One day after lunch with Daddy, we decided to walk him back to work. Aurora wasn't too sure she wanted to go--she was hoping if she held back, Daddy would stay and play for the afternoon.
So Daddy carried her for a while.
After dropping Daddy off at his office, Aurora enjoyed running back down the hall to get out to the wonderful, magical world of the outside!
Rather than heading home (why would she ever do that?), she took off in a nearly opposite direction--and she wanted to see everything along the way.
A light nearly as tall as she is....
A door on the back side of the building...
The grass, or leaves, or whatever bug may have been crawling across the ground...
All the cars that looked so fun to play with...
Aw, mom, what do you mean I can't play in the parking lot?
So instead she climbed the stairs...
And watched all the cars and people from above.
And then took off and ran across a flower bed.
We headed home--or tried to--she kept trying to take side trips to check out all sorts of interesting things. :)
But we finally made it home, which she was not happy about.
What a sad little face. She loves being outside so much.
But it was time to say bye-bye and go down for a nap.
Aurora is simply and absolutely adorable. And she knows it--which is fine with me because that means she'll be even more adorable when she sees a camera. :)
She loves playing with random things that wouldn't normally be thought of as toys--sometimes trying to help, but mostly just playing.
She empties every container large enough for her to sit in--it makes quite a mess--and simply loves being inside of boxes, drawers, laundry baskets, you name it!
She loves playing outside. She gets angry every time we close one of our outside doors--the poor kiddo hopes that every time it opens, she'll be allowed to go out and play.
And she makes the most adorable faces. She's always been very expressive with her face and it's lots of fun to watch it develop as she grows.
Aurora generally knows what she wants and how she wants it.
Nevermind that the way she might be going for it might be slightly unconventional or awkward.
She knows what she wants and how she wants it--so she goes for it!
This applies to more than just food. For instance, she recently learned how to climb onto our chairs and from them onto the table. So we started keeping our chairs either tucked all the way in or pulled way out from the table.
Aurora still climbs them--and gets kind of stuck.
But only for a while--since she manages to wiggle into the smallest of places quite often.
I've got to constantly keep at least one eye on her. I thought mothers were supposed to grow eyes in the back of their heads! Where is my pair?!
Two college friends of ours, Chuck Rose and Ashley Markusson, were getting married this past Saturday. Wil was asked to be Chuck's best man (Chuck was Wil's best man), so we made plans to be there for as long as Chuck and Ashley needed us. We drove up Friday afternoon, got settled in the hotel room and then Wil headed out for the rehearsal. The first thing Aurora and I did was take a nap.
Wil called to let us know he was on he was to get us for the rehearsal dinner not too long after Aurora woke up. Aurora was having so much fun trying to walk on the bed, that I had to take a picture--in the mirror. :)
We played in the park for a few minutes before heading to the dinner--Aurora looked adorable in her little hat and dress.
We had lots of fun with everyone involved in the wedding and had a wonderful meal--even Aurora got her own plate of food! Wil dropped us off at the hotel and headed out for the bachelor's party. I found a movie I wanted to watch on TV and Aurora and I played until it was bedtime. Aurora's favorite game was trying to walk on the bed--so I took a video of her silliness. :)
The next day was the wedding. We all got dressed up and looked wonderful. I didn't end up taking any pictures of the actual wedding or bride and groom--just of Aurora. :)
She looked precious in her yellow dress. If we had just had wings to put on her, she would have looked like a fairy. :)
Aurora spent most of the wedding and reception just running around and climbing these stairs. I was told many, many times that she was quite the energetic little girl. As if I didn't know that already....
But everyone loved having her running around and I got lots and lots of exercise!
We didn't get a family photo--we were too tired by the time we had a chance--but I did manage to get one of me and Aurora.
~Regina (For those reading on facebook, please visit wilnregina.com to view the video.)
My favorite muffin is a chocolate chip pumpkin muffin. They're best when they're fresh out of the oven and still slightly gooey. Mmmmm! This last time that I made them, Aurora got to try a nice piece of her own. She certainly loves being allowed to eat food on her own now!
~Regina (For those reading on facebook, please visit wilnregina.com to view the video.)
It's been quite a while since I've posted any videos! How could I have let this happen? Oops. So here's a couple fun ones.
