What a big helper :-)

I was sitting at the computer eating a bag of chocolate chips. For some reason this seems more healthy to me than eating "regular" candy, as this is a baking ingredient... I'm sure my logic is flawed, but whatever helps me sleep, right? Avery asked me for a "chocklit." Then she said, with a big smile, "Hayden wants one! I'll take it to her!" Nice try, kid. I'm hip to your game.

Perhaps a career foreshadowed?

Avery loves getting into the dirty laundry and adorning herself with various articles, then proclaiming herself to be certain things. Last night she came out with one of Wade's white t-shirts wrapped around her head. "I'm an astronaut!" I asked her what an astronaut was, and she said, "They fly in a space ship. Avery is an astronaut." If this is a life goal, I sure hope she's better at physics than I was!

She talks in code

Avery and I were sharing a pop-tart for breakfast, which I was eating over a bowl to avoid crumbs on the couch. After it was all gone, she told me, "I want the baby bites!" I repeated to her several times that the pop-tart was all gone, and we could eat something else, etc. She kept saying she wanted the "baby bites." Finally she took the bowl from me and licked the crumbs out. "See Mommy, I ate the baby bites!" At least she's not wasteful!

Sister Photos (or, Group Torture)

Yesterday a lovely woman from our church came to our house to take pictures of the girls. I chose this option for several reasons. It was cheap. I didn't have to leave our house. I get a cd and copyright to do with the pictures what I please. And did I mention I didn't have to leave our house? I thought "How hard can it be to get a some pictures of your kids?" Turns out... it's hard. A two year old and a one month old (for various, different reasons) are not really great photo subjects. The two year old said (repeatedly) "NO! I don't want my picture!" and the one month old (when we tried to get cute naked baby shots) screamed until she turned beet red and had real tears streaming down her face. Thankfully, this lady was very patient, and she did manage to get some good shots. For your perusal...
www.kimwhitephotography.com
Go to "online images" and click on "Avery and Hayden." The password is our last name. Enjoy! (Oh, and I was not planning on being in any pics... hence the tank top. We'll not be printing those!)

I do love him.... BUT...

You know how most people have pictures of their children, or pets, or perhaps warm, tropical vacation locales on their desktop? Not us. Nope. We have the Purdue men's basketball team... in all their glory. What can I say, folks? It's deep and it's real.

My Kid is Weird, Part II

Last night I was in the bathtub, happily reading my magazine, and enjoying my 20-30 minutes of kid free time. Avery strolls in, holding a piece of bread. (She likes to eat plain bread. And don't even suggest she eat something on it. "JUST bread!" will be the reply. I feel like I should lock her in a dark basement or something while she consumes her lonely little piece of bread.) She looked at me, tore off a piece of bread and threw it in the water with me, and said, "You're a duck! QUACK, QUACK!" Ummm.... right. To my knowledge, she has never fed ducks by throwing bread in the water, so I'm not sure where that came from. Again... she is weird.

Christmas is not ruined! :-)

It wouldn't have been ruined, but I would have been disappointed. I ordered this play kitchen for Avery in September. http://www.furniturebuzz.com/products/KidKraft/53160.htm
I was very excited about it, because she's super into pretend play right now, so I know she will love it. Furniturebuzz so kindly charged my credit card back in September when I ordered it, so I was stressing that if it didn't arrive, too much time would have lapsed for me to file a dispute with my credit card company. This would have left me with no Christmas present (and it's basically all she's getting) and no money to replace said present. Happily, it arrived on my doorstep on Friday. I can now stop stressing about it. Oh, and Furniturebuzz sent me an email today telling me it had been shipped. Thanks for the update, Furniturebuzz! Way to be on top of your business! Now Wade just has to put it together. Mommy does the shopping... I don't build the toys :-)

Let the negotiations begin...

