The big news from Audra's 17th month is that we all went on vacation for the first time since she was born :) And yes, I really am this far behind on posts, since it's nearly October and I'm just now writing about our vacation in July, but let's just ignore that fact...
Anyway, so we went on vacation with Ryan's family to Lake Gaston, which is about a 4-hour drive from our house. I have been worrying about that potentially tortuous 4 hours (each way!), locked in a car with screaming, crying children for months.... and the kids were great! Our non-car napping child (Audra) took good naps in the car both ways, and our motion sickness-prone child (Josie) didn't get sick either. There was minimal crying, with Audra just getting a bit fussy towards the end of each 2-hour segment (since we stopped halfway through both ways for food and to stretch our legs). They were both pleased to go to Chick-Fil-A on the way there - Josie since it's her favorite restaurant, Audra because there was randomly a pond in the parking lot full of DUCKS! Her favorite :)
She (and we) had a great time on vacation... for the most part. Audra seemed to have limited tolerance for being in the water, especially if I was in sight and not holding her at all times. And especially since we made her wear a hat. She was not a fan. She also didn't walk right off the end of the dock as we suspected she would, but we still made her wear a floaty suit too... for the most part.
And despite being on vacation at a lake, she actually didn't even go in the water for half the week. Audra had been diligently attempting to drink the lake water for the first couple of days, which may or may not have factored into the Exorcist-style vomit that made that Monday so very memorable in my mind (especially since lots of said vomit ended up on me). So yes, Audra's first time throwing up was a wretched experience for the both of us. Poor thing was so wiped out (since she threw up several times, and couldn't keep anything down) that she basically passed out on me a couple of different times throughout the day. I had been keeping her out in the screened porch in the evening for ease of cleanup, but finally moved her to bed (without her waking, despite how awkwardly I got her there), where she didn't move a muscle for hours. Sadly enough, that was probably her best night of sleep for the week, which was pretty dreadful besides that - perhaps a combination of sleeping away from home for the first time and the fact that the air conditioning wasn't working properly for most of the week seemed to lead to lots and lots of waking.
Since we didn't know what caused her to throw up, I kept her out of the water for the next few days in case it was from that, and then we were even more careful with trying to block her from drinking the lake water after that. Besides that, it was a fun week - she had lots of fun playing with her cousins, and learned lots of new words, like hat, cat, Riley, Taylor, yes, ball, Mimi, Papa, eyebrow. For a brief moment in time, she'd also yell "whyyyyy????" whenever she'd get upset (usually with her hands upturned too), which I'm only a little bit sorry to say I found absolutely hilarious. What was even more hilarious is learning what she was actually saying. One of the times she threw up, I immediately called out to Ryan for help, and when she joined me in yelling for him, I realized that yes, she was actually saying her version of "Ryaaaaan!!!" instead of "why". So apparently we both yell for Ryan when we're upset, and I'm not quite sure what to make of that.
[The overturned-bench was only partially successful in stopping her from going up the stairs]
[Finding a cool place to sit when the a/c wasn't working]
[Cleaning up]
[Cousins!]
Before vacation completely hosed her sleeping, Audra was pretty consistently down to waking only 1-2 times a night. She was able to fall back to sleep overnight without needing to nurse every time, sometimes on her own without my assistance, sometimes with some shushing and my hand on her to resettle her. Naps have gotten pretty annoying, though. She doesn't always fall asleep after nursing now, so sometimes trying to convince her to go to sleep takes most of the afternoon. She didn't even nap one day at daycare, which was quite apparent when she fell asleep on me in the evening, and then screamed when we got her up to get her ready for bed :-\ Another time, she was awake after nursing, and just hung out in bed with me while I was playing on my phone (trying to wait her out), before she eventually fell asleep on my shoulder, cuddling the alarm clock.
Audra can now identify a few more body parts (like belly button and feet), and can also identify several more animals. She says bird, woohoo, hoohoo (for owls), banana, apple, night (for "good night"), eww (when we change her diapers), elbow, knee, eye, milk, cup, off, car, hot. My favorite is that she tries to say "Josie" now, although it usually comes out more like "Jojo" or "Joju" :) She very seriously informed me that giraffes say "ca! ca! CAA!", and appears to have a couple of default words, since every animal is a turtle (according to her), and every command is "up". She is also quite good at matching, and likes to point out when there are matching pictures in books, often flipping back and forth between pages that have the same characters or animals on them.
