A New Year

Happy New Year! We are enjoying a nice relaxing day...we're still in our pajamas around here, and I'm wishing I could stay this way all day. School starts back on Monday and it will be a hard week, as we try to get back into the swing of things...Patrick and I will actually have to go to bed at a reasonable hour, which has not been the case over our break. I will have to get dressed in the mornings and so will Audrey...we have enjoyed living in our pj's!
The new year brings new things for us! Audrey is down to one nap a day now. She sleeps a bit later, then takes one nice long afternoon nap right after lunch. Working out the kinks to make that work took a little while, but it's nice! Audrey is also eating most everything we eat now! Except for milk and eggs of course! I am doing more cooking with soy milk and that makes it easier for her to share our meals. Lots of times I also pull ingredients out for her before I bake them into something. For instance, if we are having brocolli casserole, I will set her aside a bowl of the steamed brocolli before mixing it in with the eggs, mayo, etc. She's really branching out and trying and liking new things, and it's fun to introduce a new food that is "kid staple". She still loves fruits and veggies and, just last night decided that she did indeed like ketchup. She seems like such a big girl!
She is talking alllll the time! I mean from the minute she gets up to the time she falls asleep. She learns new words daily and uses them correctly. She, at times, will tell us "pee pee" and point to her diaper when she has just gone. She loves to throw things away. She finds little bits of things on the floor, or a napkin on the table and will carry them to the trash can, pull it open, deposit her trash and close it back up. She's very helpful!!!
We are looking forward to the new year and all that we hope it will bring to our family. A beautiful Spring, and relaxing summer with what's sure to hold lots of time outside, a nice vacation together, a cool fall and another joyful holiday season, even better than the one we just enjoyed. We look so forward to watching our girl grow another year older, our marriage grow another year stronger and our family grow another year closer and more blessed for all that we've been given!