Grammy & Pappa's Visit...

Charlie's parents came out this past weekend for a long weekend visit. We had a wonderful weekend and I think they got a good dose of Audrey which is what they were looking for. Audrey has officially named Charlie's dad "Pappa" which is kind of neat. Its so funny where they come up with these things. She actually was calling his mom the same thing so we may end up with 2 "Pappa's", ha... Audrey enjoyed the extra people to play with, and had no problems letting everyone know what she wanted and didn't want. A good portion of the weekend was spent playing with Play Dough and working on Audrey's letters. She is really into letters all of the sudden (especially "O") and seems to be getting what several of them are. Super Why has been helping with this, gotta love learning from t.v. right? Charlie's mom got her the foam alphabet letters for the bath tub so maybe we will learn our ABC's this summer? I'll add it to the list...

We were pretty low key but did manage to get out of the house a couple of times. We went to the aquarium on Saturday morning, which Audrey really enjoyed for the brief hour or so that it held her attention and patience. This was the first time we went and she got what we were seeing, she yelled "fishies" as soon as we walked in. Actually she called everything in there "fishies" but that is a technicality, I'm sure the penguins didn't mind. After the aquarium we went over to a play ground nearby, that is actually in the same park we got a lot of our wedding pictures taken (Christopher Columbus Park). She had a blast running around the play ground and playing in the sand box and going down the slides. Sunday afternoon we also went to the play ground near out house for a little bit and she loved that too (I know where I am spending my summer that is for sure). While the sun was out most of the weekend, it was not overly warm unfortunately. It was in the 40's most of the time, which didn't seem to bother Audrey but definitely got to us adults. Spring is here right?

All in all we had a wonderful weekend! We appreciate Grammy & Pappa flying out here to see us, we know it isn't easy. It is always wonderful to see family as we don't see any of them enough...

Charlotte...

I took Audrey down to Charlotte last weekend to visit my good friend from college, Mary. She and her husband moved down there several years ago and it has taken me until now to finally go visit them! She has a daughter Ava that is almost exactly a year older then Audrey and just had her 2nd daughter a couple of weeks ago who’s name is Audrey as well (“baby Audrey”). It was wonderful to catch up since we haven’t seen each in awhile. We laughed at how life has turned into communicating thru e-mail & Facebook instead of phone calls. It’s sad on one hand, but on the other hand I don’t know what we would do without it! It was also wonderful for my Audrey and Ava to be able to play together (Audrey was in heaven with all of the toys there!) and of course to see the new baby (I had forgotten how small a 3 week old is!). I will say it is so nice to travel to a friends house that has kids. We barely brought anything except clothes & a bag full of toys for the plane ride.

We had a great weekend overall, very low key which I think everyone needed. We had some sickness issues with Audrey (as always, we traveled right?), but I’ll write a separate post on that. The weather was gorgeous, it was in the high 60’s on Friday when we got there and I think it made it to 80 on Saturday. I actually got some color from sitting on the porch during the girl’s naps, what a concept! We got to spend a good amount of time outside, playing with bikes & their Cozy Coup, and walking to play at their neighborhood park & fountain.

I got to experience one of Charlotte’s infamous consignment sales Saturday morning. Mary goes to them all of the time and is always telling me how fabulous they are (and often sends Audrey some of her finds, very sweet). We don’t have consignment sales up here, or at least like they do down there (is it a southern thing?) and I have always wanted to go to one. I will say it was a little overwhelming but a lot of fun. There was an entire room full of clothes, and baby gear and tons of people going thru everything. I was told to grab everything that I even remotely liked and then you sort thru at the end and keep what you want. I was expecting people to be more pushy and grabbing things they wanted, but it wasn't like that at all. I ended up with some cute outfits for the baby, a Janie & Jack romper & some Hanna Andersson pj’s to name a few. I only got Audrey a couple of things as the 2T girl section was not so great by the time I got there, but I did score on a Lilly Pulitzer dress for $16 (kind of a splurge at a consignment sale, but worth it in my eyes).

