1 going on 13

Avery disappeared today while I was working on laundry. She had been playing in her room, right next door to me, but I noticed that it had become very quiet. Never a good sign. I peeked around the corner and saw that her door was shut.

I grabbed the camera and tiptoed in to inspect.

I found her digging in our back-up disposable diaper box in her closet.

I left the room and left her door open.

She followed me and shut it again.

Open, shut, repeat. I'm not ready for a teenager!!

Fish N Chips

Minus the chips.

Avery had fish sticks for dinner last night, and she daintily dipped each one in the ketchup, until she tired of the fish, and then just dipped her finger in the ketchup and licked it off.

Like Father, Like Daughter

San Antonio Mini-Vacay, or The Hottest Weekend Ever

Texas is hot. HOT. I've lived here most of my life, I'm well aware of this, I feel no pity for those in the northeast experiencing a heat wave. We have one ever summer, all summer long. But this past weekend beat out all other hot summer days here. Why? Because we subjected ourselves to a day at Fiesta Texas followed by a day on the Riverwalk. Holy hades, it was blazin' out there.

But, we had a great time visiting with my dad's side of the family. Avery loved seeing aunts and uncles and grandparents and cousins. And - she rode her very first roller coaster! Sort of, seeing as how a sloth moves faster than these rides. But nonetheless, she went up in the air and whirled and twirled for 30 seconds. Whoo!

 Trying to get in and out of this contraption was a nightmare. I felt like I was a sardine. Avery liked it though.

We also tried the Big Red Cars; nice and slow, like the Zilker Park train. She was too hot to care.

We last a couple hours at the park in the morning, then back to the hotel for a nap. Once it cooled down a bit, we returned and graced Wiggles World (the pre-school area at Fiesta Texas) again for a couple more rides, this time with Daddy.

And the cars, with Mommy, Daddy, and Uncle Nick (Aunt Michelle went to ride real rollercoasters with the rest of the gang).

The next day we walked the Riverwalk a bit, but gave in and sat in the air-conditioned Rivercenter Mall and had ice cream and visited the rest of the afternoon.

Sporting my DIY belt/scarf/sash. I took a scarf from the Liberty of London line at Target that I got on clearance for $3, and then sized it down to use as a belt, with a quick little hemming on the sewing machine right before we left town. The rest of the fabric will go to new curtains or a tea towel for Avery's play kitchen.

Zonked out in the stroller.

A very sad and tired Avery cuddling with Daddy.

 
Thanks to Yelp we found a great little Mexican restaurant for our first night there, and then Sunday morning we had breakfast at the Guenther House. If you've never been, you have to check it out. It's the old Pioneer Flour mill, and the restaurant is in the old mansion. The food is delicious and the surroundings are charming.

Somehow I managed to miss getting pictures of any of the rest of the family! Duh. I'm so bad at documenting events sometimes. But we had a fabulous (but hot) weekend!

I Heart Craigslist

Craigslist is the most amazing invention of the internet age ever. Sure, blogs are great, and Facebook is super handy, but CL is my true love. It's like Ebay, minus the bids and the shipping charges. There is still the thrill of the hunt, the deal of a lifetime, and the race to be the ultimate winner.

A few pieces of our furniture comes from CL (see also: coffee table, mid-century modern side chair needing reupholstery), and my latest acquisition is this beauty. I spied something nearly identical at Crate and Barrel years ago, the Faulkner Library Cabinet. But, I've never had the budget for it. Lo and behold, look what I found today. After some creative maneuvering in getting the guy to agree to hold it despite all of the other calls he got on it, and trading cars with my awesome brother-in-law and picking Luke up from work early so he could go get it, just a few short long hours later, this found its place in my home. I may or may not have done a happy dance throughout all of dinner. (And, in the process of getting it out of the truck, we met brand-new neighbors who have a daughter that Avery can play with. Time to take some baked goods next door!!)

Kisses

Today Avery gave me lots of kisses. She would come up and kiss one cheek, and then she'd take her hand and turn my face so she could lean in and kiss the other cheek. Over and over. This will be a favorite day forever.

Road Trip

Avery and I traveled with my mom and my grandparents up to Michigan to visit family and meet up with my sister on her way back to Texas from summer grad school. I took a ton of pics, but these are just some highlights of our time there.

Aunt Michelle was SO glad to see Avery again after 2 months away.

Avery loved Debbie and Debbie's phone.

She played with doggies.

She ran off some energy at the park.

post-slide static

Hi, Cheryl! Are you going to help me down off the deck?

We visited Calder's Dairy, where Avery...

Drove a dairy truck...

And chased the ducks and geese

And saw some goats

And baby cows, who were very friendly...

And bigger cows, all lined up...

Had some farm-made ice cream...

And saw a newly born calf while his momma worked on finishing up those pesky afterbirth contractions.

We played in Lake Erie

And met Loretta, who took formerly cranky Avery on a walk

And then she was so happy to be home finally.

We only had one meltdown, on our last night in Michigan, so I'd call this trip a success. And when I say meltdown, I mean an hour and a half of crying, with 20-30 minutes of solid screaming, like someone was beating her. She threw her body all over that pack 'n play and then all of a sudden it was quiet. She fell asleep and woke up happy.

