Have you ever read a book that just makes you cry over and over and over?  Well, until now every book Aubrey Ann has read has made her happy.  That is, until tonight.  So what is the saddest book according to Aubrey Ann?

Is it Lord of the Flies?  No.  Is it Madame Bovary?  Nope.  How about The Grapes of Wrath? No, no, nope.

So what is it?  Llama, Llama Red Pajama.  You heard me right.  According to Aubrey Ann, Llama, Llama Red Pajama is the saddest book ever.

It is a terrible story of a little Llama who is put to bed (in his red pajamas of course), only to find that he needs his Mama to get him a drink of water.  Everything is fine until Mama Llama doesn’t get to Baby Llama fast enough.  This causes baby Llama to be very upset.  I won’t tell you how the story ends, I don’t want to ruin it for you.  It is quite a good read, and anyone who is really serious about their fiction literature ought to read it.

Well, tonight we introduced Aubrey Ann to Llama, Llama Red Pajama only to find that sad books are really not her thing.  She couldn’t even make it through the book to hear the happy ending.

No really, about 5 or so pages into the story, after the little Llama starts to call for his Mama, Aubrey Ann started sobbing, crying “Mama! Mama!” and reaching out for me.  It was the saddest, most adorable thing I have ever seen.

So Grandparents be forewarned, if Aubrey Ann comes to stay the night at your house, just say “No” to Llama, Llama Red Pajama!

Here is a picture of the sad, sad tale of Llama in his red pajamas:

Have you ever had anyone tell you that things go in circles?  Like fashion, one day everyone is wearing acid washed jeans and shoulder pads, and then suddenly it is out of style. Then twenty or so years later you see it creeping back in.  Well, I have learned that privacy, like fashion, tends to go in circles.

If you aren’t a parent, then never fear, your privacy hasn’t come full circle just yet, but it will, don’t worry.

It all starts at birth. You are born helpless.  Our parents must do everything for us, people have to wash us, wipe us, and they even set us up to take embarrassing pictures naked.  Yes, even I have posed Aubrey Ann in embarassing naked pictures, so I am not saying it is wrong, but it serves to prove my point.  We are born with no privacy.  This is acceptable however, since we haven’t yet experienced it, so we don’t know what we are missing.

Then you grow into a toddler and start potty training, finally your mother leaves you in the bathroom alone.  Your first taste of privacy.  Once you have had some, you will never go back.

As the years pass on, you gain more and more privacy, until it is akward, even uncomfortable if someone dares to intrude upon it.  For instance, your mom walking in the bathroom while you are showering, or losing your swim trunks in the ocean when you are trying to go….(to protect the innocent (ahem…PJ) I won’t finish that example)…anyway you get the idea.

For years and years you have glorious uninterupted privacy.  It is wonderful.  Nobody posing you in embarassing naked pictures with strategically placed baby blankets, no one walking in while you are going to the bathroom, and if you are lucky, you haven’t lost your swim trunks in the ocean in awhile either.

Then you have children.  As they are being born, they are causing a huge intrusion on their mother’s privacy.  And no, it doesn’t stop there.

So what is the point?  Well, as I was in the shower today with Aubrey Ann, I was trying to remember when the last time I took a shower alone was.  I don’t mean alone, without Aubrey Ann IN the shower, but I was wondering how long it had been without her anywhere near the vicinity of the shower.  Meaning, not banging on the glass, pushing her nose flat on it, not saying “Mommy, mommy” from the potty, you get the idea.  It has been awhile.  A looooooong while.

Today as I stood in the shower, with Aubrey Ann at my feet, trying to pry a rag between each of my toes, it hit me. My privacy has come full-circle.  I haven’t used the potty alone since she started crawling, and probably before. I haven’t showered alone without someone pointing to every unmentionable body part saying “body” in a very long while.

This may sound like a complaint, and to a certain degree it is.  But, all it takes is one look down at that little nose smushed into the glass, and I see that she is worth every ounce of privacy I have given up.  As long as nobody tries to make me take embarassing pictures with baby blankets, I think I will be OK.

Here is that little privacy intrusion now:

She is so worth it.

So today I went through the frustrating circumstance of not being able to find my cell phone.  Surely, all of us have experienced this at one point or another.

However, if someone who wasn’t a parent to a toddler lost their phone, they would check the usual places.  The car, the couch cushions, next to their bed.  But, oh no, not me.  I am the mother of a toddler.

