San Antonio

This past weekend the kids and I went to San Antonio to visit my friend Becky and her family. Becky and I have been best friends since 6th grade, and even though we've both moved around so much we have found ways to get visits in over the years. It is just so fantastic that we moved to a city that is just 3 1/2 hours away from her.

Becky knows that things are a little tight for us right now, and so she and her husband graciously offered to pay for our way up and back. We accepted, only on the understanding that one day I will return the favor and treat us to a fun outing on our dime.

It was so much fun being back in a city where I lived for four years. It has been over 16 years since I'd been there, so I didn't recognize a lot of things, but some of it was very familiar.

Becky and Jon have a great house and darling kids. As soon as Avery walked in the door she and Alison were best friends. It was so cute watching them play together. They have similar personalities and interests and honestly did not have a single spat or squabble for the entire four days we were there. I don't think you can say that about too many 3 and 4 year olds. Having our kids play together was something that Becky and I used to talk about years and years ago, and so it was really special for both of us to watch it finally happening.

We had a pretty low-key visit. A lot of the time was spent in our pajamas :) But we did venture out a few times. We took the girls to the zoo for a couple of hours. And one day Jon watched the girls while Becky, James and I went to Fredricksburg. Fredricksburg is this quaint, little German town about an hour out of San Antonio. It is full of cute little shops, bakeries, restaurants, etc. We also made sugar cookies with the girls.

We spent most of our time crafting. It has been so long since I've done anything like that and it was great!! Becky is super talented and makes hairbows and customizes t-shirts for her daughter. Before I got there she had gone out and bought Avery tons of shirts and then we worked together on the fabrics and the creating process...well...I just kinda worked on them. I named myself the apprentice. Becky was really patient in showing me the ropes and towards the end I was able to work a little faster.

The only downer of the trip was that both of my kids came down with colds and so did Becky. James slept horribly because he was so congested. And now I am coming down with it too. Tonight I started getting achy and a sore throat/scratchy voice, earaches. Ugh. It's just that time of year I guess.

Anyway, we can't wait to go back for another visit! The kids were wonderful in the car. The only thing is that we hope that next time Al can go with us too.

Six Months

Baby James is already 6 months old. I can't believe it! He is getting so big. These past few months have seemed like some of the longest I've known, but at the same time James seems to be growing so quickly.

Six month stats:

Weight-- 21 lbs. even-- 90th percentile

Height-- 28 inches-- 90th percentile

He sits up very well on his own now, for long periods of time. He cut his first two teeth last week and is still getting up on his hands and knees a lot. He stays up for quite a while, kind of rocking, and sometimes scooting backwards. James, or Jamie (as Avery has taken to calling him fairly often now) continues to be a great eater. It is normal for him to eat 2 big bowls of oatmeal and fruit for breakfast. He slaps the tray in excitement when I walk towards him with the bowl. He is a funny little guy. He is very interested in what other people are eating around him and really follows you with his eyes whenever you put something in your mouth.

We went to the pediatrician while Avery was at preschool. The doctor said that James is super healthy. He got 3 shots today, and one oral vaccination. He handled it very well, only crying for a few seconds. One of the shots was the H1N1. The doctor said that the regular flu vaccine is not available and they don't know when it will be. The company that makes H1N1 vaccine also makes the regular flu vaccine and they have focused so much on H1N1 that there is a big shortage of the other. He asked me if I wanted the H1N1 while I was there and I said I might as well, so I got it too. Then he told me to make an appointment for Avery, for later that afternoon to get her H1N1.

So this afternoon we went back to the Dr.'s office and Avery got her H1N1 and then Al got his too. The kids' shots were covered by insurance and mine was only $15. Al got his for free...a little hook-up from one doctor to another. He said that the $15 I paid earlier that day covered Al's too :) It is nice for Al to get looked out for by another doctor, since it's a far cry from what he experiences every day at work.

These pictures were taken today. James just playing and then James doing the touchdown! I wish I had gotten a better shot of it, but you can get the gist of it.

Trunk or Treat/Halloween

Friday night was the ward Halloween party. They put on a big production: dinner, lots of games, and trunk or treating. The weather was perfect and they served dinner outside, but there was really nowhere to sit, so it was a bit challenging juggling hot dogs, chili, salad, a baby, and trying to reign an excited Avery in. I was super happy and relieved when Al finally showed up after work.

