Monday, October 28, 2013

weekend happenings ...

we had another pretty good weekend that seemed to just fly by.  how is it that tuesday and wednesday can take forever to go by but somehow saturday and sunday go by and it seems like it was just friday night?  we spent the weekend having a little fall fun and getting a few things done around the house.  sadly, i have no proof that we actually accomplished things around the house but i assure you we did. 

on friday night we took avery to a halloween party at the place where she takes 'gymnastics'.  i was thinking that she was going to boycott the costume but apparently she decided that she's the cutest thing ever when she wears it and has been asking to wear it almost every day.  of course as soon as she has it on she keeps saying "it's so cute" and "mommy, so cute", which means that she wants me to reassure her that yes, she does in fact look adorable.  so anyway, she happily put on her costume on friday night and we headed to gymnastics.  they had a few activities set up for them to do like fishing for candy, some obstacle courses, making bags for their candy, and then a few snacks.  she only napped for 20 minutes that day and i thought that she would pass out in the car but she surprised me by staying awake the entire time.

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quite impressed with her cuteness. 

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showing henry who's boss.

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a little apprehensive about walking under the giant cat.

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making her treat bag.

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a cupcake.

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AND a lollipop, which was her favorite.

on saturday charlie took avery to gymnastics, the car wash (which she's been begging to go to for a while), and grocery shopping and i headed to ikea.  i'm usually never alone and it felt a little weird to be spending a few hours without avery.  i have to say it was pretty nice to enjoy a 45 minute drive without listening to applause even once.  i got to listen to country music the entire way without anyone complaining.  i got a few random things there and avery's birthday/christmas present which was the main reason for the trip.  i figured with a baby on the way soon it was better to get the present now then worry about it with a newborn.  avery and i took henry for a walk and then we met charlie at the playground so avery could show off her climbing skills.  some other people showed up to play while we were there and they had a dog that avery wanted to pet.  after she pet the dog she pointed to his penis and said 'penis' and then charlie wanted to die.  all i can say is that we have four male animals at home and she's interested in body parts.  we did some more cleaning and random things around the house on saturday and finished by hanging even more shelves that night.  the good news is that i've officially put all of the tools away for now so i think that we're done hanging things for a bit.

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some rock climbing.

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sunday we did some more stuff around the house and then went to a birthday party later that afternoon.  it was at another gym and avery had a ton of fun playing on everything, except for the foam pit.  that she did not like.  we came home, watched the rest of the broncos game, saw a killer sunset, and read books before bed.

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the foam pit.  not a fan.

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lately she's been insisting on reading books on our bed.  i think this is 'hot fudge', which has gotten a lot of attention in the past few months.  

  

Monday, October 21, 2013

22 months.

wow.  we've reached the stage when people ask me how old she is and i'm torn between replying in months and saying almost two.  it's really hard to believe that it's almost been that long as the time has seriously flown by.  at 22 months she still gets more and more fun by the day and i think this month was a little bit more mellow than the last few.  

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avery actually spent the majority of the month in a huge 'mommy phase'.  i mentioned this in her 21 month post, too but i think it definitely got worse before it got better.  she would seriously not allow charlie to do anything for her and it was pretty frustrating at times to both watch and go through.  i definitely appreciate the help that he is when he's around, especially being pregnant, and she really wasn't into letting him do anything.  one of the most epic moments that i remember from this month is one night after dinner when we asked her if she wanted a piece of pumpkin cake.  she said yes (of course) and charlie got her the cake and then picked her up and put her next to him to help her eat it.  she started screaming 'no, mommy cake' and when he told her that no, he was going to be the one to help her, she picked the piece of cake off of the plate and threw it across the floor.  BUT i think that things have actually gotten better in the last week or so and i'm sort of optimistic that they'll continue that way.  she's actually let charlie do more things for her and will even ask for him to come and play or ask about where he is when he's not around.  he does have a bunch of travel coming up so we'll see if that will throw her back into only allowing mommy to do anything for her.  