I was thinking, you can tell a lot about a person from the places they first look for their cell phone.  For instance, a pastor might check next to his Bible, a actress might check in her dressing room, a dog trainer might check next to the dog food.

Today as I found myself looking in the oddest places for my cell phone I came to a realization, not that I haven’t realized it previously, but I am truly a mother.  Not just any mother, the mother of a toddler.

Where are the places that I looked that caused me to have such a profound realization, you ask?  Well, here goes:

1. Inside the toilet- I had a vision of Aubrey Ann picking up my phone and doing her traditional “hi-yo Mamaw” and instead of it ending with a “good-bye” it ending with a flush.

2.  Inside a basket of toys- I mean everything in the house is hers right?

3.  On a bookshelf stuck between “Brown Bear, Brown Bear” and “Goodnight Moon”.  I mean she loves our phones, and she loves reading, why not put the two together?

4. Inside the craft supplies in our pantry, possibly covered in stickers.  Aubrey Ann likes to “help” me pick out what craft we are going to do that day.

5. Inside the refrigerator- Specifically the fruit drawer, where I keep the rare (ok, not really that rare) delicacy, “gapes”.

6.  Inside my shoes- Sherlock use to hide things in there, why not Aubrey Ann?

7.  In the utensil basket in the dishwasher.  A major “no-touch” in our house, but still a possibility.

8. In our pantry smashed between the Goldfish and Graham Crackers.  And no, I don’t organize my pantry alphabetically.

9.  In my bathroom drawer.  Not really Aubrey Ann’s direct doing, but possibly because I suffer from terrible case of “momnesia” which is DEFINITELY her fault.

10.  In the ball-popper.  Enough said.

So where did I finally find this ever elusive phone.  Well, lets say that it wasn’t as much Aubrey Ann’s fault as I would have liked.  I forgot to mention that Aubrey Ann is pretty well-behaved, and usually leaves things that aren’t hers alone.  No, this was all Mommy’s doing.  Actually, I found it in the front pocket of an apron I wore while cooking for Thanksgiving.  Is there some way to blame that on Aubrey Ann?

Even if I have to look in a million odd-ball places to find things, I know it is just one of the many things that comes along with having a toddler.  Besides, I wouldn’t have it any other way.  I am truly a mother afterall.

Nope, not any other way.

Aubrey Ann LOVES to go to the park, so even though we were all exhausted, we all headed to the park the day after Thanksgiving.  We had a blast, and Aubrey Ann loved going to the park with Charlie and Grandma Nita.  Aubrey Ann also loved picking up all sorts of “treasures” to bring home with us, including but not excluded to her very first acorn!

Here is some pictures from that fun outing:

Climbing the slide. Is it just me, or does she pose for these pictures?

I am posting these next three pictures just in case nobody believed that I actually would let Aubrey Ann go down the slide all by herself.  So here is proof.  I have actually become rather relaxed in my old age .

Getting ready to go down

Letting go. This is when Mommy half-closes her eyes and clenches her teeth praying for no bumps or bruises...

Wheeeeee!

Are you watching me Daddy?

For Aubrey Ann, silly is a way of life.

What a sweet girl!

Our little tree-hugger!

Is it just me, or is the love pouring out of Daddy's eyes? Could a Daddy love his little girl anymore?

Aubrey Ann, you are so much fun!  I enjoy every trip to the park, every hug, kiss, word, I enjoy everything about you.  I think you are the sweetest little girl I have ever seen.  I cherish every moment of every day with you.

This Thanksgiving was fun and LONG. It started (for me, cooking that is) Tuesday night, and didn’t end until, ummm is it over yet? So, I started cooking on Tuesday night, just getting all my prep work done. I did this after Aubrey Ann went to bed. Then my Mom, Steven, Sandra, and Grandma came over on Wednesday to help with all the cooking. In just a few short hours we had most of the meal done. Aubrey Ann stayed under our feet the entire time, until I found a job she could specialize in, clean up!

Oh yeah, it is just that good!

Later that night we had friends and family over for our annual Day Before Thanksgiving Pizza and Poker Night, which is a night designed to get me out of cooking dinner.  Here is what Aubrey Ann did during the night.

On T-Day (Thanksgiving slang, awww yeah) everyone came around noon or so, and we had dinner at 2:30.  It is amazing because that is actually the time I told everyone we would eat.  Normally, we are a good hour behind or so, but now I have got this Thanksgiving stuff down to a science.  Aubrey Ann had tons of fun.  She was our entertainment for the evening.  She loved being with everyone.  Here are a few pictures from our Thanksgiving.

