Bow Snatcher

Aubrey has started taking out her bows. A choking hazard, I am aware! Nanny Charni caught her in the act! And please take note of her outfit. She looks like such a big girl. :-)

And then there were PEAS!

peas anyone?

not so much. 

did not go over well with baby aubrey. 

moving on to peaches next.

this smile? this is rice cereal

first taste of peas

this same face was made w/ sweet potatoes

this would be gagging

still gagging

she could certainly do without

So we'll shelf those and try them again next month!

**Aubrey is 7 months old today!

today we tried sweet potatoes!

she wasn't that into em!

All Wives Tales Pointing to...

I have to re-post this regarding gender predictions b/c it's funny. I'm going to highlight all that I experienced just to see what BGB (Aubrey Girl) was predicted to be!

Sent to you by EJ via Google Reader:

All Wives Tales Pointing to...

via Next Stop - Baby by Leah on 6/7/12

It must be exceptionally easy for you to tell what's going on in my life based on what kind of posts I write.  I get hung up on certain topics for chunks of time.  With May's gift of the new popular baby name list from the SSA, I was obsessively writing about baby names (here, here, here and here).  Today I'm going to write about baby gender predictions, which falls right in line with all the gender neutral posts I've been writing lately.

When the baby-to-be's gender is a surprise, it inevitably leads to guesses, hypotheses and even some harmless betting.  Some people just have a hunch that it's one or the other.  Others base their guesses on old wives tales.  For example, according to preggers legend, the appearance of the mother during the pregnancy is linked to the baby's gender - is she carrying high (girl) or low (boy)?  Is she all glowy (boy) or all haggard (girl)?  Is she slender with a basketball bump (boy) or pudgy with a tank ass (girl)?  If you weren't sure, as soon as you read "tank ass" you realized that it's not necessarily a compliment to be pegged as pregnant with a little girl.  I've heard that it's common for people to guess a boy up until about 7.5 months, then suddenly change their mind.  Apparently even slender, glowy ladies can appear haggard and pudgy at the end.

Remember how good Victoria Beckham looked with all of her pregnancies?   There was actually a bit of controversy because she supposedly only gained 15 lbs with her first pregnancy.  I can gain 15 lbs after a big meal.  Anyway, the photo above is from her 4th pregnancy...OR NOT.  It's a couple pretending to be Mr. and Mrs. Becks for the Daily Mail.  How random.  Were you fooled?

Besides appearance based tales, there are a host of other scientific indicators unproven signs.  I wrote about some of these signs a while back.  What I'm curious to know this time around is whether any of them are remotely accurate.  They're fun to talk about and to use for guesswork, but do they work?  Even a little?  Here are the lists (from the past post):

Signs you're carrying a GIRL

• You're carrying high
• Your pee is dull yellow
• Bad morning sickness
• Sweet food cravings
• Baby's heart rate averages more than 140 beats per minute
• Your left breast becomes noticeably larger than your right breast
• When you hang a ring (wedding band or otherwise) over your belly it swings from side to side
• Your hair develops red highlights
• The sum of your age at the time you conceived and the month in which you conceived is an odd number (example: 28 when conceived, baby due in July. 2+8 = 10 + 7 = 17...girl)
• You are plagued by bad acne

Signs you're carrying a BOY

• You're carrying low
• Your pee is bright yellow
• Baby is kicking a lot
• Salty food cravings
• The hair on your legs is growing like crazy
• Baby's heart rate averages less than 140 beats per minute
• When you hang your ring (wedding band or otherwise) over your belly it swings in a circle
• Your feet are always cold
• The sum of your age at the time you conceived and the month in which you conceived is an even number

Think back to your pregnancy, which of the above signs were accurate, which signs were red herrings?  Do you have a pregnant friend who suddenly appears to have auburn hair?  A pregnant cousin who's constantly complaining about cold feet?

Next, behold the Chinese Gender Predictor (or part of it...it goes up to age 45):

I'm guessing that most of you have heard of the Chinese Gender Predictor and possibly used it.  It's a calendar of sorts that is based on lunar months and time of conception and magic.  It seems to be the most highly regarded gender predictor out there (other than sonograms and the technicians that do them).  I hear it's 50% accurate...badumbum, ching.  Go to Baby Center (here) and plug in your numbers to test it's genius.  Let me know how accurate it was in predicting your baby's gender, your gender, your aunt's gender, whatever. 


chinese predictor said BOY! sorry - WRONG!!

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6 months old!

Aubrey Girl-
Whoa. You are 6 months old! You are SUCH A JOY. You are such an easy-going, laid back, go-with-the-flow baby. I think you get this from your Daddy.

You are learning so much. You are a totally different baby from 2 months ago. You were learning to roll over 2 months ago and have now mastered rolling over in both directions with such ease. No more sleeping on your back only - you're now sleeping on both your back and tummy and I still sometimes worry about that. But what good is worrying? You're a STRONG girl. You have fantastic neck/head control so sleeping on your tummy, being something I can't prevent, is just the way it is.

