Avery is having so much fun with Mimi! Sorry not much time to write- here is a video of Avery playing with her new farm, pushing the tractor, and showing off how she can walk!
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Art Fair!
The Ann Arbor art fair started today! It's an awesome street fair of art/fine art/jewelry/pottery/crafts/ceramics/glass blowing/woodworking, etc. It takes over the whole town and though I can't afford most things there, I love walking around, people watching, and finding unique gifts. It is humid and 90 degrees all this week, and so many people come to this art fair that it's crowded, hard to park, and quite tricky to maneuver with a stroller. Avery and I went today and it was so pleasant and fun that I thought I'd give some tips for attending the Ann Arbor Art Fairs with a one year old on a very hot day:
1. Slather your poor child in sunscreen.
2. Dress her in a super cute outfit and matching hat so everyone wants to make friends with you instead of thinking you're crazy and in the way.
3. Leave home before it even opens to take advantage of the cooler, slightly less crowded time of the day.
4. Take the shuttle. For $1, Avery and I rode into downtown and it was Avery's favorite part of the day by far. She was pointing at everything in the bus and making tons of friends. I think she was just thrilled to be not in a carseat and it saved me from having to find a parking spot.
5. Bring a stroller but bring the smallest stroller you own. You would not believe the people there that had a stroller the size of a pontoon boat. It was hard enough to push this little umbrella stroller around all the people walking slowly and half looking at art in a booth across the way.
6. Bring only toys that strap or hook directly to your child or the stroller. Avery's ipod was linked on and her paci was attached so there was no risk of losing either of these precious possessions. This provided quite a bit of entertainment and soothing. Can you see everything attached?
7. Don't loiter around and look at booths where you can't afford the paintings or they only sell creepy human face sculptures. Get going, especially when your wonderful child falls asleep in the stroller.
8. A snack trap is key. Avery had her Cheerios in her "snack trap." This allows her to carry her own snack and eat at will without giving her a bag or bowl of cheerios that will immediately be dumped onto the ground. However, it doesn't trap them in perfectly. Most of the cheerios end up in her lap, and in fact, this was a great tool here at the art fair. I didn't even need a map- we just followed her cheerio trail back to the shuttle.
9. Don't plan on making it an all day adventure. I was perfectly expecting to leave after 30 minutes if she got too hot/tired, and even though she was a perfect angel, we were home eating lunch by 11:45. (It opened at 10) We totally made it to all the parts I like to go to and made several purchases. Plus, we'll go back again later this week when Mom comes to town. Here's a pic of Avery in the middle of the action:
10. Finally, and most importantly, end your trip with a snow cone! Like mother, like daughter =)
1. Slather your poor child in sunscreen.
2. Dress her in a super cute outfit and matching hat so everyone wants to make friends with you instead of thinking you're crazy and in the way.
3. Leave home before it even opens to take advantage of the cooler, slightly less crowded time of the day.
4. Take the shuttle. For $1, Avery and I rode into downtown and it was Avery's favorite part of the day by far. She was pointing at everything in the bus and making tons of friends. I think she was just thrilled to be not in a carseat and it saved me from having to find a parking spot.
5. Bring a stroller but bring the smallest stroller you own. You would not believe the people there that had a stroller the size of a pontoon boat. It was hard enough to push this little umbrella stroller around all the people walking slowly and half looking at art in a booth across the way.
6. Bring only toys that strap or hook directly to your child or the stroller. Avery's ipod was linked on and her paci was attached so there was no risk of losing either of these precious possessions. This provided quite a bit of entertainment and soothing. Can you see everything attached?
7. Don't loiter around and look at booths where you can't afford the paintings or they only sell creepy human face sculptures. Get going, especially when your wonderful child falls asleep in the stroller.8. A snack trap is key. Avery had her Cheerios in her "snack trap." This allows her to carry her own snack and eat at will without giving her a bag or bowl of cheerios that will immediately be dumped onto the ground. However, it doesn't trap them in perfectly. Most of the cheerios end up in her lap, and in fact, this was a great tool here at the art fair. I didn't even need a map- we just followed her cheerio trail back to the shuttle.
