Ice Ice Baby

Before the next storm rolls through, guess I should document the first one.  We all "worked from home" last Tuesday (Robert really did work all day and I worked half, ok one third of the day).  After some cartoons in bed, Avery was ready to venture outside.  She dressed herself and pulled me out the door.
There was basically a layer of ice on everything, even the holly bushes.  Avery liked crunching around on the grass and she managed to scrape up one "snowball" to throw in the air.

She will be really excited if we actually get 6 to 10 inches tonight!!

Valentine Playdate

Avery's class last year was split up according to birthdays and her friend Hunter moved to a different class.  However, the girls usually get together on the playground so they have kept in touch.  Last Saturday, Hunter had Lily and Avery over to her house.  Her mom had crafts ready for the girls, but they were not in the mood for "structured activities".  A pillow pile-up was way more fun.

 You can just the legs and feet of Lily and Avery before they bust out of the pile up below!  Also note that first on the agenda was to raid the dress-up trunk.  Lily and Avery kept their princess dress on the whole time.  The only way I could get Avery to take it off before we left was to assure her we had at home she could wear for the rest of the day (and she did).

A little bubble time on our way out.  We needed something to ease the pain of departure ;)

Random Updates

February seems to be flying by!  I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that our world is changing forever in about 6 to 8 weeks :)
The winter months are usually the slowest, but we've managed to keep busy.

 Before we watched the Super Bowl at the Ferguson's house, we had a play date with Lily at her house.  This is the only still moment I was able to capture.  We also went out to lunch because our play dates usually run into a meal time and mama's got to eat! 

 The next weekend we took a day trip to Taylorsville to see Nanny, Paw, and Grandma Marshall.  Avery insisted on taking her ear muffs and Ariel doll.  Unfortunately, I didn't get pictures while we were there, but it was a great visit!

Avery had a Valentine party at school on Friday the 13th.  She is dressed the part with her sparkle heart sweater, necklace and tiara.  She came home with several sweet treats to share with mommy and daddy.

 

The past few weekends, the 3 of us have gone out to lunch and stopped at Avery's favorite place on the way home -- PUBLIX!  She always some combination of a cookie, balloon, sticker, and of course her own buggie.  She insists on putting her items (and the apples for Daddy) in her cart and she unloads them on the checkout conveyor.

Watching NC State basketball and "sharing" those V-day treats.

And here's one of me and baby Spaghetti :)

A week with Daddy

Laura was traveling this week, so I got a week with Avery by myself.  

Getting her dressed was a bit of a chore getting things to match.  We apparently have 1000's of cute shirts, but no matching pants as this child refuses to wear jeans.  Thankfully you can always say "She picked out her own clothes so...."  We also wore a plastic Ariel tiara all week which helped cover up the fact that I don't know how to fix her hair.  One of the teachers took pity on me and fixed it on Thursday.

Me and my happy toddler on the way to school.

 We also did another round of swimming.  It did not go well.  She was excited in the beginning, but as soon as she saw kids going underwater, she got scared again.  The teacher did a good job calming her down and getting her to participate, but it was sad to see.  Her class was at 7pm on a Monday as that is the only time we can get home and her to the pool without messing up dinner time, so I think a big part of it is her being tired.  7 pm is when we start the bath and bedtime routine, so asking her to go swimming might be a bit much.

Saddest thumbs up ever...She eventually rallied to do better, but it was a tough time.

Our Little "Aqua Tot"

Avery started swim lessons on Monday.  A small school, Aqua-Tots, opened up very close to our house this past fall.  You probably know from previous posts, that we frequent the neighborhood pool as much as possible and while Avery has mastered the "puddle jumper" flotation device, she needs some survival skills (aka let's not sink to the bottom with your mouth wide open if you fall in).  So after the holiday rush, we decided to start lessons to prepare for this summer.  She starts at the level where they learn to blow water out and not inhale it.  She will also learn to float on her back and find the wall of the pool when needed.  Later, she'll get to actual swimming.

I started prepping her for class, asking if she was excited about going to the pool, explaining that I would be there, but not in the water with her.  She was very cool with idea, but kept saying she did not want to go under water..... which obviously was going to happen.... within the first minute of the lesson....I told her to listen to the coach and she would be fine.

 We got there a few minutes early (yes, you read that correctly) so Avery could see the pool and check the place out.  Here she is waiting for class to start, happy as usual, meanwhile I'm getting butterflies in my tummy (along with some kicks, this boy is quite active these days).

Soon the coach called her name and she followed her classmates to the pool, behind the wall of glass where I could no longer reach her.  My heart was really pounding at this point.  What if she slipped and fell?  What if she swallowed water and threw up all over the coach?  What if she screamed and cried and hated it?  How many kids have peed in this pool?  Is it hot in here or just me?

So class begins with a gentle forcing of the face in the water.  Then there was a some full on under water action, but I was too worried about her reaction to film.

The basic flow of the lesson is 4 kids on the wall and the coach does various exercises with them one at a time.  So if you're not first in line, you get to watch your classmates perform the task first.  Avery picked up on this towards the end and the coach had to talk her in to the last few under water exercises, but she pushed through.  The mother beside me said her daughter cried for her entire first lesson so Avery was doing very well by comparison.

Here she is coming out of the water and knocking down the blue turtle, I think that's a smile.

 Floating on her back with some support from coach.

At the end of class, they took a 10 second canoe trip to relax everyone, especially me.  Turns out, she was not traumatized and wants to go back next week.  Watch out Michael Phelps, here we come!

Avery had the flu (??)

Avery woke up early last Sunday with a fever and a headache.  She was so pitiful!  With the flu going around town, I knew we needed to go see the doctor.  Sure enough, after sticking a swab way further up her nose than I ever thought possible, it was confirmed, she had the flu.  Daddy picked up her meds and called in nurse Gigi.  Unfortunately, Robert had big meetings at work and I was flying to Ohio so we couldn't stay home with our pitiful patient.

However, seeing Gigi perked her right up (I guess the Tamiflu helped too) and she had some pretty fun "sick days" at home.

Introducing Chef Avery!  She cooks, eats, and washes dishes (unless her parents are around).

One of Gigi's specialties is sweet rolls (like a cinnamon-raisin bun) and Avery got to help make a batch (as seen above).  The following weekend, she and I went to the grocery store and Avery asked if we could make more sweet rolls.  She explained to me that it was quite easy, I just had to buy cinnamon, raisins, and bread; and follow the recipe in Gigi's book.  It didn't matter that I don't have the dough or starter to make the dough.... I think I'm gonna need a "Laura-proof" version of sweet rolls because Avery is hooked!

Random Disney

It has been a couple weeks since we got back from Disney, but I got another 1,200 pictures to post.  This is a bunch of random pictures that made me laugh flipping through them.

Avery waiting for a show to start.

 Avery was pretty tired at the end of the first day and got a hold of Laura's phone.  She knows how to turn on the camera, make it face the other direction and take selfies...

She got a good one of me too..

 Happy family headed out to go see Hollywood Studios.

 These were a couple of pictures I took on the roller coaster.  First, waiting for the train to move.

 Climbing the hill for the big drop off...

 When she met Anna and told her that her name was Avery, Anna showed her the A on her boots.

 Then asked Avery if she thought the boots would fit her.