Audrey's First Parade

Audrey's first parade was Jay County's homecoming parade on Friday, October 4th.  It was a wonderful day for a parade...warm, sunny, and with just a little breeze.  It was Audrey's first time out to Grandma and Grandpa Knittle's house as well as to Mommy's work (we went in to see Daddy and help him straighten the classroom up a little bit).  Uncle Nick was in the parade driving a tractor, too!  We usually get lots of candy at the parade since Kyle and I know a lot of the high school students who throw the stuff, but I think Audrey kind of got us more attention than usual:

Grandma Knittle and Audrey in front of the marching band.

With Mama.

With Daddy.  Wow, is it sunny!

Grandpa Knittle came up with a solution for that!

Collecting candy!

We also got to see the great-grandparents!

Afterward, we all had dinner together.  It was a really great day!

Bathtime!

Audrey's umbilical cord FINALLY fell off late at night on Wednesday, October 2nd (the same day we took newborn pictures...pushing it much?).  We were so excited because it felt like it would NEVER come off!  Nowadays, doctors and nurses tell new parents not to do anything to the umbilical cord (like put alcohol on it, rub it, etc.) and that it'll fall off on its own.  True, but I feel like when I talked to those people who have older kids and were advised to do something specific to care for the umbilical cord, their kids' cords fell off faster...

Anyway, we were super excited to give Audrey a real bath, because she wasn't allowed to be fully submersed in water until after the cord fell off.  I know she's a baby and doesn't know any different, but I would hate to go several weeks without bathing, so we were pretty antsy to get her into her little baby tub.  Since the cord fell off so late at night, we planned to give her a bath the next day right before bed, hoping it would settle her some and help prepare her for sleep.

And after three different bath days, we realize now that Audrey doesn't get relaxed after taking a bath...she gets excited and wants to be awake!  No matter how soothing we try to make the bath experience, at this point she just becomes so alert!

Audrey's first bath was a little rough for us since we had never bathed a newborn before.  Babies are so slippery!  Even though we didn't fill the tub very full and it's too narrow for her to slump over into the water, I still worry that Audrey will slip under the water.  Kyle is in charge of holding Audrey while I scrub her down, and this arrangement has worked very well so far (especially since if she decides to pee in the tub, she does it on Kyle!).  She's only peed in the bathtub once so far, and Kyle didn't realize it was happening until it got all over him.  Poor guy.  She also pooped right as soon as we stuck her in the bathtub the first time, so we had to pull the poor girl out and start new water!

First bath...she didn't want to get out of the warm water!

Now that we're a little better about deciding how to bathe and we have a system, she's much happier after baths!

Kyle also likes to give Audrey mohawks, combovers, and other weird hairstyles when her hair is wet.  He told me this is an imitation of how he styles his hair.  Sadly, he held her until her hair dried and it stayed this way until the next bath a few days later!