The Crown

There is a story my dad likes to tell about my first birthday (pictured above). My parents had a little gold crown for me to wear that day, but I didn't want to keep it on.  Finally my dad put the crown on my head, and showed me my reflection. When I saw the girl wearing the crown in the mirror, then I realized it was me.  I also realized that the crown looked pretty, and made no further attempts to take it off. 

Well, as they say, history repeats itself. I am finding out more and more that when you become a parent, things your own parents used to say suddenly start making sense.

............................

Like most one-year-olds, Avery is going through a rather independent stage, and likes to pull off hats, crowns, bows, socks, shoes, etc...

Tonight we were playing in her room and I kept putting different hats on her head. She didn't want to wear any of them, and would immediately pull them off.

That is, until she caught a glimpse of her reflection in the mirror.

And she finally saw herself.

And I saw me.

Christmas Morning Continued...

So after Avery played with Santa's gifts at our house, she and I both took naps and then we all headed over to Grandma Mel's house for our traditional Christmas morning. Only this year it wasn't so traditional... My brother Aaron (or Uncle Aaron as he is now called) had the stomach flu, so he had to stay home. Since it wasn't the same without him, we decided to just hang out all day, not open gifts and have a Christmas "do-over" next weekend. 

We Skyped with Aaron for a short while, and then had some breakfast, let Avery open a few gifts, and then just hung out the rest of the day.  It was actually quite nice and relaxing. (Well, as relaxing as it can be chasing a 1-year old around).

Part way through the afternoon, things took a turn.  I was sitting on the floor next to the glass coffee table, and Avery was playing with some wrapping paper in front of me. So close, in fact, that she was practically in my lap. All of a sudden she slipped and fell face first toward the table.  My motherly instincts kicked in in the millisecond that she slipped, and I shot my hands forward and caught her head just before she hit the floor. I was so impressed with my reflexes that I couldn't understand why she burst into tears... Until my mom pointed out that I had protected her from hitting the floor, but I had not prevented her from smacking her head on the edge of the table on the way down.  She had an instant bruise in the middle of her forehead, which was already starting to swell into a giant goose egg.  I felt awful!  We could not seem to calm her, and ice was making her more upset. So I rushed to make a bottle, my mom got the stroller prepared to take her for a walk in the cool air, and Josh raced off to CVS for some infant ibuprofen. 

After a soothing walk and a long nap, she seemed to perk up a little. 

But the nasty bruise is lingering....

She seems to be doing better today, despite the bruise. In fact, she ran her head FOUR times this evening into the side of the dining room table, and it didn't seem to bother her any more than normal. Good thing kids are resilient!

We were back over at my mom's this evening...Had to include this picture of Avery poking at Miles, the crankiest cat in the world!

He growls and snarls at her, and it just makes her giggle and say "Kitty!" 

(Luckily Miles is declawed, so he does no harm).

Santa Was Here

VIDEO: WHAT DID SANTA BRING?

Avery wasn't quite as excited about her turtle pillow or mini-recliner chair

as we had hoped she would be.

But Tyson was happy to take advantage of whatever Avery-less place he could find. 

 At least someone found Santa's presents useful!

Merry Christmas to all!



Rainy Sunday

We are getting more rain this weekend than we have in years!

So we stayed indoors pretty much all weekend.

VIDEO: Phone Call With Grandma

VIDEO: Patty Cake

VIDEO: Cat Piano Vocal Solo



And then it happened...

So last night, after thinking we were so lucky and it would never happen to us, Avery pooped in the bathtub.  One of us was bathing her and thought it was hilarious, and one of us had to clean it up and did not think it was funny.  I'll let you fill in the blanks. 

Rather than posting pictures of the gift she left us in the water, I thought I would post something a little bit cuter.

Here are some pictures and a video of Avery and Alexander from this past Sunday.  Alex lives next door, and is one month younger than Avery, but he has been walking for over a month already!  They were so funny together stumbling down the road...

VIDEO: BABY RACE

Party Time

On Friday, the day before her first birthday party, Avery decided she wanted to walk.  In the morning I posted to the blog that we had seen her walk across the living room. Well then she went down for a nap and I went out shopping with Josh's mom (Sheila).  When we returned, Avery walked around the corner to greet us and Josh said she had been walking the entire time we were gone!  Here are a couple videos of her walking (one with her new shopping cart, and one on her own), her cake smash (which she didn't really enjoy), and a few pictures from her first birthday party.

VIDEO: WALKING WITH SHOPPING CART

VIDEO: WALKING BY HERSELF

VIDEO: UNSUCCESSFUL CAKE SMASH

In the jumper with Dad and Mom:

(The paparazzi have to stay behind the fence):

Hugs for Lizzy!

Piano Time with Uncle Aaron:

Avery's Great Grandpa and 2 Grandmas staying young in the jumper!

Avery Turns One!

Ok so I meant to post this on her ACTUAL birthday (December 8),

but it has been a crazy week so I'm just now getting to it. 

But Avery turned one on Wednesday. 

It's hard to believe a whole year has flown by! 

I had a request to post this animation on the blog so I saved it for the birthday post.

I thought it would be a fun look back at a year that did NOT fly by so quickly!

Special thanks to my brother Aaron for putting this together for me.

(If 1 doesn't work, try 2.  Either way, give it a chance to load completely,

and it will be faster the second time through. 

They are slightly different; I like the second one the best).

Avery Growing 1

Avery Growing 2

Happy Belated Birthday to our special Princess, who walked ALL the way across the living room this morning all by herself!



Santa's Visit

This morning we took Avery to meet Santa for the first time. Santa rides around on the fire truck and visits all the boys and girls in Villa Park.  So we waited patiently at one of the stops on Santa's route until the shiny red truck came around the corner with sirens wailing. 

Loud, piercing sirens? Not scary. 

Weird old man in a red suit? Definitely scary.

Alright I'll be honest. I was creeped out by Santa too.

He wouldn't hold Avery and made me sit on his lap.

So I guess neither of us really wanted to sit on his lap.