After dinner we headed inside for the games. They had a fishing booth, donut on a string eating, pumpkin bowling, a fall scene where they took your picture, and a cupcake walk. Avery's favorites were the cupcake walk and the fishing booth. They also had a silent auction to raise money for cup scouts. I signed up to bring Halloween sugar cookies. Last week they sent out an email to all those who signed up and then the item that they said they would bring. It was crazy!! A new bike, gift certificates to various places, a spa certificate, photography, a webkinz gift basket, etc. I guess next year I'll know what I'm getting into before I sign up. I don't know who ended up with the cookies or how much the went for, but I hope it at least brought in a little for the scouts. My kitchen still hasn't resumed it's normal state :)

The trunk or treat was fun. It is still a little lonely at these types of things. Most of the people in the ward have been here for years and have built really strong friendships. We are still lucky if we know a few peoples names, but we are trying.

Al worked on Halloween, so I took Avery and James out. Avery was still thrilled to get into her costume, even on the third day in a row. She would flick her wand to "cast a spell" and as she flicked it she made a sound effect that was something like "Fwee-wee-wee-wee! Fwee-wee-wee-wee!" And it was like an echoing effect, where she would let her voice fade with each "wee." It's pretty amusing :)

Tinkerbell

Today was Avery's preschool Halloween party. She was SO excited. She has been asking every day this week about wearing her costume. When I pulled out the wings to put on her she whispered, "Oh...they are beautiful!" It was pretty cute.

I tried to do Avery's hair like Tinkerbell's. It kinda worked, and I thought she looked so pretty, but the humidity makes it a little hard to make the hair stay where you want it to. Tomorrow is the ward Halloween party and I will try to put the ponytail higher and use less product to see if that works.

Miss Annie had a black wig on, which I think kind of scared Avery. She is kind of weirded out by wigs. But after Avery gave her a few glances she warmed up and was okay with it. One of the other mom's was in charge of the party and she helped them make these cute pumpkins! The moms got to go and pick the kids up 5 minutes early, so we could take pictures of the whole class in their costumes. There was a little bit of confusion about which pumpkin belonged to which kid, but the mom knew without a doubt that the pumpkin with the green hair was Avery's. She was the only kid that did green hair. Her favorite color has been green since she's been able to vocalize it, and has never wavered.

Tomorrow is the ward party, so we will take more pictures.

He's Up

Going Mobile

James is really starting to move around. He lifts his whole chest off of the floor, and sometimes gets his tummy off the floor too. We've seen some scooting and he uses his feet to give himself little pushes forward. James does the froggy legs a lot, but has also started alternating legs, getting the motion of crawling down. It is fun to watch him in action. He gets so excited! He still rolls around a ton, and is able to get around a lot. Sometimes I find him across the room from where I sat him down.

James is still really enjoying meal time. He eats anything that we give him. He still loves the peach banana granola combo, mangoes, squash, and a sweet potato and corn mix. He even likes peas. The other wake I started giving him teething biscuits, just for fun. Those are a hit too. As you can see, he is kind of a messy eater...he likes to put his hands in his mouth and suck on his fingers while he's eating. Then he rubs it all over his face, in his hair, etc. We've also had a couple of spills where he hooks the bowl with his fingers and sends it toppled over onto the ground. Days later I find splatters in various places.

He continues to be a really happy and smiley baby. The last two days he has woken up at 5 am, ready to be up for the day. I'm not loving that at all and have got to figure out how to tweak that bug.

Making Progress

Avery is still loving preschool. Last week they talked about the letter 'F' and families. On one of the days they were asked to take a family picture to class so they could tell their classmates about their family. That morning I was getting Avery ready for school and I asked her if she was excited to see everybody's family pictures. She said, "I'm excited to see Tayt's picture!" Tayt is a cute little guy in her class who is also in our ward. I said, "Oh, do you like Tayt?" And she said, "Yeah, he is a funny guy! He makes me laugh. And I make him laugh." Then I started to laugh.

Avery wrote her name all by herself. I think it is really good for a 3 year old. She wrote the letters in proportion to each other and in a straight line, and they are very legible. The other side of the paper is a practice sheet for the letter 'F', so I'm guessing she finished early and flipped it over to doodle on the back. I was pretty proud of the name when I saw it.

