Things I Wish I Had Pictures Of

Church Ladies: I am a member of a singing group at church called the "Church Ladies" (we toyed with the idea of calling ourselves the "Holy Cows" but thought this might offend some members of the group). Not only are we about music, we are also about wardrobe. Our wardrobe mistress, Gwynn, recently returned to the group after undergoing chemotherapy. Her hair is back, and her wardrobe aplomb was never gone. For this holiday performance last Sunday, she suggested that we wear Christmas-ball earrings. I said, sure, I'll wear those, thinking they would be actual earrings. But oh no, they were actual Christmas balls, of the kind that would be at home on a full-size tree. Red, silver, green, gold - each church lady took ornament hooks and threaded them through her ears and hung a pair of matching ornaments on them. If you moved your head too fast, you got a bit of whiplash. But we were festive. Yes we were. And the singing wasn't bad either.

Scenes from the Park: When it was nice weather - really, up until this week - I went for a daily walk with Audrey. Typically, we walked across the street to the park and looked at the ducks (a big hit), or smelled the roses (she didn't get it) or looked at the dogs in the dog park (very exciting). I don't take anything with me, just my keys, and Audrey in the carrier. So I've missed a few photo opportunities. Including

• Meeting another baby named Audrey - she was 8 months old and playing at the playground with her parents and older sister.


• Walking away from the dog park and seeing a woman coming toward it with her dog - I said to Audrey, "Look, a dog!" and as the women passed me, she said to the dog, "Look, a baby!" in the same tone of voice.


• Audrey on the baby swing - which is HUGE for her, but she leans up against the front and it must feel like the carrier (it hits her in about the same spot on the chest). I squat in front of the swing and hold her hands and push her back and pull her forward, and she just smiles real big!

White Elephant

No, not another trip to the zoo. I'm talking about Grad Group's annual White Elephant gift exchange, which was held yesterday at the Larson-Wolbrink's home. Although Audrey was in attendance, the clear stars of the show yesterday were Lily Larson-Wolbrink (17 months) and Allegro (2 years), our friend Liz's new guide dog. The two of them together were the epitome of cute, Lily with her boundless energy and bouncy curls, and Allegro, a big yellow lab puppy who was "off duty" for the evening so we could pet him and interact with him.

The fun thing about White Elephant, beyond watching Lily and Allegro explore new levels of cuteness, was seeing what people brought - Paul and I went home with a plastic U of A mug, a woman's hat and necklace, a 4-bottle wine rack, and a insel garland decorated with shiny paper ornaments. But we got rid of four items we have had two of for some time, including Norah Jones and Louis Prima CDs, the Shel Silverstein book Runny Babbit, and a "Touch and Feel Farm" book.

We also got rid of a musical Happy Birthday bag that has slowly become the bane of my existance. Let me explain - somewhere along the line, one of us got a birthday present in this bag, which plays Happy Birthday and lights up when a corner of it is pressed. Due to limited storage space, we keep our wrapping paper in a storage box under our bed, but it turns out that this bag is a mite sensitive. So as I have been getting up at 3:30 AM to go feed the baby, it was not uncommon to have musical accompinament to this event - a tinny "Happy Birthday" that went of as I got out of bed and continued to play as I crossed the hall to Audrey's room.

Since I hit upon the idea of getting rid of it at the White Elephant, the bag became even more insistent. As we loaded it into the car for the rise to the Larson-Wolbrink's, it went off three times, as if to say "No! Don't get rid of me! You will miss this tinny "Happy Birthday!" But we don't. Enjoy it, Stephanie, and don't be afraid to regift!

Playdate with Gavin

Yesterday Gavin (Audrey's "twin") and his mom Lauren drove up from Sahuarita to have a playdate. Because I'd had such a good time at the zoo a couple of Mondays ago, I suggested we go there. It was more crowded this Monday, but a lot of the animals were still pretty visible and we had a good time. Audrey rode in her front carrier again, and Gavin was in his stroller. When we went up to the lion enclosure, the lion was sitting in the middle of his space, looking away from us. I walked up to the glass with Audrey as I had before, and he started looking over at us. Within a few minutes, the lion got up and walked directly toward us, walking around the pool and coming right up to the glass like last time. This time, instead of just mushing his nose against the glass, he pawed the glass a couple of times and then opened his mouth two or three times to show us his menacing teeth (although because he is a very elderly lion, the teeth were somewhat broken off and dull, so not all that menacing). Lauren held Gavin up and I snapped the picture.