9. Don't plan on making it an all day adventure. I was perfectly expecting to leave after 30 minutes if she got too hot/tired, and even though she was a perfect angel, we were home eating lunch by 11:45. (It opened at 10) We totally made it to all the parts I like to go to and made several purchases. Plus, we'll go back again later this week when Mom comes to town. Here's a pic of Avery in the middle of the action:
10. Finally, and most importantly, end your trip with a snow cone! Like mother, like daughter =)
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Shower today
Katie's shower was today! So now I'm relaxing, having a glass of wine, and enjoying my clean-ish house. The party was super fun and went off without a hitch. Avery was a big help getting things ready for the shower. She was especially obsessed with the dust buster. Here are some pics of her cleaning. HA:
She's walking more and more every day- I can't believe it. She is really cute with her hands way up in the air for balance.
Also for the shower, I made flower pots for favors... here is Avery helping me out with those as well:
We had 23 ladies here for the party- the food and games were outside in the back yard, then Katie opened her gifts inside in the air conditioning. Her mom, grandma, sister, mother-in-law, and both sister in laws were able to make it, as well as lots of Junior League girls and some med school ladies, so it was really special! Here are some pics:
Up next in our lives: Mom comes on Thursday, then to Nashville the next week for a final interview and to Indy after that. Woo hoo!
She's walking more and more every day- I can't believe it. She is really cute with her hands way up in the air for balance.
Also for the shower, I made flower pots for favors... here is Avery helping me out with those as well:
We had 23 ladies here for the party- the food and games were outside in the back yard, then Katie opened her gifts inside in the air conditioning. Her mom, grandma, sister, mother-in-law, and both sister in laws were able to make it, as well as lots of Junior League girls and some med school ladies, so it was really special! Here are some pics:
Up next in our lives: Mom comes on Thursday, then to Nashville the next week for a final interview and to Indy after that. Woo hoo!
Friday, July 11, 2008
Walking, cont.
Ok, I couldn't resist posting another walking video. She's getting pretty good! She would walk even farther than this yesterday, she acts like her legs are sore today. Ha ha.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
We have a walker!
I couldn't wait to post this video- Avery started "walking" yesterday! She's been showing the signs for a few days now, but then last night, of course when I was at a Jr. League meeting, Avery walked around the corner to look for Dave in the kitchen! She can get up on her own and walk like 4 steps before she goes down. Check it out:
Other news- the pictures that Heather took of Avery are done and they're so cute! Here are a few samples:
You can check out more on Heather's blog, and here is the website where you can see the whole session and order prints: Morris pics. I figure a few grandparents out there might be in the market, or let me know which ones you like so I know what to get for your birthday =) We want to support Heather with her new business as much as possible!
Other news- the pictures that Heather took of Avery are done and they're so cute! Here are a few samples:
You can check out more on Heather's blog, and here is the website where you can see the whole session and order prints: Morris pics. I figure a few grandparents out there might be in the market, or let me know which ones you like so I know what to get for your birthday =) We want to support Heather with her new business as much as possible!
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Big Weekend
Woah- this is going to be a long one. First of all- sorry for no entry last week... we had a bunch of thunderstorms on Wednesday night and lost our electricity until Thursday night. It's funny how a 10 month old really doesn't require much electricity- her toys are battery operated and she'd much rather play outside anyway. It was much more entertaining than if I'd been here alone! Anyway, Thursday night when it came back on, I was getting ready for the 4th of July party we had on Friday.
(Here is Avery in her pre-4th of July outfit. I didn't want her to get her actual outfit dirty before the party, and yes, it was so cool that she needed a sweater when we went for a walk)
(Here she is helping me prune my plants before the party)
(And here is why I didn't put her real outfit on until later)
The party was nice! We had about 20 people over here, and Dave made some awesome ribs. The weather was perfect, so we all just sat outside, had cocktails, played bocce ball, etc. Avery's friend Kaitlyn came, so it was fun to see the girls play around each other. I can't exactly say that they play "together" quite yet, but I know they will =) Here they are hanging out in the pack n play:
Teething much?
Kickin' party, right?
Both girls loved playing in the water table:
End of the party- lost the clothes, so cute in their matching Elmo diapers!
Good times!
