Boobs

Avery quotes (on boobs)

I'd been wearing a gray t-shirt all day yesterday.  When it was time to head out for dinner, I thought I should at least make some sort of effort, so I changed just my shirt.  I put on a mock turtle neck, but I changed nothing else.  As we were walking down the stairs, Avery says to me, "Mom, your boobs are really growing and growing!"  It made me laugh because that mock turtle neck does indeed make my boobs look bigger than the t-shirt I had on before. 

Why didn't I think of that?

I'd made plans with friends several weeks ago to go get drinks and appetizers tonight.  We all decided to drop the kids off with our respective husbands at their respective offices around 5 pm, then go for appetizers.  Separately, I'd scheduled today as a school day for Avery because she'll be missing four school days while in Mexico and our November is so jam packed with activities that I couldn't find days free to use the extra four days.  Anyway, D was questioning me about the plan for tonight.  Long story short: I was planning to pick up Avery from school, take her to D's office, then go out.  It never once occurred to me to simply have D pick Avery up from school until he suggested that with a look of, "Duh," on his face. Duh indeed.  So much easier!

Today

Shortly I'll leave for the car dealer to get my car serviced.  Following that I have a walk through for the exterior renovations.  Then I need to get the house tidied up and cleaned. 

As I mentioned earlier tonight, I'll be going out with friends. I am so looking forward to it.  Yesterday, every little thing the dogs did annoyed me.  When that happens, my annoyance then moves to Avery and Damian and any other living being near me.  Hopefully a night out will reset my annoyance meter.

Not Natural

It has just now hit me that I didn't have Avery make D a birthday card.  I didn't have her make Nain one either, nor GrandDag (D's dad - his name is Dag, so we call him GrandDag - I love that name!) nor PopPop nor well, anyone. 

It did occur to me at one point to have her make one for D's birthday, but then it just slipped my mind.  This stuff does not come naturally to me.  Ah well, it just leaves me room for improvement next year.

Disappointing

Photo and Video Backup Process

I've been working to get all my photos and movies backed up and organized since my hard drive crashed oh so many months ago.  For the most part, I seem to have not lost too many pictures.  I'm certainly unaware of any important pictures that may have been lost, so that's good.

Video, ironically, I was very confident I had not lost since I backed those up on a thumb drive well before the crash.  Unfortunately, it appears I lost a batch of them.  It's only about four months worth, and some of those months are documented in the various movie clips I've assembled, but it's disappointing nonetheless. 

Surprise!

After an afternoon of not much, we headed over to the Gs to pick up Elise and Nolan for Jay's surprise 40th BD party. On the way there, the girls had a discussion about anatomy.  Avery said something about Nolan having a "peanut."  I corrected her and said Nolan has a penis.  Avery said, "Yes, Nolan has a penis and I have a vagina."  Then Elise started talking about her vagina.  Nolan stayed curiously quiet about his genitalia.

Back to the party ... Jay was definitely surprised!  We stayed for dinner, cake, and presents, then left for our house with the three kids.  Fortunately, all three were cake to get to sleep tonight (perhaps because of the cake? see what I did there cake and cake?  I'm funny.  I know).  I say fortunately due to ... 

Pizza Migraine

About 75% of the time I eat traditional pizza, I get a migraine.  My migraines aren't as bad as I've read others describe them.  I only call them a migraine because that is what the doctor has said I'm experiencing.  I'm quite sure that there is some spice that causes it for me.  I can feel it coming on, then I get queasy, then I have to throw up, then I feel much better.  If I don't throw up, it takes hours for it to subside. 

This has happened since I was a kid. I can't recall if it's always been triggered by pizza, but the pattern has always been the same: headache, queasy feeling, throw up, then be better.  I remember it happened once at a French restaurant in Manchester, England when I was a junior in HS (which makes me sounds like I was a world traveler as a teenager - I was not - it was one trip).  I was so sick that time. For the longest time, I wouldn't eat French food because of it. 

I wish I could pinpoint the offending spice.  It's got to be a spice because (gross stuff coming your way) when it's coming back up, it's always the same sort of bile/spice flavor.  The problem is I don't get a migraine 100% of the time.  I'll eat pizza a few times and be fine, so I forget or figure it is done with.  It rarely happens when I eat pizza from New Seasons or Pizzacato where they do more gourmet things with the pizza.  And it's happened with Italian foods, too.  It's one of the reasons I don't like Italian food nearly as much as other foods. 

Avery

I'm trying to get Avery to make a transition to using the toilet rather than her little floor potties.  It's going well.  Last night, I told her she needed to use the toilet before bed and she asked why.  I said, "Because you're getting bigger."  She responded with, "Yes, I'm getting older and older so I can buy a car."  Damn, she is going to be one expensive child.

