Audrey and the Beach

We have had a different Audrey for the past 2 months.  We are not sure what has happened, things have just clicked and we are worried about rocking the boat.  Her reflux is controlled so she is sleeping through the night so she feels better so she is HAPPY.  So we are HAPPY.

She does sometimes have the 2 year old attitude and walk away in a huff.

Then she sometimes forgets why she is pouting..

In the picture above you can see how lovely the weather was on our last day at the beach.

My Mom and Pete left earlier that day ( not together, different places) and I was just left alone with the girls.  We had a great time.   We were going to go and say goodbye to the beach one last time and then head over to the pool for one final swim.   The ocean was so rough that it pushed sea foam onto the beach and made little "Audrey Oceans" according to Audrey.  She loved the foam, Celia thought it was gross, my sensory issue child thought it was fantastic!!

We enjoyed this silly, goofy, happy, and entertaining Audrey at the beach!

Back to Beach

So I sort of left it hanging with the pretty pictures of Celia.  So Back to our Beach Trip

Grandma and Grandpa did show up at the beach this year and both girls were very excited.  I somehow did not get pictures of them or maybe I have not downloaded them yet, not sure.  But rest assured we had a great time hanging out with them and we wish they would have stayed longer!!  In any case, on a not so nice beach day we toured the light house/ nature area of Corolla.  The tire horses were a hit with both girls.  Pete enjoyed them too evidently, until Audrey kicked him off (just guessing that she did because she usually does that sort of thing).  

Celia asked me to build a sandcastle with her and so I made a big mermaid, it is hard to see in the picture but it was awesome and I did not have a lot of help.  My two helpers wimped out on me.

Grandpa brought this dear girl a kite to fly and she did a top top job

The girls had a great time at the community pool, this is the baby pool part.

They primarily hung out in the big pool.

One day I hung out with my buddy the tree frog, he was just hiding there under the umbrella

when I opened it!!

Audrey and Pete tried to perfect the concept of coolness.  Audrey beat Pete.

Pete had a great time fishing.  I fished a couple times, liked catching the fish, I no longer have the patience to wait though.  I suppose that is sad as when I was 10, I loved fishing and could wait for a lot longer!!

Cecelia

She told me recently that her friend Amber (age 11) told her 

that most Kindergarteners do not start out the year

reading...

She told me that at Vacation Bible school she was the first 

one done when they had

papers to do...

She told me that she thinks that 

maybe she is very smart....

Big huge sigh from Mom

Yes you are kiddo

I have to watch how I word things carefully because 

Mom and Dad want you to be confident but modest.

We want you to be healthy, kind, friendly, and fair

We want you to be loved and liked.

It makes life easier that way.

We want you to be willing to try new things and

to not give up when things get a little tough.

So I told you that you are smart

in some things

But others are smarter at other things

That as you meet different people you will 

discover that some of them can do more then you can

and that some of them can not.

The truth is though

If you know Celia

You know she is special and amazing and funny and brilliant

When you are born in a parking lot

there is a certain expectation though that

you will be something special.

She has lived up to it everyday of her life

Sand is A-OK

So if you recall Miss. Audrey was not the biggest fan of the sand for the past 2 outerbanks vacations.  She really did not like the stuff, she screamed over it.  If you look at the top pictures then you get the idea.  We have done a lot of activities to break her of her sensory issues and perhaps it is just developmental for her or maybe my hard work paid off.  She loved the sand this year!  She preferred that it be scraped off of her frequently but it was a huge accomplishment.  It made things a lot easier for us.  She was however not a fan of the ocean at all.

In Audrey's words "I not like ocean, I scared of ocean.  I go to ocean and bye bye Audrey.  I no like ocean"

She only said the bye bye Audrey once but it floored me.  I was not sure if she meant she thought she would get swallowed by the ocean or if she meant she would run away, not sure.  So taking walks to search for shells meant Audrey needed to be carried, a big pain.  You could be sure though that if I put her down for a second, she would book it for our spot on the sand.

As you can see she is okay with a little sand!!

My Mom bought the girls a little baby pool 

and we filled it with water each day. They both loved it.

I bought the girls matching swim suits this summer.

Gotta love Lands end deals.  I tried to take a picture

of the together and it was just not going to happen.

 This was the best I got, but from the back aren't the cute??

 She looks so peaceful and pretty in this picture

See how the head is a little down

Knowing how the photo shoot went I am fairly sure there is pouty lip in the front

This one

Oh my goodness

This one forgot that she was supposed to be 

in the middle of the terrible twos this vacation

Shh.... don't tell her

Have you ever

seen anything this cute????

We have been on our annual beach trip and back again.  I scheduled a bunch of posts while I was away  and I love doing that.  I forget what I have scheduled and I am open up my blog and SURPRISE!  I get to see something I did not expect.

So our journey started on a Monday evening.  I drove to our friend's beach house about 2 hours away to cut out some time to our journey to Corolla, North Carolina.  The next morning we left around 8:00 and traveled 6 hours.  The girls were for the most part awesome and the trip went by fast, despite drenching rains for most of the trip.  The night before it took Audrey forever to go to sleep, she was still up at 10:00.  She did not nap for Grandma and Grandpa who watched the girls that day so she was really tired the next day.  She also only napped for 30 min in the car.  When we arrived at the beach house the girls chilled out and watched tv.  Within a short time I looked over and this is what I saw.  Water bottle tossed, Meow Meow cuddled, and cozy pillow under her head.  She is so LITTLE, Audrey despite telling me you are BIG, you are still so little.

So this week I guess I will recap our trip to the beach.  It was another good year.  We did not love our beach house and the location but there were other perks.  I enjoyed being relatively close to a grocery store because treks out there did not take an hour.  I liked the pool that was nearby and the amenities provided.   There were no views from the house which was a different experience for us.  Okay, if you looked in between two houses about 1/2 mile away you could see a square of the ocean.  The ocean this year was warm for the most part.  That has not happened in years.  It was Sooo nice.

Best Buddy

Tucking Audrey into Bed one night, 

we said some prays.

We said God Bless to a lot of people including her cousin Emmett.

Audrey said "I sit next to Emmett"

I asked if he was her best Buddy

"Oh no, no, Celia (seeya) is my Best Buddy"

Planning

When you decide to have an almond butter in jelly sandwich for breakfast

It is important to have a little white chair, and you just dump the

things on top of the chair off

Striped convict looking Houdini proof jammies

That you absolutely love even though

they have spoiled your diaper

stripping days

Oh and binoculars that hang to your knees

Bread, almond butter, and jelly are optional

Messy hair is also a must

In less then a month

She will be doing some crazy things....

 Getting on A Bus

Walking into Kindergarten

Eating in a Cafeteria

Standing in the Parking Space In Which she is born,

This time as a 6 Year Old

I Hungry

I think that Audrey announces at least 20 times a day that "I hungry".  She just eats constantly.  We try to distract her, feed her healthy things, but ultimately she just eats a lot.  She is not a big 2 year old either, in about the 20% for weight.

We were swimming at the pool one evening and a Mom started calling her kids in to come and eat because they brought dinner to the pool.  Audrey had already eaten her dinner.  When the Mom called, Audrey looked around.  I then heard "Mommy, I hungry".  No, Audrey we will get something at home.  A few minutes later she came over and wanted her towel.  The Mom called again to round up a straggler and Audrey got very excited.  "See Mommy, Dinner time, they have food".  No, Audrey they are not going to feed you.  By this point the lifeguard was getting a good laugh out of this scenario.  She sifted through our pool bag just to make sure I was not holding back on her.

Nature Center

I joined a nature center through groupon that is reciprocal with many other science museums and gardens.  This nature center is actually free to walk the grounds, the bird sanctuary is a donation but essentially it is all free.  The center was not very big and their was a camp going on but it did occupy us for over an hour so I thought the 20 min. car ride was worth it.

We saw bald eagles, legless lizard, snakes, owls, and some lizards.  We also saw a small mock Native American village, wetland area, and a creek.  Hmm... as I list all of that I guess it was pretty cool!!

The girls loved throwing rocks from a little bridge into the creek.  There was a family there using the creek as a kiddy pool and we thought that was a little odd.  But to each their own.

Sunday School

The girls and I have been fairly faithfully attending Sunday school since the late Spring and we have enjoyed it. I have attended a few Sunday school classes and although I will have to say I do not consistently follow what everyone is saying, I have enjoyed some of it. Pete and I tried to attend the contemporary service at our church before we had the girls. It just was not for us at all. I have been surprised that I actually am enjoying the contemporary service. Maybe it has changed, but it just relaxed and very nice. I am hoping to keep taking them consistently during the School year. Celia will no longer have the lessons that she had while attending her Christian daycare/preschool so it is now (and always should have been) up to us to continue providing her with those teachings. We will always let our girls take the lead with this and right now as my 5 year old constantly sings Vacation bible school songs and songs that have some religious tie, I think I know where she is leading us. So I have tried taking their picture right before Church and it is always interesting how it turns out.