(Note to self: Todd, you're on a computer, why not use it to double check the date)

Audrey and Brylen both worked the room, knocking fists with all the old folks. Here she is getting a good one in with her pal Lynn. Audrey must have said "bye-bye, Lynn" on our drive home about a hundred times.

Even after Brylen took off to bed, Amber still gets stuck looking after a kid!

Sometimes it's pretty easy to tell when it's time to go. Hopefully we won't until Audrey is an adult for us all to hang out together again!

Here's a shot of the kids back in 1989(!) and one from last night.

Sorry, Mike, 4 out of 5 was the best combination I could find...if it's any consolation, I'm barely in it as well.

This is still my favorite sign.

Audrey was enthralled with the pigs.

The adorable little Griffin.

Audrey has only been around Mac a few times, though she talks about him often. She warmed up pretty well to him today considering her general fear of dogs.

Eventually she even gave him some pets.

Kieran, our hero.

A few weeks ago Audrey went through a little phase where she was completely uncooperative for about three days in a row. She would refuse get dressed in the morning, it took fifteen minutes just to wrangle her into a diaper change and really in general didn't want to do anything that I wanted to. Since then she has been back to her usual joy to be around, probably even more so.

This month's new favorite things are counting to ten but always skipping five, spelling her last name but only with one "l", constantly dancing, playing in the curtains and climbing. On everything. Today she tried to climb into her crib and I had to lift her off of the coffee table twice.

Oh, and she can get out of the front screen door, which unfortunately does not lock, all on her own.

Mama was struck with a brilliant idea today, so we packed up the girl and headed out for some paddle boating! Audrey was guarded at first, but soon relaxed and had fun saying hello to all the ducks while her Dada pedaled around the Riverwalk. Throw in some frozen yogurt from the top rated place in Chicagoland (according to Chicago magazine, at least) and you pretty much have the perfect summer evening.

Today is national cheesecake day and Audrey, Susan and I took a trip out to get some super cheap cheesecake.

Todd came home with a comic book for Audrey tonight. She was so excited about it she couldn't wait to get upstairs to thumb through it, even though she thinks that Spiderman is Batman.

Audrey's little pool came out today for the first time this summer and she splashed around for a while. Then Audrey joined our four year old neighbor Katherine as she ran through her sprinkler.

Audrey received a book from her great aunt Kim and uncle Bob that we read almost every night before bed that spells out her name. I know she only did this by memory and doesn't understand, but this afternoon she spelled her name all on her own unprompted out of the blue!

Audrey kept taking her shoe off and Emma was awfully sweet and help her get it back on.

Yesterday Audrey's favorite friend Susan came over for a visit. It wouldn't be a visit from Susan without some knitting (she showed me how to purl!). Audrey got to have a yarn bow in her hair.

All morning we had been talking about seeing the snakes and gators. She was also excited to see ducks and swans.

The girl actually will sing this on her own, but as soon as the camera is out she clams up and wants to see pictures of "babies" (read: pictures of herself)