First Haircut

Nope, not Camden's first haircut. Avery's first haircut! Yes, it's true. I have never cut or even trimmed her hair in her 3+ years of life. I love her beautiful blond curls and have been dragging my heels for fear that the curls will forever be gone, and she will be left with unevenly wavy hair like mine. 

But after hearing "OW MOM!" one too many times while brushing it into a ponytail, I knew it was time.  We scheduled a visit with Auntie Julie at the salon on Saturday.

Since I took her to a regular salon and not a kids' barber shop, she was the only little one in a sea of adults, and thus received a lot of attention in the waiting area. 

She climbed up into the makeup chair while we were waiting. I snapped a couple pictures of her looking out the window, and then had a strange moment where I just stared at her.  She looked so tall, so pretty, so grown up. For just that second it was like a glimpse into the future, and a strange juxtaposition that this little grown up still has the hair on her head from the day she was born. 

Once in Julie's chair, we talked about how much to take off the bottom before the washing, cutting and drying began.

Julie gave Avery the choice between a straight style or curls. 

Avery chose curls.

Valentines Day Party

I will admit that I'm very sad to be a grownup today. Avery is having her first Valentine's Day party today, and yesterday I prepared all the valentines and goodies for her to take to her class. It really made me miss decorating a paper bag to tape to the side of my desk, and coming home from school with the bag full of cards and treats.  I kinda want to hang one on my office door and see if I can collect a few pieces of candy by the end of the day. But with my luck my coworkers would probably think it was for trash.

This morning I managed to coax Avery into her heart dress (didn't have much control over the rest of the outfit but I choose my battles carefully these days). When I asked her if I could braid her hair, she said "NO."  

Me: "What do you want in your hair?"

Avery: "Nothing."

Me: "You don't want a braid?"
Avery: "No."

Me: "How about a beautiful Rapunzel braid?"
Avery: "YEAHHHHHHHHHH! Rapunzel braid!"

SIGH.

At least there is ONE person left in my house who can't argue with me... YET!

Three Year Old Problems

Josh and I often find ourselves laughing at things that upset Avery. Not because we like her to be upset, but because things that she sees as a crisis are really so tiny and well, hilarious.  Josh always says, "Oh to be three and have her problems..." 

Last night on the way home from school, she told me that she wanted me to pack her a lunch in her Pinky Pie lunch pail (or "lunch pal," as she calls it). I explained to her that I have not been packing lunches for her because the school serves food at snacktime and lunchtime each day.  I told her that there was no need for me to pack a lunch on Thursday especially, because Thursday is pizza day, and she loves pizza.  But Avery kept insisting that she wanted a quesadilla, string cheese, and goldfish crackers in her "lunch pal" for tomorrow.  I finally stopped trying to reason with her and just reminded myself that she has no concept of time, and that possibly she wanted me to pack the food in her lunchbox but then she would just eat it right away for dinner. Today, tomorrow, Saturday, next week, and next month are all the same to her, as they all mean "not happening right now." 

When we got home, I popped a quesadilla into the microwave, cut it up into triangles and nestled it inside her lunch pack. I added a string cheese and some goldfish crackers, zipped it up and handed it to her. 

Avery: "Thanks Mom. I'm going to take this to school on Saturday."  

Me: "Okay. So what are you going to eat for dinner then?" 

Avery: "Nothing."

Me: "Don't you want to eat your quesadilla for dinner? It's still warm, I just made it!"

Avery: "NOOO! I'm saving it for school!"

Me: "Okay, well if you want to save it for school then we need to put your lunch pack into the refrigerator so it doesn't spoil." 

Avery: "NO! It's for school." 

Me: "Yes we will keep it cold until it's ready to eat at school tomorrow."

Avery: "But I want it."

Me: "Okay then let's take it over to the table and you can eat it!"

Avery: [starts crying]

After at least an hour of her insisting that she didn't want to eat it, I finally got my way when she decided that she wanted strawberry yogurt, and I made it clear that the path to strawberry yogurt was a quesadilla, string cheese and some carrots in her tummy first.

After all this nonsensical banter each night, I am more than ready to get past bath time (which involves even more nonsense - like last night when I braided her hair per her request before bed, only for her to take it out shortly thereafter because she "didn't want it braided anymore") and get to the best part, which is where we sit down on the end of her bed and I read stories to her. Lately she has wanted to "read" the stories to me after I read them to her. It completely amazes me how much she memorizes even if we are reading a new book for the first time. She can go back and reiterate (sometimes verbatim) what it said on each page. I love hearing her little voice tell the story, and I love knowing that she was listening and taking it all in as I was reading to her. 

Of course this magic is short lived.  After I get her a drink of water, pull her blankets over her, get her fan turned on, her nightlight on, get the kitties out, and say goodnight, it is usually a matter of five minutes or less before I can hear her footsteps across the floor and her door creak open, forcing me to drag myself back up the stairs to see what the issue is.  

Her top "problems" after I have tucked her in are:

8. I need my ______(fill in the blank with whatever toy she left in the car that morning)

7. I need my ______ (fill in the blank with whatever stuffed animal she left downstairs)

6. I need to go potty

5. I need a tissue

4. I need you to cover me up (which I just did)

3. I need more water

2. I need a band aid (for some virtually non-existent boo boo or hang nail)

1. I need you to put Karsley's hat back on. (Karsley is her baby doll, whose hat mysteriously seems to come off every night right after Avery gets in bed).

Sometimes we get a repeat of the door creaking open for one of the above listed "problems" at 3:00 or 4:00 am.  Josh said I was too harsh one night for telling her not to wake me up for problems with her toys, because I am not dealing with toys in the middle of the night. SIGH. I'm not in my best mood at 3:00, let's be honest. But I guess she must have it pretty good if her biggest problem in life is that her baby doll's hat slipped off.  Oh, to be three again....

Tiny Milestones

Camden finally slept in his own room this week! It was a small milestone, but I think all of us are sleeping just a tiny bit better now. He was doing really well in December and starting to sleep 6, 7, even 8 hours in a row at night! Then he caught a cold the day after Christmas and with all the sinus congestion and fever, he regressed to the rocky sleep schedule of a newborn, right around the time I was returning to work. Not fun. We have moved forward again and he is now only getting up once or twice per night. I am hoping soon that he will be back up to 7 or 8 hours in a row. 

Avery was a MUCH better sleeper at his age!

We also finally got a dining room table (still using our old plastic chairs for the time being until we decide what chairs we are going to get) but it is so nice to be able to have people over without standing around awkwardly in the kitchen. And so nice to be able to sit down and have dinner together as a family in one place instead of spread out all over the living room or hunched over the counter.

We still have so much to do in the house that it feels overwhelming, but I am trying to enjoy each baby step as it comes.

Camden, before and after he heard the camera shutter click:

Superbowl Sunday: