May 2006

Aviana has suddenly begun talking with phrases. Some of her common ones: chickies poopoo, jeep ride, help me, messy babies, paint toes (she says pint hoes), cat eat food (she says hat eat food), feed grass bulls, frow baby two free (I throw her onto the bed and count one! two! three!), and more juice (or milk) please. Everything she says seems to end in an exclamation point. She is quite emphatic. An interesting thing about her language development: She can say Too! (she always indicates herself & means she wants to go too) perfectly, but she says hoe instead of toe. She can say Catch! (like when she is at the top of the slide and wants to be caught at the bottom) perfectly, but says hat instead of cat, and half instead of calf. Hmm…

She also initiates singing some of her favorite songs. See if you can figure them out.
Row, Row, Row, Row Boat!
Asses, Asses, Down! (RIng around the rosie)
Baby Wah Bus! or Mama Shh Bus! (wheels on the bus)
Eeepee Out! (itsy bitsy spider)

It’s amazing to watch her learn new things & say new words everyday! Her memory is amazing too. Yesterday we had a conversation with one of my friends about her bracelets, and today she was talking about my friend &; brought up her bracelets again. She is also very particular. Like she was on her way to her room, stopped came back to shut a cabinet door and continued on her way. Yesterday I took one of the throw pillows off the end of the couch where they usually are, and she kept trying to take it away from me and put it back at the end of the couch.

Silly baby. The light of my life. I thank God everyday for those moments when she runs glowing into my arms as if I’m the best thing ever!

Tue, May 9, 20066:21 PM

Aviana can spell & count! Sort of.

We had cake pie & ice cream for Grandma Leonard’s birthday. After the festivities were winding down, (festivities that included, I feel compelled to note, naps by my brother, sister, brother-in-law, & two toddler neices) Aviana reached up to grab the pie plate that was sitting on top of the cake, on the dining room table. Thanks to some spectacularly quick movement on her Gigi’s part, the cream colored carpet was saved from raspberry pie. I was across the room & didn’t see what she grabbed- and asked “what was in it?” and Grandma spelled “the P-I-E!”. There was total silence in the room for a minute, and then Aviana yelled with much gusto–“PIE!!” We all dissolved into peals of laughter.

She always wants me to read to her this Winnie the Pooh counting book, so I read it every single nap time and every single bedtime, and several times in-between, usually just once a sitting, but sometimes I go in for encore performances. I had no idea how much she was absorbing because she now knows her numbers up to 8! I discovered this accidentally when we were making block towers & I was counting how many blocks we were stacking. Suddenly, Aviana starting counting them & she knew all the numbers! Well, she can’t really SAY seven, but she’s fairly spot on with the rest of them.

My baby genius. 🙂

Thu, May 11, 200612:44 PM

I’m tired. I’m dog sitting &; he’s just walking around whining. Aviana is sleeping. Grandpa is mowing. I was up from about 2-4 yesterday morning for no real reason. I’m whiny too.

Correction: Aviana WAS sleeping. so I guess I have to update onehanded. All I was really going to talk about was potty training (going well), sleep (not so well), and my day yesterday(long, busy, filled with small children & way too many bodily functions)ttfn

Mon, May 15, 20067:29 AM

I’ve been telling Aviana “don’t touch, look with your eyes, not your hands” Now when she wants to touch something really badly, but she knows she’s not supposed to, she says resignedly “eyyyyes” and pokes herself in the eye.

Fri, May 19, 20067:32 AM

Lovely day finally. (at least weather wise- actual events, not so much) Kevin was able to get into the fields for the first time in 2 weeks, so that is a relief.

Aviana and I went with the kids I babysit & Anne &;Benjamin for a picnic in the park. It was perfect although dealing with the children didn’t leave much time for adult conversation. Once we got back to Joey & Olivia’s, they went down for their naps right away & Aviana WOULD NOT sleep. Grrr.

I had a crop night planned so fortunately I was able to get away for the evening & scrapbook. It took me about an hour and a half to calm down and unwind sufficiently to even get anything done. I’m quite pleased with myself–even though I don’t really scrapbook in chronological order, I’m essentially done with Aviana’s first year. I filled two books. Poor second baby. I doubt I’ll have two books done for him (we’re just CALLING it a HIM, we still DON’T know for sure) by 22 months!

Sat, May 20, 20067:38 AM

Quotes I must remember always:

A child is a curly, dimpled lunatic- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Raising children is like being pecked to death by a chicken.

When your child has a tantrum, don’t have one of your own.

We had some serious mommy meltdown this morning. Baby A was tired & cranky. In the midst of it all, my friend Kylee (this was seriously a gift from God) calls & says she & her kids want to come over to work on the garden. So once Bailey got her Aviana was golden! Golden I say. And she took a THREE hour nap which was heaven. Pure Heaven! Thank you God–

Upon awakening, we went to Tia & Uncle Tony’s for his graduation open house. It was fun, but Aviana was so distracted by all the friends (and the potty party) that she couldn’t go, and had an accident for the first time all day. Bummer. At home, she is essentially going independently (I just have to help pull up her pants in the back sometimes & make sure she doesn’t spill when she empties her potty) but out & about is a LOH-HOT harder. It’s going well, but I still feel like I give a peepee report to Kevin everyday because it’s such a big deal.

