Children's Museum

Avery and I met up with some of the gals from our church playgroup today at the Austin Children's Museum. This was our first time to go inside, though I've passed by it dozens of times when I worked downtown. On Monday mornings they open it up to toddlers and babies only - 3 and under. I thought Avery might get a little overwhelmed with all of the people running around, but she loved it. She took right off and I spent the next two hours chasing her.

They have story time and singing time - we tried both but Avery wasn't a fan of sitting still. She loved the huge chess game and moved the pieces all over the place. The toddler area had a ton of balls, and it was fenced in, which meant I could contain her safely and still visit with the other moms for a bit.

It was a nice change of pace from our usual mornings, and she was a champ skipping her nap today. We even ended the morning with her 15 month checkup and shots and she survived with minimal whining.

Finley and Avery playing chess





Finley sharing with Hadley

We had a great time, but it is definitely exhausting chasing after them!

Berry Pickin' Time!

There is this great little orchard down the road from my parents' house, owned by the Renaissance Festival guy, and we try to make it out there during the blueberry season. It's easy to go overboard and spend $20 or 30 on blueberries, but they are so plump and delicious and they all get devoured so quickly that it's worth it.

Avery had a blast walking all over the orchard, and once I gave her one blueberry, she recognized it and helped herself to them all along the way. And no, she didn't figure out to pull the plump ripe ones off the bushes...she shoveled the squished and sandy berries into her mouth like they were going out of style. She may have eaten an ant or two. I just try not to think about it.

You'll also notice a common theme in the photos - she is always holding keys. They are her new favorite toy. And she knows where I keep them, so she'll go up to the basket and bounce and say "keys, keys". So cute! But I wish she didn't know how to push the panic button on the clicker. My car alarm keeps going off. I'm sure the neighbors are thrilled about this.

Food Fight

It's been a war around here, a war between me and the food Avery eats. Or maybe between me and Avery's eating habits. She likes to toss her food on the floor if she doesn't like it or is done eating it. This is a habit we're trying to break, but you can't reason with her - she's 15 months old. The wall often gets splattered in the process of tossing food, and it's a nice matte finished paint. Not the best choice for a dining area, or for kids. But since we're renting, we didn't choose this, so I had to come up with another option to protect my walls, or at least minimize the amount of times I pulled out my handy Magic Eraser to clean it.

I found a gorgeous laminated fabric that coordinated well with the rest of our home and stretched it over DIY canvas stretchers. The stretchers were just a few dollars each at the art supply store, and I ordered the fabric here.

Assemble the stretcher bars - I asked the gal at the art supply for a demo, and she was kind enough to oblige. They just interlock at the corners, and she suggested I seal them with a bit of wood glue before pushing them together. You can let it dry overnight, but it should be good to go after an hour or two - the glue dried quickly.
(I also failed to get pics of this part of the process...oops!)

Iron your fabric - on the WRONG side of the fabric, with a dry iron, on low heat. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!!!! You will melt the plastic if the heat touches it directly. I found that the wrinkles were nearly impossible to eliminate completely, but this did help. Ask if they can roll the fabric instead of folding it; since I ordered mine online, I didn't think to specify this.

Lay your fabric face down on the floor (don't mind my ugly rental carpet).

Center the frame on the fabric - you want the side of the frame with the lip to be face down. Leave 3" around all sides to ensure enough fabric for stretching. I found this to be a bit much at the end, but better safe than sorry.

I even got out the straight pins and marked 3".

I borrowed from these two tutorials for the rest, found here and here. The first tutorial is excellent for how to finish the corners.

Stretching the fabric, getting ready to staple it in the center of one side of the frame.

 A finished corner

I had some extra fabric overhang, so I trimmed it flush with the frame, just to make it feel more finished even though no one will see the backside.

And voila! I now have a surface that is easy to wipe clean, and it adds some visual interest in our all brown and beige kitchen area. Now that it's done, I should have bought the fabric with the pink flowers, to tie in with her chairs. But, she won't throw food forever (I hope!), so I'll reuse this in another room where it looks nice with our other home decor. I think it'd make a lovely headboard one day.

