A Conversation With Avery

Avery woke up this morning and was quite talkative. She could hear the yard crew cutting the grass outside and commented on it. Then she said she slept good. And when she was looking out the window she said, "Uh-oh, don't break the blinds."

Then I was changing her diaper and we had a real conversation. It went like this:

Avery: Where's Daddy?

Me: He's at work. He's at the hospital.

Avery: Avery go to the hospital!

Me: You want to go to the hospital to see Daddy?

Avery: Okay!

Me: Well, maybe we'll wait and see Daddy when he gets home...(I'm thinking I really don't want to visit the psych ward)

Avery: Go to hospital, check Avery's ears!

Me: (Now I'm chuckling) Daddy can check your ears when he gets home, okay?

Avery: Okay!

After that we went downstairs and I got Avery her breakfast. She usually watches cartoons while she eats breakfast. So I asked her what she wanted to watch today and Avery said, "Watch cut the grass!" And she took her bowl over to the little windows by our front door and sat and watched the yard crew cut the grass. About two minutes after that she stood up and came to me and said, "Watch a little bit of Dora." That's what I thought :)

Bowling

Al had his big shelf exam for Neurology on Friday morning, so he had the rest of the day off! We got a coupon in the mail about a local bowling alley, for 3 free games of bowling and so we took them up on it.

It was pretty fun. I don't even remember the last time Al and I went bowling...and Avery had never been, so we were all kind of rusty. Avery was happy that she got a blue bowling ball, but kept saying the ball was "too heavy!" She would get really excited whenever it was her turn and would put on quite a show of walking up to the lane to roll the ball down.

Some other new Avery things:

She has started using the phrases "how about" "a little bit" and "pretty neat." Sometimes when she wakes up from a nap she will say to me, "How about watch a little bit Dora?" Or she will say "How about play trains?"

Every time we pass a water tower while we are driving around Avery will say, "Ball too heavy!" And then sometimes when we pass a really big tree she'll say, "Tree too heavy!"

She will fairly often say the word, "Ka-pow!" under her breath or while she is playing. She learned it from watching the movie 'Cars.' She also loves the song, "Life is a Highway" and sings it pretty often. Yesterday while we were out shopping she asked repeatedly to "buy Cars music."

Avery learned how to say her full name. It is really cute. I'm trying to get that one on video.

Singing Along

How cute is this?

More of Armed Forces Day

Ready For Take-off

Avery absolutely loved the Blackhawk. She wanted to climb right in there and grab ahold of the controls...which she did. I love in the top picture that you can see how excited she is, even though it is a profile shot. I think all of these pictures are pretty priceless. Avery cried when we left the Blackhawk. And tonight when I was uploading the pictures we had to look through them about 4 times, but she only wanted to look at the ones where she was in the Blackhawk. Funny girl.

The Best Day

Today was the best day our little family has had for a while. It was so much fun from start to finish. It was one of those rare days where Al had the entire day off. Not only that, but he didn't have to study either. So we decided to really take advantage of all of that free time. Plus it was the first warm and sunny day that we've had in a very long time.

I packed a picnic for us in the morning and then we headed out to a big park in St. Peters, which is the next town after St. Charles. We let Avery play in the park for a while and then we put her in the stroller and went for a walk along the trails there. There were quite a few softball games in session and Avery was dying to jump in the game. She kept calling from the stroller, "Avery play baseball! Avery play baseball!"

When we got to the recplex parking lot we saw that there was a big Armed Forces Day event going on. In the parking lot were tons of vehicles--jeeps, big trucks, a Blackhawk and a boat from the Coast Guard. There were some troops there and also quite a few older veterans. Avery thought this was just fantastic. We had no idea all of this was going to be going on, so it was a bonus activity for us! We spent quite a bit of time walking around all of the vehicles (more pictures to follow). Avery cried when we left the Blackhawk. She thought that was pretty spectacular.

After that we walked along the trails some more and found a nice spot to have our picnic. Then we headed back to the park and let Avery play for a while longer. We kind of exhausted her and so we brought her home for a nap and Al and I lounged around and watched a movie. When Avery woke up we decided to take her to a petstore to look at the animals. She desperately wants to hold a 'birdie' and anytime she sees on outside she will chase it around crying out, "Hold it! Hold it! Avery hold the birdie!!" so we thought she'd enjoy the pet store. Boy did she ever. The cutest thing was when we took her to an aquarium that had mice in it. Some were on the wheel, running, and Avery turned to me and exclaimed, "Oh Mommy, look!!" She was just so excited. And she loved the fish and birds.