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despite all of that she's actually in a good mood 90% of the time and is pretty funny to be around.  she's picked up a few phrases that i think are so cute and will repeat them since she knows that she gets a pretty favorable reaction out of them.  "mommy, look at me" is one that i think she actually picked up from another girl on the playground but uses it all the time now since she knows that i think it's funny.  she's also really into saying that things are "cute" now, and when we're out shopping will say "this is cute" for things that she likes.  i was at the fabric store picking out fabric for a crib skirt and she repeated that for the fabrics that she liked and then refused to let me buy a few that i actually liked.  twice i picked up fabric and put it into the cart and she handed it back to me saying, "mommy, no".  like, no, this is hideous and i cannot let you buy it.  so the baby's crib skirt was officially picked out by avery.  she also chose a lamp for her room in the same way, telling me that one was cute and then rejecting others that i offered her.  i love that she really has an opinion about things now.  

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she still loves the animals and now really plays with each of them individually.  she'll play tug-o-war with henry and throw the ball to dunkin.  she'll also call for henry now, yelling "hen!" over and over until he comes.  i'm always surprised when he does but i think he's slowly learning to appreciate her a bit more.  dunkin has become her real buddy this month and she'll request that he come outside and play with her.  she hugs all of the animals, except for toby who is just a huge jerk.  she does try and play with him though, but it usually ends with him biting her and then her running over to show us her latest injury.

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she's been saying "i love you" this month.  and not on request but on her own.  she's pretty selective about when and who she'll say it to but i think she really gets what it means as it's not something that comes out of her mouth all of the time and usually when she says it there's a hug or kiss to go along.  henry was the first to hear it.  and i'm pretty sure he didn't appreciate it as much as he should have and my mom was the second.  she loves grandma and anytime she hears the facetime ring she'll run over saying "grandma, grandma".  she has thrown an 'i love you' to charlie and i as well, which is always amazing to hear.  she definitely tells the dogs and cats that she loves them much more often than she tells us, but it's always cute to hear her tell ollie that she loves him for the tenth time as she sits on top of him.  

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we've done a lot of fall activities this month and i think she's really starting to understand things a lot more.  she's really into pumpkins and has loved the few fall decorations that we've put up around the house.  she loved carving pumpkins and we've been talking about christmas, too so i think she's excited for that when it finally comes.  we got her a leopard costume for halloween, although i'm not sure if she's actually going to wear it as she was not into trying it on at all and basically threw a huge fit when charlie forced her to put it on.  so we'll see if she actually dresses us.  she may just be avery in a halloween t-shirt for halloween. 

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i think her eating habits have gotten better this month and i think that the discovery of ketchup has helped a lot with that.  she loves ketchup and now dinners that previously were refused are considered gourmet if they're dunked in the right amount of ketchup.  she also loves dipping things in salsa and syrup.  the only thing that's sort of a pain is that she won't do the actual dipping herself but instead demands that i do it.  

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she's still going to gymnastics and we actually went a lot this month because we had a bunch of makeup classes to do.  she's less interested in participating with the group and much more interested in doing her own thing these days.  i really could care less at this point and am really just happy that she's actually doing anything.  if she wants to hang on the bar for 5 minutes instead of playing with the balls then i say go for it.  i figure she has the rest of her life to listen to rules and do exactly what the teacher is telling her.  

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she doesn't really watch tv but i've put on an episode of planet earth about 3 times this month and she was so into it.  she loves animals, they're her current favorite toy, and is actually really good at identifying them all.  after the second time of watching 'pole to pole' she pretty much had it memorized and could tell you what was coming next.  charlie watched it the last time with her and she was telling him 'polar bears, caribou, wolf, leopard, shark' before they came on.  at this point i'm really loving that animals are her current thing that she's into instead of sesame street or some disney characters.  i figure we'll avoid those as long as we can since they really annoy me.  

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she loves to color and paint and i'm hoping that i can figure out more creative things for her to do as she's really into those things.  she also really likes to help cook and bake.  she can feed the cats on her own and does not like it if you try and help her at all.  if she could open the door to where their food is they'd probably eat ten times a day.  she gives dunkin his treat each morning and stands over his food at night to yell at toby if he tries to steal some food.  

