"teeth are not for biting"

people that is.....Camille didn’t bite anyone at school on Monday. Actually she has not bitten again since Sunday. Monday morning I told her teachers that she was starting to bite. I told them if they heard a mad/frustrated scream to get to her quickly. Miss Julie said she heard it once and just looked up and said “Camille No!” and that did the trick. Miss Julie said that it may happen but not as likely to happen at school as much as it would happen at home because Camille does not play as close to the kids there as she would play with her sister at home. Makes sense. They read the book “Teeth are not for biting” during circle time. Not sure if it sunk in at all but it’s still very sweet of them to do.

christmas cards and thank yous

I finally got my Christmas cards done last night. What a job!! We also got thank-you notes and gift cards for the girl’s teachers this year. That was quite the job too. Av has 6 teachers (2 preschool 9-noon, 2 after care noon-3 and 2 after after care 3-5) and 2 therapists (speech and hbr) and Camille has 5 teachers (3 from her infant room and 2 from her new explorer classroom). I am so grateful for each and every one of them. I wish we could do more for them. I think teachers in general are amazing people. It takes a very special person to be a teacher. All of the girl’s teachers go above and beyond. You can tell they truly care and I just wanted to make sure they knew I noticed and how much we appreciated it.

Holidays

I am so out of this world excited for the holidays this year. I am having a hard time contracting on anything else. My sis and I went in together and got the best most perfect gifts for our parents this year. They are going to be blown away! They deserve them so much because they go above and beyond for everyone they know and gave us everything we needed and most everything we wanted growing up. Sorry Mom, I am not going to say what they are. Hehehehe As for my girls I think they are going to love their chairs along with everything else they get to unwrap that day. They are lucky little girls. Av is going to be so excited by a piggy bank G&PP are giving her and a coin purse full of coins from AA and UM. She will also be getting several things on her “list.” We have a few things for Camille but I think at this age we could wrap up diapers and she would not care. Just the wrapping will be fun for her. We did get them a cardboard playhouse. It is one that you set up and they play with it until it falls apart and then it’s done. The girls will be able to draw on it and color/paint/glue stuff on it anyway they want. It was $19.99 and I think it might be a big hit. It is a toy that won the best toy of 2008 award. This Friday we have a little holiday party set up with the Shumans. They will come over and the kids will play and exchange holiday gifts. Then we will put the babies to bed and we have a babysitter for the big kids. The adults are heading out for dinner. After that we will have a slumber party at our house and make a yummy breakfast in the morning. Saturday night we will have Christmas with John’s Dad’s family. They are a blast so it will be a good time. On Sunday the girls and I will get up and head to WV. We will be there for almost a week. I can’t wait to veg and hibernate at their house. John will fly in on the 22nd. On the 23rd we will drive into Pittsburgh and have Christmas with the Werner side of the family and then on the 24th we will have the day/dinner with the Welsh side. Then back to WV to wait for Santa! On the 26th we will head back home. That night is John’s annual chili cook-off that him and his friends have been doing for YEARS. John’s little brother will come and sit at the house while the girls sleep. I have Christmas week and New Years week off work!

Fussy, fussy, fussy Camille

Well I officially stopped nursing Camille for good. It is sad, but had to be done. I was only nursing her right before bed. On Wednesday I was at the immediate care with Av so John put her to bed. On Thursday I was home alone with the girls but I knew a sitter was coming the next night so I thought if I was going to do it now was the time. She cried when I put her down on Thursday but not too bad. On Friday Heidi came so John and I could go to one of his Holiday parties. My mom ended up coming for the weekend and surprising us. It was so nice to have her and we took advantage of it by getting dinner together on Sat. So both Friday and Saturday we left Camille before bedtime. On Sunday Camille was very clingy with me. I think I left her a little too much over the weekend. Poor thing was out of sorts. She is teething too so that is not helping matters but she has just been very fussy. I was kind of glad to drop her off at school today. I hope she does not spend the whole day crying and biting other kids. Hehhehe The other fussy thing she has been doing is refusing to sit in her high chair. In her new classroom the kids sit at a table in chairs. At home Av sits at a small table and chair so I think Camille feels she needs to too. UGH She arches her back so it makes it next to impossible to sit her in her high chair and then when you do get her in it, she just screams and will not eat. So we have been trying to let her sit at the little table but she makes such a mess there plus she does not want to sit and eat. She wants to walk around the house with her food. UGH I think we are just going to have to put our foot down and wait her out in the high chair. She is just not as big of a girl as she thinks she is.

list

Recently Avery has started to see things in the store that she wants and will ask for them. This really is the first she is asking for things and she is good about it and does not “bug” too much for things. With Christmas coming I have started to tell her “you can ask Santa for that.” When we tried to see Santa but she would not go near him so we started a list for Santa. Now when she sees something she wants she tells me she wants to “put it on her list for Santa.” The other day after saying that for the 20th time she looked at me and said “my list for Santa is getting big.” Heheheh She is pretty funny. I’m not sure what I am going to do after Christmas is over and I can’t tell her to “put it on your Santa list.”

sick again

Wednesday Av came home from school not feeling well. As the night went on I got more and more worried about her. Her breathing was just off. It was hard for me to decide if it was just fast from the fever or if something was off with it. So I decided to play it safe and when John got home Av and I left for a Take Care Clinic at Walgreens. I had called and they said they could see a 4 year old. So we got there and it was a joke. The lady tried but ended up saying she thought she had pneumonia but didn’t know for sure and didn’t have the equipment to tell for sure. She sent us to an immediate care. By the time we got seen at the immediate care Av’s fever was back up so they thought the breathing was just fever breathing. They checked her all out and decided it was just a virus. At that point Av kind of perked up so I was feeling better about the whole thing. At 8:30 she was hungry. She ate her dinner well and went to bed. The next morning she woke up pretty okay too. By noon though she was heading down hill. Her fever came back, she was breathing fast, her heart seemed to be racing, she was moaning like she was very uncomfortable and she was not making sense while talking. I made a dr appointment and sent her to bed for a bit. She fell asleep and when I woke her for her appointment she seemed better so the whole time we waited at the dr I was second guessing myself. Kept thinking they were just going to tell me the same thing they told me last night. They didn’t though. He said she had an ear infection and was going to give us an antibiotic for that but still wanted to send us for a chest x-ray. He said the meds would clear up pneumonia if she did have it but he thought it would still be worth it for us to know for sure if she did have it. After sitting in another waiting room with a limp 4 year old in my lap for an hour we finally got the x-rays taken. We had to wait again for the results. Before leaving Av’s dr he told me he would be the one to give me the results over the phone while we were still at the x-ray place. Well when we got on the phone his nurse told me that he needed us back in the office. That scared the crap out of me. She said he needed to see her and he wanted to do something else. I didn’t know what he had seen on the x-ray (tumor???) but I couldn’t call John or anyone because I didn’t want Av to hear that I was scared. So back to the dr I drove us. Come to find out the pneumonia was in her left lung right behind her heart and he wanted to make sure her blood pressure and oxygen levels were okay again. They were thankfully, but if they had not been he was going to admit us into the hospital. The whole day I was telling Av that the stuff the drs needed to do might be a little scary (x-ray) but none of this would hurt (like a shot would). Well the dr decided to give her a shot of an antibiotic to get it going. By that point though Av didn’t even really have the energy to fight it. It was quite the day but thankfully we have wonderful doctors that care so much. She is much better and will soon be back to herself.

bully

Camille has become a big bully. Well maybe some of it is that she just does not know better but I do think some of it is a bully personality. She will just take a sippy cup and whack Av on the head with it. She has started biting too. As soon as she gets mad/frustrated she opens that mouths and goes for it. She bite Av twice yesterday. Av needs to start playing a little defense too though. You can see the biting coming from a mile away so I have tried to get Av to yell NO and back away. Av is so innocent yet and just thinks that things like that are mean and so people should not be doing them. She does not understand that her sissy does not know that yet and it’s our job to teach her. Last week at the doctors as I was talking to the dr all the sudden Av said “sissy standing on the chair.” I looked over and sure enough Camille had climbed on a chair and was standing on it. Ugh. Av never stood on a chair in her life!