Avery talks about her birthday party all.the.time.  I have no idea where she got this obsession from, but it certainly wasn't Damian or me.  When we told her that Uncle Jay's BD party was tonight, she was so excited.  She then said, "It's Uncle Jay's birthday tonight and he's going to open presents and have cake!  But it's not my birthday because my birthday is in December." It's the first time she's gotten the month right out of the blue.  Then she said, "And Nain is going to be at my birthday party! And I'm going to have cake and blow out the candles like this!"  Then she showed us how one blows out birthday candles. 

The actual questions toddlers ask, well at least that Avery asks, surprises me a bit.  I expected questions like, "Why is the sky blue?" and, "Where do babies come from?"  Instead, I get questions like, "How do we get up there?" which is asked every time we drive under a bridge over a highway.   The other day, as we were driving, she said that she saw a lot of cars and that they were hers.  I said, no, the car we were driving in is mine, the car Daddy drives is his, and the cars around us were owned by the other people.  She then asked, "Why are they not our cars?" which then became, "Why do they buy cars?"  I think I eventually responded something like grownups often buy cars so they can drive to and from work.  Which is why I think she now associates buying a car with getting older.

On the way to pick up Elise and Nolan tonight, Avery recounted to us her time out earlier in the day.  She was not happy because she was tired (this nap dropping thing is brutal from a crankiness perspective).  She was being really difficult and demanding all sorts of things, then still wasn't happy if we said yes. Eventually, I told her I was going to take the dogs for a walk and that if she wanted to come with me, she'd need to put on some clothes.  She said she wanted to go, but then refused to make a move to put on clothes.  Finally, I explained I was leaving and that she was staying home with Daddy because she was dawdling.  So, back to the conversation in the car, she says, "Daddy put me in time out.  You took the dogs for a walk and I didn't go."  I say, "Yes.  Why did you get a time out?" and she thought about it and then said, "Because I was dawdling and crying."  So that's a long way of saying that "dawdle" is a new vocabulary word for Avery.

Sick

Damn it! I'm sick!

I woke up in the middle of the night, swallowed, then realized it wasn't going to be good in the morning. Yep, I have a sore throat. I'm achy.  I have a headache.  At first, I figured I was just going to have to plop Avery in front of the TV.  Then I realized I could call her school and see if they have room for her today.  We have to pay for an additional day, but given how awful I feel, it's worth it.  Thankfully, Avery was totally up for a day of school.  I didn't even try to convince her that wearing a dress with a skirt underneath isn't the best look - I just put on some sneakers and let her go in that.

You'd think that since I have a day off from parenting and that I'm sick and that I love to sleep, that I'd be napping now.  Apparently, my constant need/desire to nap is subsiding (could the acupuncture be working?!)  I went upstairs and tried to fall asleep, but realized I couldn't, so I decided to at least make good use of my time and organize pictures on my computer.

Avery's favorite person in the whole wide world

When I got home from Yummy Group last night, it was clear that the evening wasn't relaxing for D.  Avery had fallen asleep at 6:50 on the chair downstairs before I left, so I didn't say goodbye.  She apparently woke up at 9 and had been crying on and off for 1.5 hours to see me.   Anyway, I was exhausted and I didn't want to do battle with the sleep in your bed, or sleep in our bed when I knew D was so tired, so I scooped up Avery and we headed into the guest bedroom (I love to sleep in the guest bedroom - I sleep sooooooo well).  Anyway, Avery settled down quickly enough.  As we were laying there not talking and both drowsy and about to fall asleep, Avery sits up and says to me, "Mommy, Aunt Chele is my favorite person in the whole wide world."  I said, "Including me?"  And she said, "Yes."  There you have it, folks.

Yummy Group - Ten 01

When I got the menu at the restaurant, I was not overly happy with the choices.  You know how something on a menu often jumps out and sounds delicious?  Well, that didn't happen, so I ordered the sturgeon and hoped for the best.  Well damned if it wasn't delicious!  I was most pleased.  I just tried to find the description of it on their online menu, but it's not there.  It must have just been on it yesterday or something.  It came with grilled watermelon, corn, and pickled shallots.  Sounds weird, tastes delicious.  Perfection.

Dessert was the same thing.  Nothing much appealed to me, but I persevered and ordered the Zeppoli: ricotta beignets with orange custard. It was perfect!  Just my kind of dessert: no alcohol and nice and tasty without being too rich.

While the food was excellent, the conversation was even better.  Being able to get unbloggable things off my chest with friends is invaluable. 

Landscaping

They are currently putting in our new landscaping.  The trees are looking great.  I'm so happy we moved the tree that was located too close to the house.  It's now in the middle of the yard in front of the window to my office.  In a few years, it'll give me a ton of privacy, you know, for the very important tasks I do in my office like blogging and Facebooking.

