a bit of randomness

...  we finally went to ikea on saturday.  i've been putting this off for a while because it always seems like a trip there takes up the whole day even though we live less than an hour away.  the biggest thing we wanted to get was a dresser for the baby's room.  we also got some new kitchen chairs and a bench and we got a small table for avery to play at or color on.  charlie and i put the majority of the stuff together that night after avery went to bed and he and avery assembled the dresser on monday.  she loves to help with this stuff, it's so cute to see her grab the screw driver and try and put things together.  

...  avery's been into carrying things around the house lately.  the heavier the object the more exciting it is to relocate.  some of her favorites are the kitchen stool, her little chairs, and her kitchen chair.  for a little kid she's pretty strong!

...  the cats are still very popular playmates.  she likes to bring them toys until she's decided they have enough and then she'll sit down and pile the toys on top of the cat.  it's sort of a game to see how long they'll sit still in one place.  

...  i got avery a camelback this weekend in hopes that it would be the solution to my leaky sippy cup problem and also stop her from constantly drinking out of my water bottle instead of hers.  she loves it.  i have no idea why they say these are for kids 3 and up as they work the same way as the sippy cups that are sold for infants, but it does a great job of not leaking and avery's not exactly easy on these things.  she's also excited to have a water bottle like mommy's and daddy's.  she'll point to each of them and say, "mommy's", "daddy's", and "avery's".  very excited to have a non-leaking water bottle to bring for her on our vacation.  it really is the little things.  

...  i've noticed over the past few weeks that avery really hates being dirty.  if her hands are dirty, she'll demand a napkin to clean them off, she'll also ask to wash her hands throughout the day.  and she really hates having an animal hair on her.  if she happens to get one on her foot or hand she'll come running over saying "hair, hair", which means "get this hair off of me immediately".  in this picture she was wiping her water bottle off each time that she took a drink between bites of macaroni and cheese.



...  i'm in the third trimester of this pregnancy.   i can't believe that it's going by so fast!  i'm blaming chasing avery around and a summer that's been really busy.  i'm still feeling really good, although i feel way bigger this time around and am a little worried about how big this baby is going to be in 13 more weeks!  i'm also really enjoying this second baby where i'm not worried about buying a million things from babies r us.



...  avery's gotten really into FaceTime as of late.  she loves talking to people and is pretty good at interacting with them, playing peek-a-boo and such.  i can't explain how amazing it's been to have this technology help us connect with people who are so far away.   she's still missing her grandpa who was visiting last weekend and has even picked up a few of the tricks that he taught her when he was out here.



...  we're currently borrowing a few workhorses's from a friend.  i'm in love with these diapers.  i ordered 2 dozen of the newborn size for the new baby and i'm really excited to prep them and use them.      my tiny kid is currently using the mediums with room to spare, which is proof that we'll never really need the larger sizes that the one size diapers provide (still on the second rise in Bum Genius 4.0 and Flips, too). 

lately ...

here's the 'after' and if you're really interested you can see a before here.

... i mentioned that our nightstands finally got painted.  i was planning on painting them a color, but since i couldn't decided and was worried i would end up with another color that i would hate as soon as they were finished i decided to go with white.  my mom actually did the majority of the painting, it took 6 coats and she did the first 5 of them.  but i'm loving the white, especially with our grey walls and dark bedframe.  i also ordered another quilt for the room (our current one has nailpolish spilled all over it), and i'm planning on getting new curtains and giving the current ones to the baby.  i love our room but it always seems like the master bedroom is last on the priority list.  i remember how much time i spent in our room when avery was born and if the same thing happens this time around i wanted to have made the effort to do a few things to make it more cozy.

low eighties and no sun.  perfect.


i think she was showing him some rabbits to chase.

...  the weather has been so amazing here lately.  sometimes i think all i talk about it how amazing summer is but really, summer is amazing and this summer especially has been perfect.  we've been having temperatures in the low to mid 80s, which is pretty much the perfect summer temperature.  its warm enough to do things like go to the pool and play in the water table, but cool enough to take long walks and leave the windows open.  we've even had a few days that have felt like fall, but i'm not willing to go there yet.  avery loves being outside and even when i'm working we spend a decent amount of time out there.  we've actually gotten a lot of use out of our front porch because it's shaded.  we eat our snacks out there and she always insists that henry, dunlin, and the cats come outside with her as well.  she actually get's pretty upset if the cats don't come.  

...  i think charlie and i decided on the crib vs. bed debate and we'll be getting a second crib for this baby.  of course, watch us make this decision and have avery start climbing out of her crib as soon as we get a second one.  while having 2 cribs seems silly, i figure we can always sell one once avery doesn't need it any more and charlie and i have always been more on the side of 'don't rush things'.  i think having a late walker may have helped since we know that she'll do things when she's ready.  now i just have to decide between a grey crib or a white crib.  and really, i don't know why i'm even worried about that since i'm sure the baby won't be sleeping in there for months.  

...  i got avery some fingerpainting supplies and a really cheap canvas at hobby lobby the other day.  i thought it would be fun for her and i had this vision that maybe she would create this masterpiece that we could then hang.  she did have a really good time and having the canvas to paint on was so much easier than trying to mess with paper, but it's not much of a masterpiece.  i brought her out some really cheap old paintbrushes that i had to play with as well and she was much more into using those than her fingers.  maybe we'll have to try all over with some watercolors. definitely a fun, outdoor activity on a friday afternoon.

...  i've been borderline obsessed with donuts lately.  i could seriously eat them once a week but i refuse to let myself get them more than once a month.  charlie and i picked up a dozen when my mom and sister were in town and i could have eaten about four right when we got them.  i blame this on discovering lamar's donuts.  when i was pregnant with avery all i wanted was dunkin donuts but there aren't any out here, so i just dreamt about them a lot.  but this time charlie found lamar's which has been amazing and awful at the same time.  i've also created a little donut monster in avery who is now very into donuts and even if she sees a picture of them will start asking for 'more'.