The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly!

Avery got her first war wound a few days ago. She gets into her own little world now that she can walk and she was babbling to herself and not paying attention to where she was going. Sure enough, she tripped and Wa Bam! Smacked her head on the corner of the wall creating an instant goose egg! As the seconds passed and the thing began to grow and grow, I thought for sure an alien was going to pop out of it! I picked her up, popped her bink (binkie) back in her mouth, grabbed her blanket and in a few minutes she was just fine. Back to babbling and walking around in circles. It's amazing how resilient kids are! I figure there's bound to be more bumps along the way & you know me...document EVERYTHING...the good, the bad and the ugly!

Good Old Vitamin D

Since the weather has been becoming more enjoyable, we've been taking advantage of the parks in the Tri Cities. When I'm at work, Jesse has been loading Avery up in the stroller and taking her for a walk down to the nearest park. Being cooped up all winter long, there's no surprise that Avery LOVES being outside. At first she wouldn't wander beyond the boundaries of the blanket. The grass was icky feeling on her feet as you can see from the picture.

But with a couple trips to the park she soon came around when she realized the whole world is her playground now.  

Now that she can walk, she's everywhere. Here's a video of her cruising!

Can't believe she's 11 months already. Next stop, her 1st birthday!

Winners Circle

For those who may not know, I entered Avery in a Parents Magazine "Kid of the Year" photo contest. It was more for fun just to see what place she would get but on the 2nd day of voting she was #1 so I thought I'd take it more seriously and get my Facebook friends involved in the voting. After a long week of non-stop voting, asking people to vote and checking the website EVERYDAY at 8am, 9pm and midnight (because those were the times the votes were updated) to see if Avery was still #1, I was disappointed to see that when the voting closed, she was #2....BUT, I just got an email from Parents Magazine saying the votes were verified and Avery DID get 1st place and they would be sending the $250 prize shortly! I was shocked so I had to check the website and sure enough, she was 1st for week 17!

What a great "day after Mothers Day" present!

On an equally exciting note, Avery has begun to walk! She took her 1st few steps 2 weeks ago but I FINALLY got it on video yesterday! I think her personal best is 10 steps but she's practicing!

Happy Easter!!

Our Easter was wonderful this year. It was just us three and it was filled with fun....and a lot of firsts.

1.) It was Avery's first Easter and the Easter Bunny spoiled her rotten!  She got a stuffed duck, a new pair of shoes, a new snail toy (which she loves because it has a mirror on it), a basket full of goodies including "Are You My Mother" by Dr. Seuss (one of my favorites as a kid), The Care Bear Movie (another favorite of mine), bubbles (because she loves them), big girl cups (which may or may not be a huge mistake), a chocolate bunny (which will probably be eaten by mommy), and Gerber Puffs (her favorite snack and a substitution for traditional Easter candy).

2.) It was my first time cooking a holiday dinner...all by myself. I must say it turned out better than expected. I made a ham, mashed potatoes with brown gravy, cresent rolls, broccoli bacon salad and a funfetti fondant cake.

3.) The funfetti fondant cake (my biggest triuph of the day) was the first time I ever experimented with marshmallow fondant. I want to bake Avery's 1st birthday cake but haven't really had any reason to just back a cake so I thought Easter would be as good as any. I baked it, layered it and frosted it with funfetti icing the night before so it could crust overnight. Then I made the marshmallow fondant. All I can say is sticky sticky sticky but once I was able to nead it into a dough, it was a lot of fun. I think the end result came out pretty good.

All in all it was a wonderful (but busy) Easter Sunday. We hope you had a wonderful Easter as well!

Parents Magazine Cover Contest

So I was on the Parents Magazine website the other day and noticed they were having a magazine cover contest for children 3 months to 6 years. I thought it was a shot in the dark but I uploaded the requested 5 photos and one of them made the cut to be voted on. This was the photo they chose:

There will be 10 winners who will receive an all-expenses-paid trip to New York City to be photographed for an upcoming issue of Parents magazine! You can vote everyday until the 17th so VOTE VOTE VOTE!!! Heres the link: http://photos.parents.com/category/vote/photo/783992

Super Saver

I love saving money, who doesn't now a days!? Coupon clipping has become one of my favorite things to do on Sunday. I just stumbled upon a really good diaper deal and thought I'd share. I've had this $10 off purchase in the Baby Store at Amazon.com coupon from Parents Magazine stuck on my fridge for weeks ready to expire at the end of this month and throwing it away would be like throwing $10 in the garbage. So, I put it to good use today! I went to the Baby Store at Amazon.com and searched for the best deal on diapers. I found a regular priced box of diapers (180 count) for $34.54. After my $10 off coupon, it went down to $24.54. Plus, I got 15% off the original price by applying for their Subscribe & Save option lowering the price again by $5.18. With free shipping plus tax, my total came to $20.97 for 180 diapers. Not bad considering I would have paid $35 at Walmart for the same item.

If anyone is interested in getting these coupons, you can subscribe for free to American Baby and Parents Magazine by going to http://www.parents.com/ and clicking subscribe at the bottom of the website. Also, Baby Talk Magazine has great baby coupon deals also. You can subscribe for free by going to http://www.opt-in-offers.net/bonnier/A1.asp

Cruising Along

Once again, Avery is on the move. This time...cruising! She can now pull herself up on our furniture and is now trying to figure out cruising. Of course she needs a little motivation to get moving so I usually use my cell phone or the TV remote to get her going.



Avery just got over her first cold which was not fun. She had a runny nose which interfered with her being able to eat. I was lucky if I got 20 ounces in her a day. She wouldn't take naps so she was fussy and exhausted during the day and we had to switch between her swing and her carseat during the night just so she could get some decent sleep. Which meant we were both sleeping in the living room. I pumped her full of vitamins, invested in an electric nasal aspirator and now she's back to her old self...with a definite increased appetite.

I feel bad because I was the one that brought it home, making Avery sick. Amazingly enough Jesse dodged the bullet and never did get it. He says he hopes her and I never get sick again. Apparently I was a little on the grouchy side :o{ There is an upside to Avery getting sick, she is so cuddly now and will lay her head on my shoulder and fall asleep. Something she would NEVER do before. I love it!

Now that she's feeling better, she's reverted back to her old habits...getting into EVERYTHING! She has a basket of 5000 toys yet she wants to play with the stuff she isn't suppose to have; the TV remote, anyone's cell phone, shoes, cords, the PS3 controllers, the TV antenna, plug in air fresheners and our glass end tables. She loves crawling on our cheap, wobbly, glass end tables so we knew we had to get rid of them. We finally found these ones and surprisingly enough she has no interest in wanting to crawl on them. Plus, we were able to sell our old ones on craigslist for the same amount we paid for them! Can't beat that!