Happy 2nd Easter

Yes, it's Easter, plus the end of March, so mommy fails again at her mission to write more often in the blog.  Hope you will forgive me when you finally do get to read and understand this one day!

Anyway, we didn't do any real Easter activities because mommy participated in a sleep study that ended Friday morning, thus still recovering from that, was in no shape to travel, plus you have no idea that it's even a holiday, so we just decided to have a nice Sunday together.  We went to IKEA to shop for some shelving for the bathroom--instead of getting any of that, we bought you a star shaped light to hang on your wall.  Daddy put it together when we got home, then let you play with the on/off clicker rather than worrying about hanging it on the wall yet.  We also went out for lunch at BD's Mongolian Grill, which we have not done in a long, long time.  Was very good--you ate a bunch of rice, wanted to drink mommy's lemonade (and did), crawled up into the window sill, and barked like a dog when I took you to the restroom to change your diaper (I think because you noticed how it echoed slightly).  You also amazed us when, for the first time since we've been trying to introduce it, made the sign for "more" when asking for mommy's lemonade.  After we returned home, both you and mommy had a nap!  Then we had a frozen pizza for dinner and did a quick trip to Meijer for a few things--found you some clearance shoes for when you get one size bigger, yay :)  Read you the Easter and bunny books that we and Nana Linda got you.

Apart from that, the latest things with you are:
* You still don't say words--but you do try to meow at the cats.  It comes out as "owwww?".  You chase the cats around a lot and try to grab their fur unless we remind you to be gentle by saying 'soft'.  As already mentioned, you also bark at dogs.
* Since you don't talk, you point at stuff you want and try to make us figure it out.  If you want something done for you, you often take our hands and move them to what you want done (such as when you are playing with my cell phone (on the baby phone app you love so much), if you exit the app, you will take my hand, turn it to have palm open, place phone in it and look at me, make sounds until I "fix it").
* Yesterday during bath time, you discovered how to make bubbles in the blue bowl with your mouth--you loved this and giggled a lot.
* You still love the dishwasher and toilet--we got the toilet lock, which you keep trying to figure out (but is too complex for you to do even if you understand how), and now your focus is on flushing it.  You get very mad because we won't let you stand there and keep flushing it repeatedly like you want to do.
* You wear size 24 month clothes and weigh 30 pounds.
* You self-feed fairly well, but need help sometimes (and don't always willingly accept).

I'm sure there is more, but mommy is still a bit tired and can't remember everything right now.  Happy 2nd Easter and love you lots as always :)

already february

Wow, the time has flown by since the start of the year!  As per usual, daddy and I have both been busy with school and work--especially daddy, who has such a heavy workload for this 8 week session that we asked uncle Kevin to come help us out by staying with us for the session.  Thank God he has been here--such a lifesaver!  It will be hard after he leaves...for now, we'll keep enjoying his company--you love playing with him and his dog, Sable :)

You now have 14 teeth--your lower incisors just came in recently.  Think you are starting to work on the top two now. You have been walking since just after the year started--think your first official steps were on the 10th of January.  Now you walk all over the place, you love to explore, of course.  You are currently obsessed with trying to figure out how to work doors.  you know how to open the screen door in the kitchen, so we have to keep it locked now.  Soon enough (thankfully not just yet), I'm sure you will figure out the doorknob turning, then we'll have to take care of those...

You still love the dishwasher as if it were the most amazing thing in the house.  If you hear the door open to it, you come crawling at hyper speed (because you are still faster at that than walking), and when the door gets latched shut, you cry as if we've ruined your whole world (this does not last too long, though, also thankfully).  You also like the toilet, much to our dismay, so we have to get a toilet lock soon, because you've gotten the idea to try putting not only your hands in there, but also other objects.

Today we went to Petco to get Uncle Kevin some food for his doggie, and the store was rather empty, so you got to walk around all over the place, which you loved.  Tried to get you to look at the fish, but you just wanted to walk more.

Well, time for mommy to head to bed.  Good night, little guy, love you.

Happy 2013!

As per usual, I have to start by apologizing for not blogging like I should.  Let's just say that December was crazy busy, and Christmas travel was long and arduous, thus even when I did have time, I didn't have much energy to do so.  Another problem is your fascination with us using the computers; you will not leave us alone and get really angry when we refuse to allow you to pound on our keyboards.  Lately, you have been prone to throwing fits when you do not get your way, despite that it does little more than make us tell you that isn't going to work and you must accept "no" sometimes, especially when it is something like not putting your hand into the pretty blue flames on the stove.
At any rate, you had a great Christmas, lots of wonderful presents that you play with quite often.  Your favorite seems to be the snowman stacker dad got you, with the shapes puzzle nana Linda got you as a close second.
You have been standing up on your own A LOT lately; we thought you might walk before the end of 2012, but alas, no, you have decided to wait for 2013 on that one.  We look forward to all the new things you will do and learn this coming year!  Love you lots (and resolve to write more for you in 2013), maman.

