Tiki Island

A few weeks ago my dear friend Lauren invited us to a bay house in Galveston owned by some friends of hers on Tiki Island, a little community of bay houses near Galveston.  We decided to take advantage of an inexpensive weekend getaway with friends and drove overnight on Wednesday night, hoping Avery would sleep most of the way.  She slept two hours.  Total.  Kids always find a way to surprise you, huh?  But she was an angel and didn't fuss or cry at all the other 7 or so hours.

We spent the long weekend hanging around the bay house, fishing, eating, and getting some sun.  Avery had a great time playing in the water and hanging out with Davis (2) and Elisa (5).    

Checking out a little crab

Playing pool

Some people are slow learners...

Cute ice cream parlor in Galveston

Playing in the sand

Being silly with Uncles Tim & Stephen

Galveston isn't known for their beaches

Schlitterbahn Water Park

So sweet

Lauren asked me to pick up a Mexican dress for Elisa when we went to Mexico in March.  I found one so cute I had to get one for Avery too.  Little did we know that we'd get pics of them in their matching dresses!

Potty Training Diaries

Sounds glamorous, eh?

Aye.

Avery does very well potty training at daycare.  She is the youngest one in her class, but according to her teachers she does extremely well and according to her daily sheet, she is using the potty about 4 times a day (and having a wet/dirty diaper 1 or 2 times).

At home it's a different story.  We reward with an M&M, a sticker on her chart, a sticker to keep, and of course lots of encouragement and positive reinforcement.   I am probably not as consistent about asking her as they are, because, well, I forget.  And when I do ask, a lot of times she says NO.  We have had some success in the mornings this week, so that's great.  What happened last night was not so great.

Rob and I were getting dinner ready (a gourmet dinner of grilled chicken, green beans and corn, and oven fries) and Avery said she needed to go potty.  Great.  BUT.  You cannot help her get her clothes and diaper off.  She has to do it herself.  And if you just take her diaper off, she will get so frustrated that she will try to put it back on so she can take it off herself.  Stubborn much?  So that's a 5 minute ordeal in and of itself.    Finally, she sat on the potty.  I stood in the doorway of the bathroom for a minute and went back into the kitchen to do something.  I went back in a minute to check on her, and she had gone into her room and got her black patent leather dress shoes and was sitting on her potty chair, putting them on.  


Awwwwwwww, how cute, I thought.  Oh, gotta put the fries in the oven.


Time lapse of maybe 2 minutes.

Rob goes back to check on her, and we found out exactly what a 2 year old can do in 2 minutes given a) poop b) black patent leather shoes c) carpet.

She had pooped in the corner of her room, stepped in it, tracked it across the carpet of her room, onto the floor in the hallway, and into the bathroom.  Looking back I really should have taken a picture because words cannot express how much poop was on the carpet.  It was astounding, really.  And the smell...

Cue 5 minutes of mass hysteria trying to contain the toddler, keep the dog from eating any(more) poop, and cleaning 3 types of flooring and, of course, the black patent leather shoes.  Of course we're laughing the whole time because that's what we do, but it was a mess to say the least.  THANK GOD we are already scheduled to have new carpet installed next week.

Of course we had a talk about not pooping on the floor, only pooping in the potty, etc. to which she heartily agreed (no poop on floor, ONLY in potty).

And then she had the nerve to demand to "EAT, EAT" once we got everything cleaned up and got back to making dinner.

Oh, excuse us that dinner is a little late tonight, Avery.  So sorry to inconvenience you.  You must be starving...

Wordless Wednesday

Well, a few words.  Avery's hair has a striking resemblance to Florence Henderson's.

Something must be done, and soon.

4th of July

July is almost halfway over (WHAT?) and I'm just now catching up on the 4th.  Seems like I've been so busy with work and school, I haven't had time to blog.  And when I get home I honestly don't have the time or inclination to sit at the computer!

We had a fun 4th of July weekend.  It was busy, HOT, and the lake was nearly closed from the presence of toxic algae, but it was still better than last year.

Friday afternoon Rob returned from Vegas and we picked him up at the airport.  Friday evening we just hung around the house.  Saturday we met Lynn and Lauren for lunch and headed to the James' pool party.  

That evening Drew and Lynn came over and we played in the yard, went to the pool, and cooked out.

Sunday morning we got up and headed to the lake, leaving Avery with Mimi.  The presence of toxic blue green algae prevented us from getting in the water and it was HOT.    We made the best of it, though, and the fireworks show was great!

We picked Avery up Monday and all of us enjoyed long naps that afternoon.  That evening we went out to eat and picked up some little fireworks for Rob Avery.

We got tanks, a train, an egg-laying hen (which didn't lay eggs), smoke bombs, etc.

Despite her apparent zeal in this picture, she was ambivalent about the fireworks but enjoyed playing outside nonetheless.

Wordless Wednesday

When Daddy does hair:

Happenings

This blog is for journaling purposes, but if someone laughs along the way, so be it.

Rob is at a work conference, so I'm acting as a single mom (which, by the way, I'm not that good at).

I do not mean to imply that Avery is normally this bratty sassy, because she's normally very sweet, but she has been having quite a few "toddler moments" lately.

I enrolled Avery in the summer reading program at the library, and she has been asking to go back to the "libary" and get more books.  Awwwwwwwwwwwww. 


You do not realize how loud a 2 year-old's cry is until you're in a library.  The reason for the crying was never established.  After the crying ceased, I set about trying to quickly pick out a few books to check out.  Avery normally loves going to the library and looking at books, but there was a bee in her bonnet yesterday.  I think it had something to do with being overly tired from not going to bed (AHEM getting out of bed repeatedly) on time the night before.

Me:  Oooooh, how about this one, Avery?  It has Piglet in it.


Avery: NO.


Me: OK.  Oh, look, how about this one?  Olivia Learns to Surf.


Avery: NO

Rinse and repeat.  I gathered five books I thought she would like, and we checked them out.

Next, I had to stop at Target for a prescription.  Normally I don't take Avery to the store.  She doesn't act right, and her behavior is not conducive to me aimlessly wandering the isles for an hour, so I leave her home (same goes for her dad).  As soon as we pull up, (and this is where I really start to question our relation) she takes a look at the front of the store and says "no."

Me: Yes, Avery, we're going in the store.  Act like a big girl, and you can play with my phone.  


Avery: No.


See a theme here?

Once we get inside, she tried to battle me about riding in the cart ("I WALK").  I won. Shortest.trip.to.Target.ever.

The battle continued at home.

Me: Avery, eat your chicken.


Avery (looking me dead in the eyes): Walk away.


Me: Excuse me?


Avery (slower): Walk. Away.

Bedtime went off without too much of a problem and she only got out of bed/out of her room one time.

This morning started off as an epic fail because I overslept by about 30 minutes.  Trying to rush a toddler is like trying to herd a cat.  It took her about 5 minutes just to put her shoes on.  And Wednesday is water play day at daycare, so I had to apply sunscreen which takes a little bit of extra time as well.  I took her to the garage to spray her down with sunscreen and she took off running into the street.  If you've ever tried to run in a pencil skirt and heels you can imagine that she beat me.  Fortunately there was no vehicular activity at that time.  I may or may not have arrived at daycare sweating and with dusty footprints on my skirt.

Despite the fact that I was running 30 minutes late, I took time to snap this picture to send to Rob so he could have a picture of his little angel.  And I'm glad I did.

Big Girl Bed & Family Visit

Last Friday night, Avery didn't want to go to sleep.  Most nights she goes down without a problem but one or twice a week she puts up a fight.  About ten minutes after we'd put her down she was still crying so I went in to check on her and she had one leg slung over the crib rail.

Great.

I got her to lay down and went out and told Rob that it was time to convert the crib to a "big girl bed." Honestly, we had been dreading this because she sleeps so well in her crib, and, well, if it ain't broke...

Saturday we put her down for a nap and about an hour later (a short nap...) we heard a thud and then crying. 

Well...it's broke.  

So Rob got out the screwdriver, took the front rail off the crib, and voila: Big Girl Bed.  Which she loved.  If I recall she even went to bed pretty easy that night.  

My mom had returned from her vacation in Florida, so Sunday we went to have lunch.  She bought a few things for Avery, which of course, she had to wear on the way home. 

Later that afternoon we went to see some of Rob's family that were visiting from Kentucky. 

The little ones are Rob's 3rd cousins.  We couldn't figure out what that made them to Avery (4th? 5th?).  Either way, they loved Avery and carried her around like a baby doll for hours.  They wanted to feed her, carry her, fix her hair, etc.  Too cute.

Despite the look on her face she was really quite content.