So you know what that means...time for an Aubrey update!
First of all, she's my Sweetie-Girl.I have lots of nicknames for her (Ruthie, Ruthie-Poot, Pootie-Poot, Pumpkin Bug, Ninja Cat, Silly Goose, and Monkey Bug to just name a few. I never realized how weird some of them are until just now. Ha!), but Sweetie-Girl is the most common one I use.
I'm telling ya, the girl is sweet, sweet, sweet!
(majority of the time, that is...)
Most girls are getting into princesses at this age, but not my little munchkin. No Cinderella for her -- she is all about Wall-E and practically over the moon for all things space-related. She tells me that she will live in outer-space one day. Most parents tell their children, "The sky's the limit!" but I guess that doesn't apply in our house. Maybe "To Infinity and Beyond!"?
When you ask her what she wants to be when she grows up, she exclaims "Astronaut!" 9 out of 10 times. And speaking of 10, she loves to countdown backwards and finish with an enthusiastic "BLAST-OFF!"
She insists on trying and figuring everything out. On. Her. Own.Our local Science Museum is one of her favorite places on earth.
Our membership has already more than paid for itself.
She loves going to MDO, and I hope it is just a preview as to how well she does in "real" school. I always get a great report from her teachers: she listens, follows directions, shares with others, makes sweet friends, goes to the potty, eats her lunch, takes a good snooze on her nap-mat, learns about Jesus, makes fun projects, plays her heart out, and has a BLAST. Oh, and I was recently informed that she is the class clown. Her dad was the same way in school. Heaven help me.
She is one active little girl. I'm thinking about starting her in a gymnastics class soon, but I must say that the girl is clumsy! I think it has something to do with the fact that she's the average size of a 4 to 5 year old with the coordination of a 2 year old. Being a daredevil doesn't help matters either...
She sings the events of her day and asks me questions in the form of a song. Some days I feel trapped in a toddler musical. It's fun and entertaining, don't get me wrong...I just wouldn't mind an intermission every now and then. :)Backyardigans is her favorite show right now, which is fitting considering the majority of the show is singing and dancing.
She still loves the Laurie Berkner Band (particularly the song Rocketship Run) but has recently discovered Lisa Loeb's children's music. The song Jenny Jenkins is one of her favorites these days. With Aubrey, the sillier the song, the better.She is very serious about her favorite colors: red, pink, yellow, and sometimes orange. This applies to clothing, panties, shoes, hair-bows, her toothbrush, her plates/bowls, and anything else in the world. If it is not red, pink, yellow, or orange -- I hear, "No thanks, Mom. That's not my favorite color."
She's not the best eater in the world, but we're working on it. Her favorites are fruit (any and all kinds), peanut butter sandwiches (in different cookie cutter shapes), yogurt, chocolate chip pancakes, chicken nuggets + ketchup, cheeseburgers, garden tomato crunchies, sweet potato puffs, and applesauce. I can get her to eat corn some days (probably because it's one of her favorite colors...) but almost every other vegetable is a struggle. She still willfully refuses milk, but drinks water, orange juice (with calcium), carrot/apple juice. I think we're going to start making some smoothies this summer and hiding all kinds of veggies in them. Muhahaha. I have to be careful though...she's always got her eye on me in the kitchen.
{She likes to put raspberries on her fingers to make a "claw", then she plucks them into her mouth one by one. I don't know why, but it makes me laugh every time.}She loves sweets (cupcakes are #1) and would eat candy around the clock if we let her.
She asks from sun up to sun down if we can go to the park.
She is always up for rescuing animals (or people) in trouble.
She is crazy fast. She chases me in the backyard and can legitimately "catch me" -- it's humbling: I'm definitely getting older and slower.
Daniel is still riding the "NO HAIRCUT!" bandwagon, but now I'm kinda liking her longer hair. And honestly, it's been nice saving money with no trips to the salon...
Aubrey just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger. She weighs 37 lbs. and measures a whopping 41 inches tall. (To help put that in perspective, 44 inches is the height requirement to ride Space Mountain at Disney World.) I have yet to meet a toddler bigger and taller than her. She wears a size 10-10.5 shoe and most of her clothing is 4/4T.There are no more diapers in our house -- Aubrey wears big girl panties all day and night! I don't know how it happened, but my friend Diana was completely right when she said, "She'll do it on her own and one day you'll realize it's done!" That has been our potty-training story. Of course, with Miss I-Can-Do-It-Myself, it's sometimes not the most time or cost-efficient way of going to the bathroom.
She has been pushing her bedtime back a bit, but she's usually under her covers by 8 p.m. and will sleep until 7 a.m. She takes a nap from 1-3 in the afternoon.Aubrey has started asking more and more questions about God and Jesus.
"Is God a boy or girl?"
"How come I can't see Jesus?"
"How can Jesus live in our heart and in heaven with Granddad?"
"Can we ask Jesus to stop this wind like He did for His friends in the boat?"
She is gradually getting better about playing on her own, but for the most part she still actively requires me to participate in everything. This can make it difficult to get things done around the house. I know there will be a day when I'll miss that clammy little hand pulling me into the sunshine, so I usually oblige her playful requests.
That's all for now...gotta run!
