this is what i was trying to tell you....

we have tried to explain to some of you very recently aubrey's new found fascination with puzzles. whether it's the pictures or the idea of shapes inside shapes we are not sure. however we figure that by presenting her with puzzles, a task which is a little beyond her right now, she will at least have the opportunity to excel. (after all we would hate to one day hear her say " well i could have found the cure for cancer, or mathematically explained time travel but i just was never given that sort of opportunity in early childhood")

therefore, we'd like to make reference to the fact that we have been "scaffolding" our child.

(the instructional strategy "scaffolding" requires the teacher to provide students the opportunity to extend their current skills and knowledge...developed by Jerome Bruner, a cognitive psychologist of the 1950s -- one of the many, i mean only things i remember from the education courses i took in college.)

the tricky part is to present them with something that is challenging and a little beyond them without leaving the child completely frustrated.

anyway.... while aubrey is not showing frustration with puzzles, i still don't think she's quite getting the concept.

p.s. yes that is a puzzle piece... no it's not a pacifier.

HAPPY BLOG-AVERSARY!

today marks the one year anniversary of our first blog entry.
just wanted to give you a little "then" and "now" experience.

"then"

"now"

for those of you who have been in a cave for the last year or so you may notice that there is a little person in our lives "now" who was not previously (fully) there "then". to recap her name is aubrey elizabeth o'malley... she likes to bite things (not unlike sunny baudelaire) and speaks a sort of broken english/gibberish which we as parents now understand. our newest lesson as parents has been that "no one ever told us that being a parent involved the handling of fecal matter on a daily basis" which knowing what we know now having weighed all the benefits and the aforementioned downside to parenting we must admit that there are times when we are not sure that we would have signed up for it... however ultimately the benefits far out way any of the minor drawbacks and we would still do it all over again! crazy how that works. never in my youth would you have been able to convince me that I would be dangling a child by the ankles to keep her little poop covered body from escaping while groping for diapers and wipes and all with a smile on my face! oh the joys of parenting... right?

a little bit of wisdom

on december 8th i became a "mom". now many of you looked upon your brand new baby with tears in your eyes and say something beautiful and sentimental like "happy birthday little one". my first sentence (and this was actually caught on video) was the beginning of the sentence "and i can't give her back". nice way to start, huh? i didn't really mean it the way it came out.... what i meant was, when you are holding someone else's baby and they start to cry or need something, there is someone else to give it to....the expert on this child. i was definitely no expert. total parenting novice right here. just tonight, i finally came to the realization that my 11 month old had been trying to tell me something for an entire week and i just wasn't getting it. each night at dinner, as she would start to get bored she would smoosh her hands all over her face, mumble something sing-songy and then pull her hand off her face and put them in her hair. and EVERY time that she did this all i kept thinking was, oh goodness, i am going to give this kid a bath, i will never be able to get such-and-such out of her hair. tonight i watched her do this and something clicked. i said "where's aubrey?" she pulled her hand off her face and with the biggest smile i had ever seen she smashed her dirty hands into her hair. "there she is!" she looked at me with her beautiful eyes as if to say "you got it mom!" we were both so happy...
i guess i tell you all this because.... i am thankful for my little girl. sure the hours are long and i am only paid in hugs and sloppy kisses. but i wouldn't trade this for anything in the world. i am so lucky to get to be a part of this little girls life. i don't know why God picked me for this job, most of the time i feel inadequate, tired, run-down, guilty and well, just an overall failure. but that is when God gives me a little bit of wisdom and a toddler let's me know "you got it mom."

aubrey's new tooth-brush

once again our blog is reduced to just how ridiculously adorable our child is... that's right she's cute. i just had to share these shots of aubrey with her new tooth-brush (which by the way she absolutely loves. we had to pry it out of her hands to get her pj's on and she nearly threw a fit) now all she needs is some more new teeth!

she must be advanced.

Last night I snuck into Aubrey's room while she slept. I couldn't resist the urge to pick her up. I just wanted to rock her, just for a minute. She looked up at me groggily for a second and then laid her head on my shoulder. Then she started to pat me on the arm. Her way of saying "Hi, Mommy" without saying anything at all.

She is getting so big. I cannot believe in just a couple of weeks that she will be a one year old. Where did the time go? I cannot remember what life was like before she was here. She makes me smile everyday.

She is walking steadily around furniture. Still to cautious to let go yet, but that is ok. She can get up and down quickly and has a tendancy to stand on one leg if she is trying to climb up and reach something. Pretty good gross motor skills if I do say so myself.

She says "Moo" when you ask "What does the cow say?" The tractor says, "Rrrahh, Rrrahh, Rrrahh." She just added "Baa" for the sheep in the last few days and has surprised us with a loud "Baabee" (Baby) and a pointing finger for any child, baby or doll.

Aubrey is only using a sippy cup now, we have been bottle free for almost two weeks. She loves to eat and has yet to turn her nose up and anything besides tuna (which I shouldn't have tried to give her yet anyway).

She loves her green blankie and her little yellow giraffe, which Aunt Lacy got her when she was born. She likes to chew on his face. ;o)

Given a choice of music, she will pick the Jackson 5 over anything else. She bops along to the beat and loves when you pick her up and swirl her around the room.

She can sign "more," "all done" and "go." Although "more" can mean a plethera of things, such as "I want," "I am hungry" and "Yes." We are trying to teach her more words and signs to try and clear this problem up. Lol.

The child is obsessed with books. She will sit and flip pages forever and she is so gentle with them. You can even hand her one with soft pages and know it will be in one piece when she is done. Her favorite book is Brown Bear and if you ask her to, she can find it herself. (Trust me, this has happened.)

Life is going to get really interesting really fast... the kid will all the sudden just come out with something she learned that we didn't know she was learning... for example she has this toy that sort of looks like a phone (buttons, screen, etc.) but it does not light up or make any sounds like most kid toy phones do. In any event she picks it up and puts it to her ear and then holds it out for you. This quickly became a game. Now if the phone is nearby we say "hello?" and she will pick it up and put it to her ear... after a few "hello's" she gives it to us and we have a short conversation which usually ends with "oh you want to talk to Aubrey! Ok here she is... " and then another round of "hello?" As you might guess this goes on for a while.

My point is now we are going to have to start watching what we say around the baby.. she saw us always picking up the phone and saying "hello?" and that's what you do... I just hope she doesn't start yelling stuff like "nice blinker idiot!" when she's in the car.

anyway that's the scoop on the Aubs!


more to follow I'm sure.

how to cure the common cold....

we've been lucky, although aubrey was a winter baby, she's managed to stay fairly healthy this past year. no germies stuck around more then a couple of days. she has finally gotten her first full blown cold. she's had a cough, runny nose and congestion.... she has been this way for about a week. we all know boogies are gross and a toddler freaks when you try to wipe their nose (especially when it hurts), so we are on a mission to try and nip this thing in the bud.
here is what we've tried.....

Gerber "Grins and Giggles" Menthol Vapor Bath

Not sure how much it helped but the bubbles made for adorable pictures.

Keeping her head warm....ok, not really. We just found the hat and thought it was cute. We tricked her into wearing it for about a half hour.

...her NEW Penguin Humidifier

...and last but not least...lots of rest

We are hoping something works....eventually. ;o)