We have been a busy family the past few weeks. We've got updates on swim lessons, doctor appointments, tee-teeing in the potty and maybe even more!

Aubrey has been taking swim lessons the past 2 weeks - every day at the Y. It's been fun, but I'm glad that they are over! Thank goodness Mark chipped in and took her a few times - it did me in at the end of every day. She is a total fish and did everything she was supposed to, except go underwater. I think she was intrigued by the thought of it, but didn't want to do it when it was actually time. She does much better with Mark too. She seems more comfortable with him in the water. I do wish I would have brought my video camera or digital camera to get some pics of it. We'll just have to do it when we are over at Mom and Dad's sometime soon.

Aubrey also had her 2 year appointment last week. She's still in the 95th percentile for weight and actually off the charts in height. Apparently you are supposed to double their height at age 2 and it will tell you how tall she will be as an adult. If that's true, she'll be 6'2"!!!! Wow! I'm sure she won't be that tall, but it would be cool if she was 5'9 or 5'10. Dr. told me not to worry about the fact that she eats ketchup sandwiches either - because she's obviously healthy so I try not to be too concerned with it. But no matter if she is having a hamburger (a 'hangaburger' according to her) or a hot dog, the meat comes off and she eats the bread and ketchup. She doesn't like lunch meat, chicken nuggets and only the 'j' on the 'pb&j'. She will eat fish sticks (gross!). So I'm reminded of my sister when we were growing up who used to love to eat at Long John Silvers ( 'Sun Song Silvers ' according to Courtney) where I will NOT go. I guess I will be ordering her the Filet o' Fish at McDonald's from now on......We were also proud that she was such a smart girl. I asked the dr. what his views on potty training were and he basically said that as long as she goes to kindergarten without pull ups then she'll be fine. My dr. is awesome! And he also said that probably because she is such a smartie pants that she won't be interested in the potty for awhile because she's too interested in other stuff and to not be surprised if she waited a little later to be interested. Which is fine with me - she could care less about the potty.

until..... 2 days after her dr. appt.......she tee-tee'd in her little potty - I think even by accident and she wasn't sure whether to be a little scared of it or a little happy about it. So, we had a big ol' jumpin' up and down potty party - Thank God there are no hidden cameras in my house - because the excitement created around the tee-tee still makes me laugh. Mark and I still snicker every night when she wants us to read the book about 'My Big Girl Potty'. How are we parents and still so immature? She's gone a couple times a day every day for the past week so we are beginning to make progress. However, I'm dragging my heels on it a little bit, because it's a LOT harder than just changing a diaper. So many more steps to it and half the time I forget a step so we are not all that consistent yet. But, she's still excited about it and now she's teaching her 2 baby dolls (which are NEVER dressed anymore for some reason) how to potty also. Plus, does she need to be so big already? We have left just about every state of babyhood behind and I'm so sad about it. It all went so fast!!!!

I had my dr. appt. this week and all is well. I've gained 16 lbs so far - 2 less than with Aubrey and I'm measuring normal so I was happy about that. I can't breathe so good anymore and my legs go numb when I lay down. Doesn't that sound like fun? I'm getting some good massages from Mark though, so that's a plus! I go back the middle of July and then I start going every 2 weeks. We are in the home stretch and I couldn't be happier. I have been loving all the little babies around here and it's time for another one to be in this house. We do have lots to do to be ready and I think I had it all together by this time when I was pregnant with Aubrey so we need to get on it. However, I prefer to nap when Aubrey is napping and I've thrown out feeling guilty about that. The house is starting to slowly go to the pits because of it, but that's fine with me. I don't think I'll have it all together again until my kids are grown.

I'm heading to the bath right now and off to bed early, I hope!

