A Mama, a Papa, and a Monkey, Elizabeth's photos cont.

I thought this was a funny photo for some reason:



Now, Mike and I have some great pictures in this set. I know this isn't a photo that maybe a "normal" person would have as a favorite, but being the quirky person that I am, I'm so happy that Elizabeth got us acting like fools. Mike had just insulted my height and I was in the process of taking him out.


Why was he insulting my height? He's standing on the ground and I'm on a little ledge and I'm still not taller than he is. By the way...I had someone ask me today if I was 4'7." Dude. That's 4 inches shorter than I really am. I AM NOT 4'7." Here's a hint...when someone is really small, always guess them taller than they really are. But not crazy stuff. Like, if the dude had said, "you're what, 5 feet tall?" I would have grinned, told him 4'11" and had a really good rest of the day. Gah.


Back to Miss Autumn...I love these pics with the balloons. The colors are just wonderful!


Technology baby...today she was talking on her play phone and saying, "Hallo? Hey. Hey, P'D? Where Papa D? Ahhhh, car? Um. Uh oh. 'Kay. Bye."


The only thing I'd do differently at a big photo shoot like this is make sure that we got family shots early instead of last when Autumn is DONE WITH THIS MESS. lol...look at that hand. Although, it works out because we did get the grandparent shots that we really wanted plus my hair is sooo drastically different now that I doubt I'd use a picture from this early in the year as our Christmas card. :P Elizabeth, if you end up doing any Christmas photo mini-sessions, ring me up!


And we end today with a tired monkey...done with a party. :P The weirdest/coolest thing about this picture of her? Her hair looks exactly like mine did at her age. Mine was redder, which is actually kind of funny. The redheaded filipina kid.

Photos from the party

Elizabeth sent me the cd of photos from Autumn's party last week and I thought I'd post a few more here! She already put a bunch on her blog which you can find here.

The main reason I asked Elizabeth to come out was to get pictures of Autumn with my mom and grandmother. My grandmother is moving back to the Philippines this summer. I have significantly more family there than I have here in the US so, possibly temporarily, they are going to care for my grandmother who is dealing with the effects of dementia. When she returns from the Philippines, my mom is planning to get some things in order that she's had to put off while going through so much...between my dad suddenly passing away, running her business, and my grandma being diagnosed with dementia, life hasn't been easy for her over the past 3 years. So, if you could keep my grandmother, my mom, and my family overseas in your prayers during this transition, I would really appreciate it.

Here's my mom:


And my grandmother...I have to say, I'm hoping I inherited their aging genes. :P I am going to frame this one and the next one for my grandmother.


And all the Williams Ladies...that's my sister Valerie on the end.


It's going to be a long time before Autumn sees her Nanay again, if ever, so I hope these pictures will help her remember! :) Well, help them both remember, really.

A nice side benefit to photos at the birthday party was that we got a few fun ones with her paternal grandparents, too! Autumn looks a little crazy here but paired with the other photo of her with Nanny, Boppa, and Tyler, this is a pretty cute set.


Now four generations of papa's family:


I like this picture--they just all look so happy!


And now, Miss Autumn says that the rest will have to wait until later. Until then!


Next time! Autumn and Tyler and Autumn with her Mama and Papa!

At least she's consistent...

I think we can officially call Autumn potty trained. She's not completely accident-free but today she didn't have any accidents and the last couple of days she's only had one. And she's telling us she has to potty which was the big stickler.

And that part is pretty cool. I think everyone knows Autumn was, along with her late crawling and walking, a late talker. But now she's mimicking like crazy and even starting to use sentences. Today she said things like, "bear potty;" "I potty;" "blanket me peez" and so on. A couple words that crack me up for her are:

shower=showwee
water=wawee

Apparently -er isn't really happening right now but it's so funny that her version of -er is so consistent! I wonder if she'll say computwee for computer...

