Who ever thought a little person could be so amazing? Audrey turns 18 months next Monday and she surprises me every single day. Its like she wakes up in the morning and understands more, does more, listens more. Heck, she even looks different, like her hair grew an inch during her sleep. I kid you not not, pants she wore just a week ago are now too short. She is literally growing before my eyes.

Friends with kids younger than Audrey have asked me when did she (fill in the blank) and I honestly have no idea. I barely remember the days when she wasn't running around. Everything seems to be a blur so I'm thankful once again for this blog. I can document her milestones and remember what she was doing at 18 months. So here we go, Audrey in a nutshell:

She loves puzzles. We do them over and over and over again. They say being a cytogeneticist is like putting a puzzle together, a puzzle of chromosomes, so I wonder if she inherited this from me?

She loves books, especially her Goodnight Aggieland (thanks Aunt Suzanne!) and her Goodnight Houston (thanks Grumma J!). We read these probably 5 times a day. Her love of books is apparent when she sits on my lap, sometimes for 30 or 45 straight minutes (eternity in toddler life) and we read book after book. This makes me happy to no end.

Her words now include baby, Gaga (you would be proud, Mom!), milk and onion (odd).

Her favorite food is still cheese and I have to literally hide the cheese in the fridge because once she sees it, game over.

She listens! If I ask her to get her shoes and mittens, she runs off and minutes later appears with them, matching may I add. I guess I have a few more years until this listening thing is nonexistent?

She loves to be outside, and thankfully we have a sweet new coat during these cold winter months (thanks Mrs. Bolton!)

She is a little joker. She loves to hide and then pop out and scare me. She places things in the most random spots, as seen here:

And I know all parents must think their kids are the smartest ones out there, but I was so taken aback the other day by Audrey's attention to detail. We were reading a book we haven't read in weeks and as I turned the page, there was a very tiny spider in the corner of the book (not real, part of the book). She shrieked and immediately started doing the itsy bitsy spider song with her hands. I've never shown her a picture of a spider before (not the cutest creatures) and probably smothered her with 500 hundred kisses I was so proud.

So while she isn't 18 months quite yet, I wanted to write this post beforehand because her and I leave for Texas today for the next 6 days. I'm ecstatic to see family and friends and spend some time at home, although we will both miss Nick terribly.

I promise to post pictures once we get back, so check back then!