Self-awareness

Today is the first day that Azure has noticed her hemangioma. At 27.5 months. She was looking at herself in the mirror, pointed to it and said, "Mommy, what's that?"
"That on your labio (lip)?"
"Yeah."
"It's called a strawberry."
"Is it so yummy?"
"Yes, sweetie, it's so yummy."

Lovin' Life

I love Azure's sweet blonde ringlets, that she inherited from me :) Take a closer look at them...
Responding appropriately to "cheese".

Azure likes to line up her babies in a row and help them "go sleepy".
And here she is dancing at the Jazz Festival on Thursday.
My best friends Catherine and Evelyn came to visit this week. I wasn't the only one who adored their company. Azure completely fell in love with them- probably because they gave her way more attention than I do and complied with her every whim. She bawled when they left. We all anxiously await their return.

What's been going on...

Azure has been a real treat the last few weeks. Her verbal skills (vocab and articulation) are getting even better. Sometimes she says "yetters" instead of "letters". I made it a point to teach her to pronounce the "L" and now when she says it, she exaggerates the "L" sound and tries to make eye contact with me when she says it, as if to say, "See? I'm saying it right now."

She has also impressed me by knowing almost all of the lyrics to "I am a Child of God", all 3 verses I might add. And "I Love to See the Temple". I'm impressed.

Charles has been getting her up in the mornings before he leaves for class. She likes to jump in bed with me and roll and jump around. I tell her to "be careful with baby Vince in mommy's tummy." Apparently I tell her that a lot. On Saturday, somehow either I or she hit her own tummy. As she clutched her tummy she said, "Hurt my baby Vince."
"You hurt your tummy?"
"Yes. Hurt my tummy and baby Vince."

She continued to hold her stomach as I buckled her into the carseat. I heard her whisper, "It's okay Vince." She will be such a sweet big sister!
She looks forward to our weekly football games. Every Saturday she wears her BYU Cougar shirt and talks about "Cougar football games," and says, "Cougar time!" Once last week in our bedtime prayer she thanked Heavenly Father for "cougar football". Charles and I couldn't help but, open our eyes and laugh!

She also looks forward to going to church every Sunday. We only live about 1/2 a mile from our church building, so we frequently pass it while running other errands. She always yells out, "Church! Nursery!" when we see it. After sacrament meeting on Sundays, as if on cue with the post-lude music, she says, "Nursery!" She sometimes even cries when we come to pick her up from nursery, though she's been in there for 2 hrs. I hope she's always this excited to go to church :)

A real post coming soon...

In the meantime please enjoy the recently added quotes to our quote wall on the right.

Baby Vince

All of you who voted boy were...........................................RIGHT!

Of course I cried throughout the entire ultrasound. As soon as I saw the cute little face, and arms, and legs, I just knew it was Vince. His name will be Vincenzo, named after my great grandfather who died in a fire saving my grandmother's life. (That's who the Generations Project episode is about). We'll just call him Vince for short. His middle name is still being debated.
We took Azure and she was riveted the whole time, just staring at my tummy covered in "lotion" and at the screen watching her baby brother. Now, that we know it's a boy Azure is referring to him as "Baby Vince". It's so cute to hear :)

I had a feeling it was a boy and have had that in mind for quite some time now so, I'm glad my "motherly instinct" was right. Though I wouldn't have minded if it were a girl again either. But now, we can rest assured that we will at least have one of each. We are grateful for another miracle to add to our family.

Swimming Time

Azure loved her swimming lessons she took back in January. But, since we didn't go swimming again until March, she became somewhat afraid of trying to swim on her own after that and even after all summer of swimming, she still is a bit hesitant to actually kick her legs and swim where she can't touch.
Here's where positive peer pressure pays off. Her new friend Isabella came over to swim with us last Friday and Azure watched her swim all by herself in the middle of the pool without her mom (with floaties of course). After some initial whining and fright, she too, ventured out without me.

We had a great time watching BYU's miraculous win against Oklahoma (the 2nd half at least). Azure was excited to don her cougar shirt and watch "cougar football".
I love the bent knee in this pic, such a poser! Definitely her mother's child :)

Isn't she darling?!

How I wonder what you are...

Here's Azure singing one of her favorite non-church songs. She sleeps with a sound machine at night, mostly so that if we watch a movie or have friends over after she goes to bed, we won't wake her up. There are nature sounds and some lullabies on it, but the only song she insists on it playing is Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.

This video is one of the longest I've ever posted, but the end truly is the best. So, if you get bored of it, at least skip to the end so you can watch her moves as she plays!