Saturday, we had a BIG day working on the house. The rest of our weekends this summer get pretty busy so we knocked out as much as possible yesterday. By noon, we had already gone to Home Depot, rented a power washer, bought the supplies to stain both decks, washed the front and back decks, ripped several rotten boards out of the front walkway, and pruned all the bushes in the front of the house. As Dave returned the power washer and bought new boards to replace the old ones, Avery and I mowed and weed-eated the front and back yards. Then Dave replaced 3 boards in the front walk as well as the side edges and we stained the front walk way. Then we decided the color stain we bought wasn't quite right, so Avery and I went back to Home Depot to return that/get new stain, while Dave stayed home and repaired the paint that was peeling off of the garage, borrowed a ladder, cleaned out all the gutters and caulked up the gutter leaks. THEN we stained the back deck. Yowzer! Sweet baby Avery was an angel all day, hanging out beside us playing in the pack n play or at the water table. She was very tolerant! It was nice to get all those projects done- I'm sure people will be knocking down the door to buy our house next spring =)
This day o'projects got me thinking about home stores like Home Depot and Lowe's, and how I would like to see the statistics on how many times per day people have to return to buy more supplies once they start a project. Every time we have ever been to one of these stores, say, in the morning before we start working, we have had to return at LEAST once to pick up something we discovered we didn't have. What the heck do you do, if say, you don't live very close to one of these stores? Plan ahead in very great detail? Never get a project done in a day? Maybe once you've been a homeowner for a very long time, you accumulate so many paint brushes, ladders, extra screws, sandpaper, cleaning supplies, yard tools, extension cords, etc., that you don't have to make these extra trips? I mean, we're pretty detail oriented, but we can never get through a project without several trips to the hardware store. It's a given!
Anyway, hope you all have a good week and enjoyed my very random 4th of July pics!
(Here is Avery in her pre-4th of July outfit. I didn't want her to get her actual outfit dirty before the party, and yes, it was so cool that she needed a sweater when we went for a walk)
(Here she is helping me prune my plants before the party)
(And here is why I didn't put her real outfit on until later)The party was nice! We had about 20 people over here, and Dave made some awesome ribs. The weather was perfect, so we all just sat outside, had cocktails, played bocce ball, etc. Avery's friend Kaitlyn came, so it was fun to see the girls play around each other. I can't exactly say that they play "together" quite yet, but I know they will =) Here they are hanging out in the pack n play:
Teething much?
Kickin' party, right?
Both girls loved playing in the water table:
End of the party- lost the clothes, so cute in their matching Elmo diapers!
Good times!Saturday, we had a BIG day working on the house. The rest of our weekends this summer get pretty busy so we knocked out as much as possible yesterday. By noon, we had already gone to Home Depot, rented a power washer, bought the supplies to stain both decks, washed the front and back decks, ripped several rotten boards out of the front walkway, and pruned all the bushes in the front of the house. As Dave returned the power washer and bought new boards to replace the old ones, Avery and I mowed and weed-eated the front and back yards. Then Dave replaced 3 boards in the front walk as well as the side edges and we stained the front walk way. Then we decided the color stain we bought wasn't quite right, so Avery and I went back to Home Depot to return that/get new stain, while Dave stayed home and repaired the paint that was peeling off of the garage, borrowed a ladder, cleaned out all the gutters and caulked up the gutter leaks. THEN we stained the back deck. Yowzer! Sweet baby Avery was an angel all day, hanging out beside us playing in the pack n play or at the water table. She was very tolerant! It was nice to get all those projects done- I'm sure people will be knocking down the door to buy our house next spring =)
This day o'projects got me thinking about home stores like Home Depot and Lowe's, and how I would like to see the statistics on how many times per day people have to return to buy more supplies once they start a project. Every time we have ever been to one of these stores, say, in the morning before we start working, we have had to return at LEAST once to pick up something we discovered we didn't have. What the heck do you do, if say, you don't live very close to one of these stores? Plan ahead in very great detail? Never get a project done in a day? Maybe once you've been a homeowner for a very long time, you accumulate so many paint brushes, ladders, extra screws, sandpaper, cleaning supplies, yard tools, extension cords, etc., that you don't have to make these extra trips? I mean, we're pretty detail oriented, but we can never get through a project without several trips to the hardware store. It's a given!
Anyway, hope you all have a good week and enjoyed my very random 4th of July pics!
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Clean Floors- check
Happy Sunday! Sorry, not much to report from this weekend. Avery did start to clap on Friday- yay! She pretty much only does it when she thinks no one is watching, but it's still pretty cute. I'll have to catch it on video for you.