After the zoo, we came back to the house and Audrey and Gavin ate and then played on the floor. Of course, they were most interested in the other one's toys, so we had a "plate of spaghetti" moment with the toy I call chewie ball - it's one of Audrey's favorites but Gavin had a serious interest in it too.



I was trying to get some "look how they've grown" pictures to compare to the earlier set of photos I took of Audrey and Gavin at breastfeeding support group, but the two of them didn't really seem to be playing on the same page this time - the best I could get was both babies on their backs but facing in different directions!

Monday at the Zoo

No, this does not refer to the crazy conditions in our house today. In fact, quite the opposite - Audrey has a bit of a cold so she's been napping a lot more than usual. But during her wake period this afternoon, we went over to our local zoo, which is located just across the street from our neighborhood. It was a beautiful day, with temperatures in the low 80's and a bit of a breeze. As a result, lots of animals were out. I think many are also fed about 2 pm, when we were there, so that helped too. Of course I did not bring my camera today (the otter picture is from an earlier zoo trip), but we saw:

• An elephant drinking (she tried the pool water, where ducks were swimming, spit it out and then went to where the water was flowing into the pool and drank from that spigot) and then giving herself a dust bath


• An ostrich complaining about something and a zebra coming over to find out what was going on


• Giraffes eating up close to the fence


• Tortoises eating and walking around


• The three gibbons right up at the front of their cage, interacting with visitors


• Two otters performing just for Audrey and I


• And finally, the lion, grooming himself around three feet from the glass, who, on seeing Audrey and I, walked around a small pool, came right up to the glass and squished his nose against it, approximately 3 inches from us!

All in all it was a great trip to the zoo, although I must admit to being a little panicked when the lion approached us. Even though I knew he couldn't get us, it seemed he was eyeing Audrey as a snack...or maybe he's just never seen a baby in a front carrier before.

Four Generations

During Audrey's first trip back East, we attended my cousin Erin's wedding. The big event for us, though (not to downplay Erin and Jamie's wedding, it was beautiful) was that Audrey got to meet her great-grandmother, Marguerite Pyles, for the first time. I was hoping Audrey would see her great-grandma and giver her one of her 1000-watt smiles, but of course, my grandma is a stranger to Audrey and she takes a while to warm up to people she doesn't know, despite being a very friendly and gregarious baby. She did get to spend a little time with her at the wedding reception, though, and was privy to some smiles, although I'm sure Audrey would have been happier in a slightly less noisy and chaotic situation. The wedding photographer took a couple of pictures of grandma holding Audrey and also one of the "four generations" (great-grandma Marguerite, grandma Mary, mom Kay and baby Audrey) with the newlyweds. We also took a few candid pictures of the four of us outside the reception location, so the best one of those is here. I'm sure Audrey won't remember her first meeting with great-grandma, but I'm sure great-grandma will remember it!

Mother (and Father) and Child Reunion

Yesterday we had our reunion for our Bradley (childbirth) classes. Having spent 10 weeks together between April and June, and watched each other grow ever-more pregnant, the reunion gave us the opportunity to meet up again and see how everyone turned out. At 4 months, Audrey was one of the oldest babies - since the classes went until early June, the first babies were born mid-June and the last ones were born in early September. Not everyone came, of course, but we had a good time eating potluck food and taking many pictures of the babies. Here is one of the best ones - that's Charlie, Audrey and Abigail!

Political Baby

So she's not political in the "election was Nov 4" sense, although I must admit I'm happy that President Obama is the first president she might remember, rather than President McCain. I did watch his concession speech, however, and came away thinking what a class act he is. Audrey's politics, however, have more to do with her decorated onesies. Before she was born, our friend Gretchen made her a onesie that says, on the front, "Eat Local Food" and on the back, "It Works for Me." I had to snap a picture because one day she was lying on her playmat, next to Sleepy Bunny (who, though he is a stuffed animal, has played many roles, from infant head support to nursing pillow in his brief tenure with us). She reached out and grabbed Sleepy Bunny's foot and was poised to take a bit out of it. Not quite the "local food" the onesie-maker intended, but funny.

