Um...

Avery seems to think that all sleeveless shirts belong off the shoulder. One day I caught her playing outside with the shirt hanging out around her waist. I informed her that as long as she lived in our house, she wouldn't be dressing like that, and I pray that she never attempts it when she's out of the house either.

Little Miss Houdini appeared again at lunch today:

Oh, hi. Um...

I can explain.

See...it's just that, well, the straps, you know...fell down or something.

Mooommm - just hear me out.

It's modest, I swear.

2 Year Stats

Avery's 2 year doctor appointment was yesterday, and the only time we could get in was right at naptime. It made for an interesting appointment - she instantaneously cried the second she saw the nurse in scrubs; I'm guessing she knew a shot was coming. We had talked about it all day, but it didn't click with Aves until we were walking back to the exam room. She then bawled her eyes out when the nurse weighed her, listened to her heart, and took her head measurements, and this was the easy part!! Avery is a big fan of her doctor though, who is so patient and takes the time to explain all of the instruments and let her touch them. Dr. B got her laughing, and the rest of the exam was (mostly) tear-free, until we had to listen to the heart again!

All in all, she's healthy and growing well, and we get a bit of our grocery budget back now that we can all be on the same milk.

At 2 years (and 11 days) she weighs 27 lbs 5 oz and is 34 inches tall. Her weight and height are in the 50-75%, while her head is in the 90-95%!! So, it looks like she's slowed down a bit on height, which is good, because she's fully in 2T clothes simply for the length, and sometimes those dresses still seem short on her.

And, big developments on the potty front - she now asks for a diaper change every single time she's wet or dirty, so we're working on getting her to tell us before she goes. That may not come until we actually start putting her on the potty consistently, though she sometimes runs to the potty when she asks for a diaper change. We're going to lock ourselves in the weekend after Easter and tackle this, and hopefully it will work so we can have a few months under her belt before the baby comes, and so I get a break from washing diapers for a few months!

(Mostly) Handmade Birthday

I've had this dollhouse for about a year now. It was meant to be Avery's Christmas gift, but it became her birthday gift this year because I just lacked inspiration for decorating it, plus she's at a better age for it now. It's still a work in progress, but here's what I accomplished by her birthday.

Bedroom: I whitewashed "wood" floors by drawing pencil lines and knots and then painting a thinned out white acrylic paint over the lines. I repainted the armoire, which was once primary green. The main wall is wallpapered in scrapbook paper, the bed and nightstand were painted, and I sewed a comforter for the bed. The rug is velvet scrapbook paper.

Anything white on the furniture I painted, because all furniture was once a primary color in places. Again, scrapbook paper wallpaper and velvet scrapbook paper rug.

I decoupaged pink tile scrapbook paper for the bathroom floor. All else stayed the same.

I left the hood of the range blue, because I kind of liked the color, but it might change. This room still needs work, and the patterned paper on the floor isn't adhered yet, because I was unsure about it. Table and chairs painted.

A friend had a craft night where we made these blocks. I decoupaged paper on them and added alphabet and number stickers. They've been sitting around since January, waiting for her birthday.

We love Bla-Bla dolls around here, so a new member joined the family. This is Suzette, though Avery simply calls her Kitty Cat. She now has to join the crew that sleeps with Avery, only this one has graduated to in-the-arms status, while the others sleep under their own blanket in the corner.

Two

Happy Birthday Avery!! Our sweet girl turned 2 on Saturday, and we celebrated by taking her on her first zoo trip. We traveled down to San Antonio for a little nostalgic trip (I frequented this zoo as a kid) and met up with family who drove in to celebrate with us. Total number = 17 people.

Leading up to the trip we read as many zoo animal books as we could, hoping to familiarize her with what she was about to see. She would eagerly run up to the fences and glass walls, trying to get as close as she could to everything. The first exhibit was a bear, which was cute, but she was more interested in the water the bear had, so we moved on down the line.

This crocodile just sat there, staring at the kids, thinking, "You'd make a great snack."

