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.

Jungle Book and Pictures at Krohn

As if meeting a lot of family was not enough we also had tickets to The Jungle Book at the Taft on Sunday afternoon.   Man this kid is going to be bored next weekend. 

Audrey made it through 90% of the show.  She clapped and bounced along but finally got a little too noisy around the time of the vultures song "We're Your Friend".   One of the staff let us watch from a better spot as we were leaving so all in all it was a great experience.

Before the show we had just enough time after her morning nap to run by the Krohn.  My co-workers told me about they had a professional photographer and Lindsay S's bunny and new puppy.  This bunny, Mr Pancakes, is the friendliest most laid back bunny.

These pictures do not show how excited Audrey was to meet a real bunny.  She kissed Mr Pancakes and squealed quite a bit.

With Linday and her puppy...  (so new she is still working on a name, in fact the Krohn had a name the puppy contest going on that day0.

Meeting family this weekend!

Audrey loves to shred paper and unfortunately sometimes eat it too.  But at the hotel she very sweetly shredded tissue paper and handed it to her Granddad.

Meeting my sister Anne.

She briefly wore her birthday party hat.  Audrey does not care for hats of any kind.

Cousins!  It looks like she is saying "this is my cousin Peter"

Audrey adored all the attention her cousins gave her.

Her Uncle Tim.

 Saturday my family had a shower at my cousin Barb's apartment.  Barb had a baby tiara which Annie wore longer than Audrey would allow.

Annie helping her Aunt Kristen with the "identify the candy bar" shower game.

Carol T.

My Aunt Mary.

Great picture of my Aunt Becky.

This picture shows why you should remember to put the panties on under a babies dress.  My only excuse is I had a lot of family in town and my schedule was fluid to say the least.

I think this picture with the purse on her shoulder amusing.

Barb has a really cool apartment.  Those panels are sliding room dividers.

Saturday afternoon my brother Tom and his girlfriend Elizabeth came in to town.  We had the most fun dinner at Mecklenburgs and then at breakfast at the hotel then next morning.

Audrey's 1st Birthday

Celebrating Miss Audrey's 1st birthday!

Aunt Debra and Grandma flew in from Richmond Saturday afternoon.

Grandma helping Audrey open one of the many gifts from her Aunt Nancy.

Audrey loves to look at Grandma's jade necklace from China. 

This party girl does not care for hats and would only wear this one briefly.

She also did not do the typical destroy the cupcake and get it all over yourself.

 mama ran up to Immaculata to light a candle for Audrey.

I tried to download the video we took of Audrey doing the tradtional 1st birthday game but can't download for some reason.  Anyhow the tradition is to line up 12 items and allow baby to choose 3 which are supposed to foretell something about thier live.  The items we used were:  coins (wealth), CD (musician), ruler (architect), book (studious), calculator (banker/accountant), pen (author), camera (journalist/artist), green onion (intelligent), garlic (shrewd), thermometer (medical), scale (judicial), ball (athletic).  Audrey's 1st 3 choices were garlic, CD and then green onion.

While I was gone Aunt Debra got Audrey to hold her own bottle!

It was hard to go to bed after all this fun.

And lastly a video showing Grandma making Audrey giggle.

The Jungle Book, Music Class and Visit from Paula M

This video shows Audrey watching The Jungle Book.  I think it is cute how captivated she is by this movie, particularly the music.  So, I bought tickets to a live performance of The Jungle book at the Taft Theatre later this month.  It's only 1 1/2 hours long but still may be somewhat of a gamble for a 1 year old.

This past weekend we visited friends and their children even made a welcome sign for us.  Their daughters were so sweet and thoroughly entertained Audrey.

This picture shows how she buries her face in her plush animals.  For her audiology test at Children's this past Monday we took her Piglet and she did pretty much the same thing.  For the tests she sat on my lap and Piglet sat on hers.  The doctors said her hearing was fine and that she was such a great patient they wished they had video taped the test.

A picture of Audrey and Baba before Music class this morning.  This class is every Wednesday at Calvary Episocal Church and runs for 14 weeks.  This is Audrey's 3rd week if you count the orientation.

I also think it is interesting to compare this pose with ...

her referral update picture we received in October 2010.

A picture with Miss Amanda, the Musikgarten teacher.  It is good of Miss Amanda and typical mug shot from audrey when she does not know the person taking her picture.

  Fourth time to Kroger's but first time in the cart.

and she stayed in the cart the entire trip without complaint!

This afternoon our sweet neighbor Paula came over with a birthday present for Miss Audrey.... a beautiful red dress.  Oh and chocolate for mama and baba too.