I'm also so happy to see they chose to put a lot of heather plants in.  I love heather.  We didn't specify a whole lot in terms of what we wanted for plants.  I described things I like and things I don't.  I asked them to remove the weird evergreen tree and put in something else.  I asked them to move our Japanese Maple to a better location.  Other than that, I just trusted they know more about this stuff than us and let them go to town.  I think I'm going to be very happy. Plus, the guy whose doing it is so very nice.  While things haven't gone all that smoothly with our designer, he really knows how to hire people.  I don't think I've met one person he has hired who has been anything other than friendly, professional, and competent.

It's not done, but here's an in-progress photo.  You can also see in it how the last corbel is now installed. 

Colorblind

Elimination Diet - Day Two

Day two was brutal.  I came this close to just chucking it and eating the damn cheesecake.  I made it through.  Now I just have to make it through today.  One day at a time. 

Interestingly, I'm not having any trouble with no Diet Coke.  No problems with no dairy.  Very little problems with no wheat.  I think the biggest one is really sugar.  More so, it's just being able to eat whatever without thinking about it. 

Last night's dinner was trout and curried* sweet potatoes.  This morning's breakfast was brown rice, smoked salmon, and curried sweet potatoes.

*Technically, curry powder should be off the list because it has red pepper in it.  However, I'm pretty darn confident that nightshades aren't my problem and it is a minimal amount anyway, so I just said screw it. I'm crazy like that.

Colorblind

When Avery was younger, D was convinced she was colorblind.  I said no, most kids don't learn their colors until around 2yo, so that she didn't know her colors at 18 months was nothing to worry about. Sure enough, around 2, she started to point out colors by name.

Well, it turns out that D was probably right.  He thought she was red-green colorblind like his brother.  I now believe she's yellow-blue colorblind.  Yellow-blue colorblind is much less common than red-green.  She knows colors quite well, but I started noticing a while back that whenever she sees yellow, she says it's blue.  Never the other way around.  It's like she can't see yellow at all.  And sometimes she'll say white is black, but I suppose that could just be not remember the name of a color.  I don't know.  I'll ask the eye doctor about it when we go back for her checkup.  Sadly, her room is painted yellow.  If she sees yellow as blue, and she's not particularly fond of blue, I wonder what she thinks of the color of her room? 

Avery Quotes

Avery's sentence structure is improving each day.  There are many times I'm surprised to hear the (relative) complexity of the sentences she's speaking.  As stated before, I suck at remembering the cute things she says.  Off the top of my head, here are a few:

Avery: "Dad!  We need to talk the dogs for a walk."
Dad: "Why?"
Avery: "Because it's part of the deal!"

She often says, "That's too loud for my ears," and, "I don't like that noise in my ears."  I don't know why, but I find that phrasing so cute. 

Clearly I must say this one a lot: "I don't have the patience for this right now!"

Yesterday, I asked Avery what she wanted to do.  She thought about it earnestly, then replied, "I want to go buy a purple elisatard."  First, she knew specifically what leotard she wants.  Second, she called it an elise-a-tard.  I corrected her pronunciation and she's gotten it right since then. 

Sleep Routine

Our world has been thrown into chaos, relatively speaking.  For the past few weeks, Avery gets ready for bed as easy as ever, but when it comes time to actually stay in bed and go to sleep, well, that's a different story.  She comes into the hall and plays; she asks us to repeatedly come upstairs to put the blanket on or to cuddle with her; she reads books really loudly; she brings her potty into the hall, then proceeds to go potty in the hallway (in the potty); and on and on. 

Closing the door doesn't work very well anymore.  She cries like she's really actually scared.  I can handle crying because she's throwing a tantrum.  But crying that sounds like she's scared I cannot handle.  So that trick won't work for us anymore.

I decided to make a huge sleep chart and then show her the prize she gets if she stays in her room after we put her to bed at night: a purple skirt!  We've tried a sleep chart before, but it was smaller, she didn't help make it, and I didn't buy the prize in advance so she could see it.  This actually worked last night!  She stayed in her room and was asleep about 15 minutes later.  Awesome!

Bookcase

Weekend Recap

Avery and I had a couple of playdates on Friday, the second of which was at Rachele's.  Very convenient for me since D and I had date night on Friday night.  We decided to make it a double-header and saw two movies: The Other Guys and The Kids are All Right.  I thought The Other Guys was very funny.  The Kids are All Right was good, but not as good as I was expecting given it's stellar 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Saturday we didn't do much of anything but nap before the G's arrived to drop Elise and Nolan off for a 24-hour break from the kids.  Our first overnight with both Nolan and Elise was about as easy as having two additional children could possibly be.  Nolan went to sleep without a fuss, as did Elise.  Avery had a bit more trouble - as she always does when we have guest children around - but even that was easy to deal with.  Nolan woke once during the night (D got up with him).  I got up with Elise and Nolan in the morning.  Avery came down to join us when she finally woke up.  The kids played well together.  Nolan entertained himself with my drawer of plastic containers.  All in all, an easy little stint in having three kids and three dogs in the house for a somewhat extended period of time.  Hopefully future weekends will be the same.  Fingers crossed.