A Difficult Night

Hey, little man.  Dad here.  Let me tell you a little story of how tonight has gone for us.

When I got home from work around 4:00, you were still napping.  Mom left to go to work, I had some leftovers for lunch, and you woke up around the time I was done.  I gave you a snack of Cinnamon Cheerios and bacon, and then we made our way to the living room.  

I turned on some Christmas cartoons for you, put some of your toys conveniently nearby, and I sat down with my keyboard and mouse to get some work done.  Apparently my work looked like more fun than your toys and cartoons (trust me, it wasn't), and you immediately came over to play along.  You grabbed my keyboard by the corner with the PC shutdown button, shutting my computer down and my productivity right along with it.

While my computer was rebooting, you headed for the Christmas tree and started tugging on the lights.  I scolded, "Avery, no."  You looked at me, hesitated a moment, and went for them again.  Again, I said, "Avery, no."  So you gave up on the lights and started pulling ornaments off instead.  Fragile ornaments.  Expensive ornaments.  Ornaments with sharp, dangerous hooks.  "Avery, no!" I shouted and pulled you away from the tree.  I sat you down gently back in front of the TV with your bottle of juice and bowl of Cheerios.  This seemed acceptable for the moment, but as soon as I sat back down with my keyboard, you were back to pound on the keys again.  

As I was gently moving you away from the keyboard, I smelled the familiar aroma of a poopy diaper.  So I carried you to your room to freshen you up.  This diaper change went well.  No major problems whatsoever...unlike one that came later.

When we returned to the living room, I knew I wasn't going to get anything done until you went to bed or Mom got home, whichever came first.  So I just held you on my lap and we relaxed and watched cartoons together for awhile until I started getting hungry for dinner.  Knowing that I couldn't leave you unsupervised around my computer and the Christmas tree, I took you to the kitchen with me.  Besides, I figured you'd want to share some rice with me.  (You really, really love rice in just about any form or flavor.)

Dinner with you was fun as usual.  We ate and played and made funny noises and faces at each other like we always do.  The rice apparently made you really thirsty though, because you finished off your juice and then went through a full, tall bottle of water.  Quickly.  

When we had finished eating, I took you from your high chair to discover that your pants were soaked with pee.  So we went straight upstairs to do another diaper change and get you some clean pants.  Clean baby, new diaper, fresh pants -- all was good.  You seemed to really want to stay in your room to play with your books, so I let you, since there's nothing dangerous in your room and I would easily be able to keep an eye on your door from the bottom of the stairs.

I went back downstairs to try again to work, and then remembered that I needed to wash my hands after that gross experience, so I went to the kitchen sink for what must have been less than 10 seconds.  When I returned, you had somehow made it down two stairs.  You were sitting comfortably on the second stair from the top, smiling and patting your hand on the railing.  I have no idea how you did that, especially so quickly.

As I started up the stairs to get you, you turned and crawled up to the top, then stood up by supporting yourself with the railing.  When I reached you, there was the poopy diaper scent again.  Yes, not even five minutes from the last diaper change, you needed another.

This is where the real fun began.  You didn't want another diaper change and you fought it.  As soon as I had you wiped off, you went crawling away, your naked butt wiggling as you went.  I grabbed you by the waist to keep you from fleeing, but this just angered you.  I covered your butt with the diaper and started to attach the fasteners when you broke away, ripping the fastener off of the diaper as you bolted for the door.

Normally I close your door at diaper time because you like to escape before the job is finished, but this time I didn't.  You were out the door and heading down the hall to the bathroom.  I grabbed a new diaper, powdered it quickly, and then pursued you.

I was too late.  You had stopped just inside the bathroom door, on your hands and knees, and made a huge pee puddle right there on the floor.  "Aw, Avery!" I whined, but you just crawled over to the tub, stood up, and then did it again.  You made sounds as if you were very pleased with yourself as you watched your pee stream splatter against the side of the tub and soak into the bath mat below.  While you were distracted, I threw the new diaper around you and fastened it, then grabbed a hand towel to dry you off, and then soaked up the floor puddle.