Travels With Audrey

So I have not blogged in a while, partially because I was traveling for a couple of weeks, back East to VA/MD and then out West to San Diego. These were my first trips with Audrey (who was 3 1/2 months old when we left on our first trip). It was a new experience both because I was now "the woman with the baby" on the plane (fortunately, not "the woman with the screaming baby") and also because it was sort of solo parenting time. My parents met me at both ends of the country, and helped with Audrey a lot, but it wasn't quite the same as having Paul there - a little less of a tag team effect. Anyway, Audrey did very well with flying. I've been telling people that if we'd had a direct flight, it would have been no problem at all - it was when we got to Chicago (on the way East) and Dallas (on the way back to Tucson) that she looked at me with this look that said "Hey, you mean we have to do this AGAIN?" But we did. And she did great, amusing herself by smiling at our plane-mates and developing a fascination for the water bottles I was inevitably toting around with us. She even tried to drink from my water bottle in the San Diego airport, grabbed it and held it and put the top to her mouth. Unfortunately for her (but probably fortunately for me, saving a clothing change), she didn't have the wherewithal to open the top first :-) Of course, some familiar "friends" (like Froggy) helped too. The picture is her at Chicago's O'Hare airport, prior to boarding the second flight going East!

Video Sensation

So I recently took a few little videos with my camera. The taking of the videos was easy, but when I downloaded them the files were huge (50 MB for a 20-second video!). It took me a week or so, but finally I got on Paul's computer and used Windows Movie Maker to "refine" the movies, adding a title and transition, and most importantly, converting them into WMV files which were a LOT smaller than the AVI files. Then I sent them out - but unfortunately, both of the computers I watched them on had the sound turned off, so I didn't realize they had sound (and pretty silly sound, if I may say)of me saying "Audrey! Hey, Audrey!" and "Video of Audrey playing with a blanket" - nothing like stating the obvious :-) Anyway, now that I know how to shrink the files, I can make more interesting videos. Plus she's becoming more vocal too so maybe I can capture her "singing along" to Old MacDonald (she can say "E-I" and we're working on "E-I-E-I-O"). Watch this space for further developments.

Tag Blanket!

Yesterday Joanna sent Audrey a new toy. She apologized for it being late (for Audrey's birth and for my birthday) but I think it's right on time, since Audrey recently learned to grab and even more recently has been trying to put things in her mouth. The tag blanket is perfect for both of those pursuits, and as you can see from the photo, she is enjoying it already!

Fashion Plate

So Audrey hates putting on clothes if they have to go over her head, but she seems to really like "trying on" clothes. I put some piece of clothing over her to check how long/wide it is and to see if it might fit her now, and she flashes a huge smile. It always seems like she's saying "Look at how cute I am in THIS outfit, mom!" I didn't think I'd be able to get a picture of her smiling, but I did, so here she is "trying on" a green footed sleeper on Monday morning.

Leaps and Bounds

So over the weekend, Audrey learned to grab things. Paul has been working with her, showing her that her hands can close around various little hanging toys that she has, but it wasn't until Saturday that things seemed to "click." Paul and I had noticed that Audrey was now bored in her infant carrier. Every time we put her in it, she would "read" the warning on the side of the carrier about 20 times (when she's able to talk, I won't be at all surprised if her first words are "Warning! Advertencia!" since the label, advising us not to put the infant seat in the front seat of the car, is in both English and Spanish). Anyway, Paul hung a giraffe toy from the carrier canopy, figuring she'd look at it.

While we were in the car on Saturday, trundling from party (Happy 15th birthday, Nick) to party (Happy get-together at Lauren, Niel and Gavin's!) I had pulled the canopy all the way down to keep the sun from beating down on Audrey as we drove. I was talking to Paul, and noticed that the giraffe's head (which was all I could see of him, as his body and legs were under the canopy with Audrey) kept moving. I lifted the canopy, and saw that Audrey had grabbed the giraffe's leg and was repeatedly pulling on it, causing the head to bob under the canopy and then re-appear in my view.

Once she mastered this skill with the giraffe, she was quick to try it out on her new toy, the take-along arch (thanks Erica, Sammy and Nick, I think this was a gift from you). Paul clipped it to the boppy, so she could rest and look at - or grab - the toys as she rested there. So that's the picture. Audrey is grabbing the turtle, who is supposed to play three songs, but I can only get him to play one (part of "Pop Goes the Weasel", I think). Audrey managed to hit it in such a way as to get it to play another song, but I have no idea how she did it...I have experimented with hitting the turtle in multiple ways (much to the amusement of Audrey AND Paul) and it either stays silent, mocking me, or plays "Pop Goes the Weasel"...c'est la vie.

