Who's the boss?

At dinner just now, Brian attempted to give me a command and I responded by saying, "Hey, who's the boss here?" So we posed the question to Avery...

"Avery, is daddy the boss?"

"Yes"

"Avery, is mommy the boss?"

"Yes."

.... then after a moment's thought...

"Avery's boss."

...followed by...

"Aspen's boss."

What a kid! :)

Living with kids

There are plenty of trials that come with raising children, but there's also plenty of joys and it's fun to bask in them:

Avery up in Aspen's grill all the time just being a super cute big sister.

That's just precious.

Avery usually dreads nap time so when she came to me yesterday after lunch and said, "Avery sleep." I thought awesome! I was busy at the moment so she went down the hall by herself. When I found her, she had crawled up in our bed with her baby doll and pretending to sleep! Unfortunately, she only wanted to pretend.. oh well!

I found a way to keep Avery super happy while I cook dinner- Give her a pan, measuring cup, spoon, and bottle of never-going-to-be-used spices. She's limited in being able to help me with the real dinner, so I give her a "dinner" to make of her own! She LOVES it! (And cleaning up her mess is well worth it.)

Happy Two-Year Old

Look at this cute girl! She's two!! We enjoyed having banana bread-cake with frosting & talking to family on skype! Pretty simple. We plan on having a friend party this Saturday as long as she gets well enough by then.

A baby-doll all of her own!

Silly Avery

We think Avery is pretty funny and cute. Here's some things she's done lately:

• She likes to say "siwwy (silly) grandpa" at random times.
• At night, she'll say "Jessi, Grammpa" because she wants to skype them.
• She loves to repeat what I say to Aspen to comfort her: "It's okay" "I know."
• Today she lifted up her shirt and attempted to nurse her bear.
• When she sees pictures of herself on the camera, she always says "cupe" (cute).
• She pulled the changing pad out of the diaper bag, laid it out then laid on top of it, yelling to me: "change."
• I love how she loves to say "poopy diaper."
• She scrunches her nose when she says "poopy" or "stinky."
• She can softly sing her ABCs from Q and on (as long as she thinks we're not paying attention).
• She'll randomly sing as she works: "all through the town" or "ashes, ashes" or "tall, tall, tall" (once there was a snowman).
• She's become interested in colors and when she sees one she tries to guess what color, usually saying "bue (blue), geen (green)" which are the most common.
• She'll take wipies and go around cleaning every surface in the house (even Aspen's head)
• She tried to put on my baby carrier over her shoulders then held out her hands ready to put the baby in.
• She named her own frog "ribbit" (which I thought she was talking about rabbit when she first said it). She has a plethora of stuffed animals.
• When she picks her nose or wipes it, she says "gose" (gross).
• When she starts to watch a movie, she'll pat the couch beside her and say "sit."
• When she wants to be held, she'll hold up her arms and say "hold you."

What a siwwy Avery!

Rainbow after the Storm

Metaphorically speaking, yesterday was the storm for me. (Which is ironic, because I actually like storms, but anyway...) It started off great (in fact, Avery slept in until 10am!), but by the end of the day I was not a happy Bonnie. First, I broke the lid to one of our kitchen storage containers, then Avery ripped one of our playing cards because I let her play with them, then I took forever grocery shopping while Brian was in the car with the kids and I left without my bananas too (but paying for them) and payed twice as much as I thought I would on grapes (a whopping $6.60!), then we watched a disappointing movie (Wall Street), and I got mad because I left the groceries and the dishes from dinner out the whole time, put the mixed OJ in the freezer (not a big deal, but shows my absent mindedness and frustration) and realize I forgot to put an attachment on our rice maker which caused the rice to be dry (so that was why!) and because we stayed up too late, Brian and I developed sore throats.

To top it off, I started to point the finger at Brian for all this for no good reason (just because I was ornery) and I ended up spending the night out on the couch with Aspen in her bouncer just because I was really in a crumby mood. And Aspen did not sleep well last night either.

So! I don't feel bad telling you all this because there is a rainbow. Small but certain. Amends were made this morning and for some reason after an occasion like that, you feel even more love for your spouse. (Not that I would go around picking fights for no good reason.) Then the weather was SO nice for us to take a long walk. The fresh air was probably the best "rainbow" I could have asked for. I'm so glad for rainbows after the storm and I hope I don't get this ornery too often!

Sweet children

I'm so loving how alert Aspen has become just within the past few days- I feel like she is aware of me. I just want to love on her like crazy!

Avery has been sick with cold/fever/ear ache. We got some medicine for her at the doctor's on Saturday. Poor thing has been so miserable. Good thing that she's on the latter half of it; I'm hoping she's feeling 100% so we can have her birthday party on Saturday!

Avery is a little daddy's girl and Brian LOVES his little girl!

Here is a video of Avery in some new CUTE pajamas she got from our friend in the ward. I LOVE the tutu!!!! It's fun to watch her dance- she tries very hard.

One Month Faces

Aspen

This is me - I'm just a cute little babe who wears pretty bows with her pajamas

Not my fondest moments

This is me most of the time - just checkin' things out

This is how mommy hopes to see me tonight!

Aspen is 9 lbs now and growing well (regardless of the spitting up). She's in the 30-40th percentile on everything. I love to see her fleeting smiles and watch her observe the world and become more aware.

These Days

These days we hang out inside a lot, playing Fisher Price computer games and watching Baby Einstein. Today we actually got out to the grocery store (Me and both girls) in the snow and cold all by ourselves. It went okay, but I don't think I'll do that in this weather again; I was sure glad for the bag-boy's help! I'm so excited for warm weather to arrive- hopefully as soon as possible!!

I've been trying my best lately to potty train Avery (does anyone do this professionally because I'd love to hire out!). I've tried different tactics, but now she just asks to go poop every 20 minutes (to no avail) and then ventures to poop in her underpants later without a warning. It's frustrating to be with her on the potty half the day with no success and the other half she's actually doing it in her pants. She's a smart kid, I don't really understand what's going wrong and I'm sure it's just something I have or haven't done. If you've got any suggestions for this scenario, please share.

Avery has still been a very sweet, loving, smart, and talkative child, but lately she's developed quite the whine. I know she's been teething lately, but I'm still not sure why all the whininess. I hope whatever the matter is, we can take care of it or it will pass. Kids always have phases.

Being a mom, I wish I could delight my child all the time. I try to catch myself if I discipline too much and take some time to just lolly-gag with my child. Those are some fun and precious moments. Avery is such a fun little girl and I can't help but feel that these moments are going by too fast. I want to take enough time to enjoy her.

Aspen is a good baby; she's not spitting up as much. She always eats well. She still has trouble with gas (I bought some Gripe Water today and hope it helps). She goes to bed around midnight but has done well lately with only waking up once during the night after that (hopefully that keeps up)! She can smile and has many scared faces when she's troubled with gas. Poor little one. She's a sweet one. I love her pucker-lip face as in "Ooo, what's this?"

Now for the fun part: Pictures!

(above) Aspen? Think again! It's Avery...

This one is Aspen! Aspen has bluer eyes at the moment and her face/cheeks are not as "full," but they really look a lot alike! (The nose especially.)

What I saw Sunday afternoon when I arrive home from church. Gotta love it.

We discovered a hammock in our backyard! Avery had a fun time!

Avery taking pictures of herself - quite good, eh?

Another one she took of herself - what a cutie! Or as Avery would say after she took the picture - "Cupe" (Cute). And would you look at all those teeth!