Thursday, August 29, 2013

20 months.

i can't believe avery's 20 months!  this seems so close to 2 that it's scary.  i'm not ready for that one yet.  at 20 months she's running, talking up a storm, independent, and so.much.fun.  

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lets talk about walking first because we waited so long for this milestone and i can't explain how amazing it was to finally see her walking around everywhere and then grow in confidence with it.  she's now running everywhere, jumping off curbs, and asks to walk places if we happen to be carrying her.  she still falls a lot, but it doesn't seem to phase her and she'll jump back up and be on her way again.  my mom bought her some shoes from stride rite when we were out in maryland and they were the first pair of shoes that she would actually walk in.  she outgrew them a week or so ago and i ended up ordering the next size up online since there are no stride rite stores out here.  she has a pair of toms that fit her, too but she's not too into wearing those shoes and i think they're harder for her to walk in.  i'm a little annoyed that a pair of shoes that may fit for a few months cost more than shoes that i buy for myself, but i'm getting over it.  charlie and i both still love to just watch her walk around and one of her favorite things to do if we're in a new place is just walk and explore.  

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she's still taking her gymnastics class on saturdays and just moved up from a bird to a beast.  charlie is usually the one who takes her to the class and i'll take her to any makeup classes that she has.  it's taken her a while, but she's finally gotten really into it and will now run up and high five the teacher and actually participate in the activities.  she seems to really like it and when we talk about going to gymnastics she'll say "ball, bubbles, bar, music", which are all of her favorite parts.  we signed her up for another season and i think it's been really great for her to have something to do with charlie.  i also think it will be a good activity for her to keep up after her brother or sister is born.

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she's still talking up a storm and i happen to think she's pretty funny most of the time.  charlie agrees with me, but we're probably a bit biased.  i have no idea how many words she knows.  they always ask me at her wellness appointments but who really has time to keep track of these things?  she's putting 3 and 4 words together but definitely not speaking in full sentences or anything.  she also consistantly messes up her pronouns, which i find pretty cute and is probably due to the fact that she's just used to repeating everything that we say.  for example, when she wants me to pick her up she'll say "hold you" instead of hold me because i always ask her "do you want me to hold you?".  she's just started to figure out that mommy and daddy actually have names and is really getting a kick out of calling charlie by his name.  she knows that my name is danielle, but is still sticking to mommy for me.  i'm really enjoying her ability to communicate with us.  she still gets frustrated at times, but is pretty good about calming down and letting us know why she's upset.  

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as far as toddler antics go i think there are a few stages that she's in that are pretty typical of toddlers her age.  she's getting pickier and pickier about food.  she loves fruits but eats a ton of the yogurt pouches as snacks.  she's really into sweets and if there are cookies in the house she will demand them.  we recently packed away her high chair because she was consistently climbing out of it and refusing to sit in it.  i tried taking off the tray and just pulling it up to the table, but that didn't last too long.  so now she's just standing on a chair at the table.  i don't love that she can get down at any time, but i have bigger battles to fight.     

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she's still sleeping like a champ at night and has started waking up a little bit later, something that has made a huge difference to me.  she used to be up at 6 am on the dot but has recently pushed that back to about 7.  since i'm not a morning person, it's made a huge difference in our mornings.  we're heading out of town soon so we'll see how much that messes with her sleep.  she always seems to be a mess when we travel but i'm counting on naps during vacation to help us get through the week and i know she'll eventually fall back into her normal sleep patterns.  i took the side off of her crib one day to see if she would nap in her crib but i chickened out and put it back on before she went to bed that night.  i just can't bring myself to mess with her nighttime sleep for no reason at all.  if she's still in her crib when her sibling comes along then we'll just buy a second crib at that point.  i'm not going to force her into a bed before she's climbing out of the crib or ready for the transition.

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she's gotten more into crafts like coloring and painting lately.  we color all of the time and she actually holds pens and crayons the right way, which is shocking to me.  i've been on the lookout for more activities like that we can do in the winter since she's really into it.  she's also a great helper and will help feed the animals in the morning, getting their bowls, pouring food, and giving dunkin his treat.  she's also pretty good at watching me cook if i pull up a chair to the counter for her to stand on.  sometimes she's content to run around like a wild animal while i cook but when she wants me to hold her, letting her watch usually makes her happy enough.  she'll also help dust and clean the appliances and doors.  

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she's still really affectionate.  giving lots of hugs and kisses and sometimes she'll come and sit in my lap and give me a hug for no reason at all.  it's the best.  she's still pretty sweet with the animals although she's been throwing things at the dogs lately.  she thinks it's funny when they run away and i don't think she realizes that she's actually hurting them or that they're actually scared of her.  actually, dunkin could care less but henry is scared.  i feel bad for him and he's definitely been spending his time as far away from her as possible.