Hanging with the Family

So Friday was my birthday. In the morning, Paul talked to Audrey and told her it was mommy's birthday so she should be especially helpful and good all day. He also told her about the party we were having at 5:30 to eat ice cream cake with the Orzech family and some friends. It seems kind of crazy, but she acted like she really heard him. I gave her a bath, and she had no problem with it (previously there had been at least some screaming associated with baths). I fed her a bottle and she took to it right away instead of fussing. And when people came over at 5:30/6:00 pm, she happily hung out with family members and friends. After ice cream cake (chocolate cake and mint chocolate chip ice cream from Baskin Robbins...) ten of us went out for sushi at our favorite local sushi place (suggested by a vegan friend who went with us because she knew there were things she could eat there). Audrey hung out in her carrier, smiling at everyone, then ate a little when our food came (she likes to eat at the same time as me) and then fell asleep for the rest of the meal. Here she is hanging out with Aunt Jen at the ice cream cake party...

Separated at Birth

A few weeks after she was born, I discovered that Audrey has a twin. Okay, so he's not really her twin, but one day at breastfeeding support group, I met Gavin and his mom Lauren. Gavin was born at Tucson Medical Center, like Audrey, on June 30th. Audrey was born at 1:09 pm, Gavin at about 2:30 pm. To add to the links, Lauren's birthday is Sept 22, the same date as my parents' wedding anniversary. It seems fated that we will be friends!

All or Nothing

It seems like Audrey is an "all or nothing" girl. Maybe this is just a characteristic of all babies, I don't know. But it seems that she picks one activity and spends almost all of her day doing it. Some days it's eating. Those are very frustrating and tiring days for me, since I still harbor hopes of doing something besides feeding the baby. It doesn't have to be much, just a walk to the mailbox or getting on email briefly. But on those "feeding frenzy" days, those things don't really happen. Some days she sleeps. Like yesterday. Though I should enjoy this "free" time, and I kind of do, I am also thinking in the back of my mind "Is it okay for her to sleep this long during the day? Maybe I should wake her to feed her? Is she going to wake up at midnight and think it's morning? [Answers: Yes, I didn't, and She didn't.] Some days she's just awake. All day, practically, despite the fact that infants are supposed to get something like 10-14 hours of sleep per day. And I think, "What can I do with her to give her fodder for her developing brain?" Is it bad to let her stare at Headboard until she gets bored? Is it bad that I lie down next to her on the floor when she's on her playmat, and I almost fall asleep as she stares incessantly at the monkey? (she seems to like looking at other primates - her chimp friend Gregory, the monkey on her playmat, and of course Paul and I). I tried to read to her but she doesn't seem that interested - more interesting are outings where she gets to see other babies (I think this kid is an extrovert, despite having two introvert parents), so we've been going to some mom-baby groups. And trying to get out of the house at least once a day, even if it's just for a short errand. That's about it for today...back to baby care on this "awake" day!

The Many States of Audrey

People always told me that as a parent, you can determine what your kids want (mainly) by their cries, even if those cries sound the same to an outsider. It doesn't seem to be 100% true, but I have noticed that Audrey has several "states" that don't really overlap. A sampling:

1. Happy Audrey: We get this one a lot, and we are glad of it. She has three or four different smiles/happy faces that she uses, mostly for Paul and I (and of course Headboard - see post #1) but increasingly, she will use them on strangers, especially baby-related strangers (other moms, women who are running various mom and baby groups). Today at mom-baby group she was smiling at the group leader for several minutes. She is also starting to branch out into noises - ah and awk and woo and a few cries that sound like a pterodactyl that I can't quite tell if they are happy or leading up to crying


2. Screaming Audrey: Don't like this one. It's not just crying, but full-out, turning purple, choking-on-her-own-cry screaming. Doesn't happen too often, and is usually fixable by nursing except for one night last week when it went on for 1.5 hours and was only cured by the resolution of her gastrointestinal problems


3. Crying Audrey: Ranges from the occasional cry when I am out of sight (hey mom, over here!) to a continual, mid-range cry that sounds like "lie, lie, lie." I try not to take this as a judgement on my parenting (example: Kay: "I'll be right there to feed you, Audrey, I just need to get a glass of water..." Audrey: Lie, lie, lie!)


4. Grumbly Audrey: Usually happens as she's waking up. Not crying per se, but little grumbling sounds that foreshadow crying if something is not changed. I actually like this state - I call her "grumbly baby" which has a nice ring to it ("Aw, grumbly baby...")