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she's kind and sweet and will give hugs and kisses for no reason.  she says "bless you" when anyone sneezes and "sorry" when she bumps into us or the animals.  she was carrying her stuffed polar bear up the stairs the other night and kept saying "i got you, i got you", which is what i say to her when i'm carrying her down the stairs.  she gives "big hugs", which are totally different from regular hugs and is really into "family hugs" when we all hug.  she loves a good family hug and will then usually give kisses to everyone followed by "nosies".  she'll help with things when asked, is great at throwing things away, and picking up her toys and books.  she still loves to read although she is still really into reading on her own.  her favorite books this month are still "clifford's first christmas", "hot fudge", "fox on socks", and "oscar the cat about town".  when she reads fox on socks it just sounds like she's saying the f-word over and over again.  she could listen to the song "applause" on repeat all day long and can get very demanding in the car when it's not played continuously.  she does not like country music but loves christmas music, particularly "jingle bells".  she now puts herself to sleep for both bedtime and naps and as much as i'm so proud of her for that i do miss rocking her to sleep.  it was always my favorite part of the day.         


Sunday, October 20, 2013

continuing our halloween tradition.

so every year since charlie and i have been dating we've always carved pumpkins and made riceballs for halloween.  we haven't always done it on the actual holiday and we have missed two years in the last nine.  i think the second year we were together we didn't continue the tradition and we missed last year because we were back in maryland for the two weekends before halloween visiting family and friends.  i was looking back on some pictures from that trip the other day and it really made me miss the east coast falls.  so pretty.  

anyway, we knew we definitely wanted to keep up the tradition this year since avery was old enough to get the whole carving a pumpkin idea and because she's really into pumpkins.  we actually have a ridiculous amount of pumpkins sitting on our porch currently.  i think the count for 'big' pumpkins is up to six as charlie didn't want to carve any of our pumpkins that we got from the pumpkin patch.  we actually picked up two more from whole foods, which shockingly had the lowest price for pumpkins that i've seen.  

avery was totally into the idea of carving them and helped me pick out the seeds and put them into a bowl for roasting.  we carved two pumpkins and avery and i did most of the cleaning out of the seeds work since charlie was making the riceballs.

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once i showed her what to do she was all about it and helped for a really long time.  after cleaning out the pumpkins she took a break for a bit to play with dunkin.  she is really into him these days and it's so cute to see her hang out with him like he's her buddy.  i think he secretly likes her, too, especially because she's always trying to go outside and play ball with him. 
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she likes to grab his nose and say 'honk, honk'.  he doesn't love this.

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meanwhile, charlie was cooking the riceballs.  we probably should have gotten her more involved in this process as she really does like to cook and bake, but it's just so messy and there are so many uncooked ingredients like meat and eggs that i think it would be harder to have her 'help' at this point.  maybe next year.
  
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and avery got bored again and went outside to play with dunkin.  or actually she went outside and then insisted that he come and play with her.  we had gorgeous weather on saturday.  it was in the mid 60s and it was so nice to have a few windows open while we were hanging out.

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looking for his ball.

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she settled for throwing a flower. 

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tackle. 

we finally finished carving our pumpkins and cooking the riceballs.  i always forget how long this process takes!  the riceballs were delicious as always and avery loved having the candles in the pumpkins.  we put them back outside and hopefully they won't get destroyed by any animals before halloween so we can light them again. 

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charlie's is the cat that he did for avery and mine is the face.  i should have made it a nose but i ran out of carving motivation and thought it still worked this way.  i've loved the fact that we've been able to do something fun and fall-like each weekend in october.  it's such an awesome time of year when there's fun things to do, the weather is perfect, and there's not the pressure of the holidays to decorate the house or bake fancy meals or buy a bunch of presents.  i really do love the holidays but sometimes i love the low-key ones more because there's not a lot of pressure to do anything special so anything that you end up doing is a lot of fun.  we've got one more weekend in october to enjoy and i think we're taking avery to a halloween party where she does gymnastics.  i did buy her a costume although she's been pretty adamant about not wearing it so we'll see if she actually dresses up for it.      

Saturday, October 19, 2013

baking.