We got a couple of house projects done this weekend- we're trying to start (extremely) early on getting our house ready to put on the market. Granted, we're still a good 8 months away from that, but we got the supplies to patch up some paint flaws, put some new cuter numbers on the front of the house, cleaned out the garage, etc. I also spent a lot of time cleaning floors this weekend. The floors in our house are pretty easy to keep looking clean- our hardwood doesn't show much and our kitchen floor is light blue linoleum, which does a great job not showing dirt. So, pre-Avery, I would swiffer every once in a while and wet mop the kitchen floor every not-so-often, but I really didn't spend much time cleaning the floors. Well, now let's just say that I spend about three quarters of my days sitting or crawling around on the floor in our home, and I have a little different perspective! After seeing Avery crawl around and putting her grubby little hands on every inch of our floor, I started getting grossed out. Yesterday while I was taking a shower, she was playing with some toys in our bathroom, (with the toilet locked) and she was chasing her ball around the back/under side of the toilet. ICK. Her 2 new favorite spots in the house are the mud ledges beside our front and back doors. She loves to crawl up and down the ledges, chasing the cat, looking out the screen door, carrying toys over and placing them up on the floor, down on the ledge, up on the floor, down on the ledge. I mean, could she pick a grosser place to play? So today, I totally disinfected our mud ledges with 409 and am contemplating asking people to remove their shoes before they even enter our house. "Yes, can you please not walk on our mud ledge? My daughter uses that as her desk area". Ha. I also wet mopped the kitchen and bathroom floors, scubbed behind the toilet, and mopped/scubbed our hardwood floors on my hands and knees. Whew- that's better. Go ahead, baby, crawl away. That is, until you toss a new crop of peas, cheerios, and cheese all over the floor. =)
Oh- this was also Avery's first weekend for a pony tail, then pig tails. So cute! Here she is playing with her new favorite toy- her "kitty" (thanks Mimi), and we're doing a trial run of her 4th of July outfit. Boo- you can't see her hair too well against the couch...
Here's another. Still no walking, but LOTS of cruising/pulling up.
Here she is today with the pig tails:
Here she is with the ledge by the front door. See, it's a perfect little step down for her- big enough to be an adventure, but small enough where she can hold herself up on her arms without tumbling forward.
Oh and here's the back door ledge- see I told you she spends a lot of time at one or the other. Sorry kitty!
We got a couple of house projects done this weekend- we're trying to start (extremely) early on getting our house ready to put on the market. Granted, we're still a good 8 months away from that, but we got the supplies to patch up some paint flaws, put some new cuter numbers on the front of the house, cleaned out the garage, etc. I also spent a lot of time cleaning floors this weekend. The floors in our house are pretty easy to keep looking clean- our hardwood doesn't show much and our kitchen floor is light blue linoleum, which does a great job not showing dirt. So, pre-Avery, I would swiffer every once in a while and wet mop the kitchen floor every not-so-often, but I really didn't spend much time cleaning the floors. Well, now let's just say that I spend about three quarters of my days sitting or crawling around on the floor in our home, and I have a little different perspective! After seeing Avery crawl around and putting her grubby little hands on every inch of our floor, I started getting grossed out. Yesterday while I was taking a shower, she was playing with some toys in our bathroom, (with the toilet locked) and she was chasing her ball around the back/under side of the toilet. ICK. Her 2 new favorite spots in the house are the mud ledges beside our front and back doors. She loves to crawl up and down the ledges, chasing the cat, looking out the screen door, carrying toys over and placing them up on the floor, down on the ledge, up on the floor, down on the ledge. I mean, could she pick a grosser place to play? So today, I totally disinfected our mud ledges with 409 and am contemplating asking people to remove their shoes before they even enter our house. "Yes, can you please not walk on our mud ledge? My daughter uses that as her desk area". Ha. I also wet mopped the kitchen and bathroom floors, scubbed behind the toilet, and mopped/scubbed our hardwood floors on my hands and knees. Whew- that's better. Go ahead, baby, crawl away. That is, until you toss a new crop of peas, cheerios, and cheese all over the floor. =)
Oh- this was also Avery's first weekend for a pony tail, then pig tails. So cute! Here she is playing with her new favorite toy- her "kitty" (thanks Mimi), and we're doing a trial run of her 4th of July outfit. Boo- you can't see her hair too well against the couch...
Here's another. Still no walking, but LOTS of cruising/pulling up.
Here she is today with the pig tails:
Here she is with the ledge by the front door. See, it's a perfect little step down for her- big enough to be an adventure, but small enough where she can hold herself up on her arms without tumbling forward.
Oh and here's the back door ledge- see I told you she spends a lot of time at one or the other. Sorry kitty!
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