25 Awesome Months of Aubrey!

Aubrey is 25 months old today! She is just SO grown up! She talks literally all the time, and she really is ALL toddler now. There is hardly even a trace of baby left in her :-/ It's kind of sad, but I also just LOVE the big girl she is growing into. When I hear her sweet little voice and see all the things she is learning and am able to actually carry on real conversations with her, it's hard to be sad that she is so grown up. I really believe every stage is the BEST when your child is in it! Anyway, in honor of Aubrey's 25 month birthday, here are some cute little "Aubrey-isms."

*Aubrey is SUCH a sweet big sister. She just loves Jude, and it makes me SO happy to see her interact with him. If Jude is crying when we are in the car, Aubrey will tell him over and over,
"It's ok, Jude. Don't cry." When he stops for breath, she gets so excited and says, "Jude's happy now, Mommy!" When he starts crying again she says, "Him sad again." Too sweet!

*Aubrey refers to Jude as "Aubey's boy." Sometimes when he cries, she asks me what's wrong with Aubey's boy. Other times, when I try to pick Jude up, she puts her hand on his stomach and tells me, "That's AUBEY'S boy!" Well, maybe so, but "Aubey's boy" has to eat! Haha.

*Aubrey can count to 10. David and I have no idea where she learned this, because neither one of us taught her, and she doesn't watch TV or DVDs. We're thinking she must have learned it from one of her books, but we can't think of one that we read her that teaches counting. Anyway, someone obviously taught her to count to 10, but she leaves out 4 every single time. So weird!

*Aubrey loves it when we read to her. She has a couple of books that are her favorites, and she can flip through the books herself and says phrases from the story. For example: We have a Bible Story book that she really loves, and one of the stories in the book is Zaccheus. She flips through that story and says, "Where is Jesus?" and "Zaccheus is TOO LITTLE!" Except it sounds like she is saying "Jesus is too little." Uh oh. I always feel the need to break out singing, "My God is so BIG, so strong and so mighty..." when she says that. Ha!

*Sometimes I call Aubrey by her first and middle name. When I call her Aubrey Noel, she usually looks at me and says, "No Noel." If I ask her what her name is then, she says very definitely, "AUBEY."

*In the back of one of her books, there is a photograph of a woman who looks like a grandmother holding a little girl in her lap reading this book to her. Aubrey always points to the grandmother-looking lady and says, "Mommy." So, I pointed to the little girl and said, "Aubrey." Aubrey shook her head and told me, "That's NOT Aubey." So now, every time we see that picture, Aubrey immediately tell us that that is NOT Aubrey. But the grandmother is still Mommy. Thanks a lot.

*When we get home from somewhere and are pulling into our driveway, Aubrey usually says, "That's Aubey's house!" The other night we were in the car driving home, and Aubrey asked where Daddy's house was. She then answered her own question by saying, "It's at home."

*David and I decided to really buckle down on getting Aubrey to say "sir" and "mam" when she responds to us or other adults. This is something we really want her to do because we think it's so important to teach her to be respectful. Anyway, David has been way more diligent on correcting her than I have. It's just not something I think about a lot. We don't punish her when she forgets to say it - we just gently correct her by saying, "Yes, sir" or whatever the appropriate response is. She has finally started catching on and saying it without being prompted every time. It is pretty obvious that David has been more diligent about this than me though, because, when I ask her something, her response lately has been, "yes, sir." Except, it sounds more like "Yes SOOO" when she says it ;) I really don't have the heart to correct her!

*Aubrey has been going through a super picky stage lately. I feel like she barely eats anything. I try not to stress too much about it. She does eat; she just doesn't eat as much as I think she should. The other night we were eating out, and we had gotten Aubrey broccoli and fruit as her sides. She ate all the fruit but refused to touch the broccoli. I jokingly told her to dip her broccoli in the fruit juice and then eat it. She proceeded to do just that, and she ate every single bite of her broccoli! She then dipped her hamburger in the fruit juice too, but it didn't work as well - the bite came right back out. Ha! I was just thrilled she ate her veggies!

*She still takes one good nap everyday, and I am so grateful for that! It seems like she is taking longer and longer to fall asleep at night though. She just talks in her bed for the longest time after we put her down. The other night, it was after 11 before she fell asleep! The next day was rough because she was a G-R-U-M-P! Let's hope she doesn't make a habit of that!

I could go on and on about Aubrey because I really think every single thing (well, almost everything) she says and does is adorable. She is just such a JOY and I can't imagine life without her. I love that, not only do I love her dearly because she is my child, I also just genuinely enjoy being around her. She is so fun and precious!

(I have been planning on trying to take some cute pictures of Aubrey and Jude together because it occurred to me the other day that I have NO pictures of both of them smiling and looking at the camera. I was going to do it today, but when we got home from Bible Study and lunch, Aubrey's face was smeared in chocolate from a cookie and Jude was asleep. One of these days I'll get a picture of both of my children, I hope! Anyway, that's also why this post is lacking any pictures.)