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i sort of love this photo for so many reasons.  one, i love that avery's actually old enough to participate in things like baking cookies, or brownies in this case.  two, i love that sweater.  three, the ponytail.  four, she just looks so grown up, like she's really going to be turning two in a few months.  and five, i think there are about a hundred pictures of me baking with my mom when i was a kid.    

avery loves to help bake by dumping the ingredients into the bowl after i measure them out and then mixing everything together.  she also loves turning the light on the oven and watching things bake.   i'm really more of a baker than a cooker.  i cook because we have to eat but i really like baking.  however, since having avery i haven't baked all that much because cooking with a baby or a toddler is hard and i haven't had the time or energy to attempt to bake things after cooking a meal.  baking always seems like such a luxury while cooking is a necessity.  but lately, we've been baking more because she loves it too and it's an activity that we can actually do together.  also, i'm pregnant and want to eat cookies all day long.  avery's already talking about the cooking and baking that she's going to do with grandma when she comes to visit.  and she's really excited to bake christmas cookies because i told her that she could make them in the shape of santa.  so even though we have another little one coming in a few weeks, i'll have to make sure that avery gets her fill of holiday baking.  and who knows, maybe one day i'll figure out how to make something without sugar.    

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

weekend goodness ...

mmm... i love the weekends even when it seems like nothing epic happens or as charlie says 'i feel like i'm living the same story over and over again'.  basically he means that cleaning and laundry get old.  i agree but i also love that feeling at the end of the weekend when everything is 'done'.  charlie took avery to gymnastics on saturday like usual but then they went straight to the grocery store and shopped for the week.  since that's usually my task i can assure you that was greatly appreciated.  i got all of my cleaning done on saturday morning when they were gone and then we spent the rest of the day hanging out with avery and enjoying that sweet naptime that i never used to get.  

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henry helped us and then we forgot that he was outside with us.  good thing there weren't any good rabbits for him to chase.

charlie got her when she woke up from her nap and they headed outside to put up some halloween decorations.  nothing crazy but we're actually acknowledging halloween this year.  i'm really more of a fall versus halloween decoration fan but if charlie had his way he would deck the house out for halloween.  i'm not really into the whole scary theme so we picked a few tame options.  i think if it were up to him we'd have a fog machine and dangling corpses all over the house. 

later in the afternoon we headed over to anderson farm for some fall fun.  i wasn't expecting much but we were meeting some friends there and i figured at the very least they would have a few animals that would entertain avery.  but the place was awesome!  it was sorta expensive to get in at $12 an adult (avery was free) but it was all decked out.  they had a bunch of chickens, birds, and roosters which avery was pretty impressed with.  she spent a lot of time talking to that rooster.  they also had goats which she really likes.  there were a bunch of corn mazes, although we only did the really short one for kids.  there was also barrel train rides, hayrides, a kids play area, pumpkin launching, and of course pumpkin picking.  we didn't end up picking anything since we had already gone last weekend but avery really liked the play area even though i thought a few of the bigger kids were being really obnoxious.  she also really liked the barrel train that she rode with charlie and the other small hayride.  basically she had a lot of fun and we'll definitely be coming back next year.

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sunday started off with pancakes.  mmmm.


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she likes for us to dip her pancakes in syrup and occasionally mixed up syrup with salsa.  so we get the request of "mommy, dip in salsa".


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this is her latest trick that charlie taught her called "big smile"

we spent sunday hanging around the house and getting a few things done.  we watched the broncos game in the afternoon and then avery and i walked to the playground while charlie cooked dinner (two meals in one day!  i could get used to that).  and avery refused to eat dinner until charlie suggested putting ketchup on it and then she cleaned her plate off.

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she climbed up here on her own and then said "mommy, look at me!".  i know she's my kid but i cannot get over how adorable she is some times.  apparently gymnastics is paying off since she's a little more willing to climb all over things without my help these days.  

i love weekends with my crew and i'm especially loving this time of year.  all the leaves are changing, avery's wearing footed pajamas, and it's the perfect weather to get outside without coats and hats.  i think next weekend we have plans to carve pumpkins and make rice balls.    

Thursday, October 10, 2013

lately ...