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she loves thunderstorms, rain, and rainbows and sort of gets that they're all connected.  she gets really excited if it starts raining and will demand thunder and we've had a few really amazing rainbows in back of our house that she's been really impressed with.  she loves being outside in the rain and stomping in puddles.  she still loves reading and demands that we start our mornings with coffee and books after breakfast, which is always okay in my book.    

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

if you give a cat a bath ...

so today started out sort of rocky.  by 8:30 we had two wet cats shaking their paws and giving us death glares and i had a bloody nose courtesy of being punched in the nose by avery.  to be fair, she didn't actually punch me but she did hit me and i did get a bloody nose.  the cat baths actually weren't that bad.  i decided to do them right after breakfast just to get them over with and i thought that avery might like to watch, which would make life easier.  she was really into watching and 'helping' with their baths.  i did them in the kitchen sink and she stood on a chair next to me, held their tails, and kept saying 'toby bath, ollie bath'.  basically it was the highlight of her week.  and she's been asking to give them baths all day long.  

in the past month or so she's gotten into more independent play.  she'll play by herself for longer stretches of time and she's also making things up instead of just being entertained by her toys.  we have a bunch of horses, leftover from my childhood, and she'll play with them and talk to herself.  it's probably one of my favorite things to watch.  she was playing with her horses this morning and i was sort of half paying attention to her because i was trying to work at the same time.  charlie happened to be upstairs with us, too.  at one point she left and went into the kitchen and started moving some chairs around.  i didn't think much of it because she does this a lot, but charlie got up and was watching her and then told me to come over because she was trying to give the horse a bath, just like we did with the cats earlier this morning.  sure enough she had dragged a kitchen chair over to the sink, stood up on it, and was putting her horse in the sink.  she then asked for some help, "horse bath"and charlie helped her wash him and dry him.  i realize this isn't that exciting to most people but it was probably the cutest thing that happened all day long.  and she was so proud of herself for washing that horse.  i wouldn't be suprised if we find her lifting a cat into the sink one of these days.     
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Monday, August 26, 2013

just a few more pictures from the weekend.

a few more pictures from our weekend.  and yes, our house is usually this messy.  i feel like i'm constantly picking things up and losing the battle.  

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just hanging out. 

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being silly. 

i call this the tackle series.  

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playing catch and bubbles. 


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grandpa came to visit!

my dad came to visit us this weekend.  it was so good to see him and avery had so much fun with him.  as usual i didn't take nearly enough pictures.  she was pretty giving with her hugs and kisses, but most of those i'll just have to remember.  we made a short trip to breckenridge on sunday.  basically making a drive just to eat some pizza and get a drink at starbucks.  we had plans to walk down the path that runs along the blue river but the rain meant we just did some walking around town before heading home.  mostly, we dragged avery through a lot of homes and did a little bit of grilling and playing at home.  until next time, dad.  come back and visit soon. 

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watching her run will never get old.  charlie and i are still so excited that this little one is walking.  

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she stopped to smell the flowers and then insisted that i come and smell, too. 

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climbing walls!


Tuesday, August 20, 2013

recent happenings ...

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... avery and i painted the other day.  she sort of got the concept but was much more into playing with the cup of water.  she's also pretty into drawing with crayons and demands it by saying 'purple', which is also what color everything in her world is.  any time we ask 'what color is this' the answer is always, 'um, purple'.  charlie thinks she's color blind but i think she'll get the concept of colors eventually.  

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... i painted her toes pink this weekend.  i was painting mine and she seemed really into it so i asked her if she wanted me to paint hers.  surprisingly she sat really still while i did it and then was so excited to go and show daddy.  and randomly throughout the day she would look down at her toes and talk say 'mommy' as in mommy painted my toes.

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...  i am so excited for our upcoming vacation.  just a few more weeks and then we get an entire week to spend just hanging out with each other.  i'm so excited to take avery to the beach again and just hang out with charlie and i'm really glad that we're getting a little bit of time to enjoy our family of three before we become our family of four. 

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..   we're slowly making progress on a few things in the house.  i have yet to take pictures of everything but we've slowly been transforming the master retreat into a hangout/playroom.  we moved the futon and train table in there and hung some curtains that we had from avery's room at our apartment.  i want to buy a little table for avery where she can color and i need to organize a few more things in there and move some extra furniture out and then it'll be 'done'.  if we stay in this house for a while we'd like to eventually turn that room into a fourth bedroom, but right now we're not investing any money in this room.