Anyway, a few photos. This is Autumn sitting in her doll stroller making faces at me while I work:


Hiding behind her doll:


And giving me a sweet smile.

Stylish Monkey Says...

Look at my mama's new hair!


It's short! And red-violet! Papa's a little not used to it but I'm not fazed a bit.


Cause I like to mix things up a little bit from time to time myself. But since I can't dye my hair for a realllllly loooong time, I accessorize.


That's all for now!

Potty Monkeys R Us

I've been asked several times how the potty training is going so I guess it's time for an update. :) Tomorrow will be one week and one week was the amount of time I had given myself to decide if we were going to stick with no diapers or go back to diapers. So what are we going to do?


I think we're sticking with the potty and not going back to diapers. Although she seems to be working on some timing issues (going to the potty before and not during or right after she's wet), she's really only having to change training pants about twice a day. Which, compared to her 10 or 12 times a day last week, is enough progress that I'm cool with sticking to underwear!


Now, I have a couple acquaintances who SWEAR that their two year olds were potty trained in JUST ONE DAY or in JUST ONE WEEKEND (imagine the Sunday Sunday Sunday voice) using some MAGICAL METHOD of AMAZINGNESS but I gotta say, I'm pretty okay with 80% potty trained in 6 days. I mean, after 24.5 months of diapers...I think I'll give her at least 8 days to stop having accidents. AND THEN PUNSIHMENTS BEGIN...


Totally kidding on the punishments, lol! Who could punish this face??


:D Oh and a big THANK YOU to both Miss Michelles for awesome birthday gifts. Yesterday Autumn wore the dress from the Miss Michelle in Memphis and it was the first real outfit we put on her since starting potty training. And, wrapped in the blanket is her Madeleine doll from Miss Michelle in San Diego! Autumn has been carrying it ever since she opened the box! Thank you both. :)


Of course, now that I've written this positive entry, Autumn is totally going to regress and I'll have to eat my words. Ha!

It's that time already!

Guess what we're doing!
Here's a hint:


Potty training! We're on day two and that's her travel potty. :) I've been loading her with juice pops and watermelon but discovered that it goes a *lot* better when we're outside. Happily, the weather cooperates.

We've made some pretty good progress. This photo is from tonight when she told me she had to potty in the middle of dinner. Yay! And yes. The potty is in the living room.


For the most part, Autumn is taking this in stride. The whole potty training thing hasn't really affected her daily play. Like dressing up.


On a completely different note, we had a girls/guys night last Friday. The girls and I did Twilight and sangria here while Mike joined the guys at Cathy and Eric's house. I actually just found out that he didn't do it but Mike initially told us he was going to head over there like this:


Either way. I have the moment saved for posterity.

Oh, yeah. Miss Autumn went to the doctor Friday. She's a healthy monkey with a big heed. Autumn's 22 pounds and 32 inches tall. Interestingly, this puts her in the 15th percentile for height and the 3rd for weight. Her head percentile? 50th. The doctor insists that it's just the charting method--a centimeter more and she'd be in the 75th, a centimenter less and in the 25th. But still. We all know she has a big noggin. Her mama does, too. All my ski gear was extra small. Except my helmet. That was a medium.

of birthdays and birthday gifts

Click here to see a few of the photos Elizabeth Wiggs took at Autumn's birthday party. There's some more great ones that I'll probably post when I get them but she's posted a great sampling.

Also, A Very Monkey Tea Party:


Uncle Brad and Aunt Lauren bought this for Autumn and it's been a huge hit with her! She will sit down and insistently pat the floor saying, "Sit! SIT!" until I sit and then she'll serve me tea, quite properly, for a ridiculously long time. Haha.


She'll also take the tea party on the road. Autumn puts the tea set in her backpack or in her doll stroller or the doll carrier and strolls/carries it around, stopping occasionally for a pretend sip. :D


Funny enough, she likes real tea. I think I've mentioned this before, but we have tea almost every morning together. She's graduated to a cup now, though.