Smiles All Around

This week, Audrey has been doing a lot of smiling. Her whole face lights up when she grins and it is adorable! Unfortunately, we can never seem to capture it on camera. Here are some photos from two attempts at catching a smile...no smile but some cute faces nevertheless! Mom and dad are smiling, too....Audrey has had two nights in a row sleeping from 9 pm until 7-8 am!!

Audrey's New Friends

This week, Meredith and her kids, Aven and Claire, visited us in Chicago. Much to our delight (and embarrassment as I had told Meredith all about Audrey's "fussiness" in the evenings), Audrey was a complete angel for the entire visit. Aven in particular took a shine to Audrey, calling her "the little guy" and teaching her new tricks. According to Aven, he taught Audrey the following "tricks" while he was here:

*How to wave

*How to say "gah"

*How to point her finger like a "gun"

We went to the Field Museum, the Aquarium, Lincoln Park Zoo while they were here so Audrey has had plenty of culture and educational experiences for a 7 week old! Here are pictures from the week. The first is Claire, concentrating on her drawing. The next is Aven is doing his T-Rex imitation...which, of course, made Audrey smile every time! The third is Audrey in her bouncy seat while learning her new tricks from Aven.

By the way, when I dropped them at the airport today, Aven took my face in his hands, looked me straight in the eye and said... "now you take care of the little guy for me". Too precious!

I Love Chicago

Today was a great Chicago day. The weather was perfect and we set off with Audrey in the stroller for the day. She had her first picnic by the lake and her first trip to the zoo. Here are some pictures of her picnic in the park.

Thought this was a cute picture!

Six Weeks Old

Six weeks old and changing every day! Audrey now sleeps (knock on wood) from about 9 or 10 pm until 4 or 5 am and then again until around 8 or 9 am. She stays awake for long periods during the day - she plays, "talks", makes faces and smiles a lot! Every day when Andy gets home from work, he says she has grown since he left in the morning. She loves going for walks and will entertain herself looking at anything she can see from her stroller for hours. We can't wait to see what each new day brings.

Long Weekend

We had a busy week with many new adventures for Audrey (we had hoped this would tire her out and lead to a nice, peaceful weekend...ah, well). Here are some highlights of her week:

*Applied for her first passport (complete with comical photo session at post office)

*Learned to stick her fist in her mouth

*Attended two "stroller bootcamp" sessions with mom (she is a great workout partner)

*Started reacting and attempting to imitate when mom and dad stick their tongues out and make funny faces

*Was caught in a torrential thunderstorm while dining al fresco Friday night

*Slept for 7 hours in a row one night...longest ever!

As she approaches 6 weeks, Audrey is getting to be a handful! We had a long weekend with VERY little sleep for all of the Walkers. We decided to take advantage of all of this "awake" time and snap lots of pictures. Notice only one picture taken between Friday morning and Sunday night features Audrey asleep...and, of course, it is in the swing.