16 Months

Favorite foods: blueberries, string cheese, quesadillas, green veggies over any other kind, yogurt, bananas, sandwiches, anything I'm eating, scrambled eggs, spaghetti, pizza. It's been a challenge getting her to eat the past couple months.
Favorite game - Ring around the rosy...she even knows when to fall down, and wants to play this over and over and over and over and....
Words - banana, lovey, strawby (strawberry), hi, bye, oooohhhh (when she discovers something neat), knock knock (while knocking), who's there (we think), mommy, daddy, nigh-nigh, doggie woof-woof and a few others I'm forgetting
Knows where her eye, nose, mouth, hair, and food are. Sometimes gets the bellybutton.
Signs more, milk, all done. Working on please, thank you, yes, eat, hungry.
Loves phones and holds them up to her ear and talks into them. Sometimes she holds other objects up to her ear and talks into them.
Has been holding objects up to her eye lately, like toothpaste tubes. I don't know what this means.
Gives high-fives and sometimes says "yeah" after them.
Has started throwing tantrums. This has been really difficult for us. They don't last long, thankfully.
Is much more cuddly.
Walks backwards, usually to sit down on something. 
While falling asleep, she sucks her pointer finger and runs her hand along her lovey.
She repeated her name clearly just the other day, and then I asked who I was, and she said clear as a bell, "Mommy." Ha! Love this girl.

50th Anniversary

My grandparents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in July. Fifty is quite an accomplishment these days, and in honor of this, we held an open house for them so friends and family could join in the celebration. The theme of their marriage, which seemed to be apparent in all of the letters sent in for them to be compiled into a book as a gift from all of us, was commitment. They have exemplified what it means to stand by each other through thick and thin, better or worse, in sickness and in health. Thank you, Gramma and Grandpa, for showing our family what this looks like.

Woo! Go Grandpa!

Back row L to R: Great-Uncle Dan, Grandpa, Great-Uncle Russ Front Row L to R: Great-Aunt Mary, Gramma, Great-Aunt Ruth
Uncle Russ was the best man at their wedding, and he married Grandpa's sister Ruth. We had to remind Uncle Russ halfway through the roast that it was supposed to be a toast. Always the comic!

I didn't make this - it's from our favorite wedding cake lady Virginia.

The boys kept eyeing the M&Ms and then shooed away before the party started.

A timeline of all the places they lived - that's a lot of places!

Me and my favorite girl

He showed up for the party, and the boys kept feeding him. We're not sure who he belonged to, and the cousins worked hard on trying to take him home with them!

Prayers and Babies

On my prayer list are half a dozen pregnant mamas and their babies. Half of those have gone through nerve-wracking or stressful or difficult pregnancies. My heart has hurt for these friends. But I have noticed something so special in the past week. All three of these babies have arrived or are in the process of arriving right NOW! In the same week. What a neat testament to God's hand in this whole process - He has blessed each of these mamas with full-term pregnancies, healthy babies, and they have come through a grieving and healing process all at the same time. Please continue to pray that the deliveries of the next two this week would be swift and safe, with healthy babies in the end.

What a mighty God we serve!

"...for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name." Luke 1:49, from Mary's prayer and song of praise, during her own pregnancy and time of uncertainty

Update 9:15 pm: Baby no. 2 is here and healthy!!
Update 8:00 pm the next day: Baby no. 3 is here and healthy, plus another baby from the prayer list!

This Girl

She has a new pool, although I wouldn't call it a swimming pool. She can't even really wade in it. It's more of a splash pool. Or a crawl-in-and-out-of pool. Some days we just don't want to fight the crowds at the big pool.

She also signed "eat" for the first time on Tuesday. Victory!

We were listening to the radio yesterday morning on the way to Bible study, and the dj kept saying the word "Wow". From the backseat came this little voice repeating it. I looked back and she was grinning, like she was just so tickled with herself. So that is this week's word.

I love that we have new words showing up every few days.

Little things like this always make me feel so blessed to have her, so thankful to God for this gift, and a reminder that I should always cherish it.

15 Months

We had Avery's 15 month check up today - 10 days late.

21 lbs 11 oz (25-50%)
31.25" tall (75%)
10 teeth, with a couple more popping through on the bottom
Says: daddy, mommy, nonnie or na-nonnie (Grandmommy), doggie woof woof, banana, eye, keys (her latest word and she says it all the time so we will give her our keys to play with), mow (meow, and only sometimes)

She loves balls, keys, her toothbrush, unrolling the toilet paper, lifting the toilet lid, tampons (recent discovery - they are now locked up), paper of any kind, books, shoes (she'll sit and try to put them on, or she'll carry them all over the house still), cookie cutters because they fit on her arms like bracelets, chip clips...the list goes on.

She is eating - not much of anything it seems. Thankfully her pediatrician said that toddlers tend to subsist on a diet much like that of a bird, so phew! But, she is currently loving milk, strawberries, blueberries, sometimes grapes, cheese, scrambled eggs and toast, yogurt, homemade turkey burgers, quesadillas, goldfish and graham crackers, anything with tomato sauce. We try new foods all the time, but it's a gamble - never know when she's going to stick with something.

She is still becoming more cuddly as the days go by, which we are loving. She will walk up to us and pat our backs or lean her head on us for a few seconds before running off to play again. Kisses are rare, but once in awhile we are graced with one.

We read Goodnight Moon every night before bed - it's her very favorite book, and the only one she will sit still for until the very end. She likes to point at the pictures as I read them.

She runs around with this monster laugh that sometimes sounds like Pee Wee Herman.

She knows the meaning of no, and she will shake her head no to us and then continue on with the forbidden action. There is a lot of redirecting going on these days!

We've been working on our signs; I am teaching myself more and then using them with Avery. She consistently signs "more" when she wants something and "all done", and she still will sign "milk" on occasion. She recognizes "eat" and "drink" and "water" but has yet to sign those back to us. We're also working on "please" and "thank you" to teach this gal some manners. I tried "sleep" for awhile, but she is telling us "nigh-nigh" when she's tired so I moved on past that one.

We love this girl so much and are so blessed to have her!