More March birthdays

This past monday we went to Monk's for our neighbor Nancy T.'s surprise birthday party.

Not a great shot but shows Monk's party room.

I got -0- good pcitures of Nancy but in this picture you can see she has very pretty blond hair.

Miss A looking quite confident.

And my favorite picture from this evening.

   A picture my co-worker Patti sent me... taken in the Conservatory lobby.

Another picture from a birthday party celebrated in another Mt Adams estblishment. This time it was Tracy F (Krohn co-worker) and the place was City View. 

More firsts: Pj shopping, Dinner @ Bar& Grill & hike in Mt Airy

Yesterday afternoon we went shopping for a new cd player (the one in A's room officially died) and summer pj's.  I find it amusing how interested in clothing Audrey continues to be.

Kroger is next door to our new Target so we ran in for a few things there as well.

And Friday night she had her first meal at Mt Adams Bar and Grill.  Fortunately the Bar & Grill is just blocks from our house since I forgot to bring this "sippy" bottle and Baba could run home before our meal was served.  She is such a fan of mac and cheese (only served on Fridays) that she barely touched the chicken buddies or grilled cheese.  She demonstratively "yum  yummed" after each mac and cheese bite.

Saturday before our trip to tile shop and then Mt Airy.

We needed to pick out tile backsplash for an apartment kitchen I am currently re-modeling so we stopped at Mees on our way to Mt Airy.  Miss A is not a fan of tile shopping even though we told her all the reasons she should care.  She preferred to perform (fake sneeze, scary face and blow kisses) to the customers and store employees.

 We chose this retro basketweave tile. 

 I carried A in the ergo baby carrier while John ran.  Tomorrow he (and 16,000 other people) are running in the Heart Mini Marathon.  In May he is running the Pig Marathon.

A random shot of Audrey  I took while wearing her in the baby carrier.

Learning family names and a cute kid story

Yesterday Audrey started learning family surnames from the Christmas calendar.  "Kara" is the closest to a word she has mastered ("car")  Audrey is so self motivated to communicate which is such a joy.

Also yesterday my Urban Iron teacher told a cute kid story.  She is a marine biologist at our Aquarium.  She tells her kids and school groups that although her job sounds and is cool it is not a well paid profession.  BUT, it does sometimes have perks.  A recent perk:  The circus is currently in town and the elephant trainer requested a behind the scene tour of the aquarium which Jen is going to provide.  She told her children this is cool as she gets to "scratch the elephant trainer's back and visa versa".  Her son took her literally and was impressed that she got to scratch the elephant trainers back.  Then she explained how it was better than that and how he will benefit too.

1st trip to the Zoo, Miss A can hold a bottle and blow kisses too!

We joined the Zoo in March and Audrey's trip there was Thursday March 3 after her mid day nap.  Fortunately Baba was able to go with us and carried Miss A the whole time we were there.

First we stopped in the Gift Shop just to see if they had any children sunglasses (too early in the season) as Audrey wanted mine.  John is smiling in this picture as he was saying "tiger meet tiger".

We saw some active polar bears, swimming etc.

Miss A pointing to something of interest in the Penquin exhibit.  These animals are of interest to her as her humidifier is a penquin and she is close to pronouncing this name.

Another development... Audrey can hold her own bottle.   Still not terribly interested in crawling but oh so interested in communicating.  Her baby tricks are growing as well. 

Like this one.  She is blowing kisses at church.  She learned how to do this last Friday at Krohn by blowing kisses to my co-workers.  By this past Sunday she was doing this just by being asked not even copying the example.

Taking time to greet Ruth.

And then back to blowing kisses. 

Learning the ropes

This over the leg "exercise" is one our Help Me Grow therapist has prescribed.  Fortunately with the right incentive Audrey will do this by choice.  At today's visit with "Help Me Mary"  she taught me even more important exercises using the red ball in the background of this picture.

Audrey has started doing this funny thing with printed material.  She will point to the words and babble as if she is reading the text.   

