a test run this afternoon. The entire time he was cutting the grass, Audrey kept saying “dada” and pointing in his direction (while she and I were outside) or at the door (while we were inside). I don’t know if the new “toy” had her especially interested in her whereabouts or if she just didn’t want to be apart from him, but in either case it was adorable. She sat in the driveway (briefly) to keep an eye on him.
Audrey helped me rake, too. Let me tell you: raking with a 19-pound baby on your front is quite the workout.
The weekend wasn’t all work around the house, though. Earlier today we had a picnic while we cheered Kenji on at his ultimate frisbee game. It was nice to be outside on such a lovely spring day.
Here’s to the final hours of the weekend. Enjoy, everyone.
There’s no mistaking that Audrey is changing from a baby to a toddler. She’s walking quite a bit now, and today she’s fourteen months old!
Audrey prefers to feed herself and hold her own cup these days. She manages to get some of the food in her mouth, at least.
She has lots of adventures outside, especially now that spring has arrived. (Last week was her first foray in the sandbox. She practically had to be pulled out of it!)
The playground is always a fun place to visit. She often tries fervently to climb up the slide.
Audrey enjoys helping with chores around the house, like rearranging shoes.
She loves to see her friends; Jad has been one of her closest buddies since they were newborns.
They usually get along.
We read lots of books together too.
After all of that exploration, play, and learning, naps are definitely in order. This was probably Audrey’s silliest napping position yet. She slept in the stroller for at least an hour with both of her feet up like this.
I’m excited to see what’s in store for us with a walking fourteen-month-old. We love you, Audrey!
Because of sickness and busy schedules, it had been several weeks since we last saw Audrey’s Bowman cousins, Claire and Henry. On Friday we finally made it over for a lunchtime visit with them and Nana.
When Misako came home from work we joked that we don’t make average-sized babies: Henry (seven months) and Audrey (thirteen months) are almost the same size.
The kids really enjoyed checking each other out. Henry shared his collection of hats and Audrey wore hers long enough to capture one photo, at least!
