Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Beach Vacation-Days 1 through 3

We are having a Blast! Playing in the ocean, digging in the sand, splashing in the pool, shopping.....SO MUCH FUN! Avery is loving everything about this place! Here are some pictures from the first 3 days here...


WARNING: There are way too many cute pictures so I'm posting A LOT! Grab a margarita, kick up your feet and ENJOY!























Saturday, June 28, 2008

Heading to the beach

We're off to the beach for a week!

Monday, June 09, 2008

Our weekend



Mimi and Abuelo came into town for the weekend. I think they had a great time with Avery. Avery did great minus Saturday night dinner. Not sure what happened but she was just NOT in the mood to eat at Outback and I ended up getting my food to go and taking her home and putting her to bed. So out of the norm for her as she is usually so happy and well-behaved. She just looked exhausted even though she had had 2 great naps so who knows. All was well the next morning, though. I was so proud that she walked into her room at the church nursery and did not cry one bit! Whew! Usually she screams for a minute or 2 after we leave, but not yesterday. They said she just whined every now and then asking about us but other than that was happy!

I had to stay and keep nursery for the 1030a service so Louis and Abuelo took Avery home for her morning nap. I think Abuelo finally got some love from her before he had to leave so I know that made him happy.

Last night we had our LifeGroup over for an "end-of-the-season" dinner. The group had decided on having Salsarita's catered in instead of our usual potluck. It was kinda nice not having to cook for a change. We had a great time. The kids played well together and Avery went to bed without a problem. She is such a good sleeper.....7:30 rolls around and she's down for the count no matter what's going on in the rest of the house! After we put Avery to bed we played a couple games and just had some good fellowship with each other. I love being a part of this group....it has been such a blessing! I've got some pictures, but am hesitant to put pictures of other people's children on the blog without permission so I'll hold off for now.



Tomorrow Avery and I will go over to Amanda's and keep Andrew for a while. Avery and Andrew are 3 months apart in age and it is fun to see them interact. And, I'm glad that I can help such a good friend out b/c I can't imagine not having family in the area to watch Avery.

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Into Everything...

literally.

Anything that can be climbed into, will be climbed into.

Her drawer in the kitchen...

Her toy box.....


Her book "basket"....


My old cradle that now holds her stuffed animals....

Probably her favorite to get in and out of.......her old Bumbo!


Her language is really starting to explode. Her current words:
* Mama
* Dada
* Papa
* nana (banana)
* mimi (milk, sorry Mimi!)
* baba (this one is tough....it can mean ball, bow, sheep, book, or byebye....have to use context to figure it out)
* nightnight (her lovey)
* shoes
* frof (frog...one of her cribmates)
* bear
* dis (this?)
* dat (that?)
* meow meow (Bailey's new name apparently)
* bub bub (bubbles)
* ishhhh (fish)
She uses signs for eat, more, please, and cup. Her cup sign is unique to her, though. Not sure how what I signed turned into what she signs for that one but she gets her point across and that's what matters!

She is still riding rearfacing in the car at 17 months old and will be until she is atleast 2 years old. It is just SO much safer!


She has started blowing kisses and waving bye to us as we put her into her crib now. Crazy child! Another funny thing she does is she has started saying "shhhhew" and pulling at her clothes when she has a stinky diaper. Just this morning she did this but the diaper was just wet. I changed her anyway and not 2 min afterwards she did the "shhhew" again and sure enough she had pooped. So I guess she was telling me she was going to the first time. Smart kid, huh?


In other news....I may start watching a 4 month old for a couple months soon. His mommy is looking for a job and once she finds one I'll start watching him until Aug or Sept when his grandma is able to. Should be fun!

I'll end this long overdue rambling post with some summertime fun pictures! Enjoy! Leave a comment, too.....maybe if I realize people actually read my blog I'll actually start updating more!










Sunday, March 23, 2008

Easter 2008

We headed down to spend Easter with Mimi and Abuelo in Mt. Pleasant this year. We stopped in Summerville on the way down for lunch with Mimi, Aunt Suz and Bryan. It just so happened that Clemson was playing in the NCAA tournament that night so I had dressed Avery accordingly. I guess Mimi and Susan had the same idea.....



And she's off!


Somehow we talked Abuelo into letting the "kids" pick out a new TV before the Clemson game as the old one was on the fritz. So we headed to Circuit City and picked up a new 50 inch plasma! So much more fun to shop when it's not your money being spent! Haha! Uncle Alan came down late Friday night and on Saturday he bought Rockband. Now, Rockband is similar to Guitar Hero except there is a guitar, drums and a mic. Oh my it was hilarious! I must say that I think I'm a natural on the drums!