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...  we got our first diaper for the baby.  thanks abby!  it's a grovia AIO and i'm really excited to try it out.  right now avery's been running around the house with it.  she likes to use her diapers as hats and this one is no exception.  i tried to tell her it was for the baby, but i think she thought i meant her baby doll.  i pulled a few older baby things that i was planning on selling at a local consignment shop and one of them was the travel baby swing that didn't work too well for us.  but as soon as i pulled it out avery started playing with it and i haven't had the heart to take it away yet.  

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...  cats.  i've mentioned that the cats are actually pretty patient with avery, but they do have their limits. it takes a lot for ollie to get mad at her.  the other day she was bugging him repeatedly and he finally smacked her in the head and hissed at her.  unfortunately, she thought it was the funniest thing ever and chased him around hissing and saying 'again'.

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...  i turn 30 in a few days.  i'm so not ready for this.  

Thursday, August 15, 2013

avery + ollie

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i know i've said this before but avery really, really loves ollie.  lately, as she's gotten more gentle,  i think he's starting to return some of those feelings.  hanging out with ollie is guaranteed to snap her out of a bad mood and it's been that way ever since she was a baby.  she loves to sit with him, to hug him, to scratch his neck, give him kisses, and rub noses with him.  and for the most part he really seems to like it and pretty much will let her do anything to him.  she's not always that gentle and definitely has her moments of pulling his tail, yanking handfuls of his fur, and aggressively patting him, but she's getting better.  i can definitely see a future where these two are best buds.  ollie's a pretty affectionate cat anyway, and if she keeps up all of the nice attention i think she'll fast become his favorite person.  right now she still has to compete with me for that one.  either way, it's really cute to watch the two of them together and i love that he's so sweet with her. 

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

sunshine and pigtails

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i love summer.  the other night after a pretty awesome day we went outside to hang out for a bit.  you know the kind where you feel like you got everything done?  i worked, went for a walk, cooked dinner (which included making a salad) and all while charlie was gone.  she likes throwing the ball to dunkin and we were just enjoying the rest of the evening before bath time.  and then charlie came home and hung out with us for a bit, which made the day even better.  i love when he's home in time to see her for a bit before she goes to bed.

she's far too busy these days to every look at the camera or really even pay attention to me unless she wants something.  but she's growing up so fast!  her hair is usually in pigtails because if it's not she can barely see.  and in these pictures she's picking the basil from the pot and eating it.  yum!  i just want to remember these days when she still sort of has some chubby cheeks and a little belly after eating a big dinner.  with all of this running around, she's slimming down pretty quickly and i miss that baby chub that she used to have.    

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

heritage square

we're slowly making our way through everything fun that i wanted to do this summer.  i think that a trip to the mountains and the boulder farmers market are left and then we'll have done everything i wanted to do before fall comes and we're forced to close our windows at night.  one of the things that was on my list was taking avery to heritage square.  charlie and i have been to their music hall a few times for shows, which are always really funny but when i found out that they had a mini amusement park i wanted to take avery.  i had heard that it was geared towards younger kids and she had such a fun time when we were back in ocean city riding the rides there that i thought she'd really enjoy it.  since she's pretty short, she's usually in that category of too short to ride any rides. but they'll let kids who are below the height requirement ride with an adult so we figured that one of us would ride with her.  

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we were really lucky because we had beautiful weather on sunday.  it was in the high 70s which meant really nice to be outside but not so hot that you're sweating the whole time.  basically my idea of perfect weather and charlie's motivation for wanting to move to southern california.  they have a little train there that goes around all the grounds and since avery's really into trains we figured we'd start with that.  she was actually being a little weird before we got on the ride and she kept saying that she didn't want to go but once we all got on she had a good time.  

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waiting to get on the train. 

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the best we could get of all three of us.

after the train ride we figured we'd do a few other rides but she wouldn't do anything but ride the carousel.  charlie was pretty disappointed.  i think he had high hopes of her being really into everything.

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watching for daddy.

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blowing him kisses.

so we grabbed some lunch and then used our tickets to play a round of mini golf.

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one!

the golf was actually really fun.  obviously, things can't be too serious when you have a toddler running around stealing all of your balls but she was happy to run through the whole course with us and even tried to hit a few balls.  i think we all had such a good time just hanging out and attempting to hit holes in one around avery.  
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we had such a good time and i know i keep saying this but she's really at such a fun age right now.  i'm really enjoying all of this time that we get to spend with her and i love watching her figure things out and experience new things.