Merry Christmas!

Big News!

Well, we have the answer to Aubrey's fussiness of the past week...she won't be singing "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth" this year! She had a tooth break through her lower gum yesterday and the one next to it is on its way. Our efforts to get a look, let alone a picture, have been thwarted so far. Aubrey is constantly working her tongue over the new addition to her mouth. If we try to pull her lip down to see her teeth she sticks out her tongue. We'll keep working on the picture.

International boyfriend?

Aubrey invited her friend Egon over for lunch on Sunday. If you recall, Egon had Aubrey over for dinner last month. I think this is getting serious.Aubrey? Okay. Good. Egon? Egon?!? Good Egon. Wait, Aubrey? Aubrey!

There we go.

And just for fun, here's some vintage Egon with Alma, his mom, from a farmer's market excursion this past summer. We'll have to work on one of Egon with his dad Tobias.

Snow!

It's December in Wisconsin. That means snow. Aubrey's first snow angel

and her first taste of snow - Oops!

Turkey-Mas

We celebrated Aubrey's first Thanksgiving with C's family. Here's a few pics to mark the occasion.

Great-grandma R and Aubrey

Uncle Patrick and Aubrey

And while Uncle Patrick and Aunt Kate were up from STL, we celebrated Xmas too. Aubrey's enjoyed her first Xmas celebration. She sat nice in front of the tree

and found her own perspective to view the tree

Finally, the big present!

Adventures in sitting

Aubrey demonstrating her sitting ability. Note the daddy safety net. The video below demonstrates why one was necessary.

5 months

Aubrey's milestones are coming fast...5 months old and she is sitting up, regularly rolling over, and continuing to grow like a champ. She weighs 19 lbs. 3 oz with a diaper on. The two white lines on her lower gum continue to be two white lines-no teeth yet.

For a bit of perspective on her growth, here's a recent pic of her in her bouncy chair and one when she was 1 month old:

Hello? Remember me?

Last weekend T headed to Minneapolis to see her family while I went deer hunting. It was my first time away from Aubrey overnight. Two nights actually. Of course, everything went fine. She didn't forget who I was as evident by her response to my voice over the phone:

The much needed R and R

After the Miami conference T, Aubrey and I headed up to Lake Placid for some R&R with Aubrey's friend Allaine. I gotta say, seeing Allaine was pretty darn cool. She is 100% awesome, just like her mom and dad. Here's Allaine and Aubrey at "the meeting". Aubrey giggled the whole time.After they warmed up a bit, Allaine set the pace and it was all Aubrey could do to keep up.

"You got wheels? That looks fun!"

"You were right, this is fun. Are we in trouble now?"

T and I extend a huge thanks to Super G, Pruman, Allaine, and also Scott and Betsie for the great time we had visiting them. We love you all and hope to see you soon.

Bien Venido a Miami

Last week Aubrey, T and I flew to Miami for the Wildlife Society's annual conference and some R&R. Aubrey was great on all the flights and had no trouble with the pressure changes, takeoffs, landings, or turbulence.Our first 4 days were spent at the conference. Carrying a baby around at a professional conference was less weird than I thought it would be. Many people smiled, some stopped to say hi, and others were indifferent. Aubrey certainly enjoyed the attention and people watching.

On Wednesday, the last day of the conference, we went to a beach party hosted by The Wildlife Society. This was Aubrey's first ocean experience.

And the friends who shared the experience:

Conor, Kerri, Adam, Shane, Kristine, Aubrey and me

After a while the waves did a good job of soothing Aubrey to sleep. An alternate title for this one could be "My parents went to Miami and I was stuck in the Ergo".

Stay tuned for pictures from the R&R portion of the trip...

Trick or Treat!

So, it's a little bit late. Sorry. For documentation purposes Aubrey was a pumpkin for Halloween. A pretty darn cute one at that.

Babies chatting

Aubrey's friend Egon invited her over for dinner the day before Halloween. It was a big hit!