She knows how to spell the word 'no' and that if you switch the letter it makes 'on.' And she can sight read Grace, Tanner, Boom, Bob (from a book she likes), and James. She is learning so much. She also said to me the other day, "Mom, do you know what the number 9 is upside down?" I just went along with it and said, "No, what?" She said, "It makes a 6! Do you know what the number 6 is upside down?" I hid a smile and said, "Uh-uh, what is it?" She said, "A number 9!!"

Pillsbury Dough Boy

We have our own little Pillsbury Dough Boy here. Every time Avery pokes his tummy he starts laughing.

Look Who Was in Town!!

My little brother was in town this week on business. He has a client out here that he works with. It is funny that he knows the city way better than we do, even though we are the ones that live here.

The kids and I went out with Jon Monday night. He took us out to this great Mexican restaurant. The partner was in town for Tuesday and Wednesday, so we didn't see him then. But last night Al, the kids and I met Jon at his office and he took us out to this really good Texas BBQ place.

There were some people at the bar when we walked in. They were saying, "Oh, look at the little baby!" And then the other lady goes, "That's not a little baby, that's a big baby!" Then..."How old is he?" Me, "5 months." Them, both at the same time, "Oh!" Then one of the husbands chimes in, "Have you had that boy outfitted for a helmet yet?" As in a football helmet. We are in football country. We chuckle and say no. Then the other husband says, "You might be carrying that baby right now, but he looks like he will be carrying you pretty soon!"

After dinner Jon showed us where this ritzy shopping area is. He bought us some cupcakes at this little gourmet bakery and we sat outside on some benches to eat them.

Then we went back to his hotel and hung out for a few minutes before we said good-bye. He is coming back out here in a few weeks and then I think in November. It is so fun to have him here. Avery loves her uncle Jubes.

Temple Trip

Al was post-call last Sunday, so after his long nap we decided to go on a drive and find the Houston temple. The temple is in a really nice neighborhood, as you would expect. There are lots of large estates on the same street as the temple. The temple itself is surrounded by tons of trees. Since it was a Sunday the gates were closed and so we couldn't walk around the grounds, but we did a couple of drive-bys. It is a beautiful temple. After the drive-bys we drove around one of the surrounding neighborhoods and found an elementary school with a park for the kids to play on. Avery had a ton of fun and this was James' first time going down a slide.

Galveston

Al had the whole day off Saturday and so we decided to give Galveston another try. I packed a picnic and then we headed out. Last time we went we drove through 'downtown' and to the east beach. Admittedly, that part of Galveston is pretty ghetto. It is very old, and I think even before the hurricane it probably looked really run-down. You can see tons of hurricane damage--lots of boarded up buildings, abandoned buildings, etc. I also thought it was kind of weird that there was no where to eat, no gas stations, nothing.

But this time we went to the west beach, which was way different. There are some very nice hotels just off of the beach, some restaurants, grocery stores, sno-cone shacks, a lifeguard on duty, and so on. Driving in on the west side are some fairly large, new vacation homes.

We found some much larger ones, various colors and shapes. We also saw a hermit crab scurrying across the sand, just under the water. We splashed around a lot and got a little bit sunburned, but had a lot of fun.

Look At What Else James is Doing...

As cute as this is to watch, and it is, I am kind of scared about it. I think I could be in trouble! At least when you let your babies get attached to the paci you can easily take it away. I'm not quite sure how to get a 4 month old to stop sucking on his thumb. He prefers it to the paci. Luckily he only does it in his sleep...for now. Sometimes when he is asleep I try to take his thumb out and replace it with the paci, but that doesn't last for very long.

Has anybody else had a thumb-sucker? Any advice?

Look Who's Sitting Up!!

Sort of :)

We're working on it. Whenever laying down James almost always tries to sit up. I think his abs are getting pretty strong. So I figured we might as well start working on it. He does pretty well!

The last picture isn't of him sitting up...I just like that picture.

Cute Project

Avery brought home the cutest project today from preschool. They studied the letter B this week and bugs. Last week was A and apples. Every day Avery brings home a fun little project and poem about a lady bug or whatever. On Tuesday when she came home Avery told me that she had to leave her caterpillar at school. I didn't really know what she was talking about, but told her that maybe she'd get to bring it home the next day.

On Wednesday Avery came home and told me that her caterpillar was in a cocoon and when it came out it would be a butterfly. I still didn't really understand what she meant by 'her caterpillar' but liked that she was explaining the life cycle to me.