Daddy lowered your crib last night. Gramma Beck was worried about the mattress still being up high in the infant setting, so now you're lower in the crib.

You're making lots of new sounds - growling, high pitched screaming and soft sounds as if you're talking to yourself.

Nonna Jo thinks you'll be crawling in 2 weeks - at least combat crawling. You're a fast learner. If a toy is out of your reach, you find a way to get to it. You don't stay still on the floor in one spot for long. You are in love with the exersaucer and your jumparoo. You can be entertained in them for quite a while - but I try not to put you in it for too long. You fell asleep in the jumparoo while at Charni's. Here's a picture to prove it!

You're sucking on your bottom lip - it's cute. Maybe because you're teething, or maybe just because. Everything goes into your mouth. You love your feet and hands and Sophie too. You study everything with such focus. We can just see those gears turning in your head as you absorb everything around you.

You play peek-a-boo with anything you can cover your face with.

The game goes something like this:

AG - grabs lovey or a burp cloth or a onesie or whatever is in reach and covers her face (sometimes leaving one eye uncovered to "peek" through) and starts kicking her legs and waving her arms. The key is to wait until she lets go of the cover.

Mama - "Where's Aubrey?" "Where's Aubrey?" (repeat until either Aubrey pulls the cover from her face or mama pulls it)

Mama - "THERE SHE IS!" "There's Aubrey Girl"

AG - LAUGHTER ensues

It's a fun game. and you're so cute when playing it!

Sleeping is still going pretty well. You typically go down for bed sometime between 8-9pm. Wind-down for bedtime starts around 7. We sometimes do a bath (I won't lie - you're only bathed 1-2 times/week), change into nighttime diaper (you've started leaking through diapers at night - we put you in a Size 3 nighttime diaper), PJs, read a few books (Goodnight Moon, That's Not My Monkey & Is Your Mama a Llama?) and then you nurse and fall asleep. I lay you in bed and you typically wake up once, sometimes twice between bedtime and midnight. Then you sleep until sometime between 4-6 and wake up to nurse. On days when Mama doesn't have to work - you (we) go back to sleep (we snuggle in mama and daddy's big bed) and sleep until 8ish usually. On days that Mama works, you're up and at em' by 6:30 and it's off to nanny charni's we go!

You had your first beach trip with Mama and Nonna Jo this month. We headed to the beach on Mother's Day - mama's first and it was a great one! Daddy got Mama a beautiful watch and we got your name and birth-date engraved on the back. You were so cute when we introduced you to the beach. You got to sink your little toes into the sand and touch the ocean water. You enjoyed the sand - you didn't go crazy trying to grab it like I thought you would and the ocean water was a bit cold, so we didn't dip your toes in for too long.

We took you to see a plastic surgeon for the mass on your back and found out you have a subcutaneous hemangioma. This should go away by age 5 hopefully and doesn't seem to bother you. It bothers me more than it bothers you.

Here are your stats...
Height: 23 inches
Weight: 16 lbs, 13 oz
Diaper Size: 2 (size 3 at night)
Clothing size : SOME 3-6 mo, but you're mostly outgrowing those, Carter's 6 mo. and some 6-9 mo (but those are still a little big)

You are just the most beautiful, sweet baby Aubrey Girl. I couldn't be more proud to be your Mama.

 Love,
Mama

"What time is it?"

Mother's Day 2012

My first Mother's Day.

A great one spent with Steve & Aubrey (in the AM) and then with my mom. Steve surprised me Sunday morning with a card & a new watch - a combo "push present" and Mother's Day gift. This thing was a little pricey! But absolutely beautiful. We're going to have Aubrey's name & birthdate engraved on the back - but it takes 2 weeks and I wanted to wear it for a while...show it off! Every so often Steve would ask "what time is it"? I would easily forget that I now had a watch and I could tell him what time it was. I haven't worn a watch in years so I certainly wasn't used to being able to quickly glance down at my wrist to tell the time! He asked me when we were on the phone too later that night and I totally said I had no idea. Then it hit me. I HAVE A WATCH! I glance down at it often now. Just to admire it. But back to Mother's Day...

We had McDonald's for breakfast. :-) Hotcakes and sausage w/ hashbrowns & OJ! Then Steve helped me pack up the car to head to mom's. Mom, Aubrey & I were going to the beach for a week. Have I mentioned how awesome my husband is? Yeah - he let me steal our daughter away and go to the beach. for the week. with my mom. And it was great! We missed Steve terribly but there's nothing like some beach therapy to take all your cares away!

It was a special treat to be spending Mother's Day with my daughter and my mom. Mom and I don't always see each other on Mother's Day so it was nice. We exchanged gifts at the beach and toasted to the day.

Now I just need to figure out what in the world I'm going to get Steve for Father's Day! hmmm......