Hello Fan

A conversation with the ceiling fan...

Yummy

"Aubrey eating a toy" by Aunt Kim

Stand Up

Sorry - I'm not sure why this video is broken. I won't be able to fix it for a few days. Please enjoy the new post (above).

An oldie but goodie here. About 3 weeks ago Aubrey got tired of the sit up routine and decided it was time to start standing. Aunt Kim is running the video camera.

Working the Gears

Aubrey has found her voice and is experimenting with new sounds daily. I think this is an excellent impression of a race car driver working through the gears.

On the Go

We are taking advantage of the nice fall weather by going for walks with Aubrey. She likes seeing the leaves in all their color. Most of all she like chewing on the Ergo while looking at leaves.

Happy Fall

161 pictures

Aunt Kim and Uncle Scott visited this weekend and took a couple pictures while they were here. Okay, it was actually 161 pictures. All of them are "super-cute" as T says. These, however, are some of the super-cutest in our opinion.

Perspective

Aubrey is nearly 4 months old now. I think we've had it pretty easy for the most part. Sure, the stubborn resistance to naps continues and we're in a pretty serious "mommy only" stage right now (details witheld to protect the innocent non-mommy proxies) but I wouldn't trade this for anything:

My first conversation with Aubrey

Vactation time!

Grandma Trouble hooked Aubrey and her posse up with a sweet cabin last weekend. I'm pretty sure Aubrey enjoyed the time off - she's been working pretty hard at being so darn cute:
Of course, even when you're on "Va-kay" the poparazzi can snap some pretty unforgiving pictures of you:
Thankfully Aubrey took it all in stride and realized this is the price to pay for celebrity.

Sporty Spice

Sound familiar?

We've started taking random videos of Aubrey in hopes of getting something cute for the blog. In this one, amidst the turtle munching, we heard a new sound for Aubrey.

Rollin' (in my 5.0)

Aubrey busted out a new skill this week...rolling over! She woke up on Wednesday and flipped from back to belly. An hour later, during tummy time, she rolled from belly to back. Now four days later, tummy time is no longer the workout we intended it to be. When we put her down she will lay on her belly for a few seconds and then flip over onto her back. I guess it's time for the next workout routine: sitting up unassisted. Stay tuned.

Celebration Time

In honor of Aubrey's 3rd mes-aversary we lined up a whole weekend of new activities. First up, a debate party on Friday night at our friend Tom and Katia's house. Before the debate we put Aubrey in their son Emilio's swing so she could watch a dog and cat play catch (a toy on the swing). She was amazed. Awe-struck. Really. We couldn't believe it. She sat there for at least 10 minutes and then...started laughing for the first time ever. It was great.

On Saturday we did some yard work. I put Aubrey in the Ergo carrier and we raked leaves and mowed the lawn. She fussed a bit at first until I found a good rhythm, then slept the rest of the time. I use a reel mower by Brill: zero fossil-fuel consumption, no CO2 emissions, and the added bonus of mowing the lawn while your daughter naps against your chest. Pretty darn cool. For dinner, another first: we joined Grandpa Daryl and Grandma Kris at the Great Dane. We sat in the courtyard and thoroughly enjoyed the evening.

Today we went to Lake Farm park. Up until a week or two before Aubrey was born we took many walks at this park. T likes the path along the lake shore. This was our first time back. Here is Aubrey, not yet appreciating the view after crying in the car the whole way to the park.

We walked the trail all the way to the train tracks and back again. Aubrey watched the trees go by for a few minutes and napped the rest of the walk. It gave T and I some time to bird watch (yellow-rumped warblers, palm warblers, a tennessee warbler, white-throated sparrows, and a brown creeper) and reminisce about previous walks on the path when T was pregnant with Aubrey. We will definitely be back to Lake Farm soon.