Why is he so happy? Mmmm...broccoli rice dish...

We are probably arguing about whether or not Steven needs to check the "te-te-tures" on the turkey.

As usual, we made up. What would a Thansgiving be without me and Mom bickering like a couple of ole' biddies?

Still happy as ever, we are so blessed!

Steven, checking the "te-te-tures" AGAIN :)

Most of the gang, and part of the spread

Our little family!

My little "mini-me"

Oh yeah, that is Chocolate Dream Pie

And it is SO good!

Actually, this is the face Aubrey Ann makes when we ask her to close her eyes.

Here is our THANKSgiving turkey.

Thank you everyone who sent in, or wrote down your feathers.  It was a wonderful way for our whole family to feel connected.  Aubrey Ann did a wonderful job making the Turkey.  Mommy and Aubrey Ann love to do crafts.  Occasionally, the Kindergarten teacher is unleashed on the whole family.

Hugs for Cousin Micah

If he can't have turkey, he is going to just have to find something else to eat!

The very next night we had more friends and family over to play games.  It was a great way to eat up all the leftovers!  One of the cutest things that happened that night was when Uncle PJ made a joke and everyone laughed, Aubrey Ann laughed and said, “PJ funny!”.

It was a wonderful Thanksgiving, thank you to everyone who was a part of it.  It is so wonderful to watch Aubrey Ann experience all of these special holidays for the first time.  We are a truly blessed family to be able to celebrate our holidays together.

Love you all!

I can finally admit it.  I am the mother of a toddler.  She is 18 months old, and there is no denying that she is a full-fledged toddler now.  I still won’t say she isn’t a baby anymore, but I will admit that she is both toddler AND baby.

So, what is the Doodle up to these days, you ask?

Well, currently her favorite song is “Head, shoulders, knees and toes”.  It is the first song that she can sing all by herself.  She does this often, at random times.  I always wanted to live in a musical, and now I do.  Aubrey Ann will burst into song at a moments notice.  She also loves to to sing her ABC’s, twinkle twinkle little star, and the Veggietales theme song.

Recently we put up pictures of shapes in her playroom, and occasionally she will ask me what they are.  So, I point to them and tell her the names.  The ones she remembers are rather interesting.  So far she has circle, oval, diamond and octagon.  She calls it “awwwcagon”.  My kindergarteners always remembered octagons first as well.  Weird.  If it weren’t for stop signs, I still wouldn’t know what an octagon really was.

She also looks at colors daily.  She always gets yellow and blue right.  In fact, if you ask her what color something is, she will not admit that she doesn’t know, oh no, instead she just calls it yellow.  So funny.  Recently she has picked up black and purple as well.  For some reason, red is just not that interesting to her.  Now red is something my Kindergarteners always picked up first.

One of her other favorite things to do is spin, do somersaults, and what we have labeled the “water horse”. The water horse is something she does only in the bathtub that involves a lot of neighing, and basic crazyness.  During the day, she spins around for a good 30 seconds, stops and says “dizzy” while grabbing her head.  So adorable.

She is huggy and kissy.  She is very affectionate to anything and everything in our home.  When she is in her high chair, even her milk with get “hugs” occasionally.

She is working on mastering the art of eating with utensils.  She is pretty good, and loves to “stab” things with her fork.  If she can’t quite get it, she will pick the piece of food up with her hand, put it on her fork and then eat it.  Funny girl!

She also LOVES being outside.  She likes to go to the park and she can climb the stairs and go down the slide by herself.

She is now speaking in little sentences.  They are so cute, and I am often amazed at all the different things she comes up with.  It is so fun to hear what she is thinking all day.  Some days it seems like she knows the word for everything she comes into contact with.  Rest assured, if she doesn’t know how to say something, she will simply call it an “oh my”.  I never knew how often I said that phrase until Aubrey Ann started imitating me. I really need to get some new material.

Aubrey Ann is basically my shadow.  She loves to imitate everything I am doing, all day.  Mommy has to really watch herself lately.  Everything I do, Aubrey Ann WILL end up doing as well.

As an example, I was getting something out of our pantry the other day, and I accidentally dropped a full jar of peanut butter on my toe.  In an effort to not yell loudly and scare Aubrey Ann, I held it in and instead, I hit my hands on our counter.  Well just a few moments later, Aubrey Ann was walking around slamming her hands on the cabinets.  Yeah,  I should have just yelled.