Avery has started to test the limits of what is/is not acceptable. She likes to see just how far she can get to "the line" before she gets in trouble. Makes for good times. I was in the bathtub with Hayden, and Avery (who had already had a bath), was putting her hands in the water and splashing, resulting in wet pajamas. I told her (several times) to stop putting her hands in the water. Finally she looked up at me and said, "How 'bout just my fingers?" Sadly no, friend.

A New Little Someone to Love...

She's finally here...

Hayden Caroline
November 13, 2008
8 lbs, 4 oz.
20 inches
And she's perfect... we think we'll let her stay a while :-)

Eviction Date

Baby Hayden has an official eviction. We're scheduled for an induction on Thursday at 6 a.m. At this point I would rather just have her wait and come then. Much easier with the scheduling and having someone to take care of Avery. Of course, now that we have this plan, she will probably come tomorrow when Wade is down town at a trade show for the entire day. In other news, I let Avery have Fruit Loops for breakfast... mostly because I just didn't want to fight about it! "I want Mommy's cereal!" At this point... whatever works!

3 cm dilated and 50% effaced

Seriously child... GET OUT! If I have to go to my appointment on Monday, Hayden is grounded. That is all I have to say about that. :-)

In Which She Looks Like Her Mother...

We all know that Avery looks *just* like Wade. If you compare their baby pictures, they are almost identical. Apparently I'm just a oven for incubating little Wade clones. BUT... there is a look that she gives, that my Mom calls her "What the hell?" look... It does look *slightly* like me :-) I'll let you be the judge...

At "ZooBoo" 2008

And just so no one thinks we are horribly mean parents, she picked this costume out, and she really does like it. She's been wearing the hat part around the house for weeks! She was just not having it at this particular moment... she's a woman of many moods! :-)

Pumpkin Patch 2008

We went to the Pumpkin Patch last weekend. The weather was gorgeous, and we really had a fun time. We went with Mimi and Poppy (Wade's mom and step-dad) and Uncle Jordan. Avery rode a pony named Ginger, the wagon out to the pumpkin patch, and the "pumpkin train." She also picked out a pumpkin for Hayden. It was super cute. She walked around the pumpkin patch saying, "Nope! Too big! No... not that one! Hmmm... no! THAT ONE!" And she picked out a cute little pumpkin for Baby Hayden, because "She's little, Mommy!" Then Poppy helped her carve her pumpkin later that night. It was quite the eventful day! Oh, and may I just take a moment to say how happy the pumpkin sweater and shirt made me :-)

Pretending to be a pumpkin

I don't even want to know how long this took someone to accomplish!

Ridin' the pumpkin train!

All aboard!

Avery and her pal Ginger

In the wagon with Mimi and Poppy

You don't want to know the effort it took for Wade to pull me up from the ground after this picture :-)


"Help! It's too heavy for Avery! HELP ME!"

The chosen one

The finished product... and Baby Hayden's pumpkin :-)

Happy Birthday, Avery!

Avery wanted french fries for her birthday, so we went to dinner at Red Robbin. She was extra excited because they gave her several balloons, sang "Happy Birthday" to her, and gave her ice cream. What more could a two-year-old want??

The diva in her car seat on the way to the restaurant.

Enjoying her balloons and coloring.
Shot of the fam.

The birthday girl in all her glory.

My Kid is Weird

I was doing laundry this morning, and Avery always manages to rummage through the piles and escape with things. I found her in the kitchen with this shirt on her head. I said, "What are you doing??" And she said, "Mommy, I'm a flower! A very cute flower!" What-ev-uh kid!

It's Raining, But I'm Happy Because...

There is a new episode of "Ni Hao Kai-Lan" on television. For those not familiar with the current offerings of Nick Jr. , Kai-Lan is basically the Chinese version of Dora. So she teaches counting and whatnot in Chinese, as well as how to get along with your friends, etc. And Avery looooooves her. In each episode Kai-Lan says "You make me SUPER HAPPY!" about 38205 times. So now Avery says, "Mommy, I'm SUPER HAPPY!" At any rate, there were about 4 episodes played in rotation, and I'm sick to death of them all. Variety is the spice of life... so now we're watching Kai-Lan and her friends figure out how to compromise and share when when everyone can't agree about what they want to play. Really, it's the little things in life that make me happy. Oh, make that SUPER HAPPY :-)

T Minus One Month And Counting...