Pictures of the pictures

Avery

Avery had her 4-year old check up last week. When I told her, her first question was if she was going to have to get shots or not. I told her I didn’t know (I really didn’t) but that it would be okay either way. Well that didn’t do it for her and she just didn’t want to go. So I decided I would call and ask. I figured I had a 50-50 shot of her not getting shots and if she didn’t have to it would make the whole thing more pleasant. Well I didn’t get the answer I was wanting. Not only would she have to get shots but at age 4 it is a big round of shots. I told her she would have to get a shot but I didn’t say how many (5! one was her second H1N1). They only way I could get her to go without crying the whole time was to promise McDonalds afterwards. We found out though that she is 39 1/4th inches and 31.9lbs. She is still in the 50% for height!!!! After all that testing we did when she had dropped so much on the growth curve now she is holding strong at 50%! It was great news. The dr was very presently surprised at how well she was doing. He asked if she was starting to “read” 3 letter words and I said yes, “cat, dog, ect.” I also told him that she can read/recognize all of her classmates names. He was pleased! She is just amazing. He is the same dr that helped us through all the stuff with her when she was born. He has been pulling for us/her since her birth.


On a different note Av rode a new horse the other day. Wendy Lou. She was very excited. We had talked about it a lot and so she was excited to meet a new horse and to give him/her treats.

Pictures-Big success!

I decided to try again. I would love if twice a year I could get a great professional pic of the girls. If you remember I tried in Feb and it was a disaster. Av and I both left in tears because she refused to smile for the pics. This time it went great though!!!!!! I didn’t make it a big deal at all. The night before I showed her the cute outfit and told her what we were going to do. I also told her if she didn’t want her pic taken that was fine but we were going and Camille was going to get hers taken and everyone (G&PP, her friends, and Aunt Ann) were going to get a pic of just Camille. That did the trick. She wanted everyone to get a picture of her too. Av wore a black and white skirt that had a red flower on it and a red sweater with white and black ribbon on it. She also wore knee high socks with red bows on them. Camille had on a red sweater dress with big black dots on it, white tights and a white long sleeve shirt. They looked sooooooooooo cute. A couple mothers there asked me where I got their outfits. I also had another outfit for Camille. I wanted to get a funny 1-year-old pic of her. So we got there and we had to wait a bit but the girls were good and played. Finally it was our turn. Avery did so well. They smiled and sat together (kind of, Camille kept trying to run off). I got 2 poses of them together. One picture is a close up that shows off their cute/pretty smiles and one full body of them standing together. Their smiles are not as big on the full body but they are just standing in a way that is totally them. Av has her knees together kind of shyly and Camille is ready to take off. Av refused to smile and get her picture taken by herself. That’s fine. I got what I wanted. For Camille’s second pic I had a pink tutu and a headband with a big pink flower on it. She wore just her diaper and that get-up. Hehehehhe I wanted her little pudgy body to show in the pic. She looked so cute and we had quite the audience while she was posing for these pictures. Everyone was ohhhhhing and ahhhing. After she was done she took off through the store in her tutu and got more ohhhhhs and ahhhhs. She was quite the ham. I need to try and scan the pictures so I can put them on here.