We ran to Wal-Mart and found a super cheap patio set to put in our tiny backyard. Al thinks it will be good for when we put our townhouse on the market in the next few months. He saw some programs on HGTV about creating a space and so that is what we have attempted to do. It does look pretty nice out there. Then we grilled burgers and finished the meal off with S'mores. It was delicious, but I feel sick from eating so much.

Usually when Al has part of the weekend off we feel so uncreative about what to do with our time and find ourselves at the mall, letting Avery play on the playground. Today was so much better than that. We enjoyed every second of being outside, together as a family. And we've all got the sunburns to prove it ;)

My GREAT Mother's Day!

I had an unexpectedly great Mother's Day this year! I was a little worried when Al told me last week that he KNEW that Mother's Day was on the 19th. Umm...I just kinda let it go.

And then Al worked on Sunday, so I really wasn't expecting anything at all. But Al had a few tricks up his sleeve! He started by giving me my presents from Avery on Saturday. I think he was too excited to wait, but he said it was because he was working on Sunday and wouldn't be home to give them to me. Avery gave me the movie Juno (which Al and I LOVE) and a CD.

Sunday morning came and Avery and I were on our own. We went to church and I was planning on an uneventful day. But when we got home from church Al was already home from work! He had gotten home about an hour before church ended. While we were at church Al hurried and cleaned the house. Then he made dinner! I had to take a picture of it. It was really yummy. I think it was called Chicken Rellanos. Al just picked it out of a cookbook. We didn't have all of the ingredients and so he improvised. He was very proud to tell me that he had even pounded the chicken :) Funny Al.

Then today the doorbell rang and the FedEx guy handed me a box. I opened it up and found these beautiful pearl earrings! They match perfectly with the necklace and bracelet set Al got me for Christmas.

I was definitely spoiled this year by my adorable daughter and cute husband!

Last Cooking Class

Wednesday was our last cooking class. I am sad that it's over! It has really been a lot of fun. They will offer the classes again in the fall, so I will have to remember to check on that.

We made a lot of things at the last class. We started by making these peanut butter and banana balls. There were other ingredients in there too, to help hold it all together. Then the kids got to roll the balls into mini M&Ms and mini chocolate chips.

After that they made peanut butter and banana roll-ups in tortillas. Then they finished the day by making these penguin cookies. Avery had a blast.

I love in the one picture how she is holding the tortilla roll-up and looking at it like, hey wait a minute, what is this? The little red-headed pigtail girl in the background is Avery's friend, Abby. She took both sessions of classes with Avery and we will probably get together to play with her sometime over the summer.

This class has been fun and educational. Avery is starting to know her way around the kitchen! She is very interested in a lot of things I make and knows what a lot of ingredients are. It's fun to watch her learn.

Bragging Rights!!

Al finally got the results from his surgery rotation! We've been anxiously awaiting this since it really means a lot for our future...

Here is his evaluation:

Narrative Summary: This summary is based upon subjective evaluations of this student (based upon observations from both attendings and residents on the above listed services). These assessments include a 10 item evaluation that covers general medical knowledge, history and physical exam, differential diagnosis, professionalism, patient rapport, health care team rapport, diagnostic and therapeutic program planning, organizing information and recording data, motivation and attitude toward learning, and finally, procedural skills. This narrative also includes an assessment of this student's NBME score.

Allen performed very well on his rotations while on service for the surgery clerkship, obtaining a mean clinical assessment score of 4.3 out of a possible score of 5.0. In fact, Allen achieved superior mean clinical assessment scores of 4.0 or higher in all ten categories in which he was evaluated. While on service, Allen was noted to be a particularly hard worker and a very good student.

Allen also performed very well on the recent surgery shelf exam, obtaining a raw score of 79. This score equated to the 79th percentile for the 3rd quartile.

This student obtained a final grade of Honors on the clerkship.
*************************************************************

I am so proud of Al!!! He has worked so hard and is doing so well in his rotations. We are super excited about his success in surgery and I know that he is well on his way to being a great surgeon!! Way to go Al!!!!

Follow the proplit

These are the best I could do on the song. I wish she would do the whole thing for the camera...but so far we've been unsuccessful. We'll keep trying.