She is so much fun, and I often have people in Walmart and the grocery store tell me that they have never seen such a happy, friendly baby.  She really is.  I love how much she loves other people.  It is a lot of fun taking her places and watching her interact with others.

Basically, life is wonderful. Brandon and I are so in love with our little one, she is truly precious and we are so amazed that God trusted us with such a special little person. Thank you to everyone who has helped in making Aubrey Ann who she is today. Both baby and toddler, I think I could live with that!

I figured everyone was wondering what Aubrey Ann’s new panties look like, so here they are.  Who’d of thought that panties could be so multi-functional?

Big girl panties!

Big boy hat? And yes, they are clean. In Daddy's defense, it was very late and doing laundry makes us silly!

Don’t laugh, any man who can put a pair of panties on his head and pose for a picture must be VERY secure in his masculinity!  What a guy!

On the Sunday before Thanksgiving, our family was blessed to have two overnight visitors from Uganda.  Our church asked us to keep two girls visiting with the Children of the World Choir, and we gladly accepted.

We brought them home where they immediately began running from room to room turning on all the lights. Aubrey Ann followed close behind, imitating everything the girls did.  At one point, the girls took turns putting Aubrey Ann on their hips, much to my dismay.  However, I was quiet surprised to find that the girls held her like they had been holding a baby all their lives.  I honestly thought Aubrey Ann was safer in their arms than my own!

After the girls took their baths, (where they asked that I “don’t be putting the rush on them”), they wanted to watch High School Musical.  It was late, but we thought it would be fun for Aubrey Ann to join the girls in their preteen bliss.  It was so funny to watch Aubrey Ann climb all over the girls.  She loved watching the girls dance and sing along with all of the songs.

One of the funniest things was that Aubrey Ann picked up on the girls names very quickly.  The girls must have asked Aubrey Ann a million times to say their names.  For days later, Aubrey Ann kept asking for the girls by name.  When I told her that they had to go bye bye, she responded with “Work. Money.”

We were so blessed to have our time with the girls.

Here is a picture of all the girls watching “High School Musical”.

This morning as I got my little sleepy-head out of her crib, I asked her the same questions that I normally ask her every morning.  Our conversation went as follows:

Me:  Did you sleep well?

AA: Ya.

Me: Did you have dreams?

AA: Ya.

Me:  What did you dream about?

AA:  Daddy pee pee.

Me:  Daddy pee pee?

AA:  Daddy people.

Me:  Oh, Daddy and what people?

AA: Yoanina, Has-FWA, Gra-ma  (the first two were two children from Uganda who had stayed with us the night before.)

Me:  No pee pee?

AA:  No.

I have been excited about many things in my life.  Christmas as a child, graduation, going to college, getting my first teaching job, marrying my best friend, and of course giving birth to a beautiful daughter.  Well, I must say, a recent event that has taken place is right up there (ok, well that may be a little exaggeration) with those others.

Aubrey Ann just………

pooped on the potty!  You heard me right.  She pooped, right there on the potty.

If anyone had been in my house, they would have seen me jumping up and down, doing the cha cha while singing “Poo poo on the pot-ee”.  It was ridiculous, even Aubrey Ann thought so.

So here is how the poo poo’s went down, literally.

I knew she needed to go.  I could just tell.  So I was keeping a close eye on her.  Well, she finally came up and told me “Poo poo, pee pee”, and marched to the bathroom.  So, I sat her on the potty.  Well, as soon as her bottom touched the seat she announced, “All done, down peas”.  So I let her get down.  We did this three times.  Finally, she asked me for a diaper, and I told her that her poo poo’s wanted to go for a swim in the potty, and she was a big girl and she didn’t need those silly diapers.  So, the next time she said “poo poo, pee pee” we went to the potty and lo and behold, those poo poo’s went for a swim!

Mommy proceeded with her poo poo dance, and Aubrey Ann clapped while saying “yaaaay” over and over.

Then I asked her if she wanted to call anyone to tell them.  She said yes, so I asked her who.  Her first choice was Meme and Pa, then she called Mamaw and Papaw, and finally Daddy.

So there you have it.  I had to share.  I bet you never knew it was possible for someone to write “poo” or “pee” so many times.  If you talk to me, it is about all I talk about right now too.  Seriously, I am getting on my own nerves now.

So, there you have it. I am so proud.  This is the second time she has pooped on the potty, and I couldn’t be prouder.  Seriously, if I had taken a picture, I would probably post it.  Yeah, I am just gross like that.

Here is a picture to get that image out of your heads!