decorating the Christmas tree

Christmas Tree

We had a super weekend! We stayed home on Friday and just played, played and played some more. Friday afternoon the girls and I got out the inside Christmas decorations. They thought that was a blast. There are Santas everywhere and so far Camille has been pretty good about leaving them alone. The girls loved looking at all the Christmas books and Avery was in heaven with her collection of Christmas purses. They think the stockings with their names on them are pretty cool. I asked Av if she was going to fill mine with presents. She said, “no mommy, that’s Santa’s job.” Heheheh she is too smart. On Saturday we got up and headed off to find the perfect Christmas tree. We always head down to the waterfront to where some Christmas tree vendors set up shop. It’s nothing all that special but it’s kind of a tradition for us and it’s always fun by the waterfront. I was determined to get a picture for our Christmas card so I talked to Av a little bit about it. I showed her all our picture cards from the past and she loved looking at her friend’s baby pictures as well as her own. I told her she needed to smile for me when I asked her too. She of course said, “no!” So I told her that was fine but I was going to mail out a picture with or without her and I thought Jackson and Caroline (her bff’s) would be very disappointed to get a picture of just her baby sister. That did the trick! I got better pics of her than I did of Camille. It was a beautiful day. Very cold but sunny and pretty. Avery picked out a great tree and then we headed home for lunch. The girls found it very silly to have a tree in the house. That night we went to the Mason’s house for a full-fledged dinner party. It was a blast and the kids were so good. We were there till 11pm. Camille partied the whole time. I partly felt like a bad mom but she is NEVER up past 8:30 so once in awhile is not going to hurt her. Yesterday we took the kids to the gym. It was Camille’s first time in the day care there. She did pretty well. It was a nice break for mom and dad. John had made chili that morning and after the gym we decided to invite the Shumans over for dinner. Not knowing if we had enough chili or not we decided to turn it into a chili cheese dog party. I decided last night that I don’t eat enough of those. Heheheh boy are they good. Our Christmas tree is still not decorated though. Hopefully tonight that gets done. I hope to get some more cute pictures of the girls.

monkeys climbing on daddy's suitcase

new things Camille is doing

Camille’s talking is all the sudden taken off. She says dog, ball, Jack, more, milk, eat, book, off, up, Avery and a bunch more I can’t think of right now. She knows what a dog and a horse say. She knows her belly, nose, ears feet and hair. She really can get her point across. Last night in the bath I was dumping water on their heads to wet their hair. I put the cup down and she picked it up and handed it back and said more. She has 2 favorite books. She will find them out of all the books, bring it to me and plop down on my lap for me to read it. One is called Little Quack and the other is an Ocean book my Aunt Rosie sent them. Little Quack is nothing special but the Ocean book is a pop up book and each page makes a different ocean sound. It is pretty neat. We read it over and over and over again and she just says more each time. There is a book at hbr that she loves too. She can pick it out just by its spine on the bookshelf. It is a pop up book too. When I put her down for her nap she usually has her socks on but by the time she gets up she has pulled them off. Well yesterday she was wearing tights so when she got up they were all pulled at but she could not get them off. She pointed right to them and said off. There is a yummy Mexican restaurant within walking distance to our house so we are there a lot. It is very kid friendly. We took G&PP this weekend and they were surprised that Camille gets her own dish of salsa and knows just what to do with it and the chips. Everything she knows is learned from watching big sis. What Avery is doing Camille has to be doing it too. My sis said this weekend, “thank goodness Camille has that booty, it balances out her belly.” Hehehehehhe

Graduates

Av will soon be graduating from Mickey to a bigger horse. Miss Becky thinks she is ready to move up and on! Apparently all horses have a different walk and each walk works different muscles for the rider. Av is stronger now and can handle a more aggressive walk. Avery told me that Mickey ran (trotted) while she was riding him the other day. She was very exited.

Camille is graduating from the infant classroom to the explorer (that sure is a nice name for the “I’m into everything!” stage) classroom! She has started to visit her new classroom this week to help get her adjusted. The first time Miss Megan took her to meet her new teachers and classmates she would not let Megan out of her sight. She warmed up though and soon was off playing and exploring her new classroom so much so that Megan was able to leave. Megan said she fit right in with the older kids (not too much older though the ages for that class are 14-20 months). Today Camille was going to head to her new classroom at 10:30 and stay till after lunch. Monday will be her first full day as an explorer. Camille is already doing most of the things in the explorer room i.e. walking, drinking from a sippy cup and napping from 1-3. It will just be getting used to sleeping on a cot and eating at a table on a chair. I wish I could be a fly on the wall sometimes.

