Wednesday, December 28, 2011

18 Months

It has been forever since I did a post like this so I wanted to do one to remember what is going on now that Avery is 1 1/2.  I say this so often but really, where did the time go???  Pretty much EVERYTHING has changed since she was a year old.  She is so much more a little girl than a precious baby but I really love this age so much.  There is just so much more that we can do together.  I wouldn't change a thing.  Here is the latest...

Sleeping-  Avery is sleeping from 8pm to around 7:30ish am.  She also takes one nap from roughly 1:15 to anywhere from 3 to 4.  It just varies per day.  I LOVE uninterrupted sleep at night.  It is so wonderful!

Eating- First thing in the morning, Avery drinks a sippy cup of milk and has some breakfast that usually consists of yogurt, fruit, and sometimes a waffle or toast.  This usually is her least favorite meal of the day and I'm lucky to get much into her belly.  She then has lunch around noon, sippy cup of milk after her nap and a snack, dinner around 6ish, and about 8 oz. of milk before bedtime.  Avery is a slightly picky eater.  I know that it could be way worse but she really knows what she likes and doesn't like.  Favorite foods- Any fruit especially the mixed fruit with cherries, strawberries, watermelon, and peaches, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, yogurt melts, grilled cheese sandwiches, macaroni and cheese, ketchup (yes, she would eat this alone if given the option), and ice.  Dislikes- all potatoes, most meats, new foods, and anything that she has eaten too much of lately.  There is more added to the list but I can't think of them right now!  To get our child to try a new food, we have to literally shove the food in her mouth, she will spit it out, and then decide if she liked the taste well enough to put it back in her mouth. 

Playing- Ave still LOVES books.  She would listen to books being read all day long if given the option.  She also loves tormenting poor Grace, stacking things such as my curlers, sorting things, riding in her car, playing outside, going down slides, going to the park, and so much more.  There really are too many things to list.  She is slightly a dare devil- she loves this huge slide at Bouncin bears that would scare me to death if I were her age.  She also loves to run down the driveway at a very fast speed toward the street all the while laughing as she runs from me!  Ugh! I have not quite figured out how to stop this!  There is so much that entertains her these days which makes my life so much easier!

Talking-  Ave has started talking a bunch lately.  Here are some of the words that she says- Mommy, Daddy, baby, Grace, go, up, please (pees!), thank you (tank u), all done, uh huh, ball, puppy, horse, cheese, juice (duce), milk, bye, and lots of gibberish.  Any word that ends with a y sounds like a question because she says the end so much higher than the rest of the word.  It is going to be so much fun to have conversations with her in the future! 

 Here are some pictures from the past few months-

Look what she found at Grammy and Grandpa's house


She went through a phase where she insisted on feeding herself her yogurt.





Jack's birthday party.  How are they old enough to sit at the table in chairs like this???

It is much more fun to watch Baby Einstein in the car while waiting for our table to be ready at Texas Roadhouse!

This was a new face that she was making.  Not sure what that was about but thankfully she is not making it anymore!

Reading her Bible before bed- melts my heart!

After dinner one night, Avery played with/ tormented Grace in her tent

Another of Ave's favorite hang out spots

Bill and I were just talking today about how great this stage is.  She is such a happy child and is so much fun to play with.  It's awesome to feel like I can talk to her and she can communicate back to me. I can't believe my baby is already a year and a half!  Love you baby girl!

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Santa!!!

Last year, we went to the mall to take Santa shots but since Ave is much more mobile, I decided that I couldn't bear to wait in that line.  Luckily, my parents' neighborhood hosted Santa.

I just knew it was going to be a disaster since Ave is not a huge fan of new people especially ones dressed up in strange clothes.  I figured that if we got a screaming picture then I could just send it in to the Ellen show's Holiday Photo Disaster segment :).  It went about as smoothly as I had imagined.  

Are you kidding me???

This is the point in which Santa instructed me to sit on his other leg which I promptly said "heck no!"  Creepy!

She was having such a great time, can't you tell! 

This was the best we got.  She was still clutching to me for dear life but the sheer terror on her face was mostly gone.

The pictures were taken at the pool/clubhouse by their house.  They had marshmallows for hot chocolate which Avery is now a huge fan of.  She roamed around the place after the pictures and became fascinated with this man wearing reindeer antlers.  Why she was so terrified of Santa but not this man is beyond me!



Avery also tried to go swimming about 20 times while we were there.  I just know that she is going to LOVE the pool next summer!


Is it bad that I like the screaming Santa pictures just as much as sweet smiling ones?

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

It's that time of the year again!

There is nothing that makes me happier than decorating our house with Christmas decorations.  We always decorate on the Friday after Thanksgiving.  We have a very strange tradition of eating takeout from Boston Market, the most random place, on Friday night.  I don't know if it is because it is somewhat like a homecooked meal or what, but we had it one year and it has stuck.  I'm curious to see whether in 20 years, when I am reading over my blog posts from the past, whether we will still be doing this or not.  

Anyway, since I knew that breakable ornaments would not work this year, I went to Hobby Lobby and purchased quite a few unbreakable ones for the bottom.  Avery loved to help decorate by passing us the ornaments.


After she got bored, she decided that standing on the boxes of my nativity scene was far more exciting!

She had pants on at one point in the night but Bill did a diaper change and decided she would be more comfortable this way!

I didn't take a lot of pictures that night but I caught up later on in the weekend when we made a gingerbread house.  We used to make gingerbread houses at school when I taught and I always looked forward to that day.  I want to have a tradition of making one every year.  I realize that Avery might still be a little young but we decided to give it a try.

Checking out the frosting

About every other MnM went into her mouth

Working so hard!

I had to give her a snack so that she wouldn't be tempted to eat all of the materials





She loved the marshmallows

The finished product- those special marshmallow on the roof were Ave's idea!

In  addition to the usual decor, I bought some cheap stick on trees and presents for Avery to play with.

These are the trees that I place too high for Avery to touch.  The presents placed lower were destroyed in record time.

This is what Ave decided to do with them.

 I saw an idea to make a felt tree with ornaments on Pinterest for Avery to play with.  She loves the ornaments on our tree and I have even found a couple of them lying in her bedroom so I thought that maybe she should have her own tree.  

The tree without ornaments on 

Figuring it out

And, success!  She loves it!

She even decided to decorate Grace with some.  Notice a trend?

And voila- hours of fun for Ave!

Here are a few more pictures that I have taken over the past few days-

Even though she has her own tree, she still likes to check out the real deal



Best night ever- fire going and Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown

I do not ever let Grace on the couch but I thought this was too cute!


I can't believe it is already December.  Where has the time gone?