5. Silent Audrey: Sometimes means she is gearing up to cry, sometimes means she has her fist in her mouth and wants to eat, sometimes means she is resigned that whatever we are doing with her/showing her is kind of boring (if she even knows what boredom is) and sometimes is just a transition state - it could [hopefully] break into Happy Audrey as soon as she smiles at mommy or daddy

Holy War?

Yesterday Paul and I were sitting, as new parents are wont to do, admiring our beautiful, intelligent baby as she leaned up against dad's knees and made faces at us. Mostly smiles, but some other faces too.

One of us had said something about church, which prompted me to say "Yeah, before we know it she'll be up singing in the children's choir at church" (or, more aptly, standing in front of the church with a bunch of other little kids, two of whom are actually singing and the rest of whom are A) scanning the crowd for mom and dad, B) having found mom and dad, waving wildly, C) looking like they are about to cry, or D)all three).

Paul agreed that she might be in the children's choir, because we will probably raise her Presbyterian. After all, Paul reasons, it is the church that I (and sometimes we) go to on a regular basis. By "a regular basis" I mean once a month or more...Paul is still adjusting to this whole "not going to church weekly is not a sin" element of the Protestant faith.

Paul teases me that I have something against the Catholic church, since I am so avowedly Presbyterian. In my defense, I point out that half my family and most of my friends who profess any religious preference are Catholic, but this does not seem to sway his view that I am somehow anti-Catholic.

I had to laugh, though, because as we were talking about church, Paul said to Audrey "Yes, you'll probably be Presbyterian but you could be Catholic, what do you think about that?" Audrey replied with a face I can only describe as "dubious." Too bad I didn't get a picture.

Arizona Girl

So I am a product of the east coast, the mid-Atlantic states, to be exact. Yes, I was born in California but we moved back to Virginia when I was 3 months old, so I consider Fairfax, Virginia to be my "home town" when people ask. I moved to Tucson, Arizona in the summer of 2001, so I'm pretty used to it here, I like the Southwest and think that the "pros" of the Southwest (mountains, beautiful sunsets practically every day, cool desert animals and plants, beautiful weather in January, February, March, April, October and November) tend to outweigh the "cons" (can hit 110 in the shade in the summer).

Sometimes I think about our daughter growing up as an "Arizona girl" and how this is going to be different from my own childhood, particularly with regard to her relationship with the outdoors. In Virginia, the outdoors was pretty friendly. I mean, you had to watch out for some things like bees and other stinging insects, and it did get pretty hot and humid (and also cold, wet and.or snowy sometimes). But in Arizona, plants and animals are adapted for life in the desert, and this means they are not the friendliest of items. You can't go out in the side yard and play "Lost Girls" which, for my sister and I and our best friends Amy and Heather, entailed a lot of interaction with plants. We pulled moss and grass and sometimes leaves off bushes to be our "beds" and our "food" and whatever else we needed to "survive in the wilderness." I can't imagine doing this in Arizona. You can't really interact with a saguaro, or a prickly pear, or any other kind of cactus. Even trees like mesquite, which provide nice shade, often come with thorns.

We used to capture wayward turtles and keep them for a few days before returning them to Burke Lake. But out here, the nearest lake is about an hour away. And the kind of animals you run across commonly (mostly lizards and doves) tend to dart away and don't really lend themselves to being captured and observed for a day or two.

And then there's the sun...as a kid, I remember putting on sunscreen when we went to the beach. Maybe if we did some other "outdoors all day" activity. But out here, you have to learn early that you never leave home without your water, sunscreen and hat. I just bought Audrey her first floppy sun hat, designed to fit 0-3 months because the smallest sun hat anyone gave us was 6-18 months and we need one before then - although my mom did give her some infant sunglasses (see photo).

I'm sure Audrey will discover the outdoors and find some friendly bits even as she learns to avoid the plants and animals that have evolved sharp and/or poisonous desert defenses. And we'll just have to do a bit of traveling - up to Mt. Lemon, to Northern Arizona, and back East - so she can experience things like grass, deciduous trees and snow. I may be a transplant, but she will be a true Arizona girl.

Out and About With Audrey

On Friday, I went to campus to try to get an "enrollment verification letter" from the Registrar's office. Any time I try to do anything within the bureaucracy of the University of Arizona, it always takes me longer then I expect. In this case, this was my third trip to the registrar's office to get this letter, because on the previous trips, something in my record was wrong or incomplete.