Thanksgiving

Was wonderful! It started on Wednesday night as we hosted the “2nd annual so you are too old to go out on the biggest bar night of the year” party. It was an appetizer party and about 6 families came to it. It was a big success and everyone seemed to have a good time. Before the party Avery said she was too tired and wanted to go to bed. I told her to take a little rest because we were having a party that night. She laid on the couch for a bit and then got up and said, “I’m ready to party!” It was pretty cute. On Thursday for most of the day it was just the 4 of us while G&PP drove in. We got the dinner ready, played and walked to starbucks. It was a nice family day with G&PP joining in right after naptime. (Av napped that day after partying till 10pm the night before…hehehehe) Both girls liked the turkey but didn’t really think much of any of the sides. More stuffing for me! Friday morning John and I got up to shop a bit for black Friday. Anyone who knows us knows that John HATES shopping and I never think the deals on black Friday are really worth it so we never go. This year though we are getting the girls the anywhere chairs from pottery barn and I heard they were going to be $20 off that day. Those chairs never go on sale so it was worth it. We got them. Purple dot for Av and green for Camille. I will have their names put on them in hot pink. After that John and I went to the track with Matt’s family. We had a blast although no one was very lucky that day. By the time we got home Aunt Ann and Uncle Matt had arrived! After a dinner of leftovers we went out for a little bit. I had not been out in a while and we had a blast! We finished the night off with cheese bread and a walk (Suzanne said I ran it in my skirt and cowgirl boots) home. AA and UM brought Av her bday gifts. I think we have started the “what is the most obnoxious thing I can bring them?” game. She better be prepared because paybacks are a bitch. She brought a big blow up princess crown that has a bunch of balls to play in with it. Boy did both girls love it! In the middle is a blow up tower that you can put a ball in and it spirals down in. Av was playing and no one was really paying attention until we heard “go monkey go!” She had put her monkey in it and was waiting/hoping it would spiral down. It didn’t so it had to be fished out. The weekend as always went by too fast and this morning it was time to see G&PP off. I think this weekend was the first time of many that mom and dad are chop liver to G&PP in Camille’s eyes. Av learned that long ago and Camille is following in her footsteps. Thank you so much AA and UM and my wonderful parents for coming and staying with us. We love their company and all that help with the kids gives us such a nice break! We miss you already!

Avery's birth story

Since her birthday was just about a week ago and since it’s not written on here anywhere I thought I would take the time to change that. All day on Nov. 19th this year I kept looking at the clock and thinking back to what I was doing at that time 4 years ago. First let’s start with the big important fact that I will never forget. She was a WEEK late. Her due date was Nov. 13th 2005 but that came and went. My doctor’s policy was they would not induce until she was a week late so we had an appointment set up for Nov. 20th. All week though I kept waiting for her to make her grand entrance as I had since after we hit the 38th week. I guess she was just nice and cozy where she was. That year the 19th was on a Saturday and I woke up with some contractions. They were not too bad and not too regular. John went and got me a starbucks and some breakfast as we waited. Around noon we decided it was time. It was just about that time that G&PP arrived too! We left for the hospital but looking back on it all I still don’t think I was in labor or if I was it was very early labor. They emitted me though (I think they were just being kind since I was almost a week late and being induced the next day they figured they might as well start that day). They gave me pitocin and the wait began. We watched football all day. It was actually a very nice day with my family. By about 10:30 that night we were ready to go. I pushed for a little over a half an hour and was rewarded with the most precious baby girl imaginable. We did not find out the sex with her and John called “it’s a girl!” before the doctor even did! Thank goodness because we still didn’t have a boy’s name.

Bruiser

I spent most of my day yesterday comforting Camille from fall after fall. She is all over the place and into every thing. She has more bumps and bruises. She is learning to get up and stand on Av’s stools we have all over the house. The last thing I need is to have Camille be able to reach the stuff on the counter that was purposely put out of her reach. Our TV cabinet has scotch tape holding the glass doors of it closed. How ghetto is that???? There is nothing dangerous in there, just stuff we don’t want her playing with. Avery never got in there. She is giving us a run for our money, that’s for sure!

Mickey

Avery thinks that he is “her” horse. It’s really cute now how excited she is to go and ride him. Yesterday we got there and Miss Becky was sick so someone else was going to work with Av. At first Av was not happy but Nikki said to her, “come on let’s go ride Mickey.” With that Av got a big smile on her face and went running off. After she rode and was working in the clinic I kept hearing Nikki telling Av what a great job she was doing. Music to my ears. She even learned to pedal a bike. Went about 4 feet and even got it going herself. Just in time for the bday give G&PP are bringing her!