Sunday, after E&N left with R&J around 4 pm, D put together Avery's new bookcase (see pictures below). We ate out on Sunday night, followed by an evening of TV - Madmen, Design Star, Rubicon. 

Avery's Room

We decided Avery's room was too cramped with both the chair and the new bookcase, so we have moved the chair into our room.  Clearly, we need to move the map behind the book case (all in due time, people), but I'm so very happy to have a place to put all the books and toys that were lining the floor of her room.  Eventually I'll buy some baskets/containers for some of the cubbies, but I wanted to get an inventory of the books and stuff we have before doing that. 

I've also decided that I need to buy Avery curtains and bedding that are a bit more girlie.  Now that her personality is more formed, I recognize the decor doesn't reflect Avery's personality very well. 

Real Housewives of New Jersey

Crap.  I'm totally hooked. I knew I shouldn't have started watching it.  It's like crack.  These people are crazy, but I just love to hate them.  Which is why we all watch those shows, isn't it?

BFF Dialogue

I am absoluetely terrible at remembering the cute things Avery is starting to say.  I have busted out laughing a number of times now that her vocabulary is verbose enough to relay more than simple things.  I did jot down a couple of exchanges between Avery and Elise during our weekend.

Avery, to me, at dinner: "I'm having a conversation with Friend Elise." 
Avery, to Elise: "How was your day Friend Elise?"

Elise, with genuine enthusiasm: "I didn't fall down the stairs!"
Avery, with matching genuine enthusiasm: "Good job, Friend Elise!"

Totally Awesome Desk

Check out this idea for containing cord mess.

Urban

Urban Prep

A great article on a school called Urban Prep in Chicago.

Bullets

• I had our carpets cleaned today while Avery is at school. The man just finished.  He's very nice, but I get lectured each time about our vacuum (not strong enough), the fact that we need to have rugs in our living room (because of high traffic flow), as well as other things.
• Avery, after saying her tummy hurt, her hand hurt, and a few other things, came out of her room last night and announced that her hair hurt ... which is how we knew definitively that she was just trying to delay bedtime.
• Avery said to D on Saturday and Sunday: "What a great day!"  She had a great time on the camping trip.  D is going to do a post about it on Casa de Trio, so I'll leave the details for him to write about.
• I just signed up for Subscribe & Save on Amazon for Swiffer Max Cloths.  This is the first time I've tried the program.  I cannot find the Swiffer refills (for the large size Swiffer) in any store, so I was ordering them online.  By signing up for a program to have x units delivered automatically (every 1, 2, 3,or 6 months), it gets me free shipping and 15% off.  This is actually the cheapest price I've found anywhere for these particular cloths that I find so handy.  We'll see if I've estimated the number we use correctly.
• I had loads of energy yesterday and was quite happy all day.  The medication is finally kicking in! 

Quotes

Avery Quotes

Avery is starting to say some things that make me laugh out loud, but I rarely remember to blog about them.  I also have trouble remembering exact phrasing.  I'll work on that.  In the meantime, here are a few I do remember.

***

Me: "Avery, Friend Henry will be coming over later this morning to go scootering."
Avery: "Oh, I'd love that!" [said while jumping up and down]

***

While driving in the car the other day, I had the music on.  Avery had been asking me to adjust the volume in the minutes before, then said: "It's not too loud!  It's too perfect!"

***

Avery to me as we're snuggling on the chair and she was trying to get cozy: "I need to find a parking space."

Princess Aisle

At school they have many princess type dresses for the kids to use for dress up.  Avery loves them.  The other day, I told her we could go buy one for home.  So, for the first time, we went down the princess aisle (aka hell) at Target.  Ugh.  All the Pepto-Bismol pink, all the sparkly glittery crap, all the over the top girly stuff made me sick to my stomach.  Avery picked out a pink dress.  She also had the foresight to request "pretty shoes" to go with her "pretty dress." We went over to the shoe section where she proceeded to pick out a hideous pair of pink flip flops with fake jewels on it.  Ahhhhh! 

Medication Timing

As instructed by my therapist, I have starting taking my anti-depressant at night rather than in the morning.  Last time around, I always took it at night and didn't have so many adjustment problems.  This time, I took it in the morning since she specifically wrote the prescription to do it that way.  I feel so much better taking it at night.  I think the side effects (slightly sick feeling, fatigue, etc) hit me at night, then I'm better during the day.  Anyway, that is good news.

