10 on 10-November

Thanks for the reminder Joelle!

She loves laying by the heater

Potty seat came today!

A fridge full of nothing I want

I want to be outside!

Almost off work!

She was so excited when I came to pick her up. Love this pic and she's running over the word "Whiz". Whiz on by!

Playing while making dinner.

Spaghetti + hair = not a good combo on a non-bath night.

My reward for surviving.

10 on 10

Our dog just stares at the floor anytime Avery is in her highchair.

Tornado

Ahh, shower AND shaved my legs!

Naptime

CM

Up and at 'em. 15month picture

Had to pick up my husband who crashed his bike.

Back to Costco for the second time

Dinner always ends with milk on the floor.

Ahhh...I deserve this!

Vocabulary

It seems that anymore now Avery's vocabulary is just growing day by day. I'll say words to her and she doesn't hesitate to copy them. It makes me very excited to see her learning new things everyday. Since she started walking she has become Miss Independent and Miss Busy! She wants to get into everything, walk everywhere, go up and down the stairs, use her own utensils, etc. The fact that she is picking up on these skills just amazes me, but it's also very tiring. We've been lucky at being able to contain her in her play area. This is the first time we've put up baby gates! I was surprised that we waited so long too, and I think I can count on one hand how many times we've had it up.

I digress. I was talking about her vocabulary. One Saturday she woke up and pointed to her bow board, I said "Bow", she said the same. That started the day of B's. Balloon-"boon", Bow-"oohhh", Bird-"ird", banana-"nana". Don't know what her obsession about B's was that day. She's also saying "night night", light-"lieee", milk-"mewk", all done-"ah du", more-"mooohh", the standard momma, dadda, hot-"haa haa" then proceed to blow, airplane-she points up to the sky.

She has been surprising me about following commands. I started one night after I cleaned her up from dinner. I asked her to put her highchair back, and she did! She rolled it back to its spot and then came back. She can go up and down stairs fine w/ commands. Lately she has been taking the "big helper" role. Today she carried her bag of clean diapers, brought them all the way downstairs, put them in a cupboard, took them out when I asked her to, and brought them to the car. When we got to daycare she also carried them to her class. Often I ask if she can put something back, close the door, get a diaper, etc. and she has been pretty good about responding correctly.

Now that her little world is expanding, I try to make everything educational. Whenever we're doing whatever, I try to identify different objects, colors, shapes, etc. I'm also really really trying not to use the babytalk! It's hard! All in all, my little girl is growing up. I don't think she's a baby anymore, she's a kid!

10 on 10

My friend Jo introduced me to a cool blog idea today. On the 10th of every month, takes 10 pictures in consecutive hours and post them. I decided to give it a try. Here goes!

My morning wouldn't be complete without a cup of coffee.


Finishing a wash of cloth diapers. Weeee!


Enjoying my view.


My friend Nikki and I treated ourselves to some yummy lunch.


I get easily distracted. Look at my clean house!


The dreaded monthly meeting!!


Thinking about dinner.


My favorite time of day.


Aftermath.


All clean!!

I love my church

Jason and I have been going to North Coast Church. When they announced that they were opening up a preschool at their new campus, it was an easy decision to send Avery there.
Yesterday I was waiting to make a left hand turn to go pick up Avery when I saw one of their facilities trucks stopped on the side of the driveway and two men in the front of the seat. I made my turn and passed them to see the passenger guy with his arm around the driver guy, both of their heads down in prayer. It made me smile so big. Who does that?? Stops what they are doing and prays for the other person? I love it.

Funny noises

Lately when Avery has been eating, she's making these silly noises to try and get us to laugh. She does a scrunchy face, then inhales/exhales rapidly. She finally didn't clam up when I broke out the video!

Happy 1st Birthday!

I know I'm delayed on this post, but I'm delayed on many posts. Better late than never!! A few weeks ago we celebrated Avery's first birthday! I decided to go with a cupcake theme since it seemed terribly cute, and she was a cupcake for Halloween. I got a few supplies online and tried to make as many decorations as I could. The big day came and she woke up with a fever. Ut oh. The night before was rough too. She was raspy, coughing and kind of wheezing. When she woke up with the fever, we called the doctor (at 2am) to see what they recommended. They advised that we get an appointment first thing in the morning. Our plan was to get her down for a good nap and then have her party start at 10:30. They wanted her at the doctor at 9:40. So much for a nap! She had the beginnings of an upper respiratory infection but otherwise was ok. No nap for her. Soon people came pouring over to celebrate her day. We made hamburgers, hotdogs and had lots of snacks. I made her a giant cupcake for her very own "smash cake" and then regular cupcakes for the rest. After they were in the sun about 10 minutes we had to relocate them inside because they were melting. Oops! She wanted to touch her candle after Mama blew it out. She opened her presents like a champ, got a ton of cute things, then promptly crashed for about an hour reboot.
It's been an amazing year. Parenthood has challenged me in ways I never thought to be challenged. She makes it so easy to love and protect her. We always comment how amazed we are at her learning, her sweet nature and just how darned cute she is!! I'm so smitten with her!! And heres a few pictures why ;).