Audra has been very sweet lately, and has been loving (slash clingy), and really enjoys hugging my legs at the most inopportune times ;) She likes to keep me on my toes with how she wakes me up, once immediately giving me a kiss when she awoke, once poking me in the eye and announcing "eye!". She also likes to cover her mouth/face to laugh, which is just adorable, and she gives hugs and kisses to her books. We play a super fun game I like to call "The Blinking Game", which consists of us blinking at each other and laughing. She also loves to stand and bounce on the footrest when I'm sitting in the recliner, then bounces on her bum on the arm, and finishes by flinging herself over me. Meanwhile, I love her super enthusiastic greetings in the evening when she yells "dada" at me ;)
[I find this strange little nose-scratching game particularly adorable]
[Pulling her own hair]
Anyway, so we went on vacation with Ryan's family to Lake Gaston, which is about a 4-hour drive from our house. I have been worrying about that potentially tortuous 4 hours (each way!), locked in a car with screaming, crying children for months.... and the kids were great! Our non-car napping child (Audra) took good naps in the car both ways, and our motion sickness-prone child (Josie) didn't get sick either. There was minimal crying, with Audra just getting a bit fussy towards the end of each 2-hour segment (since we stopped halfway through both ways for food and to stretch our legs). They were both pleased to go to Chick-Fil-A on the way there - Josie since it's her favorite restaurant, Audra because there was randomly a pond in the parking lot full of DUCKS! Her favorite :)
[Audra looking for more people to say hi to; she had designated herself the official greeter of the Ashland Chick-Fil-A]
[Showing off her farmer's tan]
And despite being on vacation at a lake, she actually didn't even go in the water for half the week. Audra had been diligently attempting to drink the lake water for the first couple of days, which may or may not have factored into the Exorcist-style vomit that made that Monday so very memorable in my mind (especially since lots of said vomit ended up on me). So yes, Audra's first time throwing up was a wretched experience for the both of us. Poor thing was so wiped out (since she threw up several times, and couldn't keep anything down) that she basically passed out on me a couple of different times throughout the day. I had been keeping her out in the screened porch in the evening for ease of cleanup, but finally moved her to bed (without her waking, despite how awkwardly I got her there), where she didn't move a muscle for hours. Sadly enough, that was probably her best night of sleep for the week, which was pretty dreadful besides that - perhaps a combination of sleeping away from home for the first time and the fact that the air conditioning wasn't working properly for most of the week seemed to lead to lots and lots of waking.
Since we didn't know what caused her to throw up, I kept her out of the water for the next few days in case it was from that, and then we were even more careful with trying to block her from drinking the lake water after that. Besides that, it was a fun week - she had lots of fun playing with her cousins, and learned lots of new words, like hat, cat, Riley, Taylor, yes, ball, Mimi, Papa, eyebrow. For a brief moment in time, she'd also yell "whyyyyy????" whenever she'd get upset (usually with her hands upturned too), which I'm only a little bit sorry to say I found absolutely hilarious. What was even more hilarious is learning what she was actually saying. One of the times she threw up, I immediately called out to Ryan for help, and when she joined me in yelling for him, I realized that yes, she was actually saying her version of "Ryaaaaan!!!" instead of "why". So apparently we both yell for Ryan when we're upset, and I'm not quite sure what to make of that.
Before vacation completely hosed her sleeping, Audra was pretty consistently down to waking only 1-2 times a night. She was able to fall back to sleep overnight without needing to nurse every time, sometimes on her own without my assistance, sometimes with some shushing and my hand on her to resettle her. Naps have gotten pretty annoying, though. She doesn't always fall asleep after nursing now, so sometimes trying to convince her to go to sleep takes most of the afternoon. She didn't even nap one day at daycare, which was quite apparent when she fell asleep on me in the evening, and then screamed when we got her up to get her ready for bed :-\ Another time, she was awake after nursing, and just hung out in bed with me while I was playing on my phone (trying to wait her out), before she eventually fell asleep on my shoulder, cuddling the alarm clock.
Audra can now identify a few more body parts (like belly button and feet), and can also identify several more animals. She says bird, woohoo, hoohoo (for owls), banana, apple, night (for "good night"), eww (when we change her diapers), elbow, knee, eye, milk, cup, off, car, hot. My favorite is that she tries to say "Josie" now, although it usually comes out more like "Jojo" or "Joju" :) She very seriously informed me that giraffes say "ca! ca! CAA!", and appears to have a couple of default words, since every animal is a turtle (according to her), and every command is "up". She is also quite good at matching, and likes to point out when there are matching pictures in books, often flipping back and forth between pages that have the same characters or animals on them.
Audra has been very sweet lately, and has been loving (slash clingy), and really enjoys hugging my legs at the most inopportune times ;) She likes to keep me on my toes with how she wakes me up, once immediately giving me a kiss when she awoke, once poking me in the eye and announcing "eye!". She also likes to cover her mouth/face to laugh, which is just adorable, and she gives hugs and kisses to her books. We play a super fun game I like to call "The Blinking Game", which consists of us blinking at each other and laughing. She also loves to stand and bounce on the footrest when I'm sitting in the recliner, then bounces on her bum on the arm, and finishes by flinging herself over me. Meanwhile, I love her super enthusiastic greetings in the evening when she yells "dada" at me ;)
[I find this strange little nose-scratching game particularly adorable]
And if she isn't having a particularly pleasant moment, then almonds still work like a charm. We just need to whisper "do you want an almond?" in her ear, and Audra will immediately stop crying and head straight for the pantry, waiting (somewhat) patiently for her almonds ;)
Audra had another trip to the pediatrician, as we're still trying to catch up on her shots. She got her final dose of the Pc vaccine, and yet again, was very good and cooperative and barely flinched when she got her shot. She is remarkably stoic at times ;) All of her cuspids are also apparently about to come through. She cut her right lower cuspid, but all of the rest are just bulging below the surface at this point.
Audra had a fantastic time at Josie's birthday party. She didn't cry at all, despite me only holding her (and then handing her off almost immediately) a few times, and she was just dancing, playing in the pool, and having fun with everyone who was watching her. Audra did grab my hand during cupcake time, led me from the garage, up the stairs, and around to the new geo-dome (Josie's present from us). She then climbed right inside and started dancing, and kept peeking her head out of each triangle to say hi to me :) I finally had to interrupt her dancing and grab her to get back to the party, but it was a fun interlude from all the chaos :)
Miscellaneous cuteness:
[Pulling her own hair]
[Dirty baby feet]
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