Happy 17 months, Audrey!

Audrey Diane is 17 months old today! She's still just a little peanut at 18 pounds, but she's full of character and energy!

We are not potty training yet, but she wants sit on the potty whenever Addison does so we brought out the little potty for her. She's gone a few times in it.

I love how the girls are starting to play together!

Addison thinks this old landfill in the back of the park is a mountain.

Happy Fall!

Fall and winter are so hard to explain to a three year old who lives in Florida! I miss having seasons. I know this is really easy to say when I'm not in the middle of a Chicago winter! We went to the farmers market to get a few pumpkins to kickstart the season today. It was rainy, hot, and extremely humid. Ha. The girls still had a fun time.

Addison was too excited to sit still for a picture.

Happy Audrey!

So, we have officially settled on halloween costumes. Addison wants to be Elsa (surprise!, not.) and we ordered a little Anna dress for Audrey. I will be Olaf and Andrew will be Sven!

Happy 16 months to Audrey!

Audrey is 16 months old! 

She loves clean up time. I open the dryer, she's there. I open the dishwasher, she's there. I start cleaning up the toys, she's there. I get the vacuum out, she's there.

She loves the potty. I ask Addison to go use the bathroom and Audrey runs (yes, she is pretty much running nowadays) to the potty, lifts the lid, and waits for Addison to go. Then she gets the toilet paper, throws it in, flushes, and closes the lid. Sometimes she'll even bring a book to Addison to read while she goes! This week I brought out the little potty for her because Addison isn't too thrilled about all the help. Tonight I put her on the big potty with a wee pod seat and she went! Addison and I were so excited, but I'm pretty sure it was just as shocking for Audrey!

She loves noses. She touches (well, grabs) every ones nose.

She loves her smoothie. You should hear her loud, pitiful cry in the morning as I make the smoothie. It's an awful sound, but once you give her the smoothie she is as happy as can be.

She loves Goodnight Gorilla. When I ask her to pick out a book at nap time or night, she usually requests Goodnight Gorilla. When she has trouble finding it, she beats her chest. It's the cutest thing ever.

She loves Lego Duplos too! Addison still loves playing with Legos and Audrey does too. She skipped right over Mega Blocks. She can't put them together yet, but she loves to take them apart.

She loves her Little People Castle. She loves playing on one side while Addison plays on the other side. She also loves peeking through the windows to see you.

She loves her name song. We sing her name to her before bed. A-U-D-R-E-Y, Audrey, Audrey cutie pie. It's very simple, but she really loves it. Whenever we are in her room she points to her name on the wall and wants us to sing it. 

She loves to say "nah". It means yes and no. She says "nah" after every question you ask her. 

She loves walking. She is constantly on the go.

Finger Paint

Yesterday, I decided to let Audrey try out finger paint for the first time. She loved it! We did it the same way as we did with Addison when she was that young, naked in the bathtub! 

Here is a flashback to Addison's first finger painting!

The Elsa Dress!

She wore the Elsa dress all day today, even on our walk. The first picture her eyes were closed, so I asked her to keep her eyes open and this is what we got:

My two cuties! Audrey has a cloth diaper on, but I will have to say she is finally looking bigger and chunkier these days!

I love them.

Standing frozen in the life I've chosen

Frozen has taken over the Ritter household. Not sure if it's just her age now, but this is the first movie Addison has gone this wild over. We Netflixed the movie about a month ago and then shortly after we started disagreeing on lyrics (I'm sure this will be the first of many disagreements of this nature!). So we bought the album on iTunes. Now we listen to the whole soundtrack at least twice a day. She also likes to reenact the story as we listen to it at home. So she's always Elsa and I'm Anna. She will sit on one side of the door and I will sit on the other side as I serenade her with "do you want to build a snowman?". Last week when she filled up her marble jar she asked to buy the movie. So now we own the movie. We watched it tonight and I admit that it's sucked me in too, it's a wonderful sisterly movie. Thanks to Erin, yes she is still peer pressuring me from afar, I now own the most beautiful Elsa dress in size 3! I'm excited for her to fill up her marble jar this week and give it to her! She loves dress up and Frozen ... it will be AWESOME. I will post pictures! I just can't wait for Audrey to get a little older so she can take the role of Anna!

PS, Andrew won't drive in the car with the windows down while Frozen soundtrack is playing, HOWEVER he knows the lyrics too.

Catch up

Spent 5 days without air conditioning. Also spent 5 days in the pool or wading pool!

 And eating frozen blueberries and smoothies to cool down!

 Peek-a-boo Audrey

Addison is in a dress-up stage and it's so funny to see what she puts on each day.

Madison gave her this Cinderella dress and she LOVES it. 

 Addison started dance class again and she is doing really well.

 She also turned 3.5!

We've consumed a lot of ice cream this summer! Can't wait for "fall".