It ended up being a brutally hot day, but we toughed it out and saw the entire zoo, and she was a champ for missing her nap, though we rigged up her wagon with the canopy, a blanket, and a pillow, and she did have some downtime just laying there.

any crossword puzzle fans out there? This is an OKAPI.

The trainers were out, having the "elphunts" show off their tricks

My brother got the female lion to roar. Awesome.

Perched on D-Dad's shoulders, with my brother David in the background

post-lunch, ready for cupcakes

She picked off each sprinkle and ate them one by one, and then licked off all the frosting. She left the cake behind.

meet Girl, her new bath toy

showing off her cool hat and fancy new backpack

"Nonnie, all the cool kids wear their hats backwards."

Some recent favorites from our funny girl:
-She has always been one to match her shoes, no matter who the shoes originally belong to, but she's started experimenting with a different style on each foot, and sometimes she ends up with one high heel and one flip flop. It makes for awkward walking.

-She loves for us to read books while she is taking a bath - for awhile she was fighting bathtime, but this seemed to solve the problem.

-During one story/bath time, we pulled out a new book, a collection of Babar stories, a gift from my sweet brother J who sends her the best books on her birthdays and Christmas. We forgot that two elephants died in the first story, and as we're reading, we quickly had to make a decision on how to break this news to her, since she's showing empathy left and right these days. I told her Babar's mommy got a big ouchie and layed down to sleep it off; perhaps avoidance isn't the best parenting technique, but we'll tackle murdering of elephants when she's a little older. :) She still cried though, because Babar was crying.

-She started bawling one day, and I ran into the other room to see what had happened. She was watching VeggieTales, and apparently there was a fire in the theater and she thought all of the bunnies had gotten hurt. Oops!

-She tells me at least 6 times a day when something "huts" (hurts). "Hut toe", "hut knee". She makes this squinty pouty face and it's just too cute.

-This morning, while looking in the pantry, "Chips. YES."

-She is using more common phrases, like thanks instead of thank you, and she is copying our exact words now, like good-night (very emphasized) instead of nigh-nigh, and she is such a little parrot...anything that comes out of our mouth is fair game for her to repeat, and she usually is able to repeat it pretty accurately. So, daddy taught her "meditate" and "aescetic", though those haven't been repeated again.

-She wakes up happy most mornings, and I love to hear "Hi, Mommy! Mommy, hi!" on the monitor.

-She gives the baby in my belly kisses, and she likes to poke her belly way out to look like me.

-If we mention one family member, she always asks about the other person that is paired with him or her, like Nana and Papaw or Nonnie and D-dad or Aunt Dell (Michelle) and Uncle Nick. Everyone has a match, and she makes sure we don't forget them. The same goes for her friends and their siblings.

-Some of my favorite names that she's coined are Aunt Ju-ju (Julie), Aunt Bean (Brittany), and Aunt Dell.

-If she sees something "ucky", she says it in this really raspy, disgusted voice. And she loves to announce "ucky poo-poo" when we enter a public restroom.

-"Whoa!" when something cool happens, or when she almost falls but catches herself

-Has to finish a book before we go somewhere...if she still has a ton of pages left, she'll flip through as fast as she can until she reaches the end. Only then can we go.

-Has officially reached the temper-tantrum twos. She gets frustrated so easily at the smallest things and just screams. I'm still trying to figure out how to handle these.

-Is funny and sweet and makes us laugh constantly

-points out every single school bus we see on the road, and we happen to live by 3 schools, so we see a LOT of school buses

-says "page" before she turns each page when we read together, and she has to turn the pages herself.

-doesn't like cake (!) but loves frosting

-we don't usually keep cold cereal in the house, but I had a craving for some Kashi Heart to Heart this week, so we've tried it for breakfast a couple mornings, and Avery is loving it.

And, it takes me at least 3 days to finish a post. I really should start 3 days before an event, in hopes of posting it on the proper day.

Be Back Soon

Avery and I were away for a week visiting my parents, and then we jumped right into 2 weeks of extreme busyness. We're only halfway through those 2 weeks...one more to go. I'll be back soon with some cute pics of the girl and to wish her a happy 2nd birthday (coming up on Saturday)!!