Exhausted now, I just held you on my lap again as we sat on the couch and watched TV until Mom came home.  By then, it was nearly your bedtime.  Thank goodness!

Even after all of this, I still love you more than anything in the universe.  Weird, huh?

november begins

jeudi 1 novembre--Today was a good day, though nothing terribly exciting or out of the ordinary to report.  You spent most of the day with me.  Tried to have you nap around 12:30, failed, so we waited and tried again at 2pm, which worked great.  Am thinking that may be your time preference for napping right now...we'll see how it goes, though.  Post-nap, you crawled all over the place, had a great time as always.  Got a video of you giggling, rocking in the recliner in your room.  You had the mac n cheese leftovers for dinner, which you loved just as much as last night.  Dad had you while I worked and said you were happy and energetic for him, too.  When I returned, gave you a bath where you splashed like crazy and loved it (I always get wet, even if I manage to use the curtain to try to guard against it).  You weren't pleased about bedtime, but that's fairly normal unfortunately.  You keep fighting it and end up falling asleep doubled over or in half-crawl position (legs tucked under).  When this happens, you typically wake up an hour or two later and we have to comfort you and reposition you (like tonight).

dimanche 4 novembre--Today we turned the clocks back, but you still got up at what would be your normal time (around 9:30, so today, 8:30).  That was fine, as I needed to be up to get ready for work and daddy to get you ready for traveling.  I would have gone with you tow, but I had lessons, so I stayed behind.  You had a great time with daddy going to Jacksonville, IL for a family event (an anniversary party).  Meanwhile, after I did my lessons, I came home and got my homework for the week done so that dad will be able to do his work during the week.  We are also expecting visitors this week, so I want to keep working on the house, too.  Since you slept in the car, we let you stay up a little tonight, am hoping we can get you back on schedule through the week.

mardi 20 novembre--Well, November is no longer beginning, so I'd better wrap up this post.  I can't possibly include everything that has gone on for the last 15 days, so I will just stick to the few we've just had.  Today was a day of running errands together.  You were super well-behaved as we went everywhere and no surprise, caught a few zzz's in the car, too.  You've been sleeping a bit more these past few days, which we are thinking means you are teething hard again.  I managed to finally get a glimpse of your top 1 year molars; they are not all the way through yet by far, and I can't tell if you've started the bottom ones.  You have been chewing on your fingers quite a lot as well.

Friday (16th), we packed up and went to Nana Linda's for the weekend to celebrate early T-giving with family there.  We had a good trip down, except for when you got mad because the sun kept getting in your eyes (we did our best to keep it out, but it was a tad rough for that hour before sunset!)  You had a bit of a fussy evening, though--think it was because you were not used to being away combined with the teething.
Saturday (17th), we spent the day at Nana's; daddy and uncle Kevin played outside (a ghost hunting game daddy just discovered) because it was super nice weather.  Mommy helped Nana prepare the dinner--we had turkey, ham, scalloped potatoes, corn, and handmade Parker House rolls, with malted milk chocolate mousse for dessert.  You enjoyed sampling all of it, no surprise :)  After dinner, we gave you your first haircut!  It was just a little trim, we gave Nana the honor of performing the job (and she did very well!!)
Sunday (18th), we returned home.  The trip back went well, too, but was a bit longer because we stopped at A&W for dinner (and found out you love their root beer floats!)  It was a bit late when we returned, so we decided to wait until the next morning to return the rental car.

That brings us up to yesterday (19th), which was a fairly uneventful day.  Mommy returned the rental car in the morning and went to workout alone, as you were still sleeping.  Spent most of the day cleaning house and playing with you, then let daddy take over when I went to work.  You have gone back to napping twice a day, it seems, and yesterday your second one was long!

I will do my best to get back to daily snippets after this :)  Love, mommy.

Silly Songs for Avery

Hey, buddy!  It's Dad.  I realized recently that there is one unique aspect to our relationship that I think should be recorded in your blog.  See, I have this little trick that I use to distract you when you're fussy about something, which buys me time to solve the problem and make you happy again.  I just start singing silly words to familiar tunes, sometimes rather loudly in proportion to your volume, that turns our time together into a sort of impromptu musical.

For example, when you first started standing up on your own, some of your larger pants would start to fall off of you.  So I would sing this to the tune of "London Bridge".

Avery's pants are falling down, falling down, falling down.
Avery's pants are falling down, silly baby.

Last night, you were getting hungry.  (I was too, but unlike you, I wasn't fussing about it.)  I had no idea what to give you, so as I was searching the kitchen and you were fussing in the high chair, I was singing this loudly to drown you out.  To the tune of "Frere Jacques":

What to feed you?  What to feed you, Piggy boy, Piggy boy? Always you are hungry. Sometimes makes you angry. Hungry boy. Hungry boy.

