Asher lost his first tooth!

After nearly a year of being the only kid in his class that hadn't lost a tooth, Asher finally lost his first one today!  He was so excited he FaceTimed me (which is why my picture is in the corner).

Finally, a big kid!! 

Avery turns 6!

Wow, Avery Rose is six years old.  Where did the time go?  It seems cliche, but it does seem like weeks ago I was bringing her home from the hospital, wondering what the heck I was doing. So, this year we, again, went to Traverse City for Avery's birthday.  Granny and Papa sprung for a night at the Great Wolf Lodge, which has to be her favorite spot on earth.  I left work early Thursday and we drove up to TC.  We met Granny and Papa at the Olive Garden (her other fave) for an early dinner.  It was good we went early, because that gave us time to play at the water park before bedtime.  We spent about an hour and a half there before returning to our room and putting our jammies on for Story Time.  In the lobby someone read us a story, and we sand Christmas songs while "snow" fell from the ceiling.  Rudy Reindeer was there for hugs afterwards, then we ate some popcorn and turned in for the evening.  The next morning (Avery's actual birthday) we were so pleased to find our elves had jumped into our bags (just wish they'd have brought the one with all my toiletries in it, which I left behind in Midland- boo) and had magically brought us donuts and blackberries.  Paired with the juice boxes and oranges I brought and a strong cup of coffee for daddy and me, we waited patiently for 9 o'clock (funny sometimes how years fly by, but minutes can crawl) and suited up for the water park.  We had a wonderful time playing! There weren't very many people there, so never had to wait for a slide. It was nice this year, because both Avery and Asher are terrific swimmers from having a pool in our home; so between that and all the life guards and the lack of a crowd I felt more comfortable if I lost sight of them for a minute. Last year it seemed more chaotic and I didn't enjoy it as much.  Avery, as usual, loved the slides.  We even got Asher to ride down them, and he screamed the. whole. way. down. I couldn't quit laughing!  Both kids got brave enough to stand under the bucket with daddy, who nearly lost his shorts every time.  Papa showed up halfway through the morning and he rode the slides a million times with the kids. I swam in the lazy river with Asher for what seemed like an hour... he would swim underwater next to me as I floated on a tube, and I felt like I was swimming next to a dolphin.  That afternoon we went back to Granny and Papas house where we had a taco dinner, red velvet birthday cake and lots of presents for Avery.  All in all, a very nice birthday. 

Avery's first day of school

Avery started kindergarten today. It was bittersweet to see my little girl all ready to go to school. I do think it was easier because she'd spent so much time in daycare and preschool. It was the backpack, though. She's never needed one, and it made her look so grown up. We had a special breakfast and made a big deal out of her going. I missed taking her to school because of work, but Daddy did a good job of taking pictures and keeping me posted.

Avery and little brother before she goes to her classroom. 

Our big little girl

Everyone gets pictures taken with our school girl. 

Asher turns 4

Today Asher turned 4.  This was a big day for him in a lot of ways! He'd been talking about it forever, and we'd been playing it up as the day when he would start being more of a big boy. So, to our surprise, in addition to being his birthday it was also the day he swam for the first time in the pool without a life jacket. He went all day without having a potty accident, and he woke up this morning with a dry pull-up.

We invited a handful of people over for his birthday party.  I try to make the kids' birthday cakes myself, and when I asked him what he wanted me to make, he told me he wanted a world cake. The world, really? Yep, the world. And he didn't waiver. So, I toyed with ideas of making a globe, or a flat map (which would have been infinitely easier), or a combination of the two.  Because he likes Diego,  I decided to incorporate Diego into the cake, and came up with this: 



Grandpa Ron, Aunt Linda, Uncle Richard, Michael, Nate, Katie and Max and Molly came over that evening. I made my famous (cop out because it's easy) shredded chicken and slaw for dinner and cake for dessert. Asher loved opening all his gifts and it was a very nice evening.

It's hard to believe that my baby boy is four. He is really a high energy little guy that always keeps us hopping- but he can be very snuggly and loving. He's always the first one up in the morning, coming to get me by tapping on me til I roll over or coming down in the basement to find me on the treadmill. He is shy in public and when he first meets someone but within a few minutes he warms up and acts like he's known you forever. I can't wait to continue to watch him continue to grow- learning things and becoming stronger. He's a light in our family and we all love him very much.

Avery Rose turns 5

Today Avery Rose turned five today. I can't believe how quickly this last five years has gone by. I'm so proud of the little lady she is. She has her own way of doing things and a generally sweet disposition that makes it fun to be around her. So, today Avery, Asher, Jamie and I went drove over to Traverse City to go to the Great Wolf Lodge for the night. Avery and I took off with Sam (who's been staying with us for the last couple weeks) so we could drop him off at Niver's. Asher and dad followed close behind in the car. We all met that evening at the Olive Garden for dinner. This is Avery's favorite restaurant, and we don't have one nearby so it was a treat. Grandma, mom and Paul all were there and we had a great dinner together. Then we checked in at the Lodge and went up to our room where Avery blew out birthday candles and opened presents. The kids were so excited to swim in the water park that they put their suits and we promised them a half an hour or so. We had so much fun sliding, floating down the lazy river and playing on all the water equipment! We didn't get to spend much time there though because it was getting late. We said bye to everyone with plans to meet back there in the morning. We went upstairs and the kids put their jammies and slippers on just in time to go to the lobby to hear a story and meet Wiley the Wolf (although Rudy Reindeer was standing in for him). We sat in front of the big clock and watched animated animals sing Christmas songs and were very surprised when it started snowing right there in the lobby. Tons of sudsy bubbles came down and it looked just like snow, covering everyone and making the lobby look like a little wonderland. Very cool. Then upstairs, and the kids went to bed without a fight. Of course they were already looking forward to the next day full of fun in the water park. I asked Avery if she had a good birthday and she confirmed that she did and that she wished we could live at the Great Wolf Lodge.