Joy

We had our second doctor appointment this morning, wherein we were able to finally meet the doctor (it's a collaborative practice) that made us switch to this practice. We're in an office with midwives and doctors and at a hospital that allows midwives to have delivery rights. I am so thankful for this opportunity, since I'm trying for a VBAC this time around, and the philosophy of this practice fits right in with what I am looking for.

The appointment started off well, with a decent weigh in, especially after my big huge breakfast at Kerbey Lane prior to...I'll be eating post-weigh-in from now on! We met the doctor and immediately liked her - she is fun and passionate and takes the right things seriously and laughs about the rest. Luke has the week off of work, so he and Avery tagged along for the appointment so we could all hear the baby's heartbeat. I'm thinking Avery can stay with a babysitter next time though, because she was NOT on her best behavior. Ugh, I dread doing that again. I think it scared her to see me laying on a table while someone she didn't know poked around at my stomach.

So then, the scariest 3 minutes I've felt in a really, really long time. Avery was so distracting that it was hard to really focus on what was going on, but the doctor's face kept looking more and more worried. She kept checking my pulse against the heartbeat that she was hearing, and kept determining that the only heartbeat she was hearing was MY heartbeat, and that it was getting faster. I told her that yes, of course it is, she's starting to worry me. To which she replied, "Let's rush you over to ultrasound right now, because I'm not comfortable with what's going on right now." Hard praying. Trusting. Barely time to worry because Avery was crying, but Luke and I looked at each other for a moment as we gathered our stuff to head next door. Up on the table, machine flipped on quickly, doctor still looking worried, Avery still crying, me still praying.

I've been reading this book, One Thousand Gifts, you have to check it out. It's amazing. I'll go into it more later. But the past couple of chapters I've read were so applicable to today. It's easy to trust when things are going well, when life is easy, and it's easy to say, "Yes, I trust You, Lord, of course I do," after the fact if things turn out the way you hoped. Yet, is it so easy to say Yes when you're experiencing the hard joy? What is the hard joy? Finding joy still, even with life's down moments, the hard moments. The author is much more eloquent than I am. Can I trust even in the hard joy? Can I confidently say that God is good when life seems bad?

As soon as the screen came up, the doctor said that there was definitely a baby in there. But my mind was still yelling for more answers. Less than 30 seconds later, yes, the baby is fine, she says, there's the heartbeat, the baby is dancing away. We left joyful, relieved. For today, for the moment, we don't have to find out what the hard joy is like. If that day comes, when that day comes, may we face it with grace.

And now, as I sit and type, I'm just starting to process what all happened, what all of this could have meant, because life is always unsure from our viewpoint. I'm feeling a little overwhelmed by grace, overwhelmed by joy and sadness and hope and stress. Praise God that He is ever constant.

And praise! We have two new pictures of our baby, an unexpected blessing.

Play Kitchen Wall - After

Finally, done decorating those shelves. For now. I'm still tweaking them, and that top shelf simply has placeholder photos for now - we might move some of the stuffed animals up there later. But they are up, and darn if that top shelf doesn't look a little crooked. We'll just say it's the ceiling.

3 shelves added, plus the picture hanger above the stove

top 2 shelves, detail. the two photos up top were taken of me and my sister Michelle when we were little, by my dad

picture hanger, detail. this is for Avery to hang potholders and orders coming into her restaurant

cloth napkin found at World Market makes for the perfect dishtowel

pantry. I sewed new curtains b/c I didn't like the ones that came with it. From a Liberty London for Target scarf.

shadow box of newborn Avery and her hospital bracelet. also, pic frames to the right, waiting for new photos

egg cups, also from World Market. Perfect colors for her room.

I anticipated that these shelves would be hung in a couple of hours Saturday morning, when we started the project, but they didn't get finished until Sunday afternoon. We had to go back to the hardware store for different screws, and by that time we only had enough time to get one shelf up before Avery went down for a nap. Then, we had to readjust the height of the shelves a couple times when we punched a hole in the wall. In the end, I'd say Luke did a great job at this. We aren't exactly the DIY types, at least not in the home improvement area. Living in rentals for the past 5 and a half years hasn't afforded too many opportunities, either.