Aurora loves to play in boxes. She sits in them, falls over in them, puts toys into them and sits on the toys, puts toys in on top of herself. I think she would live in a box if we would let her. :)
Most of you know that we've been teaching Aurora sign language to help her communicate before she starts saying words. It's a wonderful tool and a great frustration reducer. I managed to catch a couple of her signs on video, though her repertoire is much greater than just these.
That's all for now!
~Regina (For those reading on facebook, please visit wilnregina.com to view the videos.)
Easter dawned bright and sunny. We chose not to go to any sunrise services, mostly because we prefer to get as much sleep as possible when Aurora lets us sleep. We took a laid-back approach this year--only buying 6 plastic eggs and digging out an old stuffed lamb of mine to give to Aurora.
While cinnamon rolls baked in the oven, Aurora got to have her own private egg "hunt." Nevermind that we had to point out the first egg and convince her to check out the other ones. We had filled the eggs with decorative glass "beads," the kind you buy at the store to put around flowers to make them pretty. So each egg made a nice rattling sound. At first Aurora was angry that I wouldn't open the eggs for her--she wanted to get at the rattling stuff! But she eventually figured out how to open them on her own and she was quite happy after that.
Later on, we all went outside to play while Daddy and Mommy worked on our yummy lunch. We gave Aurora some sidewalk chalk to try out. She made a few light marks on the sidewalk, then decided to taste it--yuck!
But she did seem to enjoy playing with the bucket. She took the pieces of chalk out and put them in and took them out and put them in. Over and over and over again.
Then she started begging for Daddy to share some of the food he was preparing. Since we had bought a fresh pineapple to barbeque, Wil gave her a small piece of that. She seemed to like it.
We had a late lunch (while Aurora napped--poor kid missed out on all the food) and played a little longer before church. Our Sunday evening closed, as always, with our quiet church service--in which Aurora was anything but quiet this week! :)
Hope your Easter was as restful and lovely as ours!
~Regina (There are more pictures from our Easter in a photo album called "Easter!" on our website, wilnregina.com)
Popsicles are a very messy matter. A very important, messy matter. I mean, really, does anyone actually know how you're supposed to eat them? Do you hold them with the icy end up so that your hand gets sticky from the dripping liquid? Or do you hold them with the icy end down so that you don't get sticky, but your neck gets a cramp trying to lick the silly treat?
Yes, popsicles are a very important, serious matter. Aurora agrees.
Aurora has her own way of solving the problem. She simply doesn't worry about the messiness. This relieves much of her worry about the whole problem of popsicles. So she has fun and eats the icy treat with another popsicle stick, bit by bit. This way she can eat what's left of the popsicle even after it's fallen on the ground!
But even more revealing of her opinion of popsicles is the way she deals with Mommy's chocolate popsicle. For Aurora, messy is the new clean. Rub it here, rub it there, enjoy it to it's fullest!
So now that everyone has figured out that we were totally joking about Aurora having 12 toes, let us show you what we actually did for fun on April 1st!
I was instant messaging with my mother, just talking, when Wil suggested to me that we drive up and drop Aurora off on their doorstep. I pooh-poohed the idea at first, since the day really wouldn't be long enough for us to go up for just the afternoon. But my very convincing husband persuaded me that it would be lots of fun, so we packed up as quickly as we could and set out....
Thankfully, Aurora slept for most of the 1.5 hour trip,which was perfect for maximizing play time with Momma and Poppa. And so we arrived and set our plan in motion...with just a few hitches, like Aurora crying when we wanted her to be quiet. Oh well....
So there you have it! :)
~Regina (As always, for those reading on facebook, please visit wilnregina.com to view the videos.)
1, 2, buckle my shoe 3, 4, shut the door 5, 6, pick up sticks 7, 8, lay them straight 9, 10, a big fat hen 11, 12, .........?
That's how far we got into that rhyme while counting Aurora's toes. I couldn't believe that I didn't remember the next words! I think they have something to do with heaven, but I got distracted by a more important matter before I could look the words up--the important matter of why in the world I could count to 12 on my daughter's toes. Yes, 12. I can actually count, I promise. Here, I'll even let you count her toes yourself!
Yes, my wonderful, talented, brilliant Aurora has yet another advantage over other children: she can count to 12 on her toes! I'm sure this will give her a great leg-up (or should I say, "toe-up"?) in life and help her be wildly successful.
What a marvelous discovery!
~Regina
For those who didn't figure it out already, it's April 1st--April Fool's day. I suggest you don't believe too much of what you read today. And for the record, Wil can count to 31 on one hand and he most certainly does not have 31 fingers on either hand.
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