Thanks to the Vaca's for being such wonderful hosts and putting up with us! We had a great time and can't wait to see you guys again soon!

p.s. we took NO pictures this weekend! this is especially funny because Mary is a photographer and always has her camera out. i guess it shows you how much free time you have running after/taking care of 3 kids under 3...

21 Months...

As I re-read the post about Audrey at 20 months, not a ton has changed. Eating is the same (horrible) and talking is getting better by the day (she started with "pig" the other day, don't know where that came from). She does have a couple of new things: She is into Play Dough. She actually enjoys handing me the Play Dough & me playing with it (rolling it into balls, cutting it with cookie cutters, etc.). Then she takes it and hands me another piece. She seems to be into letters all of the sudden too. Super Why (one of her favorite shows) has a Pig that is "Alpha Pig" and he sings & builds the alphabet and she loves it. The only letter she knows is "o" and when she sees an "o" she goes nuts (kind of like when she sees a choo-choo) and says it over and over. I am pretty sure she is cutting at least 1 of her 2-year molars right now which is a ton of fun. Hopefully they all come in at once and we don't have to deal with teething anymore, with her at least... She loves to be outside and play, even when it is not warm, there just has to be no snow on the ground. Getting her to come inside has become quite a struggle. She loves playing with her Cozy Coup (by play I mean she likes when we push her down the street in it), her umbrella stroller, and play on her slide and swing. She also is enjoying the park at the local elementary school down the street and I'm looking forward to bringing her there this summer to run off some energy. She has gotten very interested in me going to the bathroom, must come in with me, give me the toilet paper, pretend to wipe and flush the toilet. I don't know if this means she is getting close to potty training or if it is just another phase? Time will tell...

Beth & Jim's "Baby Party"

We had a Couple's Shower this past Friday night at our house for our friends Beth & Jim and it was an absolute blast! They are due Easter Weekend (almost 4 weeks before me) with their 1st child which is very exciting. We wanted to celebrate the little ones upcoming arrival, and include all of their friends here in Boston, but we were under strict orders that there could be no gift opening. Hence a cocktail party Couple's Shower was born! I think everyone enjoyed themselves, and all of the guys thanked us for showing them that a baby shower could be fun...

I co-hosted the party with another of Beth's friends, Kendra and it worked out amazingly well. We were on the same page with everything (decorations, food, etc.) and it was so nice to split everything between 2 people (especially the prep work the day of the party!). We had quite a spread of appetizers and desserts, and it was nice to get some new recipes and ideas from Kendra (I always end up making the same thing for parties, gets boring!). They are not finding out what they are having, so the color scheme needed to be neutral. We ended up using a grown up version of pink, blue & green: hot pink, navy & lime which I thought was really fun. We used the colors for the invites, flowers and all the paper goods. I ended up having paper bands made to put on the flower vases that matched the invites (thanks Lisa!). I love the way it turned out...

Kendra took some fabulous pictures of all of the details from the party, flowers, food, etc. (pictures that I would take, and she did so without me asking, I told you we were a great party planning match!) that I thought I would share....

And btw, for those of you that are wondering what we did with Audrey during the party, you will be happy to know she slept thru the ENTIRE thing... Now she did get up at 6:30 the next morning, but that is another story...

At the Playground...

We have had a very low key weekend, yesterday because we were recovering from a Couple's Shower that we co-hosted on Friday night and today because it is snowing and we all know Audrey won't leave the house when that is happening. Yes, snowing, apparently we may be getting 10 - 15" in the next 24 hours or so, oh joy...

We did manage to make it to the park yesterday. It was a little on the cold side, but Audrey didn't seem to mind and really enjoyed herself. She doesn't stop running from 1 thing to the next which is pretty funny. She loves the slides (the little kid ones and the big kid ones) but also went on the see-saw and swing this time.

The camera managed to have batteries (or I managed to charge it, same thing), so I thought I would share some of the shots I took: