Finally

I'm FINALLY starting to feel less nauseous and fatigued.

All three of us are FINALLY over this terrible cold...

So it was FINALLY time to empty all the pictures off the camera and post something. When I saw how many pictures there were, and how far back they went, I started to realize just how behind I am... So, less talking, more pictures this time! I need to get caught up.

Let's start at the beginning of April... A shot from Audrey's 4th birthday party:

Since about half of our family was on vacation over Easter, my mom decided to have an Easter "do-over" at her house the week after Easter.  She and Aaron set up a little egg hunt for Avery and Autumn, which they loved!

Ok moving right along... Avery graduated to the 2 year old ballet/tap class late last month. The first few classes were a little rough, as she now has to be in the room without a parent. There was a lot of sitting far away from the teacher and other girls/pouting:

But the last couple of classes have gone really well, and I feel like she is finally starting to get it and actually does better without me in the room.  She has her first dance recital coming up at the end of June, and I can't wait!  (I'm sure it will be an adorable disaster, but that's the point of putting 2 year olds on stage, right?)

After I posted about our horrible Tuesday a couple weeks ago, I thought things couldn't get any worse. I was wrong. I woke up the next morning at 4:30 am with a horribly red, irritated and sore eye. It burned and hurt to move it in any direction. I immediately panicked, concluded that I had pink eye, and called in sick to work so I wouldn't spread the infection.  Long story short, I discovered the next day that it wasn't pink eye after all, it was just an extremely strained and irritated eye from crying so hard on Tuesday morning. Need I say more.

That Thursday, however, things did start to look up, when Avery got her cast off! The cast saw was loud, but she was completely awestruck over the noise-cancelling headphones so she hardly noticed what was going on.

And although the doctor said it would be sore for a few days and it would probably take two weeks to get full range of motion back, she didn't seem too bothered a few hours later when I picked her up from Lizzy's house:

Playing at Gammy's house last weekend with some balloon animals made by Uncle Aaron:

Josh's birthday was on Thursday, so I took Avery to the grocery store after work to pick up a cake mix. She was VERY adamant and VERY loud about wanting to carry the cake mix and the frosting out to the car by herself. And NOT in a bag.  The cashiers found it amusing, I found it less so.  It's funny how she always has to do things HER (weird/slow/ridiculous) WAY when I am in a hurry.

But she loved stirring the cake mix, and she is still talking about the chocolate cake she made for daddy.

So I think that finally brings us up to today!  I took Avery to the park this morning, since she hasn't been for a while due to that pesky cast.  She had a great time and took a long nap afterwards. When she woke up, we met Uncle Aaron at the Discovery Science Center to check out the Dora the Explorer exhibit.

We stopped by Gammy's house on the way home to say hi, and took a quick walk up to the park.

So there we are, up to speed!

After dance class tomorrow, Avery will get her third park visit of the weekend.

Stay tuned!

Rainy Day

Tuesday, An Epic Saga In Bullet Points

- Picked up Avery yesterday afternoon, Lizzy said she refused to take a nap (but she seemed to be happy/fine)
- As soon as we walked out the door, she ran down the street and I had to chase after her and force her into the car, kicking and screaming for Lizzy
- She cried all the way home, saying irrational things like, "Mommy, you have a pink phone? NO MOMMY, NO. YOU WANT A BLACK PHONE. WAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH"  (of course this is happening while I am  on speakerphone with the bank, so they can hear everything)
- We got home, and she refused to come into the house so I left her standing in the garage and went upstairs until I could hear her crying, then went back down to drag her inside (Josh was at school)
- Made her dinner, which she ate about 1/3 of and threw the rest on the floor. I told her she was done and took it away. She screamed and wailed hysterically, "I WANT MY BREAKFAAAAAAAST  WAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"
- Cried while I brushed her teeth
- Cried while I took out her braids
- Cried while I got her undressed
- Cried while I put a bag on her cast
- Ran and hid while I got her bathwater ready
- Cried the entire length of her bath
- Cried while I toweled her off
- Cried while I put lotion on her
- Cried while I put a diaper on her
- Cried while I put her pajamas on
- Told me "NO" when I asked her if she wanted to read the bunny book. So I told her to pick out a book. And she picked the bunny book.
- Finally got her down, and I got myself into bed immediately because I can't get rid of this cold/cough, and can't take my normal Nyquil cocktail due to pregnancy
- Spent the whole morning listening to, "NO DADDY, MOMMY FEED ME CEREAL.... MOMMY BRUSH MY TEETH. MOMMY CHANGE MY DIAPER" etc, etc intermixed with tears because she only wants me and not him
- She refused to come downstairs to get in the car, so Josh and I went down to the garage until she started crying, then he went and got her and put her into my car kicking and screaming
- She opened her lunch in the car as I was driving, ate half a baggie of goldfish crackers, then took a bite out of an orange (WHY??), peel and all, and started gagging and choking
- As I pulled the car over she threw up three times, all over herself, her carseat and her lunch
- I climbed into the backseat and started mopping up the oatmeal-and-goldfish-cracker puke with baby wipes while fighting my own morning sickness nausea as she screamed/cried/freaked out that she was covered in vomit
- Got out my new phone to call Lizzy, only to discover that Josh does not have Lizzy's number in the contacts (you have got to be kidding me)
- Started bawling my eyes out
- Called Josh (hysterical) and gave him an earful for not having her number in his contacts
- Called my friend Nikki to get Lizzy's number to see if Lizzy had a change of clothes for Avery, or if I was going to need to go back home
- Nikki didn't pick up, so I headed to Lizzy's
- Finally got a hold of Nikki, and then Lizzy, who tells me that she has no clothes for Avery
- Called my boss and left a rambling, tearful, incomprehensible voicemail about how I have to go buy clothes because Avery threw up all over my car (which just got vacuumed yesterday) and am going to be late
- Called Josh back to tell him that I don't know how to use Siri (as I have only had the phone for one day) and he needs to find me a stupid* nearby Target that is open at 8:15 am (*I may or may not have used words other than "stupid")
- Drove to Target in Garden Grove to buy a shirt
- Cleaned the streaks of mascara off of my face with more baby wipes
- Dropped Avery off at Lizzy's (who was rather pleased with herself, and shouted, "Look Lizzy! I have a new outfit!" as I sauntered after her with her lunchbag and a tear-stained face)
- Got to work an hour late, and the first person I saw was my boss, who says, "Are you OK?" (I found out he had not yet gotten my voicemail message so I had to explain the whole story again while fighting back tears)
- Went to break room to wash out vomit-covered shirt and asked myself why I thought it would be a good idea to have two kids when I can't even handle one
- Hung Avery's wet shirt over my file cabinet, plopped down at my desk and discovered what it feels like to be completely exhausted by 9:00 am



Easter Egg Hunt

Between Avery being under the weather and this pregnancy taking a harsh toll on my body and my energy levels, I have once again fallen behind.  I hope to get more pictures and stories up soon once I am feeling normal again.  Most nights I am in bed by 7:30 or 8:00 because I am either feeling nauseous, can't keep my eyes open, or a combination of the two.  And now I have caught Avery's cold so I'm basically entirely useless.  Our house looks like a tornado hit.

I have really been wishing I felt better because lately there have been a lot of cute things to blog about.  Avery's story-telling abilities are developing, and she loves to amuse me with entire episode recaps of Bubble Guppies or Dora the Explorer. She is also in a phase where she likes to watch the same cartoon episodes over and over, and likes to read the same book before bed every night.  The past couple weeks her book of choice has been "Flap Your Wings," a story about a little boy who finds an egg on the ground and puts it into an empty birds' nest. The birds come home to find a strange egg in their nest, but sit on it anyway until an alligator hatches out of it, whom they name "Junior."

So it should have come as no surprise this week when I asked Avery, "What should we name your baby brother?" and she exclaimed, "Junior!" without missing a beat.

Her other top name choices currently are:

Mommy

Cousin

Baby Brother (or as she says, "Baby Bruv-der")

Angie

So far she hasn't quite sold me on one yet...

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  Although she is doing better now, poor Avery was sick last Sunday on Easter and missed out on family festivities, so we set up a mini egg hunt for her outside our house on Easter morning:

VIDEO: AVERY'S EGG HUNT PART 1

VIDEO: AVERY'S EGG HUNT PART 2

Breaking the News

VIDEO: BREAKING THE NEWS TO AVERY (Monday, March 26, 2012)

VIDEO: BREAKING THE NEWS TO GAMMY & UNCLE AARON (Wednesday, March 28, 2012)