Today's project: the closet. Oh my!

Photos!

Okay, so no after photos of the first part of Avery's room change. We enjoyed the sunshine instead. Tomorrow, tomorrow.

But, my friend Anna sent the link to the photo gallery from our mini-session a few weeks ago. Love them! And her - she's great.

http://gallery.me.com/oneofthesedays#100024&view=grid&bgcolor=black&sel=27

Before

Here's a peek into Avery's room these days. We're doing a minorly major overhaul on it to make room for Baby No. 2, meaning, it's time for Meghann to clear all of the crud off of the floor to make it more Avery-friendly, and, we have to fit another bed in there. Oh the joys of living responsibly and staying in this apartment for now.

Stay tuned for the after photos this afternoon, since I can't get in to take pics while Avery is napping.

This is also not at it's cleanest, because Avery kept coming behind me to pull stuff out to play with.

This is the photo to take note of. We made some changes to this wall in a big-for-us way.

I'm including this only to be fully, vulnerably, open. We have a lot of stuff crammed into her closet.  I'm hoping to put the tubs into storage somewhere (Mom?!) so we can move the wagon into the closet. 

To the left when you walk in the room - her book and toy storage. She's (finally) getting the dollhouse for her birthday, so the top will be cleared off, and the dollhouse will reside up here when she's not playing with it.

The right wall when looking into the room. Her new bed will go along this wall.

This was a Round Top find! This will go under the window, where the tee-pee is now.

Her current, and for the next as-many-months-as-I-can-make-her-stay, bed. View from the doorway.

Tee-pee will be folded back up, and the chair will go in it's place. There used to be a glider here, but we moved it into our room for late-night nursing sessions with Little Baby Brother/Sister.

Inspired by my friend Diane, I've been collecting lampshades to hang from the ceiling. Luke doesn't understand the vision, nor does he wish to hang these. They'll be stripped of their shades and simply be wire frames hung by pretty ribbon. I think I'll nix the square shade in favor of odd numbers and similar shapes. Oh, and new curtains, hopefully.

Some Really Awful Photography (with A Really Cute Girl)

Sometimes you have to snap the photo quickly, to catch her in action. This often results in really terrible pictures. But, I still love them, because they tell a story.

Today's first story is about what a big helper Avery is. While I worked on unloading groceries, she decided to help me unload the dishwasher. Her job is to put the silverware back in the drawer, though sometimes we have to make sure that she isn't emptying the dirty dishes. If she is, we tell her that those forks still need a bath, so they have to go back in the dishwasher - she seems to understand that concept just fine. She managed to catch clean dishes this time, thankfully. She can barely see into the drawer, even on tiptoes, so they all just get dumped over the side.

She decided she was all done, because she couldn't get that spatula out, so she shut the door and moved onto something else.

"All done, Mommy. Picture?"

end result - we rushed out the door before I had a chance to look in the drawer, so I had a good chuckle that evening when preparing dinner.

The following photo: we got back really late Sunday night from our trip to Houston. I set Avery down on the floor so I could get her pajamas, and I came back to find her asleep in the same spot I left her.

And these photos: she didn't know I was watching her play dress-up - she had decked herself out in her hat and purse and jewels.

"Oh, hi!"

Updates

We're tackling some big-girl-room projects tomorrow - I'm so excited. It's the beginning of a 6 month long process (because that's how much time we have left, God-willing, of growing this new baby), when I can find time to sew and rearrange and decorate. Avery and the baby will share a room eventually, so we're trying to clear out as much floor space as possible to make room for a big girl bed. Tomorrow we're hanging shelves, and I found the greatest little thing for her play kitchen. I can't wait to show you.

23 Months

Today marks just one month until our sweet girl turns two. TWO. 2. Whoa. It's crazy how fast the time has gone, and it makes me want to stop and cherish every single moment with her. Before we know it, she'll be all grown up, no longer just playing dress-up.