This happens all the time, so I'll start posting my dumb, improvised lyrics here as they spew out of me. Who knows what silly thing you'll inspire me to do next?

daily notes part 2

Saturday 27 October--Today you had a very fussy day; we think it is due to you having both a runny nose/cold and trying for those 1 year molars still yet (this part is unconfirmed, as you seem to think me putting my finger in your mouth means I want you to bite it, so we can only suspect based on you chewing your fingers all the time back there).  You were pretty good when Lyn came over for dinner; she is daddy's former boss, still his co-worker, and she has babysat you a few times now.  We made her dinner (thai curry chicken thighs) to thank her for this.  She brought you a present--your first toy truck!  You like it, but don't quite know how to really play with it just yet.

Monday 29 October--You seem to be feeling better today, as do all of us (we have all had a bit of your runny nose stuff), though not so much first thing this morning--that was still rough/fussy time.  You woke up around 7:40 and took a while to get calmed down.  Once you did, the whole day started going better.  Normally, I would have had you go back to bed, as we don't get up that early, but today was professional pictures day for turning 1 year old (which is now 13 months).  Got you ready and out the door nearly on time (just 4 minutes later than was planning), and you promptly fell asleep as soon as car was in motion.  Traffic was a bit heavy, so both the photographer and I were late, coincidentally arriving at the same time, so it all worked out :)  We had your pictures done outside at St. James' Farm Forest Preserve--it was a little chilly, not too bad, though, and plenty of sunshine, so we stayed warm enough (well-dressed helped, of course).  You did a super job of being cooperative--insisted on having your blankie with you, which I think will just make the pix cuter.  Anyhow, after that, came back home, got you some more food, daddy left for work, then we went to the gym.  You were great there, too--just got upset right at the end when I came because one of the ladies was telling the other kid "NO" (she was trying to kick a little while near you) and think you thought she was getting on to you, thus very upset until mommy consoled you.  We came back home, I showered, then it was off to Costco.  You were asleep once again as soon as car was going, literally (Costco is around 5 minutes from the house, even less if all green lights).  Really didn't want to wake you, so left you in seat and put in cart, covered up by my red cloth jacket.  Amazingly, even with the wind, you only batted your eyes a bit once we got in the store and then it was right back to napping as I shopped.  Since you were sleeping so well, I had lunch there (pizza, of course), then returned home.  You were still sleeping, so I left you in seat and brought you in that way.  Sat you in kitchen, where you snored away the next hour and a half or so as mommy made chocolate chip cookies lol.  You woke up not long before daddy came home.  Tried to give you a little bit of cookie, but you were only interested in your bottle.  Daddy took over while mommy went out to work.  My lessons went well, picked up some dinner at Steak n Shake on way home, then got the report from dad about the evening.  All went well, you both played a lot; he did have to chase you around mid-diaper change, though, as you did not want to have one on at all once you got the other off.  Told me you crawled right out your door bare butt wiggling away lol.  Finally got you diapered when you got cornered at end of hall.  You finally ate the cookie I had tried to give you and really liked it (yay!).  You also wanted to eat our dinners--kept crawling all over and lunging at us (we were in living room floor, and yes, we shared with you, you just wanted more and more!)  Read you a bedtime story (which ended up being a weird/creepy book if you ask me; we'll see what you think when you are older--"The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin") and you did not really fuss as you got put down for sleep.  Hope tomorrow will be just as nice or better for you :)

Wednesday 31 October--Happy 2nd Halloween!  Today started with taking you to the gym with me, which went well, then back home to clean up, have lunch and get you to take a nap.  Oh how you fought it today!  About the time you got up, it was time for the trick-or-treaters to start coming (hours are 3-7pm here).  Yet none came until just over an hour into it.  A bunch came at once, one of the little girls said you were cute :)  You were obsessed with the Milk Duds boxes, had to try to keep you from eating them lol.  We ended up with 17 total kids coming by, so there was quite a bit of candy left.  Daddy came home near the end of the hours and brought a little pumpkin plus some cake, which you were nearly attacking him to get.  We went out to Half Price Books, got a couple things there, then to Houlihan's because they were having a super special (buy one get one dinner free).  We got you mac n cheese and mashed potatoes, which you loved, no surprise.  You also sort of drank from a cup--think we may get lucky enough for you to skip a sippy (*fingers crossed*).  It was a great Halloween :)