She also wants me to try light therapy.  I normally don't have a problem with the gray and the rain.  However, in late spring and early summer, I really struggle with it. Lately I've noticed a direct correlation to my mood.  I ordered a light which should arrive soon.

Slide

Park Visit

Yesterday, we met Christie & Henry at a park in Wilsonville.  It has this huge slide structure:

Photo from Portland Family Adventures

The red stuff is very rubbery and soft, so it's a very safe slide despite its appearance, particularly because whatever they've done to the actual slide, it is sooooo slow to go down (the first time I saw it from a distance, all I could picture was kids tumbling down red concrete).  Even though Avery could walk up it herself, she wanted to hold someone's hand on the way up.  To help me out, Christie instructed Henry to hold Avery's hand on the way up.  Talk about cute.  He'd wait for her at the bottom, then they'd run up the hill holding hands.  After a stint on the swings and breaking for a snack, Avery and Henry both went down the slide after it had been sprinkling for a while.  Avery got to the bottom and said her pants were wet and she wanted her jacket so she could sit on it to slide down (she'd seen Christie let Henry go down on his jacket earlier in the day).  I knew it would make her go faster, but figured she could handle it.  And she did indeed handle it just fine, but man, I wish I'd been videoing!  She flew down the slide and her face was just shocked.  I could see she was going to fly off the bottom into the sand, but I had something in my hands, so I couldn't catch her.  She landed in the sand with a thud, cried for about 3 seconds, then realized it was fun.  She looked at me and said, "I went way fast!"  She was so pleased with herself.  Very cool. 

Dinner & Movie

I met Amber, Christie, and one of Christie's friends for dinner and a movie last night.  It was such a needed night out given my state of mind this week.  And I got my appetite back.  I devoured my entire (large) piece of lasagna.  And I got candy at the movies.  Here's hoping I don't put back on the pounds I've lost in the last month or two because I like fitting into all my clothes. It's rather a nice feeling.

Books

I finished The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.  I highly recommend it to anyone who, even slightly, enjoys non-fiction books.  Thanks for the recommendation, KMK!

I'm now going to start on the book for our newly formed book club: That Old Cape Magic.  In fact, I think I'll do that right after I walk the dogs.

Radio

Michael Jackson

As we were driving home from our park playdate with Christie & Henry, a Michael Jackson song came on the radio.  Avery said, "We *do* have Michael Jackson on there!"  I explained that yes, it was a MJ song, but that it's on the radio and that meant that I couldn't control what song was being played at any given time by the radio station.  She then said, "It's Michael Jackson just like on the iPhone."  I again explained the difference between the iPhone and the radio.  She's asked to listen to MJ when we're in the car before, so it'll be interesting to see how she reacts next time she asks for him knowing that MJ can be played on the radio, but perhaps not fully grasping that I cannot make it happen.  Sidenote: it was an MJ song we rarely listen to and she still recognized him.  Pretty cool. 

Eye

I just noticed today that one of Avery's eyes (her left) is crossing inward at an angle out of sync with the other eye.  It's not very often, but during lunch today it was very obvious a few times.   I've made an appointment with an eye doctor to have it checked out.  From what I've read online, given it's intermittent, it shouldn't be a big deal to fix it (fingers crossed that's true), but we should have her seen by a doctor quickly.  

Me, all about me!

Yesterday's energy level sucked big time.  Today's is quite good.  I think I also need to be more aware of what I've eaten.  My appetite has decreased dramatically.  While I'm often hungry, when I see the actual food, it's sometimes an effort to get it down.  All in all, not a bad thing, but I think that may be contributing to my lack of energy sometimes.

Berries

Pickin' with the G's

Avery and I went strawberry picking this morning.  The G's had planned to go picking with Rachele's step cousin and her two kids, so Avery and I tagged along.  We didn't pick many berries since I don't plan to bake anything with them or make jam, so I gathered just enough for Avery to eat over the next few days, then took Nolan from Rachele so she could pick her berries more easily.  Then we set about exploring the farm a bit.  All in all, a fun time for all around.

On the way there, we saw a lot of the searchers looking for the missing boy.  That was sobering.  We also saw the National Guard helicopter flying very low over the river between Sauvie Island (where we were picking) and the mainland.  

Counting

I keep meaning to note that Avery is starting to grasp the one-to-one concept with counting.  Hmm, this is sounding familiar, so maybe I already noted it.  Ah well, once again!  When we were in Mexico, she counted twelve eggs.  Now she'll grab my finger and say, "Count with me!" then will move my finger from donut to donut in this particular book and correctly count the donuts (12). 

