Good Tips

Mission organization reared it's ugly head at our house Sunday. I LOVE to organize.

Our pediatrician gave me what I thought was a great tip at our check up. He said while baby proofing is great, the best thing to do with your household cleaners and chemicals is to put them up high out of reach. He said that most accidents he sees are not because parents haven't baby proofed but because of a true accident like you grab the fire extinguisher from under the kitchen sink to go put out the grill come back and little precious is drinking dishwasher soap because the bottle looks like a bottle...

Since the prince may have had to bring a water hose into the house in College Station to put out a fire I started one time.... I thought this made since. So, I moved all the chemicals that used to be here on the bottom shelf to the top and put all the top shelf linens and paper products down low.

I used to read a few parenting books but I found that they stressed me out focusing on what Avery didn't do, instead of what he did. So, I rely largely on tips from our moms and friends for my parenting info.

Here's where you come in. What great tips do you have/have you received. I want Avery to be at least relatively well adjusted and it would be great if he lived through his childhood, too.

secrets

i once held a secret that made you all so jealous and thought i would give you all a SHOUT OUT to before the days when baby WEE womble was born! this is a shout to all my girls who thought

AVERY BLAKE

(who for some reason blinks at the 19 flashes on my camera, poor boy!)

was AVERY KATE

now just look at the shock on that face! i told ave about the secret today and he could not believe that some of you thought he was a girl! the sweet prince is all BOY!!

now since i am already pushing the limits we might as well continue:) do you think their are all boys or all bows in the future. i've always said boys simply because ab is fashionable. if you can pull of great fashion and hair without a teenage girl to tell you that you need to step up your game, then in my book you are equipped. so what will it be boys or bows??

-aunt linde and avery

Best Phone Call

So, I was secretary at work today and I am so glad I got to take this call...

AW:NICU this is Abbe how may I help you?
Baby's Mom: Hey girl (say with that gi-rul in your head)
AW:Hey?
B's M: This is Ms. E. Do you remember me? I am baby's mom! (she said the name)
AW: Oh yes. How are (I was going to say you, but mom had moved on)
B's M: She wants to say hi, hold on.....
B's M:(from a distance) say hi, say hi
Baby Girl: Hi!
B's M: Did you hear? She said hi! Can you believe it? She can walk, too. One day when it is not so cold we are going to come see y'all.
AW: That would be great I am glad she is doing so well.
B's M: Uh huh she is doing great girl (say it that way) there ain't nothing wrong with her! Bye!

What a hilarious phone call. Made my secretary day exciting. This was a sweet, sweet but not the quickest mom. It was too funny to hear her so excited about her daughter and still wanting us to be updated a year later. I bet she worked so hard practicing before "they" called. We are all glad to know she is loving her baby so well, just like we all hoped she would.

30 before 30

My friend Tiffany has a 30 before 30 list of things she wants to do. I am too lazy to actually write mine, but I sort of have one going in my head. This week I crossed off 2 things on my list...

Yoga-I have always wanted to go to yoga but I am way too wimpy to go by myself since I have NO CLUE what I am doing. So Linde joined a gym and let me use one of her buddy passes to go with her. So we went to "gentle yoga" on Monday morning... It was an adventure. We were definitely the youngest members of the class by a good 30 years but I think that was a good thing for yoga virgins. :) I was a little weirded out at first, especially when the lady kept telling us to put our hands on the earth, but she eventually said ground a few times so I knew I wasn't too far out of my element. I am really glad we went it was kind of fun, I would like to go to a regular class and see what that is like sometime, too. But, at least I can say I have been now even if it was gentle yoga.

New friends-Okay, so I am probably the biggest wimp about meeting new people ever! I break out in a cold sweat when I have to talk to strangers. I stress out when I know I am going to be in a setting with people I don't know pretty well, unlike my sister who thrives on meeting new people and awkward conversations. Anyway, I LOVE the friends I have made at church I feel truly blessed to have 4-5 girls I really love and trust. However, there are several more that seem like fun, but I am too wimpy to get to know better. So, I decided to start a book club here in Dallas and invite some of them to join. I did wimp out and invite one old faithful, too, I told you I am not the bravest. We met last night and it was a lot of fun. I am very excited to see what the future holds for this group and get to read some fun books, too.