We returned from our vacation in California on Wednesday night. Totally relaxing vacation - we had no real agenda - just a few things we wanted to see. We enjoyed San Francisco for the day we were there, but it was some HARD walking! It would be fun to go back when we have more time and we are in better shape! We realized we were taking this trip a little too easy when we went to rent the car to drive to Carmel and realized we had no idea how to get there! We got minimal directions and headed on our way. Stopped off in Palo Alto on the way to pick up an actual map at the bookstore - cool little town - so we detoured and saw a little bit of the Stanford campus. Also, stopped off in Monterrey to see the aquarium and did a little bit of the 17 mile drive around Pebble Beach. Got to our hotel late in the afternoon and didn't leave it until the next day! We shared some champagne (just a little bit for me!) on our balcony in the jacuzzi and warmed up by the fire in our bedroom afterwards. In the morning, we had breakfast (room service!) and then both got an 80 minute massage (in our room) by the fire. Total rock stars! The rest of the vacation was spent eating, sight seeing and reading our books. I read an entire book on the trip. It was 'Shopaholic Ties the Knot' so don't be too impressed! We were happy to get home to see Aubrey. We did get to go First Class home and I've never done that before. I know I'm a total dork, but we got hot fudge sundaes and they were so good! It was that Seinfeld episode if you've ever seen it. Anyway.....5 days was the perfect amount of time to be away. We were really missing her while we were gone. She totally enjoyed hanging out with Noni and Papa D and then Court, Tom and Madi. We called her every day and she was happy to talk to us and share what she was doing. She sounded so big on the phone - I let her talk to other people on the phone, but this was the first time I heard her voice over the phone and she's just so big already!

We came home and are now back in the full groove of life. Laundry is piling up, we have no groceries, the house is a mess, Aubrey is learning how to be completely defiant! We are definitely home!!!

We did get up and go to church on Sunday and we were so tired from the night before. We had gone to see Beth Wood at Sons of Herman Hall. It was her new CD release party - which is awesome! She was so great, but I didn't realize we were out until 1 am. 1 am? Who ARE we? Up at 8 and off to church on Sunday morning. We pushed Aubrey into her Sunday school room (which she's only been to 1 other time) without so much a hello to anyone and we were off to church. About halfway through I was thinking I should have said, 'Hi, this is Aubrey' when I dropped her off since there were no name tags for me to put on her. When we went to pick her up, I said, 'Hey Aubrey, time to go' and I see the teacher's face kind of grimace a little bit. She says, 'I'm so sorry but we didn't know her name and just guessed off the class list. We've been calling her Camille all morning'. OOPS.....there she was with a big ol' name tag that said Camille. The teacher said they asked her if her name was Camille and she said yes! So as we were walking out they tell us that there is a cute craft out there for us to take home, but it has Camille on it. Now we have a piece of paper with her handprints on it that says, Happy Father's Day......... Camille.

10 year anniversary was on May 29th. Got a beautiful bouquet of flowers delivered that morning and they still look great! I had to take a picture of them and need to send it out so others can see how great they are. Aubrey and I have enjoyed them for the week. Made Mark a photo album with a picture of us from each year. It was fun to go back and journal all the fun things we did each year, though the past few years have had fewer and fewer activities listed. Once we had Aubrey, she has pretty much been our life, but that is the way it is supposed to be! In fact, we were out to dinner with the Zemlers the other night and a friend called to tell us about this band playing in Deep Ellum. We were very tempted to give up the plan to see the "Matrix Reloaded", but when we called the bar to confirm, we found out the band was playing the next night. As we were considering whether to get a babysitter for Sat. night, they said the band would take the stage at 10:30 pm. Immediately, the entire carload of us shouts, ' Oh we are OUT!' In previous lives, that would not have been an issue, but 10:30 now is just about bedtime around here! It's hard to recognize your place in life sometimes, but I think I know now that we are not the ones packing the bars in Deep Ellum on the weekends and we can't shop in the Juniors section of Foley's anymore!

Mark and I are heading to California on Saturday. A day in San Francisco and a couple of days in Carmel. It will be a great time to just enjoy the 2 of us together. I wonder if we'll have anything to talk about????? : ) Aubrey will be staying part of the time with Noni and Papa D and part of the time with Court, Tom and Madi. She will have a blast so it will be even more fun for us to go and enjoy it. And as much as I love that sweet little girl and smother her with kisses every day - it's those moments like today when you are in Target fighting with her to just STAY IN THE CART - no please don't pull out ALL the Father's Day cards - come BACK HERE NOW and QUIT dropping your juice cup that you count the hours that you will be away from her for 5 whole days!!!!