And finally, our last first of the weekend. This one was more for me than for Aubrey. With the NFL already into it's fourth week it was quarter-past time for chicken wings, beer, and the multiple-big-screen goodness that is Buffalo Wild Wings. While it was definitely not the same experience as it was with the MO crew (Craig, Kerry, Pruman, BFF, A-squared, and the rest of the gang), Aubrey thought it was pretty close to heaven anyways. With all her head-whipping, multi-screen viewing-to-the-point-of-not-blinking, wait, what was that-oh my there's another one over there-I'm positive she doubled (tripled?) her lifetime tv exposure in the 45 mintues we were there. My wing craving now satisfied, we are not going back any time soon. I hope we didn't do any permanent damage.

Aubrey the adventurer

Continuing our efforts to share the outdoors with Aubrey, we made an excursion to Olbrich Botanical Gardens. I must confess that it was my first time walking in the gardens since Grandma Trouble and Grandpa J were married there (25 or so years ago). I was surprised at how extensive the grounds were and how, despite being in the city, you could immerse yourself in the quiet beauty of the gardens.

Hitting the gym

Aubrey believes maintaining cuteness shouldn't be hard work. Here for the very first time she is sharing with you her secrets to maximal cuteness with minimal effort. Her simple and easy workout routine contains three focal areas: core development, strength, and flexibility. Simply follow along as she demonstrates - you'll be cute too!

Core development: Sit in the bumbo without falling over. Duration varies, stop just before the point of fatigue. Repeat daily.

Strength: Tummy time, duration 5 minutes, repeat 2-3 times daily.

Flexibility: Toe touches, limit set by attention span, repeat as often as you see them. Works best with boldly patterned socks.

Week in review

Wednesday was a big day. T had a meeting at the Arboretum and I went along to help with Aubrey. "Daddy daycare" was a success. Aubrey took a bottle from me and we spent some time checking out wildflowers until T's meeting was done.

Later that day we celebrated Great-grandma D's birthday. It was our first evening meal in a restaurant with Aubrey. She was really good before and during the meal. After the meal Grandpa Jeff took her for a short walk where they unfortunately met up with an overly friendly woman who scared Aubrey. Poor Aubrey. Strangers aren't her thing this week.

We also started putting Aubrey down to sleep in her crib instead of in the bassinet in our room. So far, so good.

My right foot

Aubrey noticed her feet two days ago. Well, one foot at least. I think the socks were a big help - how could you miss such fancy socks?

Good news

T got Aubrey down for 2 naps this morning but Aubrey woke up both times after 10 minutes. This afternoon T got her down for 2 naps again, holding her this time, and Aubrey slept for 1.5 hours and again for almost 2 hours. Holy Cow! And Aubrey took a bottle from me when I got home. How awesome is that?!?

Guilty!

At 08:00 hours on September 6, 2008, authorities apprehended Aubrey Jae and charged her with being too cute. She was released after posting bond of 2 smiles and giving T a hug.

Tummy time

We've been giving Aubrey tummy time every day with varying degrees of success. In the last few days we seem to have passed a threshold as Aubrey will now hold her head up and is starting to use her arms to push herself up. As proof, we have five minutes of tummy time to video. It's fascinating stuff. Really. Well, okay. It's mostly just her grunting and us saying "good job". So, to save you five minutes I present a stellar text/photo/text depiction of this milestone:

"Uhng!" "Good job Aubrey"

Got 'em

For several weeks now Aubrey has watched her hands when the opportunity arose. They would often fly by her face, leaving as quickly as they came, and she would eagerly await the next sighting. Much to her delight, she is now developing control of her hands and enjoys staring at her fingers, shoving her hands in her mouth, and touching us with her hands. Here she is showing off her hand coordination while also demonstrating a second new skill, head control:

4 Generations of T's family

Great-grandma B, Nana Sandy, T, and Aubrey:

Nana Sandy (standing in for Papa Max), T, and Great-Grandma Alice with Aubrey: