Easter 2011

 Easter festivities started on the previous Thursday for Avery with her daycare's egg hunt.

Checking out her eggs

Saturday we headed to the Owasso Egg Drop.  They have egg hunts for each age group and a helicopter that drops the eggs in the designated area before each age group's hunt.  She was...WAIT FOR IT...

scared of the helicopter.

After it took off I set her down and she got in on the action.

Rob is excited because next year she will still be in the 0-2 year old category but she will almost be 3, therefore DOMINATING the 0-2 year old area.

Pondering if a few eggs was worth the trauma

On the way home we asked her if she had fun at the egg hunt.  She said no.

Moving on.

Later that afternoon we made Easter treats and dyed eggs.  She had a pretty good time doing that as there were no loud noises or spinning blades involved.

After about 30 minutes she lost interest and started trying to drink the dye, so she was done.  Rob and I finished up.

Easter was RAINY.  Like, all day.  I think I read it was the rainiest Easter on record.  We had a nice day in spite of it.  The Easter Bunny left a basket of treats for Avery.  

What do we have here?

A puzzle?  Nice.

Buboos!

We headed to Claremore for brunch.  Avery had a great time and collected quite a few more Easter treats.

After that we went to Mimi's where we ate even more (holidays are rough).

Avery quite enjoyed the cake and esp. the jelly beans.

Kansas City 2011

Last weekend, my mom, Avery, and myself took a 3 day weekend to Kansas City.  We had a great time and Avery proved to be a good traveler yet again.  Well, aside from the windshield wipers.  Sigh.

We just turned her car seat forward facing, and I suppose she had never seen windshield wipers before.  She was great on the way there until, about 2.5 hours into the drive, it started raining.  I pulled out the (only for emergencies) pacifier.  Didn't work.  So I gave her the iPhone, which almost always does the trick.  Nope.  As you see, she covered her face with the blanket and peeked out from underneath it just enough to see the phone, while still semi-crying.

After we arrived, we headed to Union Station to see Big Bird's Adventure at the Planetarium.  It was great...until Big Bird appeared on the screen.  Then not so much.  I think she might be scared of her own shadow.  If the sun ever comes back out we'll test that theory...

After the show, everything was all good.  We took her back to the children's museum (where we went last fall) and she had a good time playing and checking things out.

After that we stopped in the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory for a snack.  So good.

Saturday we saw some better weather, and spent the day walking around the Plaza and shopping.  The Plaza had their Easter bunnies out.

She wasn't really scared of them...shocker.

Lots of flowers in bloom.

Sunday, on the way home, we stopped at Powell Botanical Gardens.  Very pretty place.  Over 900 acres, so we didn't see everything.  

They had an enchanted garden exhibit with hand-crafted fairy houses.  

A children's area had a chicken coop for kids to play in as well as tasting gardens, mazes, and lots more.

There was lots of room for Avery to run and jump, which she did for about 2 hours.  It was a great way to end the weekend, and Avery was asleep within about 5 minutes of being back on the road.  

Rob stayed home and did home improvement projects like staining the deck, touch-up painting, cleaning, planting flowers, and putting down new mulch.  I think we got the better end of the deal!  

Popsicle II

Yes, I gave her another popsicle.  Apparently, I have 2 hours to spare (that's about how long it takes her to finish one).  And yes, I took her shirt off b/c of the epic mess that was last time.  And yes, I happened to catch her telling me to "beat it" on video.  She told me to beat it about 3 times before I got out the phone to record it.  And for the record, I wasn't doing ANYTHING but sitting there, enjoying a sugar-free fudgesicle.  Spoiler alert: karma gets her in the end.

Firsts

Since we got back from Mexico it seems like things have been crazy.  We returned to some bad news: Arthur has heart worms.  Not the best news, but we are going to have him treated and he should be fine (we, however, will have to sell the farm to pay for treatment:).  That week I had several assignments due for school, including a hefty paper.  I also had to have some basal cell carcinomas removed that were discovered at a dermatologist visit before we left.

So with all that behind us we were looking forward to a relaxing weekend.


That weekend we had a few firsts.  Friday night we decided to go to the Driller's game.  The new stadium downtown is great and has a lawn area where you can just throw a blanket down.

There's also a playground, which Avery loved.  Hopefully we'll do this more throughout the season.

Saturday was another great day so we decided to head to Riverparks.  We walked a bit, saw the ducks, and Avery showed up that she goes down the slide on her own.

Sunday I was painting my nails and she expressed some interest, so I painted hers too!  She loved it.  She walked around saying "Avery-ry's nail priddy."

Later that evening I decided to give her a sugar-free popsicle.  She'd never had a popsicle so I figured she might enjoy it.  I had to convince her to eat, as she wasn't sure at first.  Maybe since it was SF they added more red coloring?  I don't know.

As the evolution of the popsicle shows, she enjoyed it.

Who...

...stole our sweet baby and replaced her with an ornery toddler?  Did they think we wouldn't notice?

Instead of going to sleep with a sigh and a smile, this girl cries and screams for 20 minutes.

Instead of mornings made of sugar and spice, they're full of piss and vinegar.

Instead of hugs and kisses she tells us to "beat it." It was real cute when we taught her to tell Arthur that...

Where our baby was fairly obedient, this one literally laughs in the face of discipline.

Instead of asking for something, the new girl cries for it or simply pushes a chair over to the counter to get it herself. 

All in the past couple weeks.

Hello, 2.  You're going to be terrible, aren't you?

Playa Del Carmen

I finally have a chance to sit down and document the trip to Mexico.  It started out with a slight hitch: our flight out of Tulsa was inexplicably canceled.  We were able to get on a little bit later flight (thanks to Terri for spending time on the phone arranging all of that).  Avery was great on the plane(s).  There were enough electronic devices (and a sticker book) to keep her entertained, and the flights were not long anyway, as we stopped in Houston and caught another plane to Cancun.  

Thanks be to the iPad

By the time we got settled into the resort it was late afternoon, but of course we had to get some sand between our toes.  Avery was a little unsure of the sand at first.

Checking out the ocean for the first time

She quickly warmed up and got the hang of it

After traveling all day, we decided to order room service that night.  Avery (and myself) inhaled a burger and fries (local cuisine) as we didn't have time to get lunch and had only snacked on trail mix all day (Continental doesn't even hand out peanuts or pretzels anymore!).


The next morning she surveyed the landscape, taking it all in.  There was a grassy area off of our patio, which was a nice place to play.

Heading to the beach with Pepaw

More playing in the sand

Can't neglect the pool

Big decisions

Standard lunch at the pool bar-fish tacos

 That evening we decided to head to 5th Avenue, the busy local tourist area, for dinner.
  
 The next morning we headed to the beach.  Gigi and Avery went for a walk along the shore.

Again, we went to the pool afterward (tough day).

The next morning, Rob and I got up early and went to breakfast and walked around the beach a bit.  

There was a large chess board on the resort grounds.  Avery walked right up to it and started moving pieces around.  If you didn't know better (and I don't) you would almost have thought she knew what she was doing. 

Until she took one piece totally off the board and started giving it hugs and kisses.

Building something

Gotta keep the hat on

That evening we went back to 5th Avenue where we did a little shopping and had a great dinner.  Avery had a minor meltdown before dinner, so the iPhone was brought out so we could all make it through dinner.  I am not exaggerating when I say there was a three piece mariachi band in full swing about 2 feet away from her when this picture was taken.

Oblivious

The morning of the last full day I made breakfast.  I am so jealous of their abundance of big, ripe avocados.

                                 

And then they brought a monkey on the beach and I dragged convinced Avery to take a picture with it.  If this picture had sound you would hear Avery saying "no, no, no, no."  As it is, the picture really says it all.

PS that hat is not mine.  The owner of the monkey put it on me.

Guacamole was it's own food group for us while we were there, and I think we all ate our fair share of it, but portion to body size, Avery won hands down.

That evening we went to dinner at the seafood restaurant at the resort.  Have you ever tried to take a picture with a toddler?  It's nearly impossible.  The out takes could be a blog post all their own.

Avery had meltdown #2 near the end of dinner, so Rob and I left and put her to bed.  


We left early the next morning.  I think we were all pretty sad to go, except Avery, who was told she would get to see Mimi the next day.

Checking out the "airpanes"

All in all, Avery was a great traveler.  She behaved pretty well and slept great, so we couldn't ask for more.  We had such a great time, and are so thankful we were able to experience this vacation.