Stroller Safari, piano, Hat Girl and new friend from Chongqing

  Typical breakfast. 

We have received an incredible amount of information relative to Audrey's 1st 10 months of life in the last couple of weeks.  All of which is priceless.  It is also the reason I have not blogged about daily events in a while.

Stroller Safari class this past Tuesday was "Terrific Textures".   This picture shows Audrey is learning the texture smooth.  She retained this infromation as she used it to describe a pumpkin Paula gave her 4 days later.

Audrey and some other kid following the teacher. Miss Lucy, with the snake.

  Loving the nice stroller weather we are currently experiencing!

Miss A playing with the tubes before Movers and Shakers class (at Hyde Park Library) started Wednesday morning.

  These khaki's are the first pair I ever bought for her (which was probably about 4 years ago).  They must be sized wrong as they are 6-12 months.

 These are new shoes she got this week as her feet have grown another 1/2 size since mid summer.   She is slowly warming to them. She hasn't worn socks for so long it is an adjustment.

 Goofing at Bow Tie Cafe.  I love the location, in our neighborhood, and general vibe of this little coffee shop.  Plus they have toys and 2 piano's (one for adults and one for kids).

Playing Bow Tie's kid piano is so much fun for Audrey.

She will applaud and enthusiastically say "yeah" for herself.  Luckily there is a full size mirror adjacent to the piano to fully enjoy her performance.

 Saturday morning we met some friends of Paula's who adopted their little girl in Chongqing this past April.  It was such a fun meal and we hope to get together again soon.  Afterwards John, Audrey and I took a walk around our  neighborhood.

 Maybe she is starting to like her new shoes.

 Random pictures of hat girl

  This is typical of Audrey making a hat of pants.

  She is developing her own sense of style!  As A would say ... "yeah!"

Aquarium, Ride the Ducks and Riding the Bus to the Museum Center

Monday we went to Newport on the Levee with the intention of "Riding the Ducks"  (amphibious boat tour).  We heard from Nancy P (nursery teacher @ church) that now thru Oct they are offering reduced rates for tours at 10 am. I thought since many schools have started these would not be sold out but the 10am one Monday was so we bought tix's for Tuesday and went to the aquarium.  We are aquarium members and it is in same location.

In the rain forest we saw this porcupine.  This is an animal we can sign!

We still have not made it to a penguin encounter but we surely will this fall or winter.

It was a gorgeous day outside so we walked around the levee and on the Purple People Bridge.

Tuesday we took the "Ride the Ducks" tour.  I did not get any pictures as A sat on my lap for this 45 minute tour.  It was quite interesting and well worth the $10. 

  The boat enters the river at about 10 miles per hour.  Only the people in the back get wet.  These boats were built in 1943 towards the end of WWII.  The owner of this tourist company sent 5 of these boats to NOLA after Katrina and they were able to help with many rescues.

Wednesday we took the bus to the Children's Museum at Union Terminal.  I think the 30 min bus ride was as entertaining at the museum.

She looks pretty serious but this is typical look for a new experience.  She lightened up on the ride home.

In the Water Works area what Audrey called "bubble".

Learning about semi-circles a shape one of her books describes.

She identified this flag without prompting.

Our bus for the ride home.

Zoo train, Halloween outfit, Findlay Market trip, Sunday school and China Daily

This past Thursday we went to the Zoo.  Because she was enjoying a leisurely breakfast we got a late start getting out the door that morning.

So we just spent about an hour at the Zoo.  First thing we did was head for the train. 

The only part that makes me uneasy is the first corner above the Zebra and flamingo exhibits (the drop off is huge) but A has never shown any anxiety... mostly just this intense observation.

Thursday afternoon she and I  bought her Halloween outfit.   I gave her a choice of 2 outfits. In the above photo she is holding her costume's headband.  Our neighborhood has such a fun community party for this event.  We are fortunate to have really motivated/ organized parents and neighbors we love.

This week we received this copy of China Daily, the edition from the day Audrey was born.  We also received some priceless information and photos from her first 10 months of life.  

Things reported in this newspaper from that day:  The headline below that picture of the Panda is 

Sichuan's new superstars  Airport crowds cheer arrival of US-born pandas.

     Also on the cover:  Yao fans go wild over baby talk (article about Yao Ming and his wife Ye Li impending birth of a baby girl)

Bottom fold front page article headline: Couple decide to let disabled child die in hospice

Articles inside the newspaper include:  From Beijing  One-child policy to stay (small column in Across China section reporting this policy would remain unaltered during the 12th Five year Plan (2011-15).

Another article:  No Easy way out for US  (America simply cannot have it both ways by expecting China to continue to provide more funds while incurring capital loss by revaluing its currency).

Another article:  US missionaries charged with Kidnapping (Haiti judge to investigate case).

Saturday all 3 of us went to the market for the 2nd time.  We took a bag of clothes Audrey has outgrown to give to Julie who's daughter just gave birth to her 10th child whose name is Lauren.

A picture with what Audrey calls a  "ga ga". 

Miss A before church this morning.

Her 2nd time in the church nursery and more successful than the first as today there were no tears.  She also wore her hat the entire time.  This picture includes our nursery teacher, Nancy and Lucy the granddaughter of a friend from church.

Sunday afternoon recital in Blind Lemon's garden, Dog Days at the Pool, and "House, All gone, Cool"

In this picture Audrey is signing "peas" to Paula.  After church and Audrey's nap Paula, A and I walked up to the Blind Lemon for a guitar recital.  It was Nick Tuttle (has a studio on our street) student's recital and it was fun.  Miss A lasted enjoyed it for an hour and then got restless so we left.

This garden is so cute.  It reminds me of Europe ...

Student and teacher playing together.

This house was torn down on Fort View Street this week.  Audrey somewhat strung together  "house .... all gone .... cool"  Not exactly together as in a sentence but still the concept.  Her first 2 words spoken together (other than ones that don't count like Bye-bye) were "blue shirt".

She was not the least bit scared of the noisy equipment.  It only took an afternoon to tear this down.

This past Monday was "Dog Days" at our pool.  It closed to humans the day before.

In general the goldens were the best swimmers.

Miss Audrey's expression pretty much the whole time we were there which was about 45 minutes.  This is typical when she is observing something new.

"Boo" the rescue dog who lives on our street and is so great with kids.  Audrey has practically stuck a finger in Boo's eye and he did not flinch.

One of the life guards with her dog or as A calls  them "pup".

Dogs with handles.

This little white dog did not seem thrilled with swimming.

This guy was learning to swim and seemed a little scared too.

This guy was probably the rock star of swimmers at this event.

I like this picture because of the way the dog is facing the people with one paw resting on the side of the pool.

Afterwards we walked to UDF for ice cream.