We Heart Waterbabies!

I have been looking forward to water babies with Avery for a very long time, we finally decided this this spring semester would be the right time. So, since Avery has really been wanting to sport his new undersized physique so we put on our swimsuits and bared all most. (look what I learned to do)Does that gut say undersized to you? Let me tell you squeezing those chubby little legs into the super tight reusable swim diapers for 2 layers was interesting. I don't envy girl moms squeezing chubby legs for tights on Sunday mornings. The teacher for our class was Miss Jean and you can see he thought she was great. We really liked swimming in our boats, too. This little girl, Gabby, was the class stand out. She had water babies last fall and can already swim 10 feet underwater!

Avery thought it was so cool when we did all our stations especially the one on the step where he got to play with the rings.

We also got to swim around to catch all the balls... huge fun.

Most importantly, Avery got to splash and splash!
I spent half of the class trying to hear above his squeals and look around the splashes to see what else the class was doing.

To end the class he got to float on the square float and wave (another of our new tricks) to all our new friends. We had so much fun and were sooo tired when it was over. He actually slept through lunch at Chick Fil-A in his carrier, he hasn't slept at a lunch in his carrier in months. If you have water babies in your neck of the woods... GO!

And a big thanks to Daddy for going and taking pictures for us!

A Growing Boy

Well, I have officially become the Mom I said I never would be.... I can't stand how big Avery is getting. I love that he is growing and changing and I love all the new things he can do and how much more he interacts with us, but I can't believe he is already 9 months old and quickly headed towards 1, time really does fly. Avery has been learning so much lately it is too funny. We definitely need a wall of mirrors for the kid, he is his own best friend. We needed very little entertainment at the doctor's office Tuesday even though we had to wake up early to go. The little prince is still on the little size when it comes to weight, only the 5%, I think his gut lapped over his diaper begs to differ. At 16lb. 15 ounces he is quite the little bruiser. He was in 45% for his height, so he does have that to brag about! I was very proud when asked at the doctor's office to say YES! When asked if Avery can pull up. This last weekend he decided pulling up and really crawling far were worth the effort. I love watching him pull up to things because he grunts and groans like he is lifting 500lb. I am thinking we may finally have to bite the bullet and invest in a video camera. I also love how he starts with his feet so far out and slowly works them closer to whatever he is playing on.

And because Avery is now the super Army crawler I am getting a lot more of this little sass-a-frass smile, and a lot of man cleave since his belly pulls his shirt down. When he heads towards the things he shouldn't I call his name, he turns his head very slowly... flashes this smile.. and takes off as fast as his little self can go... can you believe it??

It is so amazing how fast he is learning and changing. There I go again getting all sappy. TGIF!

2008 You were great, 2009 will be Sublime!

Well, I must say one of our/my trademarks of 08 unfortunately is being late, so of course my New Year's post falls in line. I will work on this for 09. I must say this year has been our best ever. I can't wait to see what is in our future!

For our celebration we had a grown-up Slumber Party! It was so fun. We got to stay and have fun and then just crawl in bed when we got tired. I loved the idea and hope we get to do it again soon. New Years was a great excuse to try it so that we weren't out on the roads when there might be unsafe drivers, but really it was just fun and should be done anytime.

We are going to have to talk to Avery about gentlemanly behavior especially in your jammies, he got a little frisky with his pal Maggie.

Luckily Daddy was near to remind him to be sweet and keep his hands to himself.
Sarah was a great hostess, and I will always love her because she drinks as much DDP as I do and no water! My kind of girl.
Brooke was a ton of fun, and kept us entertained all year. I am guessing I am in trouble for these pictures since I waited to bust out the camera until about 11:55 when we were all pretty deliriously tired. John, Michael and Matt weren't willing to pose, are you surprised??
I could tell that I was one year older when these little darlings rolled us out of bed at usual time and I was sucking wind from staying up chatting until 2:30. But they are worth it and so was the fun with our friends. I love this picture because I think it is so telling of Avery's love for Katie and David, he is perfectly content to sit and watch them play and they are always sweet to let him watch and throw him a bone of attention when he needs it.