A week in the life of Aubrey

So Aubrey has now given up crawling pretty much entirely. She toddles all over the house. It is so cute. I love that she can wander off and find things to do on her own. So far, she hasn't gotten into trouble. I wonder how long that will last! She almost always is carrying around one of her stuffed animals. It is exactly what I imagined a little toddler girl doing.

I am a little worried about the upcoming cold weather. Aubrey loves being outside and gets real cranky if she is cooped up inside all day. I am going to have to think up some fun little outings we can do in the winter. Any ideas anyone?

So Aubrey's favorite thing to do outside now is to pick the cherry tomatoes. The minute we go outside she heads straight for them. I was even able to prepare dinner and watch her through the kitchen window as she occupied herself with this task this evening. It was cute seeing her out there by herself. Not the least bit concerned that mommy wasn't with her. Maybe we are making progress in the separation anxiety department.

The last couple of months Aubrey has been climbing into a planter in the backyard and using it as a sandbox. She is too funny. She likes to pick out all of the rocks and hand them to me. She even says rock now (raw is how she pronounces it). We decided that next spring we will make her a sandbox. I wish we would have thought of it this year!

So, I bought Aubrey some cheap little necklaces last week. They are by far the best $2 purchase I have ever made! She will play with them for hours. She puts them on and takes them off and sorts them and carries them around the house. After she puts them on she will either find me and pose for me so I will tell her how pretty she looks, or she will go to the full length mirror and admire herself. She just cracks me up!

Aubrey has also been really working on talking this week. She tries to copy what we say. She even tried to say Taquito the other day. She said Taq followed by jibberish. It was so cute. Now she calls them either Taq Taq Taq or Taq um Taq um. Her other favorite words are of course MaMa & DaDa, ball, bye bye, walk, water, rock, bed & duck. She even put two words together a couple times this week. She said, "Bye DaDa." Real sweet.

Aubrey was sick last week and so would wake up in the night. We would go to her because we would have to check on her fever. So, after she was feeling better, we had to stop going in. So, one night she woke up and started calling for me. I sware she said MaMa for like five minutes. Then it was quite for a minute. All of a sudden she started saying DaDa. She must have thought, if mom won't come in, maybe dad will. We started cracking up, even though it was like 1 am.

Everytime we go in the garage Aubrey hopes we are going for a walk. She will walk straight for her stroller climb into it and start saying, "wa wa wa" (that's how she says walk). Once again, I don't know what we are going to do when it's too cold to take walks. I guess we'll have to stroll around the mall or something!

I can't believe what a little girl she is becoming. She has her own personality. It is so fun watching her blossom and grow right before our eyes. It is truly a miracle!

Walking . . . FINALLY

After 15 1/2 months, Aubrey is finally walking more than crawling!! She decided to take after her mommy who didn't walk until she was almost 17 months. So compared to me, Aubrey is a fast walker! This video was taken last week when she was just starting to take off. I love her little waddle. So darn cute!

Wilkerson Family Renunion

We had a family reunion with my mom's side on Saturday. It was at a park in Orem across from the rec. center. We had a fun day. Aubrey especially had fun. We did most of her favorite things. We spent most of the day outside (she wishes she could live outside!). She got to play at a park and go down really big slides by herself. She also got to go swimming and pet a few puppies. One little 6 week puppy jumped up and licked her lips. She looked at it kind of shocked. So I told her that it gave her kisses. She then leaned over to give it another kiss. It was really cute! Jeff and I got to play racquetball too, which is my favorite sport and we haven't been to play in a few years. It was really fun. By the end of the day Aubrey was so pooped that she fell asleep on the swings. And then slept in Grandma's arms through dinner. All in all it was a great day. Thanks mom for planning a fun reunion!

Convocation

Here are some pics of the new grads getting their diplomas.

Con"GRAD"ulations

Congratulations Summer & Esther for graduating from BYU!!

The commencement was today and I thought it was really good. Aubrey did fantastic. I think she thought the backs of peoples head were puppies, and it really kept her entertained. That and the stickers of puppies, kitties & duckies. Anyway, Elder Scott spoke and I have always really liked him as a speaker. Tomorrow is convocations. That's even more fun cause we get to hear them call their names and watch them walk across the stage. I hope Aubrey does as well for that so we can watch them and not have to be in the hall.

Right after Summer & Esther marched in we were able to find them. Jeff took this picture all the way across the Marriot Center. Not bad! They are doing the peace sign - in case you can't tell.

All the sisters. Dad pointed out that we have all now graduated from BYU!

Getting Ready

Aubrey has become such a little mimicker (is that a word?) lately. She wants to do everything she sees mama and dada do. She is real cute getting ready in the morning. She's been trying to brush her hair for months. But, lately she has added trying to put her shoes and socks on, brushing her teeth, & putting her feet in the legs of her pants. I love seeing her learn all of these new skills. The pictures below are of her getting ready for church yesterday.

Lately, Aubrey has really taken to building blocks. She does really good at stacking them on top of one another. Today, she would even try to straighten them out if they were on crooked. The pictures below are of the tower she pretty much built all by herself today (I helped a little with straightening the blocks).

You know you take a lot of pictures of your child when she climbs on the desk to grab the camera & holds in front of her face to try to take a picture. Then when that doesn't seem to work, she hands it to you and then smiles real big to pose for the picture. That's the story behind the picture below.

Aubrey didn't get a whole lot of mama time on Sunday. So, in the evening she was really wanting my attention. Unfortunately, I had a pretty bad headache and was trying to get dinner started. So, I put her on my lap and signed the hurt sign and then pointed to my head. Side note, Aubrey has really taken to the hurt sign of late. And she is at that stage that she seems to hurt herself a lot. So, all day long when she stubs her toe or trips or bangs a toy into herself somehow - she'll have this really pouty face and sign hurt. So, I thought she would really understand that mommy hurt. So, I asked her to kiss it better and she gave me a kiss on the forehead. A few hours later as I was getting her ready for bed, she signed the hurt sign. So I asked her, "Do you hurt, Aubrey?" "Where do you hurt?" She then pointed to me and then to my forehead. I think she was trying to find out if I still hurt. It was so sweet.

Aubrey just loves animals. Lately dogs are her thing. Yesterday she saw on the computer a picture of a puppy statue that Grandma Buell has in her garden. Aubrey loved seeing the picture. When she sees or hears dogs she starts panting like one. It's really cute. Well, this morning we went in to check my email. Immediately, Aubrey points to the computer and starts panting. She remembered the dog from yesterday and wanted to see it again. So, I thought she might like a video of some puppies. So, pulled up you tube, found one and played it for her. She was so delighted she just started cracking up. After, watching about 3 videos, I thought to get out my video camera and tape her. She wasn't laughing quite as much by this time, but it's still cute. You can also see her pant in the video and do a few signs, "sleep" and "more".