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...  avery and i made some 'art' for the baby's room.  actually, avery did all of the painting on her own and even spilled the water three times all over the paper.  the water turned brown after a bit, as it usually does, and she kept calling it mommy's coffee.  it was pretty cute.  i love watching her discover things.  and i have to say i'm pretty impressed with her water color skills.  she did enjoy painting herself as much as the paper and we took a much needed bath after this to get all of the paint off of her.  thank goodness for washable paint.  

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...  we ordered a crib.  i realize this is completely opposite what i said last time, which was that we were moving avery to a twin bed and giving baby the crib.  however, apparently when charlie and i had the discussion about moving avery to a 'big' bed i meant a twin and he meant a toddler bed.  he was pretty adement about her not being ready for a twin and i still think that toddler beds are sort of a waste when you have a crib that can fulfill the same purpose.  so, we ended up ordering a crib for the new baby.  i was planning on putting this off as long as possible because there's no way that the baby will be in that crib right away, but the room is such a mess right now and it's almost impossible to get the room set up without a crib in it because i just can't picture how everything will go.  right now the room is still a serious mess and since we have less than 7 weeks until my due date i figure we should start moving on getting it set up.  also, i'm sure that the last thing that i'll feel like doing after we have a baby is assembling nursery furniture so it's better for us to figure it all out now.

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...  speaking of sleeping avery is now putting herself to sleep at night and actually taking naps in her crib.  this is sort of a huge deal for us and i still am actually in disbelief that i have a nap time to get things accomplished.  i used to rock avery to sleep but realized once the baby came that would be impossible on the nights that charlie was traveling.  so after a few nights of putting her in her crib and listening to her cry, she figured out that was our new routine and adjusted just fine to it.  we now do our usual bath and books routine but instead of rocking her to sleep we talk about what we did that day and then she goes in her crib.  it's pretty cute because she'll put her books away and then say goodnight to charlie, her humidifier, and her 'fireplace' (space heater), and then say 'talk about day', and when i say and now it's time for bed she'll say 'crib and blanket' and doesn't cry.  it's been amazing.  i've been putting her down the same way for naps and she's been crying for about a minute or two and then falling asleep.  nap times are hit or miss.  some days it's 40 minutes, which is never enough and then she's in a terrible mood the rest of the day.  other days it's 1.5 to 2 hours, which is not only amazing during naptime but also great since she's happy the rest of the day.  i was planning on also taking the side off of her crib (when we were thinking of switching her to a bed) but now that we're not i'm going to leave it until she decides she's ready to climb out.  

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...  avery has been really into dunkin lately.  i know i just wrote an entire post about how she loves to play ball with him but she's been really sweet with him.  she loves to sit with him, give him hugs and kisses, and tells him that she loves him.  he's such a great dog since he puts up with her during her nice times as well as when she's not being so sweet.  henry is the master of avoiding her and even though she's been really nice lately he spends most of his time either in our bedroom our in the basement but dunkin's always hanging out in whatever room we are.  he always comes up to read books with us at night and when i put avery down for her nap he waits for me outside her door.  he's a sweet one.

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...  i've been in sort of a cooking rut lately.  last weekend and the beginning of the week i just really didn't feel like cooking at all and we ended up eating things like frozen ravioli because i couldn't seem to motivate myself to actually make a real meal.  but tonight avery and i made a pumpkin cake (our first pumpkin anything this fall) and i made chicken and sausage casserole for dinner.  she actually really loves baking and does a great job with helping.  she dumps everything into the bowl and helps to mix things although she's a little scared of the mixer and asks that i hold her while it's on.  anyway, it was nice to have an actual meal and i think avery agreed because she ate a ton of dinner and then had an entire piece of cake for dessert.

...   we've semi decorated for fall and i've managed to keep mums alive for more than a week.  i would upload a picture of our very minor decorations but flickr won't let me at the moment.  last year i bought one mum plant it it literally went from beautiful and blooming to a brown pile of sticks in 7 days.  but this year i've had one plant for 3 weeks and the other for 2.  they actually are looking pretty terrible but they are still alive and i consider that success.  i'd love to actually plant some in our front yard at some point.  but i have yet to get ambitious enough to plant anything outside of a pot.  it turns out i don't like gardening.