She still forgets the number 13, skips to 14 & 15, skips 17, then says 18,19,20.  At least the number seven mysteriously reappeared.  After at least 6-10 months of being able to count to ten, she suddenly started saying 1,2,3,4,5,6,11. Someone suggested she was probably getting ready to make a big leap in counting.  I think they were right in that she's started to fully grasp the one-to-one concept, but hasn't really added many additional numbers.  

Eddie

I'm taking him to the vet on Monday to see what can be done about his bowel control.  It also seems like he's pooping way more than usual and is hungry a lot.  I'm wondering if he's not absorbing the nutrients from his food as well as he ages?  We'll see.  

Happenings

1600 Happenings

My last post was my 1600th.  I sure can go on and on and on and ...

General Happenings

Let's see, quick updates on happenings.  Monday, Avery went to school, I took Mom to the airport, kept the house tidy, read, played Lexulous, and cooked dinner.  Tuesday, Avery went to school, I took a nap, met some friends for lunch, read, kept the house tidy, cooked dinner, and was asleep by 8:30 pm.  Yep, I lead an exciting life.

I haven't decided what Avery and I will be doing today.   For the moment, I've built a fort in the living room, brought her some stuffed animals, and suggested that she could make tickets for them to enter the fort.  This is currently working a strategy to encourage independent playtime.  We'll see how long it lasts.

House Happenings

The deck out front is complete except for the railings.  There was a miscommunication between our GC and the guy building the deck who was unaware that there were to be any railings.  I hope all the contractors are as nice and friendly as the guy who did the deck.  He not only seemed very competent, but was friendly without being annoying and made me feel completely at ease.  I'm not sure what step is next for our house, but I think the crane will be arriving soon to put up the shingles on the front of the house.

Our GC is also coming over tonight to discuss plants and trees for landscaping.  So the project is fully underway after getting off to a slow start due to his sickness, and then due to our indecision on house color. 

Avery Happenings

I feel like her communication skills have taken another leap forward in the past few weeks.  She was able to tell me several things she did at school on our way home yesterday.  Previously, she'd maybe tell us one thing or two things.  She also had what I would call a real phone conversation with my dad the other day.  Granted it was about random things like how she was missing one of her toys and how she was holding a dinosaur, which she correctly (and on her own) identified as a brachiosaurus, but was still more of a conversation than she usually has when talking to someone on the phone.

She is still using the word "because" a lot.  She says things like, "We no go tricycling because it's raining."  Or, "I wear sunblock because it's sunny."

Another change is that she's started to tell little lies.  Mostly they involve telling us that the other parent (or Nain) said she doesn't have to do something (e.g. put on underwear or go potty).

Avery's tantrums are fewer now, though when she has them, she really has them.  Right now, my analysis is that it's always us telling her no to something that sets her off, but that's really just a cover.  I think she's just feeling frustration at that point in time and uses the tantrum as her outlet to get those feelings out.  A lot of articles on tantrums will tell you to reflect the child's feeling back, "It looks like you're frustrated/sad/whatever.  Are you feeling frustrated?"  I know that has worked for a lot of friends.  This does not work for Avery.  It just makes her more mad.  Timeouts also do not work when she's needing a full blown tantrum.  Time outs work a lot of the time, but that is because she's not needing an outlet so extreme most of the time. The best thing, as my Mom learned too, is to be silent and not touch Avery.  Just let her work through it on her own.  This is tough to do because it takes a long time and a lot of patience, but after trying a multitude of things, it's my feeling that this it the best way to handle Avery's tantrums.  I know enough about kids by now to know that it may not be the way to handle other kids' tantrums, or even that it might not be how to handle her tantrums x number of months from now.  I can also predict with pretty good accuracy when she's looking for the opportunity to have a tantrum.  So with a little maneuvering of not giving in, but not outright saying no, we can sometimes avoid it.  To be clear, I say no to her a lot, so it's not the saying of "no" that automatically causes it.  It's saying "no" when she's apparently needing that outlet. 

Dog Happenings

Eddie is slowly losing control of his ability to hold his bowels.  He's had several accidents in the house where he just can't make it outside in time.  Some have happened even when he's been let out recently, so it's not always a matter of being inside for too long.  I'm not sure anything can be done other than to clean it up.  Does anyone know if there is medication to help with this?  I don't feel like going to the vet and paying $500 for them to tell me my dog is old.  

Arrival

Damian

D is at LAX now waiting for his connection.  I've decided I'll leave Avery with Mom when I go to pick him up at the airport.  We haven't told Avery he's coming so it'll be a fun surprise for her. I must say that I'm really looking forward to his arrival too. 

