Cute Toddler-ness

My little baby girl (avery) is becoming a little person. She's very gradually starting to form sentences that are more than two words, and she says some cute grown up things, like "No, thank you." and this morning when I asked what she wanted to eat for breakfast, instead of the normal no-thought "Cereal!" response, she goes "Um... hm.... (then 10 seconds later) How about... hm..." She never actually answered the question, but this expression of thought was so grown up to me! At breakfast, she tried to bite a shape of a car into her banana bread and then she says "vroom, car!" (I taught her this). She's so awesome!

Oiseaux

Brian may make fun of me whenever I sit down to blog, but in reality, he's glad I do it. :-P Today we were at Metzgers and he said, "you haven't blogged much lately" insinuating that it's about time! I'm glad he reads the blogs. :)

Avery has been super cute lately and here's some of what she's said:

• At breakfast: "mommy, Jesuh luh lyou." :)
• At breakfast again: I say "Avery, are you super cute?" Avery: "Avie super cute. Mommy super cute."
• At breakfast once again: I say very wide-eyed and with a smile: "Avery, do you want PANCAKES?!" Avery: "mommy (ex)cited" haha.

I've been trying to speak french to Avery/Aspen. Avery's first words have been: Oiseaux "wah-zoh" (bird) & merci "meh-see" (thankyou). Random thought: I heard the other day on the radio that most childrens' first word after mommy and daddy is "T.V." ... how pathetic. Anyway, it's fun to speak French to my kids; I'm remembering more of it than I thought I would!

I'm trying to do better at meal planning. Any good sites or blogs you'd recommend me visit?

I'm experimenting with my diet to help Aspen's fussy gas issues. Right now I'm cutting out dairy, which hasn't been as bad as I expected, but I'm eating lots of meat, breads, beans, and nuts. I've been on it for 4 days and not much change so far. Soon I'll try cutting out more things.. does anyone know other things that cause baby's gas?

The other day I was looking concerningly at Aspen wondering if she might need to burp or fart or something when spontaneously she gave me a big grin and made me smile back! That reminded me I should smile more at my baby! She's so adorable!! Both of our children are adorable!!!

These past few sundays, I've just felt very uplifted and inspired to do better in certain areas of my life. I decided to write down 7 goals to work on and it's been helpful. Some days I totally crash and burn, but I usually pick things up better the next day. Thinking of my list helps me be motivated. Here's my list:

• I can read scriptures daily
• I can pray each morning
• I can drink water often
• I can plan meals
• I can enjoy taking time to play with my kids
• I can keep the kitchen clean (dishes done basically)
• I can obey the speed limit within 5 mph

Blessings!

We've been so blessed to have Brian's parents and grandparents here these last 5 days to help with our home projects and to attend Aspen's baby blessing. I can't believe how much I miss them already; I wish we had had more time to just visit, but we kept everyone busy busy! We got SO, SO much done on the house that would have taken us months alone! I am profoundly grateful for their travel down to help us and all their time and effort in our behalf. Pictures of all of us working on the house to come later.

avery & aspen

Grandma-Great & Aspen. Aspen has really started cooing and smiling a lot!

Aspen in her blessing dress

Just for kicks, this one is Avery!

Family picture.

What a special day!

I thought she was super cute just in tights and a bow.

Look at that smile!

I thought I'd pull out the bumbo for kicks (I thought it was a little premature) but it turned out right on time! Aspen already loves sitting in it! The back of the seat gently holds her head up, but she does a pretty good job on her own. This has already been a life saver because she farts/poops/burps the easiest in this little chair (much better than us patting her on the back and bouncing up and down, and who knows what)... I forgot that we had called this Avery's gasser chair! We LOVE our BUMBO!

Side note: I just want to say that it's amazing how much Avery is maturing so fast. It's CRAZY! She is such an awesome little girl.

I love hearing her laugh with Grandpa-Great :)