Picking your battles

I have chosen not to fight the wardrobe battle obviously. I put Audrey down for nap in a perfectly respectable shirt and skirt and when she woke up she was wearing this.





I have to give her props for wrestling those tights on without assistance.

She got lots of looks at Sam's this afternoon and one sweet lady said, "Don't you wish you could hold up a sign that says 'She dresses herself'?"

nyc trip--part 2

After the zoo we did some shopping. Here's the standard big piano pic from FAO Schwarz.


Here's an action walking shot. Everytime we saw people crossing the street Audrey said, "Wow! Those people in the street are really brave!"

We grabbed a quick lunch at Speedy's and met Sarah who had just returned from a trip to London. I'm sure she was exhausted but she was a real trooper! She took us to SweetiePie, an adorable restaurant in Greenwich Village that she read about on Alston's blog. Audrey was enthralled. She summed it up pretty nicely, "Ooh, this place is so lovely and pretty and pinkish!"

These cupcakes tasted as good as they looked: strawberry lemon mousse and peanut butter chocolate.

Our super sweet waiter who had the major hots for Crystal



There were lots of "cheers" during our meal here.

We said goodbye to Crystal who had to go back to work. Here's the last shots of the BFFs in Penn Station. Yes, Crystal stole electricity to charge her Blackberry nearly every place we went.

On Sunday we weren't able to make our morning flight back for Kalan's shower. We were really sad about that. But in the end it turned out great because the weather was best on Sunday and we got to spend a little longer with Sarah.

We slept in Sunday and shopped in Union Square then ate a great lunch at Max Brenner's. So fun. I love this little hug mug.

We headed down to Battery Park to see the Statue of Liberty and Audrey actually got to pet and touch these snakes! Sorry for the random picture, I didn't have my camera.

nyc trip--part 1

Last week after an amazing banquet, Audrey and I hopped on a plane to NYC to see Sarah and Crystal and cheer on our Baylor Bears at the NIT Championship! (Yay for flight benefits!) We had such a great Mommy/daughter trip. Audrey behaved wonderfully and we really enjoyed one another. Josh was so excited for us he packed Audrey a special backpack for the plane with crayons, books, NYC-themed movies (Muppets Take Manhattan, Enchanted, etc.) and even got up at 6 am to send us off with donuts!

Thursday we arrived about 5 minutes before the game at Madison Square Garden. Audrey wore her Baylor cheerleader uniform and attracted lots of (postive and negative) attention. Those Big Ten fans are psycho intense. Audrey dictated the players' names and asked me to write them on a notepad and she held up this little sign for the whole game. It was really cute.

At one point in the game they showed JoePa on the JumboTron and the whole place went crazy.

We lost the game and some of the Penn State fans were not so nice. Some kids threw a cup at her and said, "Baylor Sucks!" and some drunk college students told her, "go home and change! Your team lost!" Seriously! To a four year old! Josh has always liked Penn State but after this he said No way.

Friday it rained most of the day so we hit the Children's Museum of Manhattan. It was neat and Audrey had a great time. It made me realize how nice our Mayborn Museum is. The quality is very comparable! We also went to Toys R Us in Times Square and rode the ferris wheel, and then bought tickets for Mary Poppins on Broadway. Mary Poppins was so good!

I loved it, even more than Lion King. I didn't realize until it started that Audrey thought we were going to the movies. When it started she leaned over and whispered, "Hey Mom! This is a really real movie!" Then the intermission came kind of suddenly and Audrey cried, "No! Please! I want more Mary Poppins!" After the show she actually got to meet one of the actors, Ruth Gottschall who plays Miss Andrew. She shook her hand and said, "You did a really good job." Here is Miss Andrew giving Michael his brimstone, treacle, and cod liver oil.

Saturday we met Crystal at the Central Park Zoo because Audrey wanted to see where the animals from Madagascar are from. Imagine her disappointment when we found out this teeny-tiny zoo didn't have giraffes, zebras, lions or hippos. She did immediately recognize the Delacorte Clock which I guess is in the movie (I haven't seen it).

Here's my Itsy-Bitsy Spider:

And the bunnies.

Terrible twos meet Clark

Our lil' man turns two tomorrow. Doubt we'd be able to do a blog post on a Friday night so here it goes. He's done a complete 180 from last year's birthday post. Apparently last year he was a sweet, calm, unassuming little boy. I have no recollection whatsoever of those days. Don't get me wrong. This lil guy will give you some of the sweetest snuggling that you could ever have, but if you aren't careful it might be followed by a punch in the face followed closely by laughter. The expression boys will be boys fits this lil guy perfect. I can't tell you how happy it made me last week when he brought me his baseball glove, my baseball glove, and a ball. For everyday the past two weeks he's carried his Chuck E Cheese tokens around and begged to go "shoot ball chuck cheese." Tonight we indulged him. Here's some pics of my son who brings us immense joy.