Head Banging Baby

Most Head Banging occurs in conjunction with heavy metal music.  Audrey's head banging, however, is part of her now commonplace temper tantrums.  When she does not get something that she wants, she throws her arms in the air in dramatic fashion, and then slaps her hands on the ground.  Think about someone bowing on their hands and knees.  Unfortunately, this action also causes Audrey to bang her head on the ground.  She now has a bruise on her forehead that she reinjures at least twice a day. 

Billy and I are starting to become immune to the fits.  Audrey seems to think that she should be able to eat precisely when she wants to, that someone should pick her up any time she wishes it, and that the dogs should always bring the ball back to her after she throws it for them.  When these things don’t happen, she plops to the ground and repeats her temper tantrum ritual of squatting with her face down and her hands on the ground. 

When Audrey is not throwing tantrums, she is learning new words and becoming more inquisitive.  Her latest words are shoe, toe, and eye.  She has also become fascinated by puzzles.  Her love of blocks and books continues, and we continue to encourage that love.  She no longer takes any bottles, and she is even learning to say her prayers before bed.  Day by day, we are amazed by what Audrey can do.   Even with the temper tantrums, we are truly blessed to have such a wonderful baby girl. 

Fun in the Sun

We are very thankful that Audrey has taken well to wearing hats lately, because with all of the time she is spending outdoors, she needs the sun protection.  She doesn't have enough hair to protect her head, so a hat is essential.  She still does not like having sunscreen smeared all over her arms, legs, and face, but I know she'll thank me when she's older.  I also know I would rather deal with a little fussing during the sunscreen application than deal with a sunburned 14 month-old. 

I did not think Audrey could grow and develop as quickly as she did during her first year, but now she is really doing new things every day.  She is now up to a 9 word vocabulary.  She knows how to say: dog, mama, dada, hi, bye-bye, Jack, Stella (which sounds like edda) mine and no (which sounds more like nay).   She also repeats, "ba" several times when we are putting on her pajamas, which I believe is her trying to say bed.   When we were at the Lake of the Ozarks  last weekend, I swear that she said her first two-word phrase.  She saw one of Bill and Lana's labs, Sonny, sitting on the couch, and she looked over and said "bee daaah," which translates to "big dog." 

While we were visiting the lake, Audrey enjoyed playing with her pirate sandbox, splashing in her pool and sitting in her swing on the boat dock.  She also got her fair share of scrapes and bruises climbing up and down the stairs and walking up and down the sidewalk.  Audrey also started giving kisses.  They are your typical toddler slobber kiss; naturally, she wants to plant them on your lips too.  The cutest part of her kisses is her reaction afterwards; she grins and giggles.  This week at school, Audrey was the first child in her class to blow on the bubble wand to make a bubble.  She was watching Logan blow bubbles last weekend, so I think she learned it from watching him. 

This weekend, Audrey has not been her normal energetic and happy self.  Her temperature keeps spiking to 100 or 101 degrees, and then it goes down again.  She is also a little stuffy and is sleeping more than normal.  We thought it was from teething, but she cut the tooth this morning and has still been feverish today.  I think we'll be making another trip to the doctor tomorrow.  I hope it isn't another ear infection, because that would be number 5.  I guess we'll find out soon enough.  In the meantime, we'll be saying lots of prayers that she gets to feeling better.