Then we went to church, where she had another (this time pooey) accident in the nursery & they didn’t even change her! What’s up with that?! No wonder she’d been crying for the last 20 minutes- she doesn’t like to go in her pants. I put a cloth diaper wrap over her ‘bundies’ so she doesn’t get all her pants wet, but still, they should have checked her at least. This is just one reason I’m glad she’s not in daycare- I’m sure there would be imnumerable incidents like this one.

Sun, May 21, 20067:23 AM

I woke up at 4:30 today w/ a bad allergy attack & then couldn’t go back to sleep. I thought about getting up & updating then, but then I was stupidly optimistic that I would fall back into a slumbering stupor like the rest of my household.

Conversation in the car: We had pulled up next to a really BIG bus. Aviana was so enthralled by it that she brought it up for the rest of the evening.

“Big!” both hands raised for emphasis.
I asked her “What else is big?”
“choo-choo!”
“Yes, trains are really big. We saw some when we went to Tia’s house. What else is big?”
“Dada!”
“What else is big?”
“Mama!”
(which unfortuneately is true, check out my newest belly pic)
“who’s bigger, Mama or Dada?”
“Mama!”

Sigh.

Wed, May 31, 20066:19 PM

If I have to clean up one more mess, I think I’ll scream. Actually I did. Scream that is.

We had a wonderfully gentle and fun morning. I got my hair cut and wore it in a ponytail all day. (this comes into play later) Aviana fell asleep in the car on the way there and only slept for an hour, but it was about 2 1/2 hours earlier than normal. We then went up to my old school & hung out, showing off my sweet baby A & my burgeoning belly. It was great to see all my old co-workers & know that I love staying home & wouldn’t trade it for anything (even after a day like today). We went out to lunch at “Uncle Pete’s” w/ Tina & ate delicious gyros w/ my favorite kind of fries (big old cottage fries) and the best kind of applesauce (chunky w/ a hint of cinnamon). Neither Tina or I could finish our lunch & she didn’t want to take leftovers back to school so I got to keep the gyros & the yummy fries. Can you tell I was excited about the fries? AND Aviana stayed dry all day, so far.

Then we got home.

She had an accident in the car. So we had to change bundies and pants. This was to be the first of many accidents. Then she pulled the take home box off the counter and Jake ate all my fries in the time it took me to run (waddle quickly… whatever) from the living room to the kitchen yelling “NO! NO! NO! NO! the entire way.

Then she was helping me make juice, at the sink to minimize mess- one would think. But oh no, she poured enough juice/water on the counter to fill the entire counter all while I’m a foot away (but apparently not supervising very well).

Then I retreat to the living room for a break, and she comes in carrying the baby powder. Now I don’t normally use baby powder, I had it out to make it easier to get her rubber boots on. I don’t know if I left it open or if she figured out how to turn the top, but it doesn’t really matter as the results are the same. Now my kitchen smells like rosemary & lavender baby powder. At least I like it.

SO then I thought “well, let’s go outside, at least then trouble will be harder to find.”

Except it had rained.

The wading pool was covered with tarp that had a huge puddle. And Grandpa had mowed so it was a grass filled puddle. She didn’t exactly fall IN… while I was getting the clothes off the line. So I managed to get most of the grass off before we came in the house.

While I was hanging the clothes in the closet, the aquaphilic cream incident was going on behind me. Then it was time to make supper, which tasted awful & made more messes, including the corn meal that got stuck to my sticky baby.

So I made the mistake of mentioning that she needed a bath & then she started crying & whining BATH BATH BATH BATH BATH BATH BATH BATH BATH BATH BATH BATH BATH BATH BATH BATH BATH BATH BATH BATH BATH BATH BATH BATH BATH BATH BATH BATH BATH BATH BATH BATH BATH BATH BATH BATH BATH BATH BATH BATH BATH BATH BATH BATH BATH BATH BATH BATH BATH Are you annoyed yet? That’s just an inkling, my friend.

Nothing I said or did would get her little one track mind or mouth off it. Finally I just shut her in the bathroom (it’s safe & baby proof, don’t worry) until I got the kitchen swiped down. I only needed five minutes!!

Then when I went in there to turn on the water & actually give her the bath, she was STILL cry-whining “BATH! BATH! BATH!”

That’s when I screamed. I shut myself in the stairwell. It made her scream too. Joy. Rapture. GRRRRRRRR.
I prayed, got control of myself & took a tub as well. And apologized to my poor baby who probably didn’t even understand why I was so upset. Jake came & ‘hugged’ me while I was crying, which made me feel better, even if he does smell a little. Empathetic dog, that one. We ended the evening on a pleasant note and she went to bed without a fuss.

My husband pampered me a little, didn’t make me eat the gross dinner I had made & grilled out burgers for me. We vegged out watching a little CSI:NY.

Then when I was getting ready for bed I noticed that my hair is about two inches longer on the right than the left.

Some days you just can’t win.

Oh and I forgot to mention that Jake threw up wood chips on the kitchen carpet (don’t ask) and he scared Ellie which then caused her to scratch me so bad that I bled on said carpet. It was already ruined when we moved in, but still…