Bed-time Battles

Bed time has become the biggest struggle at our house. Avery just doesn't want to miss out on anything! Al and I have tried so many different things: nightlight, no nightlight, bedtime snack, acting like we don't care, acting like we're really irritated, leaving the door open, closing the door, etc.

I read a lot about it and know that it is typical for toddlers. The books said to let Avery be more in control of the routine and that it would help. So we let Avery pick out her jammies, the story, etc. It didn't help. We've always had a routine for bedtime, which they recommend, and haven't strayed from it. But that doesn't seem to matter. She always has her favorite duckie and her 'special blankie' but that doesn't matter either.

I guess we're hoping that it will just eventually resolve. The other night Al and I were surprised because Avery only came out of her room 2 or 3 times to be tucked back in. And then it was quiet...that was so much better than it has been! But when Al and I went upstairs to go to bed we found Avery sprawled out on the floor, just outside her bedroom. I guess she got too tired to make it all the way downstairs.

Latest Obsession

Here is Avery posing with her latest obsession...her cars. Her favorite is Lightning McQueen. She carries him around almost everywhere and he sleeps with her most nights. She will even bring him into the bathroom while she takes a bath and set him up on the tub. Avery 'feeds' him whenever she has a snack or is eating at the table. And she also puts him down for naps. You can always tell if he's napping because she sets him on his side and makes a snoring sounds. Then she will inform me that he is 'taking a nap!' The other day we couldn't find Lightning McQueen for a little while and there was sheer panic going on. Avery was all distraught and was in tears. We all went around the house, looking under everything and Al finally found him under one of the couches. Then everything was okay again.

Other Avery updates:

Avery counted from 1 to 7 all by herself yesterday! It was so cute! She lined up some rocks (another obsession) on our sidewalk and then counted all of them.

She has started singing a new song. She sings "Follow the Prophet" but she says 'proplit.' It is really cute and funny. I tried to get a movie of it but Avery doesn't like when you take movies. I think I got her saying it a couple of times, but not doing it full out like she usually does. They must teach her actions that go with it in nursery because she was really getting into it.

Avery also does the "5 Little Monkeys" rhyme, or whatever you call it. The one about jumping on the bed and bonking their heads.

Avery likes to put on Al's deoderant. I guess she's watched his routine a couple of times because she does it exactly how he does it. The first time she did this I caught her mid-act. She had her shirt up and was really going to town on applying it. The rest of the day she smelled like Old Spice. Then yesterday she pulled it out and I didn't stop her 'cause I wanted to watch the whole process. It is so funny! So she smelled like Old Spice again yesterday.

She is still really into make-up and always wants to put mine on. She is so quick that I have to be right on top of her. I can't believe how good she is at opening all of the little bottles and compacts.

Avery still loves the Hairspray soundtrack. She will listen to it every time we are in the car if you'll let her. She has started singing along with most of the songs and will tell you who is singing which song. One thing that hasn't changed is that she hates song #7. If it comes on she will immediately say, "no, no, no!" If a song comes on that she really likes she will ask to hear it, "one more time" after it is over.

Something else that is really cute is that Avery is starting to be able to say her own prayers! With quite a bit of guidance. But it is just so adorable. She repeats whatever Al and I prompt her with until we get to "in the name of Jesus Christ..." and then she just jumps in with, "Amen!!" It is hard not to laugh.

Pigs in a blanket

Wednesday was one of my favorite cooking classes.

We started by making pigs in a blanket. Avery loved working with the dough again and was pretty excited about the hot dog. They also put cheese in there before they rolled it up.

Then we made dessert sushi! It was sooo cute! These pictures don't really do it justice. There was a ton of stuff there that you could use to make the 'sushi' and some of the toppings looked so cute and more realistic. But I let Avery choose the toppings and she stuck to the swedish fish and the M&Ms. I loved the dessert sushi. It tasted better than you thought it was going to, and it is so fun. I want to make them again for the next time we have a get together or whatever.

Tortilla pizza and piggy cookies

Wednesday's cooking class was a lot of fun. I'm starting to notice that pepperoni and cheese are involved almost every week, much to Avery's delight. Avery is getting really good at making pizza. This week was a tortilla pizza.

After they made pizzas the kids got to make these cute piggy cookies. When the teacher started passing out icing, M&Ms and marshmallows it was a free-for-all. The kids were supposed to cut the giant marshmallow in half with a plastic knife (well, the moms were supposed to cut) but before we could even get to them most of the kids had popped the whole thing into their mouths. Luckily there were reinforcements.