"why must you always take pictures of me sleeping?"

I was taking pictures of Camille sleeping again. The first one is a side view so you can see her bum bum up in the air. The second one is a top view. Notice her eyes are open. The flash from the first picture must have woke her. What she must have been thinking in that moment. "Mom not again!"

New Moon

So I love the Twilight series. The books were so good. I was sad when I was finished with them. So of course I was very excited for this past weekend as the second movie in the series was released. We waited until Sunday to see it in hopes that the theater would not be full of a bunch of crazed teenagers. I went with 2 of my closest friends. Marci and Melissa. We were able to fit in a little shopping before heading to the movie and dinner afterwards. It was a nice break from being a mom. The movie was good, better than the first one but still nowhere near as good as the books. Made me want to re-read them all…again!

PJ Party!

We all know what Avery’s favorite clothes are. PJs! So we decided for her bday we would throw her a PJ party. It was a huge success. Her closest friends all come over in their favorite jammies for a day of fun. Caroline, Jackson, Sayree and Ella came over along with their siblings and parents. We had elephant slippers as the favors, mimosas for the parents and donuts instead of cake. By the end of the day our house was trashed but we all had a great time!

4 already?!?!

How is it possible that Avery is 4? It feels like just yesterday she was a baby. She has grown so much. It’s just amazing the little person she has turned into. She is so special to us. We had a little family bday party for her on her birthday. John and Rachelle and the kids came over. It is always so fun to have them around. The girls just love it. I slaved all day in the kitchen on the complicated meal Avery loves. Hehehehe NOT She wanted pizza and strawberry cupcakes. As we were getting home from our fun day of activities she knew it was about time to open her presents. I was pulling into the garage and I hear from the back seat, “do I get to open my stroller now?” Her gifts were in my trunk for a little over a week and she had caught a glimpse of a box last week before John could cover it up. We had no idea though that she actually knew what one was. I said, “what stroller?” She pointed behind her to the trunk and said, “the one in the trunk.” By that point I it was wrapped and in the house so I told her there was no stroller in the trunk. She is too smart! Avery's favorite color is purple so for her bday we all wore purple.

Camille's new trick

hehehehe she is going to strongly dislike me one day!

banks

Monday night John was out of town and so it was just my girls and I. Both were tired from a day at school and kind of grumpy. At 6:30 I looked at the clock and thought, “oh goodness this is going to be a long hour.” Someone must have been looking out for me. John on one of his trips had brought the girls back these wooden little banks. Av’s is a pig and Camille’s is a frog. They are too cute and they sit on Av’s dresser. We throw change in the every once in a while. Avery for some reason decided she wanted to get hers out and play with it. Of course Camille had to have hers too. They sat on Av’s bed for 45 minutes playing with those banks. Spilling out all of the change and then putting it all back in over and over again. Camille was in love. (I sat right there to make sure Camille didn’t eat any of her money) At one point I wanted to get Camille in her PJ’s but she threw the biggest fit when I took her bank away from her for a minute. Then all the sudden Camille started dropping the change over her shoulder behind her. She thought it was the funniest thing ever. Avery counted the number of coins she had over and over again. Neither wanted anything to do with the dollar bills that were in the banks. If they only knew.

kisses

Camille gives kisses now! Mostly Avery is the recipient of them. When I ask her for one she will make the noise but will not come and actually touch her lips to me, too busy for that. At night when I put the girls to bed by myself we sit in Av’s room and read books then brush teeth and then we put Av in bed first. Once Av is in bed Camille will climb right in bed with her and climb right up on top of Av to give her kisses. The other morning Av was lying on the couch and Camille climbed up her to give her kisses. It is about the cutest thing I have ever seen.

Just the 4 of us!

