Audrey

Today is Audrey's 3rd birthday. It's funny how quickly I am able to remember the exact details of the day she entered this world. From the exact time my water broke, to the clothes I wore that day, to the last moments before she was born. She has touched me in such a way that only a parent could understand how a child can affect their life. Forever. I am truly blessed to be her mother. Audrey is such a sweet little girl. I remember what life was like before she was born, and I remember wondering how she would fit into our existing family. It's funny because now I can't imagine what life would be like without her. She is such an important piece in our lives that there would be an Audrey-sized hole in our lives if she were not here with us. There are so many things I love about her, but here are some of the main things that melt my heart:

1. Audrey will melt your heart no matter what she does. It doesn't matter what she is doing--she puts her own flair into the things she does that amaze you and leave you in a puddle of mush on the floor. Like when she takes off her shirt only to the point where the head hole is stuck around the top of her head so that it looks as though her shirt is her new hair. She is then often found prancing around showing off her new hair while flipping it around. It doesn't matter how angry you may be with her at a particular moment because she will just look at you with those big blue eyes and your heart will be hers. Thankfully, she is unaware of this power she has over us because I can definitely see her using it for evil if the situation presents itself. One of my favorite things she does is when she clacks around the tile floor in my heels. Yes, I do get annoyed sometimes at the noise, but it's just so cute how her little feet are swallowed up by my size-10 heels.
   
2. Audrey is super lovable. She is such a bundle of energy and so full of love that you can't help but to fall in love with her. She is ALWAYS willing to give hugs to anyone even if you don't ask for one. I know that after a long day at work, I can always depend on her to make me feel better with an Audrey hug. She just has that way about her that you can't help but to be drawn to her. Another thing she does that just melts my heart is when she calls me "sweetie". She will mimic what I do and how I talk, and then she will talk to me as if our roles had switched and then I am the sweetie. Too cute.
   
3. Audrey is a girlie-girl. She LOVES anything that is deemed "girlie". She is a princess--that is in her own opinion. Audrey will wear a dress everyday if they don't all get dirty first. She will take all her baby dolls everywhere she goes if allowed. Her favorite game to play with Meghan is mommy and baby where Audrey is the mommy most often. She is often found sleeping with her dress-up dresses over her PJ's. She would wear her play heels to daycare if she were allowed to do so. Audrey loves to sit next to me on my bed while I put on my makeup. She likes to play with all my brushes and to "put on" makeup of her own. Audrey got three different types of dress-up clothes for her birthday and couldn't be happier. If only there was a way she could wear everything at once.

Here's some of my favorite pictures of Audrey:

Audrey was born a week early and she was so tiny compared to her sister.

Audrey's first Independence Day Parade. I had too much playing with her to care about the parade.

Audrey's first daycare photo. I just love the look on her face in this picture.

Audrey absolutely LOVED this giraffe costume. She would wear it all day for several days if I let her. She was so upset when she grew out of it.

I adore this picture of Audrey. I took it while on our vacation this past summer. She just looks so grown up here.

Meghan and Audrey will always be the best of friends. It makes me so happy listening to them play together. I hope Audrey knows how lucky she is to have a sister who is her best friend. It's pretty special.

I love my Audrey so much. My birthday prayer for her is that she will continue to grow and learn more about the love God has for each and every one of us. May she continue to be blessed with good health and that she will one day hear God's calling in her life and that she will willingly follow His plan. I love you, Audrey. Happy Birthday, sweetie.

Fastest Isn't Always The Best

One of my favorite activities to do with my students is to give them a particular sentence structure (Adjective, Adjective, Subject Noun, Verb, Adverb, Adverb) and ask them to come up with a certain number of sentences with this structure in the shortest amount of time. I know that to any normal person who doesn't care about grammatical structure in sentences, this might seem like a stupid exercise, but it isn't. I'm not going to go into it too much so as not to bore you non-grammatically minded people.

Anyways, I split the class into small groups and gave the class the labels. I told the class that the group to finish the fastest with all their sentences in this particular structure would get a prize. Well, one group was trying so hard to go so quickly that the quality of their work was compromised...with quite a hilarious result. Take a look for yourself:

I tried to add the part at the bottom where it said that the student who wrote that sentence was trying to write "hungry" instead of what had actually occurred.

Needless to say, I was quite shocked and definitely hunched over laughing to tears. I couldn't contain it. I couldn't even get the words out to share with the kids that I was not laughing at the quality of their work as much as I was laughing at their unintended mistake. Once they discovered what they had said, they too were laughing pretty hard. We didn't discuss much further the remaining questions as that would have been pretty awkward as well as inappropriate.

I'm just wondering one thing: why does it matter how "hung" the hobos were while eating their hamburgers?

There's just some things you should leave alone.