I was a little nervous because I must have taken the bib out of my purse that I usually carry around and so Avery didn't have one this week. And since she is 2, and a little stubborn and independent, she didn't want me to hold the pizza while she took bites. She actually did a good job on her own keeping pretty clean.

Then the kids all ran around chasing each other. Besides stuffing the huge marshmallow in her mouth, this was Avery's favorite part of the class.

Uh-oh...

This is kind of a long story, but I thought it was funny.

So, I have to set it up a little by telling about the park in our neighborhood. A lot of people around here have dogs, but don't feel the need to clean up after their messes. Avery has become very good at spotting out the messes when we walk to the playground and will call out, "Watch out! Doggy poopy!" She is very concerned that none of us step in it, which is very thoughtful of her.

Sunday Melissia and Finn had me and Avery over for dinner. We spent a lot of time outside and let the kids run around, which they loved.

After that we came inside. Melissia and I chatted on the couch while the kids played. Avery walked by the coffee table and said, "uh-oh." Then she points to the floor at a piece of a brown pipe cleaner. I knew what she was thinking, especially since Melissia has a dog and she was watching her parents dog while they were on vacation. I just chuckled and whispered to Melissia, "she thinks it's doggy poopy."

About every ten minutes Avery would walk by the pipe cleaner and say, "uh-oh..." and point at it and look at us to see if we were going to do anything about it. We would just giggle and one of us would always tell her, "Avery, it's a fuzzy. It's okay." Well, this went on and on and so finally Melissia picked it up and Avery got this horrified look on her face. Melissia said, "Look Avery, it's a fuzzy. It used to be on Finn's caterpillar that he made, but it fell off. It's just a fuzzy." Melissia held it out to Avery, thinking Avery would want to inspect it and touch the fuzzy. But Avery absolutely recoiled as Melissia came towards her with the fuzzy!

We just laughed and laughed! Avery is so funny! About five minutes after this Melissia took the fuzzy up to Avery again and asked if she wanted to see it, to prove it was just a fuzzy. Avery just got a disgusted look on her face and shook her head and said, "no, no, no."

I guess Melissia took it one step too far because then Avery walked over to me where I was sitting on Melissia's couch and said, "I wanna go home."

Melissia and I could not contain ourselves. I don't know why we got such a big kick out of this, but we were hysterical. Avery was really serious about leaving and stood right by me until I got up. Then she ran right over to the front door and tried to open it. She wanted to make sure that she was getting out of this crazy house.

I have thought about this over the last couple of days off and on and always get a good chuckle out of it.

Tagged...

Okay Lara, here you go! Althought, let me first start by saying that when I read about what you were doing 10 years ago I died laughing at the woman part. And it also made me feel really old.

10 years ago:

Okay, ten years ago I was in my second year at BYU. I had already decided on Elementary Education for my major and was taking the preliminary classes for the major. I was probably rolling my eyes at my El Ed dance teacher and trying not to laugh hysterically at her antics. I was in a couple of classes with my best friend and found out that you can, in fact, get in trouble in college. I spent a lot of time going shopping, watching movies, Dawson Creek (oh my gosh...Pacey vs. Dawson...how can you decide?!?), eating, and hanging out with my friends. And honestly should have spent more time studying. Oh well. Those were some good times.

5 Places I've visited:
*Most of the whole country of Germany (I lived there for 4 years and loved it)
*Paris, France
*Venice, Florence, and Pisa Italy
*Cancun, Mexico
*Denmark and Netherlands (okay, more than 5, but I didn't want to hurt Netherland's feelings)

5 Things on my to do list:
*call my insurance lady
*work more on my blog journal printing/pasting, etc.
*start the next book for Book Club
*mail a birthday present and a baby present
*work on my cross-stitching

3 bad habits:
*I am a constant worrier--you name it I worry about it
*always procrastinating cleaning the bathrooms and mopping the floors
*I tend to repeat myself/ask the same question a lot...I tend to repeat myself/ask the same question a lot

5 life time goals:
*To finally lose those last 10 pounds
*To be a good mom and make Avery's (and any future children) life fun, enjoyable, and memorable
*Be more physically active, to make it more of a priority and have a better attitude about it
*To live in a bigger house, with more storage, and feel more permanent in our living situation so I feel like I can put the effort in of painting and fixing it up the way I like. I would love to have enough storage space so that my house didn't feel like it was cluttered or on the verge of exploding
*To live closer to my family so that we can be more a part of each others' lives