This past weekend we spent entirely as a family. We didn’t have a single plan going into the weekend and we spent the whole weekend together just the 4 of us. We have not had a weekend like that in sooooooooooo long. It was very nice. We did lots of playing, raking, reading and some errands. We went to the zoo on Saturday. It was nice having daddy there, usually it is just us girls. At one point Av got out her bubble machine. Camille was amazed. I am so lucky to have such a great family!

oh crap, crap

(this is John)

So tonight, I was trying to eat dinner after getting home late and Mommy was doing something else when all the sudden the "what the heck is Camille doing?" feeling came over both of us.... and yup... up on the 5th stair she is. Before we even knew, we knew. So I go running to the stairs going "oh crap, oh crap" to get her........  and right behind me is Avery yelling "crap crap crap". Ooops.

"I can't believe you just told me no!"

Here is what Camille does when the world gets to be too much for her.  This is her disappointed/heart broken pose.   It's pretty funny. When something doesn't go her way she is pretty dramatic about assuming this position.  

exploring

I have a picture that is exactly the same only it's Av instead of Camille.  I will have to dig that out and post it.  Here is Camille exploring her world.  

Veteran’s Day

I got a very nice surprise on Veteran's Day. After dropping the girls off at school I headed to work like I always do. First thing I noticed when I pulled in was that there were NO cars in the lot!! Took me about one second to realize it must have been a holiday for us! I was so excited. Almost giddy. A day to myself!!! When was the last time I had one of those??? The first thing I did was call a girlfriend and told her to wait for me!!! A few mothers from Avery’s class were getting together for breakfast and all the sudden I could join them! So there I sat on a Wednesday morning with 4 friends drinking my coffee and having a yummy breakfast burrito. It was so unexpected and relaxing. We sat there for 2 hours talking and laughing. Then we went off to do some shopping together. It was nice getting to know some new friends better and a great day to re-charge my mommy battery.

hbr/speech update

Tuesdays attempt was more of the same. Av pretty much cried and tried to wait Miss Becky out. They didn’t accomplish much. I kept my cool and just loved on her when it was over but also told her how silly I thought she was being. I told Av that we were going to continue coming and she might as well start to have fun at it. On Thursday Av woke up in a really good mood and was excited for Speech and hbr. She kept saying she wanted to go to speech first then to ride Mickey. (I had been telling her Mickey has been missing her and wanted her to come and ride him and give him a treat). So after hanging out at the house all morning and then dropping Camille off at school to speech we headed. Speech ended up going great. Miss Angela told me that, “Avery talked a lot and worked on/repeated all words that were asked of her. (They were working on the K sound and Av was doing well.) Avery was also silly and having fun with it at the appropriate times. Avery is now just one of the group!” It was music to my ears!! After running home to have lunch off to hbr we went. Miss Becky decided to try having Av ride first to see if that worked so off Av went to ride Mickey. I snuck in to take a peak and she looked happy. I heard when they were done and came inside. I heard Av crying and asking for me. It went on for only a few minutes and then I didn’t hear her crying anymore. I didn't know whether they were just sitting there staring at each other or if Av was actually doing as Miss Becky asked. Turns out she was kind of doing things. Not great, but better. Another little boy worked with them so I think that helped. Av didn't have all the attention on her and it was more like she was playing with a new friend. When she got done she was super exited to tell me she rode Mickey and gave him a treat. I think it was a step in the right direction!

Great PP

Girls, your great grandfather was one of 17 kids (right mom?). He was such a wonderful man. I wish you could have known him. I have many fond memories of him. Mostly at his cabin in PA. He was so fun. Always ready to take us out on the boat, set off fireworks for us, set up this water fountain he had for us or sleep on the screened in porch on a cot with us. Here is a great picture of him with his brothers and sisters and parents (I think). He is the handsome man on the bottom row second from the right.

Grandma from WI

Came for a visit this weekend. It was so nice to see her as always. The girls had a lot of fun with her. If Grandma was not at the house during parts of this weekend Av was always asking where she was or when she would be back. Grandma remembered a toy that Av had played with and liked a lot the last time she was in WI so Grandma got Av that toy for her b-day. It is a set of play hair things. Battery operated hair dryer, a pretend curling iron and straightener. She took it to school today for sharing time and even slept with it Friday night. Camille woke up at 6:30 on Saturday and as John was heading in to tell her to go back to sleep he noticed Av’s light was on. She was up playing with her hair stuff. Who knows how long she had been up? 6:30 is very early for Av. I do love having a live in hair stylist.