Avery turns 3

Avery Rose turned three! Where does the time go? Avery had a nice little birthday. Her friend Maddie Hutchison came over for cake and brought her a present. Sunny, Alex and Reagan and Kris came over a little later too and brought a very pretty sparkly card. I made a big cupcake cake for her and decorated it with pink frosting (Jamie said it looked like an old lady's bathing cap... bah). When I had asked Avery what theme she wanted, she just said pink. Well, she said lellow, but then changed it to pink at the last minute. So, pink she got. Daddy bought her 18 pink balloons as well as a big giant Diego balloon that both kids thought was the greatest. Granny got her a play kitchen and auntie Angie got her some lacing cards, an apron and hat, and a Tinkerbell movie. She also got the Sleeping Beauty movie from us.

Happy 2nd birthday Asher Skye

It's hard to believe Asher is two today! He is growing up so fast, and looking at him it's hard to even see the baby in him anymore. Granny and Pawpaw were here for the past week, but left early this morning. The night before (Sunday) we had a birthday party for Asher. Granny and I made a cake that looked just like a frog in a book that is one of Asher's favorites. Aside from looking cute, it actually tasted pretty good too! He seemed much more interested in this cake than he did in years' past. He loved us singing happy birthday to him. Our friends Allison and Jesse and their little girl Maddie came over for dinner and cake. The kids all ran around with balloons (their favorite fun thing) and ate cake and got messy. They brought Asher a Little People truck that has little cards that go in the top and sings the alphabet song... it was a hit. Overall Asher had a great birthday party. Two seems to agree with him.

Here we go!

Okay... Avery's officially crawling!  The past few days she's been scooting and taking a bit of distance here and there, but today she was moving all over the floor.  She's not very coordinated yet, and mostly crawls on her left knee and right foot... but now we're going to have to watch her!

When I picked her up from daycare, Barry told me how far she'd crawled and Lola mentioned she's pulled up to standing on Barry's lap.  Well, I hadn't seen her crawl that far, but had seen her stand up.  Sometimes it frustrates me that they are so quick to tell me something that she's done without thinking that it's something that I might want to discover she can do on my own.  No, Lola, I don't want to come pick my daughter up after having been away from her all day long for you to tell me that she's said her first word or taken her first step.  It's not a contest... let me enjoy  my daughter's milestones in the perhaps false belief that I'm the first one to have seen them. 

Anyway!!  She had swimming classes tonight and did really well.  I could tell whe was tired though.  I need to mention that the other day when we had swimming lessons, I went into a bathroom stall, used the toilet, completely undressed and put my swimming suit on all while holding Avery.  I didn't even have any buttcheeks or boobies hanging out when I was finished, so felt pretty impressed with myself.

Workwise... I'm writing up the diquat study that Stacy and I did last summer.  I would like to have it in our in-house review before going to Michigan in a couple weeks.  The results aren't earth-shattering but I think they're interesting enough for a medium-sized journal.  I have to think of what that might be.

I need to mention how hot it is.  My God, the heat.  The absolute temperature (as shown on my official new-van thermometer) was 104.  The heat index, I was informed by the radio, was 115.  The humidity was oppressive.  There is a nest of swallow babies on our porch with as many as 4 babies in it.  I was hoping they would fledge soon because the parents are dive-bombing us every time we go out front.  Well, I think three of the babies succumbed to the heat, as there was only one left last night (one was dead on the porch, and I saw the momma bird trying to pull one of the others out)... sort of sad.  Tomorrow, cooler weather should prevail.  Yippee!!

First tooth

Little Miss Avery Pants has a tooth!  Her left bottom incisor is barely poking through, I felt it with my finger last night.  That might be why she was waking up in the middle of the night and crying, although being in a new house probably didn't help matters.  She also had a great swimming lesson last night.  The first lesson I tried to get her to kick, and then pull with her arms.  She didn't quite get it.  Yesterday evening after a few minutes she started kicking like a little frog... then later she started slapping the water like shew as stroking.  She even went underwater briefly three times.  She always looks a little surprised when she gets water on her face, but it doesn't seem to bother her. 

I was at work all day yesterday for the first time in days.  I hated being away from home knowing there was so much to do there... but I liked being here knowing there was so much to do there.  Jamie picked up our entertainment center and it's the last piece of furniture we're going to get for a while.  Well, someday we'll get Avery furniture, but she doesn't really have a need right now.  Mom called and said she liked the walls the yellow color that I painted them, but I'm still not liking them.  Poor Jamie.  He hates to paint.  

We're leaving for California on Friday.  Saturday and Sunday we'll be in San Jose, and will go to Sonoma Monday to see Jamie's family.  Leone will get to meet Avery for the first time.  Sounds like a fun trip (work trips usually are) but I'm still sort of stressed from the move.  Hopefully by the time we leave we can have things mostly unpacked.  Hahahahaha.