Here's a cool picture of 4 generations of hands. (Avery, Daddy, Mimi and Granny)



Went to church EARLY Sunday morning, home for a nap, then to a brunch. The food was wonderful, but Avery was not in the mood apparently b/c she was not a happy camper. I'm guessing it is because it was a beautiful day and we were sitting at a table outside and she didn't like not being able to run around. So, Louis took her to play in the grass and when I finished eating I took over so he could eat. Normally we would not have let her act out and then get her way, but since it was Easter and it was not just Louis and I whose meal was being affected by her crankiness we had to do what was in the best interest of the group. Other than her crankiness at lunch she did great! She still doesn't really like others to hold her, but heck.....she doesn't even like me to hold her! She's got things to do and places to go!!

The Easter Bunny brought Avery lots of goodies. She had a Boz DVD, touch and feel animal flashcards, a new book, a new hairbow, bubbles and a few plastic eggs with animal cookies inside. Here are some pictures from Easter......the rabbit is Rufus (Uncle Alan's pet). Enjoy!

Monday, March 17, 2008

Craft time!

Friday night, my mom (Grandma) came over and we had some fun with arts and crafts! We started on a few new hairbows for Avery, but our main project was this.....







It's hung on the inside of Avery's closet door since it does not match her room. I think it turned out great! Now we have room for all the new hairbows we're making!

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Ladies and Gentleman....

We have a new word!

"nana" = banana

(and she LOVES her "nana"!!)

2 P's

....Park and Playdate that is!


I decided I wanted to take Avery to the park f0r the first time Tuesday so I called up some other Mommy friends and was able to make a playdate with Andrew and his mommy Amanda at the park. I spent most of my time following Avery around as she was having a blast exploring. Most of my pictures look like this as a result....




Asked her to stop and look at Mommy.....

How dare I slow her down!


....and she's off again!


We went down the slide a few times but other than that we pretty much just walked and walked and walked around. She loves being outside and prefers to walk/run around rather than swing for now. I'm sure the new will wear off of walking outside and she'll be back to loving her swing soon!


After the park we headed back to Andrew's house to hang out while Amanda ran some errands. I put Avery down for her nap in their pack-n-play and she went right to sleep. (We had brought along her noise machine) Of course, Avery slept the entire time Amanda was gone so it was just me and Andrew hanging out. (Andrew is about 3 months younger than Avery) She woke up about 5 min before Amanda got back so we let the kids play for a bit then headed to Target for some shopping. The guys met us for dinner and my diet was broken REALLY good by some YUMMY Mexican! I couldn't resist.


It was a long, busy, but fun day!

Little Tiger

On Sunday we took Avery to her first Clemson basketball game. She did great and really seemed to enjoy it! I was a bit worried b/c naptime is normally around 2pm and the game didn't start until 1:30pm but she did great! She was fascinated by all the sights and sounds and would clap and dance to Tiger Rag. We've trained her well!













Avery and I left the game at halftime and headed back to Gville. She slept about 30 min in the car and that was the extent of her afternoon nap. Oh my. Since she was awake by the time we got to Greenville we made a pitstop at Ulta and then headed home. I decided to put her in her crib to see if she would sleep anymore. Well, our child LOVES....and I mean LOVES her crib. She never did go back to sleep but happily (and mostly quietly other than some talking with night night bear) stayed in the crib for an hour. I figured quiet time was better than nothing!


That night we were having our Lifegroup end-of-the-season dinner so Avery and I went to that. Louis had to stay for a baby shower after the Clemson game so he didn't get to go. Avery did so great going on such little sleep. We pretty much had to eat and run, though to get her to bed but it was still a great time of fellowship!

Mimi had come up to visit Saturday from Mt. Pleasant. Uncle Alan came from Rock Hill to visit. Aunt Suz and Bryan came from Easley to visit. Avery had a fun-filled family weekend! Mom and Dad had a great time, too!

Monday, March 03, 2008

The Resurrection of our blog

So, obviously the blog took a backseat for quite a while. BUT....it's back now and better than ever! Instead of going back and trying to "catch up" let's just suffice it to say that instead of a passive, quiet baby....






I now have a running, rambling toddler!






AND I LOVE IT!!!

So what's going on with Avery now? Well, she's still a great eater. She has 12 teeth.....maybe more than that but checking without getting bit is pretty difficult now! Still a great sleeper. 12 hours at night and currently a short morning nap and long afternoon nap. I wake her from her morning nap after 45 minutes so that she will take a long afternoon nap. I follow her cues as to when I need to tweak her schedule and it's been working great! I'm nervous about the 2 to 1 nap transition, though. I hope she keeps 2 naps for a long time!

She's talking a LOT! Mostly gibberish but it is non-stop. She does say mama and dada and "nie nie" (for her night night bear). Everything else is anybody's guess.

Since moving Avery into her convertible car seat at 8 months old I've become quite obsessive about child passenger safety. Avery is still rear-facing at 14 months old and will continue to be until she is at least 2 years old. I found a wonderful message board and have learned so much on the topic of extended rear facing. I encourage everyone to check out http://www.car-seat.org/ for tons of information regarding child passenger safety.

I'll finish this post with some pictures of Avery's first set of pigtails (or alien antennae as I call them). She just gets cuter every day! I wouldn't change a thing or go back in time b/c every single day her personality grows and she just becomes so much more fun!