I had my 35 week appointment yesterday for Hayden. All is well. Only one month to go! Cool and terrifying all at the same time. On the one hand I am soooo over being pregnant. I think this child may have a future in some kind of martial arts or perhaps she will be a professional kicker. At any rate, my internal organs could really use a break. On the other hand... taking care of a newborn and a toddler scares the snot out of me. I know it will all be fine... and millions of other people have taken care of two small children and they (and the children) have lived to tell the tale... but still. I think it being so close to the holidays and all the cold winter weather is also making me think everything will be a little more busy/difficult. It's kind of ridiculous, but one of the things I'm looking forward to is dressing the girls alike. Yes, I'm going to be *that* mom. I can't help it... I think it's so cute. And Wade thought having another girl was going to save us a ton of money in clothes... HA!

Two Year Well Baby Check Up and General Update

We have the official stats... Avery weighs in at a monstrous 22 1/2 pounds and is 31 1/2 inches tall. Her doctor came in and said, "She's finally back on the charts! She's in the 5th percentile, but she's on there!" For those that don't know what "the charts" are... they tell you how your kid stacks up against kids of the same age with their height/weight. Avery hasn't been on them since she was 6 months old. So as of now, 95% of the kids Avery's age are taller and weigh more than she does. Of course, looking at her parentage no one expects her to be very big. But people are always surprised when they find out she's 2. Most think she's between 15-18 months. And then the talking in sentences really throws them off! At any rate, she's doing great developmentally. She's ahead in verbal skills and slightly behind in gross motor skills, but nothing to be concerned about. She got her MMR vaccine (which I delayed from her 1 year appointment), and when we were leaving the doctor's examining room, she pointed to the nurse in the hall (with an look of outrage and disgust) and said, "SHE HURT MY LEG!" (And then started wailing again even though she had just been fine!) She still refuses to eat meat/veggies, and survives on bread, crackers, fruit, yogurt, cheese, and milk. She "says" she wants to go potty on the potty... and then sits there and does nothing. She knows she gets a sticker if she goes, but so far, no dice. She's incredibly strong willed, dramatic, and opinionated (I have no idea from where these character traits come!), but she's also sweet and compassionate towards others. (That would be Wade's personality coming out!) She loves to color and do art type projects. She's also really into her baby dolls, and feeding them, taking them for walks, putting them to bed, etc. She's a lot of fun these days!

You heard it here first, folks!

We've been trying to talk up the merits of being a "big girl" to Avery before Hayden gets here.
"Big girls use the big girl potty!"

"Big girls pick up their toys!"

"Big girls ask for things nicely!"

"Big girls share and help Mommy!"

Etc. It's been a big deal recently to do things like a "big girl." So yesterday we had the following conversation... (and for those not familiar, Avery calls her pacifier a "sucky." And it is her favorite thing ever in the history of the world.)

Mommy: Are you going to share your suckies with Baby Hayden when she gets here?

Avery: Yes, Mommy! I share like a big girl!

Mommy: Are you going to give all your suckies to Baby Hayden?

Avery: No, Mommy.

Mommy: But are suckies for babies, or are they for big girls?

Avery: Mommy, suckies are for babies AND big girls! (Using exasperated tone to imply that this clearly need not be explained.)

Of course. What was I thinking?

Hey, you should really start a blog

Ok, family. I've started a blog. Please don't expect too much :-) While creative writing may have been a strength and forte at some point in my life, I'm pretty sure my brain cells in this particular area have begun to diminish. Somewhere between cleaning up spilled milk, changing diapers, and peeling Dora stickers off the television. Enjoy!