Day With Friends

Today we ventured down to Irvine to meet up with a couple and their new baby, Ella. They moved to Ft. Worth a few years ago, and we typically only see them around this time of year. We met at another couple's house who we also typically see once a year. They have a 19-month-old daughter, Skylar. Last year when we got together, Avery was only about 10 weeks old, Skylar was 7 months, and Ella was still in utero. This year, the difference between Skylar and Avery wasn't so great. They both were all over the place, having fun, playing with Skylar's toys. Ella is now 6 months old.

Anyway, our original plan was to go out to dinner, but Avery decided to completely forgo her nap today (we scheduled our departure time to overlap with Avery's nap time on purpose and it backfired bigtime... she didn't sleep a wink on the car ride down). She also started running a fever of 101.5, and the Motrin started kicking in pretty quickly. By about 5pm, all hell had broken loose, and we called off dinner so Avery could take a nap on the way back, which she did. THANK GOD.

While we were there, however, the girls did get some playing in. Skylar even took Avery's temperature with an ear thermometer. Ella was all smiles. Avery sucked on her pacifier for three hours. A big no-no for me. But then, what's once a year while you're visiting friends? The pacifier will be going bye bye very soon.

Here are some pictures to share.
The three girls: Skylar, Ella, and Avery, respectively:



Avery had a great old time pushing around Skylar's doll's stroller and trying to sit in it herself, stuffing all kinds of odd things into a Trick-or-Treat plastic pumkin, and watching a little bit of an Elmo DVD that Skylar had gotten for Christmas. Except the tantrum where Avery screamed bloody murder for the last 10 minutes or our ride home and the part where Avery randomly had a fever with boogers all over her face, our day was perfect.

Update on the sandbox and bunny...

Well, the sandbox and bunny are both a BIG hit. I even have proof.

The Playroom

It's finally coming along. In August 2003, when we moved into this house, the room had pink carpet, dirty white walls, dirty white mini blinds, ick. Once we moved in, we made some improvements immediately -- new carpet, new paint on walls and baseboards, new shutters on all of the windows. For 2 years the room sat more or less unused. The furniture is old and needs work, but the bed is comfortable.



When Avery started to really play with toys and make a disaster, we decided we needed a room where she could do just that, without us running the risk of stepping on something that would forever injure us and/or tripping and killing ourselves. The older you get, the higher the risk of doing that.

We moved the furniture out of that room and into the office to make that the spare bedroom and office (yes, it's crowded). Now of the 4 bedrooms we have available to us, two are dedicated to Avery, as well as most of our family room. She had, indeed, taken over.

Anyway, here are playroom pics. It took us a while to get everything in order, but we're pretty close now. There are a few more pieces we've purchased to go in that room, like a children's table and chairs and a children's rocking chair, but Avery is too small to use them and ends up just tipping them over. I figured since I cleaned and vacuumed the room the other night that I might as well take pictures and share them.

Thanks to GramZ and PapaZ for the leaf canopy, the toybox, and various toys and stuffed animals. Thanks to Grammy for the Fisher Price House, the shelving units, and other various toys and stuffed animals. Avery is truly the only grandchild on both sides of the family :)

Avery's Sandbox

-- minus sand, add pillows/blankets/toys.

She cannot get enough of climbing in and out of this thing. We figured since it's pretty chilly outside (yes, even in Southern California) that we might as well let her play with it inside for a while. When it loses its charm (which it's bound to soon enough) then we'll look into making a place for it in the backyard where the dogs can't chew it and where it'll stay relatively safe from the elements. It does have a cover, but we want the sand to be in pristine shape for Little Princess Poopy Pants.

Anyway, as if my livingroom (read: entire house) isn't babied-up enough, this is now sitting in the middle of my living room. I suspect it'll stay for at least a few days.

Christmas Day

Here are some pictures from Christmas Day. GramZ got one in particular that I want to add later of Avery's silly smile. It's pretty funny.

These were taken before we started to open presents. Avery loves to climb the stairs and she had fun while her GramZ chased her around for while.



Avery got the hang of the presents pretty quickly.




Lastly, Avery opened her sandbox, the biggest gift she received this year. She played inside of it (sans sand!) for the rest of the evening. It's now in the middle of our living room (still sans sand!) and she's having a blast climbing in and out and putting toys in and out. I have more pics of all of this to share later ;)

Christmas Eve pictures...

Christmas Eve was spent at Grammy's house... Avery was the center of attention, as always, and had a great time playing with new toys and with my cell phone for a good part of the night.



Here are some comparisons from this last Christmas to this Christmas. I am smaller (whew!) and Avery is bigger :)



Here are some with Meredith as well:

Our first official medical problem...

Avery has pink eye :( It started with just a little redness, then major green goop came an hour or so later. I called the pediatrician and took her in yesterday, a few hours after I noticed it starting, and already got her some eyedrops. Hopefully we'll nip it in the bud. I have no clue how she got it!

You've gotta know when to hold 'em...

We went to a Christmas party tonight at a friend's house, and Avery was INSTANTLY drawn to the slot machine they had in their living room. She actually hit the jackpot twice. She was so into it by the end, she was even willing to use her shoes as tokens.

I think I know what I'm getting Avery for Christmas. No, not a slot machine, or even a craps table. A fake ID.

Look at the tummy on this girl!

Enough said!



Here's one more of my little nakey buns, being such a geek :) Be sure to notice the sticky peach juice in her hair and the tomato sauce on her face. It was just about bath time!

Monkey see, monkey do

Avery has learned to blow on her food to cool it down. It was pretty funny to watch her blow on some Cheerios this morning ;)

Avery blowing on her food