Avery

She just came over to me to ask for "music on the iPod."  I said, "OK," and started to navigate to the song on my iPhone, but then she said, "No, for everyone!" and motioned to the two workers in our courtyard who are tending to the plants.  She wanted to share her music with them, which was so sweet of her.  Of course, I'm not sure how thrilled they are to have to listen to Michael Jackson while they work, so we turned it down low.  

Asian-American History

I read various blogs about adoption, which often cover things about transracial and/or international adoption.  One of them posted a link to this post on ten things about Asian-American history.  I knew some, but most I did not.  I was especially shocked at #10, where the perpetrators who killed an Asian-American man in 1982 received NO jail time and a measly $3,000 fine.  What?  In 1982!?

Medication

I can't really feel that much of a difference with the medication yet.  Truly, I didn't expect to, but I always hope it'll be a fast cure.  I'm still clenching my jaw something fierce.  By the end of the day, my mouth feels all out of whack like I can't close properly.  Thankfully, I've had few side effects. It has decreased my appetite a bit, but that is a good thing.  The true test is when I get back to Portland since I knew I would have few anxiety issues while we are down here. 

Books

I got half way through a book that Mom brought - it was her book club's selection - called Little Bee.  I hated it.  I got so fed up with it, that I decided to create a shelf on Good Reads called "abandoned" and stick it there.  I still wanted to rate it one star, so it also goes under "read" but I'll just have to let that misrepresentation go.  Anyway, I recommend you skip that book.

I'm now reading Half Broke Horses, by the same author as The Glass Castle that I liked so much. It's good, but not as good.

Fever

Fever

Avery started a low grade fever (100.8°) last night.  When she woke around 6:45, she still had it.  The good news is that she slept through the night in her room.  She's definitely getting better, though we did take a three hour nap together late this morning.  Despite those three hours, I'm quite tired.  All things considered, it's been a fairly easy sick-kid stint, but I tire easily, as you should know if you've read my blog for a week or more. I'm really happy to have D home.  He was in Seattle Monday and today.

Right now, I hear D reading to Avery up in her room.  And he said he'd clean the kitchen tonight.

I expect tomorrow Avery will be well enough for me to cease the screen-time-limit-be-damned attitude I've been allowing.  We have watched a lot of Kung Fu Panda ("there is no charge for awesomeness ... or attractiveness" - best line of the movie right there).  Avery has started talking about Master Shifu. It's odd to hear her say, "Master Shifu."

Book

I read a book.  Yes, this feat merits an entire section because, damn it, I just don't read that much anymore.  I'll Fly Away is a compilation of short stories and poems written by women in a prison in Connecticut.  The author Wally Lamb runs writing classes (workshops?) with them.  I read the first book he published with works by the women, Couldn't Keep it to Myself, and enjoyed it, so I bought this one for my Kindle.  While I don't like that I can't share a book I bought for my Kindle, I do love the Kindle itself.

Since I so enjoyed reading an actual book, I'm going to read the Stones into Schools book my mom recommended.  At least if it's available on Kindle I'm going to read it.  If not, then I know Three Cups of Tea by the same author is available for download. Christie read Stones into Schools, so I fear that while we're in Mexico, she and Mom will be chatting away about this book that I'm going to wish I'd read.  

Underwear

I skim this blog about happiness.  I have mixed feelings about it.  I like it in that I do believe that happiness is, in large part, a choice we make.  I dislike it because I like happiness to be easy and not something I work to make happen. That said, I think it was Vy who commented she read the book by the blog author and was intrigued by the idea of adding more happiness into her already happy life.  In any case, this is why I skim it: because I find it somewhat interesting without being a devout follower of the concept.

In my skimming, I paused on the post Do you hoard your new underwear?  I can say unequivocally that I do not hoard my new underwear.  I wash it, then put it directly into rotation the moment I buy it.  It would never occur to me to hoard my new underwear.  Why would you buy underwear just to keep wearing your old underwear?  Further reading of the posts reveals that this isn't so much about underwear as much as it as about "spending out" (using things that she has because otherwise they go to waste just sitting there unused).  I do not suffer from this problem.  If I buy something, I rarely save it for later.  I think I used to do that, but I've decluttered enough to have realized that when I save things for later, I just end up forgetting about them and then not extracting the happiness from using it.

Now I feel like, in my little diatribe, I've basically stolen this woman's post and redone it.  I didn't mean to do that.  She can rest peacefully in the fact that hers is much more eloquent and profound, whereas mine is mostly about the underwear. 

Avery Conversations

Today, as we were checking out at the grocery store, Avery says to the checkout clerk, "Hi. My name is Avery.  I have yogurt."  And she did have yogurt.  The end.

 Ballsy

Finally, I leave you with a posting of two emails sent by an internship seeker.  It's hard to believe that someone like this exists, but since I've heard stories of candidates going in for interviews with their mothers in tow (seriously!), I guess this shouldn't surprise me.