I was feeling pretty proud of myself because I got myself and Audrey out the door at 8:30 am and we parked and got to the Registrar's at 8:45...only to discover that the office was closed until 10 am for a staff meeting. I thought about going home at that point, and making my fourth trip back the next week, possibly when Paul or Pat was watching Audrey. But then I thought about the "Rookie Mom's Handbook," a little gem of a book given to me by my friend Skylar. Somewhere in the book, I had read (and I'm paraphrasing) - go out with your baby, because that's what people do, and moms are just people with children.

So I thought, what would I do if it were just me, no Audrey? Well, I would get a chai tea latte and go over to my department for an hour or so, and try to get a little work done. So I did. I got my chai tea latte, answered questions from curious onlookers about Audrey, and walked over to the Anthro department. I didn't end up getting work done, I nursed Audrey in our office instead, but it worked. I went back to the Registrar's after 10 am, and got my letter, and we went home.

A couple of really cute primates

Okay, so this picture is actually a few weeks old (an eternity in Audrey-time) but it is so cute that I wanted to post it. To celebrate her birth, my friend and college roommate Andrea, who's a vet at the Oakland Zoo, sent Audrey a stuffed chimpanzee.

Although I'm not a primatologist, it is part of what I do (biological anthropology) and I have actually taught a class in primatology, so I'm pretty stringent (some might say annoying) about pointing out the difference between a monkey and an ape. So Audrey's "new friend" is definitely an ape, not a monkey. And in the photo, she's making her big smile, what I call the "chimpanzee play face" because chimps make this face - opening their mouth wide - to show that they want to play with you!

So Audrey and friend - who I've named Gregory - relate, one ape to another.

Baby's-eye view

This morning Audrey was lying on our bed after being fed, staring at the window behind our headboard. At least I think it was the window. Given her fascination with Headboard (see previous post) it could be that she was communing with "Big Headboard." Who knows. Anyway, I got down at her level on the bed and tried to take a picture of what she could see. When I did that, I found myself looking at a very striking set of shadows created by the iron work outside our window - with the morning light coming from the east, the iron bars made three heart shapes against the illuminated green curtains. That piece of window looks a lot more interesting from a baby's-eye view, and if she hadn't been so enraptured by it, I would have missed it.

Audrey the Furniture Whisperer

So I'm sitting here in the nursery with my fussy baby. Or, she was fussy until I put her on the changing table. Don't get me wrong, she really dislikes getting her diaper changed. But lying on the table...she loves it. We have a "Rail Rider" which for the uninitiated is a plastic tray with a waterproof pad in it that fits over the crib rails. So the Rail Rider puts the baby almost level with the object of her affection - the end of the crib, colloquially known in our house as "Headboard."

Audrey LOVES to "talk" to Headboard. Despite the fact that she is a mere 5 1/2 weeks old, she communicates with Headboard in every way she is able: she smiles, makes sounds, waves her arms, and kicks her legs, sometimes all at once, to convey to Headboard some mysterious content. We have tried to duplicate her view to see what she might be so excited about, but to no avail. Paul thought it might be the contrast between the crib slats (dark, then light from the window behind). But she seems just as excited about Headboard after dark, when that "contrast" explanation wouldn't hold. Plus she seems to be looking at the solid part of the headboard, not the slatted part, for all we can tell.

Headboard can keep Audrey occupied for 10 minutes - an eternity in baby time. He (or she, I suppose) can make her forget that before we came into the nursery, she was demanding to be fed (even though she just finished eating for 30+ minutes). One of Paul's theories about Headboard is that her guardian angel hangs out there, and that's who she's communicating with when we lie her on the changing table. I kind of like that explanation, and have taken to sometimes putting words in her mouth when she starts communing with Headboard. Like, "Oh, Headboard, it's been a rough morning - I wanted to eat all the time and mommy tired to only feed me every hour instead of every five minutes. And then I filled up my diaper and had to get my diaper AND my onesie changed! I think only you understand where I'm coming from, Headboard."

Sounds from Audrey - the last one sounded like "Whoo!" I think Headboard is expanding her "vocabulary" - and definitely strengthening her legs, since kicking her legs is a big part of talking to Headboard. She may be tiring of Headboard's company, since she's been "talking" the whole time I've been typing this. But who knows. Whether it's contrast/light patterns or her guardian angel, Headboard is special to Audrey, so viva Headboard!