I didn't hang this, just to ensure that the entire wall that she had access to would be covered. Even the floorboards. It is simply propped against the wall, and it is SO lightweight that if she knocked it over, it wouldn't hurt her.

Now we just give this a quick wipe after meals if she was particularly messy, and our wall is saved (as is our deposit).

Inspiration Files

I've started a Tumblr blog of favorite home design finds - I know some of you who read this love design as much as I do, so check it out. Button to the left.

Food

I've been working on some new recipes here and there, as I find the time. I am also working on a food blog - nothing fancy to compete with those well-known food sites, but just a place to document what I'm working on. I'll eventually put a link up here when I have a few posts going. Enjoy these photos for now.

Girlie

I picked up this cute little doll stroller at Target last week. She loves to push her baby in it, along with some of her other favorite finds of the moment. Like chip clips.

"Outta my way, Mom!" Perhaps she suffers from her mother's road rage?! I try really hard to hide it around her, I swear!

Avery loves to wear my wallet on her arm like a purse. And her dad's flip-flops. Everything is a bracelet to her. Perhaps I should get her some real bracelets instead, so the shoes can stay put.

Swim Lessons and Father's Day Weekend

We just finished up two weeks of swim lessons - Avery loved being in the water, as long as we were actually doing something. She didn't understand the importance of reaching for a toy underwater and was quickly bored. Once we finally got to the underwater lesson, though, she had a blast. She would kick and splash and bump as we geared up for the big dunk as we swam to the wall. Now that I'm comfortable submerging my child underwater, I won't pay for swim lessons again for her or any subsequent children until they're at least 3, where they really learn how to swim. Before then it's simply get-the-mom-used-to-this lessons. On the last day of class family members were allowed in to take pictures and video of their tots. Avery loved having her daddy to show off for.

We then headed to Houston to visit with Luke's parents for Father's Day weekend. Avery tends to get a little overwhelmed around a lot of people, so it's always an interesting time when the whole family gets together. But, she pulled herself together and had fun sitting at the kids table with her cousins.

Peyton was ever-ready with a goofy face for the camera while Emily refused to look at the camera. Avery is also showing off her new plate - I highly recommend this. She doesn't yet realize that the white tray in the center lifts out, plus she wouldn't be able to lift it since it's hard to get a grip on. The blue mat part is heavy and non-skid. We finally found something that she can't toss on the floor. Now to get her to learn not to toss the food out of the plate. She's also graduated to her own big kid table at home - no more highchair! She sits on a little bench that has a high back and high sides. This is so much easier to clean, as our heirloom high chair had a ton of nooks and crannies that she liked to hide food in. Yuck.

And look who learned how to drink from a straw on Father's Day!

14 Months (as of 2 weeks ago)

I forgot to put these pictures up, of Avery at 14 months. This is pre-mullet, when she had enough hair to pin back. Sigh.

And I honestly can't remember if I gave any details on her. So let's do this (again?):

Mealtimes are a challenge - most things end up on the floor. I'm waiting for the day for her to be hungry enough that she'll just eat whatever is there, because there certainly isn't much going into the tummy. She seems to graze more now. Toddlers are tough!

She has 8 teeth.

When she wakes up in the morning, she has to have a cup of milk before anything. Even a diaper change.

To get our attention, she bounces while pulling on our clothes. It's really cute.

Still no new words apart from daddy, mama, eye, and sometimes banana. But she does babble all day long, and she knows where her nose is. We've been working on other parts, but she isn't really interested in sitting still long enough.

She is fully walking and will fight to get out of your arms to walk anywhere we are. She refuses to hold our hand. She wants to be fully independent, as long as she can still see us. Which means, yes, we're still suffering from separation anxiety. I think we've managed to beat everyone in this department - we're going on 5 or 6 months now.

Summer has been busy so far, but really nice. My parents took Avery for a weekend so we could celebrate our 5th anniversary. We enjoyed the view after a tiny hike up Mt. Bonnell, went out to eat a few times, caught a movie, slept a lot. It was so nice to have some time to ourselves, but we missed our girl so much! We spent more time talking about her than anything else over the course of the weekend.