5 things you might not know about me:
*I don't usually like game systems, but am obsessed with Guitar Hero and Rock Band. If I had the funds I would go out and buy it right now...but then I would probably turn into a bad mom. Maybe it's a good thing we don't have it. All I can say is that I rocked out to In Bloom over Christmas break and it was awesome.
*I used to be hugely (real word?) overweight. True story. Since 3rd grade. It wasn't until my 3rd year of college that I started losing weight. It has been a battle my whole life. Ugh!!!
*I am a really good swimmer and have been swimming since the age of 3. I used to compete on a swim team and loved it. It has been a long time though, since I've swam competitively and I have no doubt that I am out of shape.
*I LOVE the holidays. LOVE. I love decorating, the planning, the parties, the food, the family, the friends, the lights, the shopping, the wrapping paper, Santa (love him!), the Easter Bunny, the baking, the commercialism, the excitement, the giving, the getting, finding the perfect gift, all of it.
*I never dated anybody seriously until I dated Al. Seriously. I hated dating. I went, but didn't like it. But when I met Al it was different. And then I loved every second of it. I love our dating/marriage story. I think it is so sweet and romantic.

I tag Sarah, Jessie, Jen, Becca, and whoever else wants to enlighten us

Terrible Two's?

So, yesterday Sarah called to chat. Avery wanted to go outside, she kept saying, "Avery's turn to go outside." So while I chatted with Sarah I ran upstairs to get on my shoes and socks. I telling Sarah all about Avery and the green paint. She was telling me that I should have taken pictures of it, which I probably should have.

After I was done putting on my shoes and socks (I was probably upstairs 5 minutes, max.) I ran back downstairs looking for Avery. I turned the corner and found Avery in our bathroom, up to her elbows in toilet water. I just yelled, "Avery!!!" which I'm sure Sarah enjoyed being shouted in her ear. Then Sarah asked what was going on and she started laughing when I told her. She said, "Oh man, Hannah and Avery would get into so much trouble together." I agree. Because look at how much trouble Avery gets into on her own!

So I asked Sarah if she wanted me to document this one, since I hadn't taken pictures of the last fiasco.

Isn't this gross?!? Toilet water!! I quickly hung up and took Avery right upstairs and put her in the tub. She's been having a lot of baths lately. If you look closely at the picture you will see that the toilet paper roll is empty. Luckily it hadn't been a full roll, but what had been left Avery had stripped off and soaked in the toilet. There were little clumps of it all over the bathroom floor and a few in the family room. Yuck.

Avery and I had a long talk after that about how we don't play in the toilet. I repeated that part over and over and had Avery repeat it back to me. I hope she got it...

My new car

I finally took pictures of my new car. Well, van, actually. It is a 2006 Kia Sedona. We got a really good deal on it and it doesn't have very many miles on it. I love having all of that trunk space! I keep both of Avery's strollers in there and there is still plenty of room to spare! The back seats can fold down and for the first time in my life I have automatic locks and windows.

It is kinda funny just having Avery and driving around a van...but we bought it because we don't plan on getting another car for a very, very long time. It did come in very handy with all of the company this past week.

Avery loves this van. Al has her convinced that it is like 'rocket' on Little Einsteins and so Avery calls it, "White Rocket." We've all kind of adopted that name. The first few times that Avery got in the white rocket she would do the "pat pat pat" like on the tv show. Then she would say, "oh no! Nile crocodile!" like how they do on one of the cartoons. When I unlock the doors with the keychain the headlights flash on and off. So when we go out to the garage Avery always says, "Hi, rocket!" and then I push the button on the keychain so the lights flash. Avery says, "Rocket says 'hi' back!" It always gets her pretty excited.

Train Pictures from the Mills

Look how happy Avery is!

Wrestling Grandpa Dave

Derek and Jen and the kids left early Monday morning. It was sad to see them go because we had such a fun time.

After the rest of us got ready we went to the zoo. Avery loved the penguins of course. We got to see a ton of elephants, even the 2-year old one. And the grizzly bears were out in fine form.

We came home to relax and take naps. When Avery woke up she found grandpa Dave dozing on the family room floor. She quickly jumped on him and started a wrestling match. Grandpa Dave was really nice to let Avery climb on him. I don't think he minded too much though :)