She has made some marked improvements in her vocabulary and is combining words to form these mini-sentences that are just too cute. Most everything she tells us is related to being all-done with something, like "all done with bath", "all done with cleaning", "all done with (insert food here)". She likes to tell us when we're all done with something also.

All day long we hear "help you?", which really means "help me", but she doesn't actually want our help. She wants to do it herself, but we are to be aware that she's struggling and we need to be on stand-by just in case.

All girly things are "oh pweepy" (pretty), and she wears necklaces nonstop. I found some old beaded necklaces and that charming teddy bear on a shoelace necklace, seen in the above pic, at our MOPSwap a few weeks ago and she's been wearing them ever since.

She loves to read her Bible and will bring it to me during random parts of the day to sit and read. She loves the picture of the formation of the sun, moon, and stars the best, because Daddy taught her about those one weekend. She points them out anytime she sees them.

She hates having her face wiped, though she asks to have her hands wiped after every meal.

More often than not, when she says, "uh-oh" and holds her hand out, it's because there is a booger on her finger. And more often than not, I forget this and absentmindedly wipe it off, and then realize I now have a booger on my finger.

Bear and Baby are still her constant companions around the house, and they are propped up in her crib every naptime and bedtime, tucked under their own special "beking" (blanket).

We play outside almost every afternoon with the neighbor kids. We have new neighbors that have a 3 year old daughter and they are quite generous with their toys and snacks. Everyone congregates outside to enjoy the glorious weather, and the parents get to talk and the kids play until dinnertime.

As a consequence of playing outside so much and making friends with the neighbor kids (all but one are girls), we now have 8 and 9 year olds knocking on the door asking if Avery can come out to play. Really, they just want her toys. Last night, they knocked 4 times. I told them twice that we couldn't come out that day, and I just didn't answer the door the other two times.

She is still loving to read to herself, and it's becoming much more involved. Her Yummy, Yucky book is a favorite, and she points out all the yucky things first, though she hasn't been able to name them like the yummy things. Today I overheard her pointing out the "ucky kitty poopoo". It's really labeled kitty litter in the book, but try explaining that one.

Discipline is something I think about all the time, simply because she's pushing boundaries and I'm never sure of myself. We have a system in place, but it's time to re-evaluate it. However, I have noticed that she is responding quicker to my requests, and I praise her a ton for obeying Mommy. Tantrums have decreased, as I'm able to explain why we have to leave, and what we get to go do now.

She seems to be stuck on hot chocolate, though we haven't had it in weeks. It's a constant request. She now seems convinced that Nutella is also hot chocolate, and this paired with some fruit seems to satisfy her.

We've reached a milestone in family relationships. She has been a little wary of some of her aunts and uncles, but she went to them with no problem this past weekend. Hooray!! She's recognizing people that we don't see as often, and it's such a relief for me, and I imagine for them, also.

We are still working on counting, though we only get as far as 2, and then sometimes she throws in the number 9.

On the way home from Bible study today, we talked about the sky, and everywhere we turned, there it was!

She also hops right into nursery, as long as her lovie is in hand. She helped herself to one of the worker's laps as soon as she stepped in the door today. She seems to know that a lap is a safe place until she can gauge the activity level of the other kids.

Anytime we drive somewhere, she asks if we're going to eat, or going to "eat fries?" We don't eat out that much, but she loves her some french fries!

She recognizes common patterns when driving, like going to a favorite friend's house or to pick up Luke from work or when we head back home. If she isn't ready to go home, she starts crying.

We're using training toothpaste now, though it'll be a long time before she understands "spit".

She has this insane laugh when she finds something hysterical; it sounds more like crying, and friends are always telling their own kids to stop pestering her and making her cry.

She loves to color, and she's mostly kept it on the paper, though her table and chair and a favorite book are now sporting some of her artwork.

And, more pictures to come like the one in this post. A friend of mine borrowed her for a practice photo shoot. She's working on building her website right now, so when we get more pics, I'll link to them. Isn't it great?!