Wednesday afternoon  we took a really long walk which included checking out our neighborhood playground behind the playhouse.  This is a picture of her first time in a swing.  We also walked to the conservatory again.  This week my co-workers said they thought she had changed a lot... thinner face and longer.  "Help Me Mary" had this same opinion. 

This is our neighborhood pool.  Unfortunately the Mt Adams swimming pool will not be opening this year due to lack of funds from the City of Cincinnati.  Our neighborhood's only hope to keep the pool open will be through self-funding which will require our community to raise $28,000 by April 15.

This next picture shows that Miss A can hold her own bottle.  One handed even thank you very much.

And maybe even take a drink.

But mostlyshe just likes to nibble on the nipple while watching The Jungle Book.

Is that Baba or Abraham Lincoln?

After breakfast I took Audrey to a bookstore this morning.  While we were in the history section she pointed to a book about Lincoln and said "Baba".  Totally cracked me up.  So much so I had to text him about what she had said. 

After a huge lunch, this kid surely must be going thru some crazy growth spell, she took a very average nap.  But we were able to attend the FCC documentary event this afternoon.  She did so well being babysat once again.  Even though she was technically too young they watched her and said she was fun.  She got tons of attention so she was in heaven.  Until the very end when she accidentally took a nosedive into the floor but she recovered pretty quickly.  I bought the 8 cd series of documentaries:

   Embracing World Cultures The Legacy of Pearl S Buck and International Adoption
   My Unforgotten Daughter  A true story of love, choice, courage and human dignity
   The Willow Trees  (subtitle too long)
   Long Wait For Home a film ofers insight and better understanding of social issues regarding international adoption.  This is one of the films we saw today and it did give us insight.
   Love Without Boundaries Adoptive families discover that love has no boundaries.
   Peer in the Distance A film takes you to the worlds of two families and to the heart of China
   Sofia's Journey Searching for birthparents (series 1)
   Daughter's Return Searching for birthparents (series 2).  This is the other film we saw today.

We were able to stay for most of the discussion with the filmmaker Dr Changfu Chang.

Oh I really like this quote from Pearl S. Buck on the back of the CD in the set I purchased today:

"Parenthood had nothing to do with color, race or religion.  it has to do with far deeper likeness of mind and heart and soul."

First time with a babysitter ... a success!

This is a picture of Audrey's first babysitter, Chelsea C.  Chelsea is a 20 year old Occupational Therapist Xavier student.  She just recently moved to Cincinnati from Louisville.  I was so impressed with how quickly Chelsea picked up on different aspects of Audrey. 

We basically snuck out of the house while Chelsea was feeding Audrey to avoid anxiety we wouldn't be able to explain.  Fortunately it turned out fine.  After dinner they played, watched a little Jungle Book, read some books and Audrey went to bed at her usual 7PM after rubbing her eyes and laying her head on C shoulder.  C said there were no tears but she kept repeating "mama" when she was changing her diaper/clothes for bed.  During the night Audrey woke up once a little upset but I was able to shush her back to sleep and she woke up happy this morning too.

We went to dinner at Teak, then met some friends at the Wine Bar and went to this play at the Playhouse.  Here is the description of The Piano Teacher from their web page:

The sweet, cookie-loving Mrs. K is the perfect picture of a caring grandmotherly piano teacher when she decides to look up some of her old students.  Mrs. K unleashes a dark secret she can't quite understand ... this cunning play artfully blends past and present to explore the mystery and unpredictability of memory and the human heart.

This afternoon the 3 of us are going to our first FCC (Families with Children from China) event.  Audrey will actually be going to be babysat again (hopefully).   Ideally we wouldn't be engaging in sitting events so close together but could not be avoided.  FCC is hosting an adoption film by Dr. Chanfu Chang (" the professor of adoption films".  The film is Long Wait for Home and Daughter's Return.  It is a documentary profiling 3 birth families who share their adoption decisions.  It gives an intimate look at the living conditions in Chinese orphanages.  Then also follows a couple of adopted teens as they return to China.  Babysitting is provided by 12 yo + FCC kids.  Hopefully both of us will be able to see the film.