A few pictures

Avie making a kissy face with her hot pink stripes in her hair. (It faded before we even got to the car which was ok by me!) Such a little Diva girl!!

We had a playdate recently at the pool with some coworkers of mine. Avie, Josey and Eliana and a great time swimming and splashing! I discovered that Avie loves the pool... the deeper the water the happier she is. She enjoys walking in up to her chest and putting her face in. This little girl has NO FEAR!

Eliana and Josey watching Avalynn pitch a fit because I wouldn't let her go into the deep water!

Rochesterfest is going on right now and this past Thursday they had a free kids carnival with carousal rides, games, bouncy things to jump in and more. Here is Avalynn and her friend Wyatt splashing.

A picture of Adrienne and I on our cruise, here's the view from our rooms balcony. It was great!

Miss Avalynn posing with her serious face.

Catching up

So I've been told numerous times that it is time to play catch up with my blog! I seem to have fallen quite a bit behind. So here I go!

Miss Avalynn is now 17 (almost 18)months old and is a busy little bee. Her separation anxiety is quickly fading, I am happy for her but sad for me. I miss my little baby girl who's being rapidly replaced with a busy vocal toddler. She has started putting words together. While watching Elmo on tv she'll say "Hi Elmo its me!". Her favorite words are currently "c-ya/bubye" "lets go" "GO away!" "I know, I know, I know (always in response to my asking her to do something or a question)" "stow-eee (story)" "pleeeease" and of course... "cookie". Anything edible that is circular in shape is called a cookie, including her whole wheat organic baby waffles. This is such a fun stage. Literally every day she learns a new word or phrase. Monday she learned that kitty cats say meow and she practiced her meows for a looooooong time. We'll have to find some kitties to visit. Avalynn still LOVES stories. She recognizes her books now and picks each one up with a word or two with what its about.

Avalynn is now learning more focused tasks. She's accomplished her very first puzzle and I was so proud of her. I'm amazed that she can pick up the puzzle piece, match it to the correct spot and get it fit. Its takes a lot of work and fine motor skills to figure out a puzzle!

I've discovered that my sweet little girl has a stubborn streak and the temper to boot. The word NO is now a huge part of her vocabulary. "Avie are you hungry" NO. "Avie are you thirsty?" NO "Avie do you want to play with the ball?" NO than this is immediately followed by "peeeeeease Cookie" and a starving baby girl look. There is no keeping up with her! Discipline is difficult. Its a constant internal battle for me. Did she hit me because she is frustrated and swinging her arms or because she is mad and wanting to lash out. Is she whining because she's bored, tired or hungry? Than there is always her frustration. She wants to do more than she's physically able to.

Life for me has been busy as well. I took a cruise with one of my best friends in May which was a fabulously relaxing vacation. We swam with the stingrays, dolphins, snorkeled, went para sailing, laid out on the beaches and on the boat and had a 'few' cocktails. I've never been so lucky as I was on that boat! We were magically given a VIP ticket for reasons unknown to us, we were given a better room than we expected, upgraded our massages to a massage AND facial, and all in all we had an amazing time. I can't wait for Adrienne's and my next vacation!
I leave this Thursday for a few days to go to Denver for my friend Rachel's wedding (I was QUITE honored when she asked me to be her maid of honor) and I'm applying for a new position at work (wish me luck I interview on Wednesday!). Between Avie, work, house work and play dates I haven't had much time to sit around but that's OK being its SUMMER and I love love LOVE it! The only thing I dislike are all these rotten storms we've been getting. Wishing I had a nice basement to hangout in every time the tornado sirens go off. It makes me nervous that to get to my basement I have to go outside. I'm starting to seriously consider moving so we can have more space and a safe basement.
That's the update, a little long I know but as you know I'm a chatty person!

Warning: Avie on Juice

Avalynn is slowly being switched to whole milk these last two weeks. As a result we've had a few issues with her being, as they say, backed up. I decided to introduce her to some juice to help her out with this little problem. Its pretty obvious that my child isn't allowed sugar as this video shows...

Needless to say, I will not be adding juice into her diet anytime soon!

Our lives have been so busy lately. With family, Christmas, my working, Avie's daycare, nights at grandma's, babysitters, last weeks birthday, this weeks birthday and our upcoming trip up north... Avalynn has not spent an entire day at home for about 2 weeks and will not be until next week sometime. Both Avalynn and I are EXHAUSTED. I've noticed the last few days that she's been throwing more temper tantrums and has gotten a lot more stubborn. I'm hoping once this week has passed we will be able to take a few breaths and relax a little. I'm looking forward to it. It also helps that I a switching to day shifts at work (yay!), I've been on nights for way to long. Its going to bed at 7am one day and getting up at 7am the next with my early riser has taken a toll on my sanity :) I think this change will be good for both of us. Sadly its only for the month...