So today I dropped off Avery and picked up Callen to babysit. Miss Annie was changing Callen when I got there and so I waited in their entry way for a little bit. I just happened to look up to the loft and could see a row of brown lunch bags hanging from the line that Miss Annie has strung up there. Then it dawned on me. I asked Annie if the brown bags were the cocoons. She said they were and that the butterflies were ready to hatch.

When I picked up Avery today she was SO excited to show me her butterfly. The first day they had made the caterpillar out of the egg carton. Then on the second day they crumbled up the brown lunch bags to make them crinkly and soft and put their caterpillars inside the bags. They also water-colored and cut out the wings. Miss Annie attached the wings to the caterpillars last night and then put the butterfly back in the cocoon, and so when the kids opened the cocoons today they got to pull out a butterfly.

Avery just loves her butterfly and has given it a name...although I don't really understand the name and so I can't type it here. And she LOVES preschool. Yesterday when I went to pick her up she said, "Mom, why did you come and get me?" I don't know if I should be happy or sad!

Big Boy

A couple of weeks ago we decided to start James on vegetables and fruits, hoping it would help him sleep better at night. He has tried quite a variety now. I haven't given him beans or peas yet...I'm not sure I'm going too. Avery hated them in baby food form so I never bought them, but she has loved frozen/fresh beans and peas ever since she was able to eat solid food. I just don't know if I can subject James to the purees ;)

Anyway, he has eaten everything that I've given him fairly well, except applesauce. He didn't care for that very much. Squash is far and away his favorite, or so I thought. He wolfs down squash as fast as I can put it in his mouth. But yesterday I had him try a banana/peach/granola combo that is newer on the market. I was expecting it to take a few bites for him to decide if he liked it or not, which is usually how it is. Well, it only took one bite for him to decide that he LOVED that combo. He could not eat it fast enough, and when he decided that I wasn't spooning it in at the rate he wanted he started sucking it off of his fingers. When the finger supply was gone he went for his bib, stuck the bib in his mouth and started sucking the food off of the bib.

It was a 2nd level baby food, meaning it is a little bit thicker and comes in a bigger container, but James ate the whole thing. And he slept from 8pm until 3:30am!! So I'm hoping that this heavier food will continue to make a difference, 'cause I am exhausted!

These pictures are of James the first time he had squash, and the last picture is of him cleaned up afterwards. As you can see he's getting quite a girth :) Tomorrow is his 4 month check-up and I'm wondering how much he weighs...

Rolling Over

James has been rolling over in his sleep for about a month. He tries to find his paci and just keeps rotating until he's on his tummy. Now the last couple of weeks he has started rolling over like crazy while he's awake. Look at him go!

Avery's First Day

Today was Avery's first day of preschool. She was so excited that when we got to her teacher's house Avery started jumping up and down.

Yesterday we went to the grocery store for a few things. I let Avery pick out what she wanted for breakfast on her first day and she picked powdered donuts. She also decided that she needed some teddy grahms for an after school snack. On the way to the checkout we noticed that they were having a sale on nail polish, so on a whim I let Avery pick out a new color so that we could paint her nails for school. She picked out a shade called Fuschia Fever...it's about as bright a pink you can get.

Later that night, after dinner, Avery had a bath. We set out her outfit for the next day and then I gave her her manicure and pedicure. She giggled in delight when she held out her hands in front of her with the fuschia nail polish on. Then we went downstairs and had FHE with Al. Al had decided earlier that it should be a tradition that the kids get back to school blessings, and wanted to start the tradition with Avery's first year of preschool :) We explained in basic terms what the blessing was for and Avery was so quiet and calm during the blessing...very un-Avery like.

This morning Avery woke up with a big smile and happily ate her donuts. Then we got her ready and did a quick photo shoot before we headed out. The 2 1/2 hours she was gone passed quickly, but I found myself checking the clock often- wondering how Avery was doing and what she was learning. When I picked her up at 11:15 she had a huge grin on her face. She exclaimed, "Mom, I missed you!" I buckled her in to her seat and rolled down her window because she wanted to say good-bye to her friends. It was too cute as she called out, "Bye Anna!! Bye kids!! Bye Miss Annie!!"

The teacher emails out a weekly newsletter, so I knew that this week they are learning about the letter A, working on writing their name, learning about apples, the calendar, and a few other things. Avery told me they talked about 'A' and that they had apples and popcorn for a snack. She said she sat by Anna and they talked about the rules. They also did the calendar but Avery informed me that she didn't get to hold the pointer. Maybe tomorrow :) I can't wait to hear about tomorrow.