Hair

"Hold my hair, Daddy!"

Yesterday, Avery needed to vomit, so she went to the bathroom.  When she got in there, D and I heard her yell, "Hold my hair, Daddy!" 

Through the night

As predicted, it was a restless night.  Avery would wake up to vomit or dry heave every couple of hours.  Since D had an early flight out, I left him in our room about midnight and Avery and I went into the guest room to sleep.  We first tried sleeping in her room.  That didn't work because the stupid smoke alarm light is pointed directly at her bed.  It's so bright.  I have vowed to do something about that.  I have no idea how she's been sleeping in that bed so far.  It's like this beacon in your eyes.  Awful.

After checking with RHG last night to see if this is what they've done in similar circumstances, I kept giving Avery small amounts of water through the night even though she would vomit it up.  The doctor's office said this morning that was the right thing to do.  Before I called the doctor, Avery was insistent that I give her peanut butter.  I thought it would be too rich, but figured maybe she knows what she needs, so I gave it to her.  Shockingly, while she wasn't keeping water or crackers down, she has kept the peanut butter down.  The nurse was very surprised and kept asking me again, "And she kept peanut butter down this morning?"  Then she asked whether Avery had peed this morning.  I said, no, but she went around 10ish last night, so based on the time of that pee session, it wouldn't be unusual for her not to go until 10 or 11 this morning.  That also surprised her.  Avery finally went potty about 15 minutes ago which is pretty much on schedule for her.

Speaking of pee, last night was the first time we've had a potty accident in her bed. She peed right after she'd gotten down to throw up in the aluminum roasting pan, so I think everything was just coming at her super fast. Anyway, it was also the first time I realized we have only one set of sheets for her bed. I think I meant to buy her two different sets of sheets and then got distracted. 

Avery still has no fever.  Well, I don't think she has a fever.  We bought one of those fancy thermometers like Amber and RHG have.  Ours sucks.  Same brand, but I can't get it to work to save my life.  It worked when it arrived, but I have tried numerous times on myself and on Avery to no avail.  She definitely doesn't have a high fever, and I would be surprised if it was more than 99°, so I'm not worried we don't have an exact number.  Right now, she's watching Cars.  She's a bit more whiny than usual, but I would still put her in the category of Massive Trooper for someone who has just been through the night she's had.  Seriously, I'd be a wreck right now if I were her.  In fact, I was a wreck this morning just due to lack of sleep.  I was not meant to do without sleep.  Other people must be better designed for lack of sleep. Or they just whine less ... I'm sticking with them being better designed.

We came downstairs with D when he left around 5:30 this morning.  Avery and I decided to sleep on the chair in the living room.  She slept with me for a while, then eventually she got off the chair and just slept on the floor.  At least I was able to sleep until 8:30 or so. It makes this morning more bearable.

It's now 10:15 and I don't think she's vomited since about 9:00.  Not too shabby folks!  Maybe she's through the worst of it. Fingers crossed.

Sleepless

Sleep

It's 2am. I'm not tired, so I'm blogging from my phone. We'll see how it looks soon enough. I should be tired, but my body is confused from so much sleeping on thanks to Nain taking care of Avery in the mornings so I could sleep in. Avery had no adjustment issues related to sleep or napping this time. It's the first time this has been true when travelling since she was tiny.

Conversation

Avery has been saying, "Stop talking, Mommy," a lot the past few days. I think it's to redirect my attention to her. I responded by explaining I was having a conversation with Nain and that she should wait for a lull to interrupt. This has resulted in Avery saying she wants to "be in conversation.". Then she proceeds to discuss the most pressing matter on her mind, which is usually her hangnail or the last known location of her shoes.

Doctor

Mom found Avery her stethoscope (she had one with her lab jacket ... Not sure why she had either of those things). Avery spent the next hour or so saying, "I doctor Avery Smith" when she had the stethescope on, then saying, "I not doctor Avery Smith," when she took it off. Totally awesome.

Tantrums Minimal

On this trip, tantrums have been few and far between, and those that have happened are like a hundreth the usual intensity. Will be interesting to see if this is a new phase or if it's just being so occupied with seeing new people and new places.

Sent from my iPhone

Easy

Hairplane!

Warning: this section is like braggity-brag-brag-brag land.  Move along if you're not in the mood.  I have lovely, complainy tantrums at the end. :)

The first thing Avery said when she woke up on Monday morning: "We go on hairplane today!"  She was so excited!  If only she knew how many flights she's already been on, but I guess only the last few are memories for her. 

I couldn't have asked for an easier trip.  It was that easy.  Nothing went wrong and Avery was amazing, especially when you consider the monumental tantrums she's been throwing lately.  I needed that after the last flight with just me and her (back from Hawaii in December) was so difficult.  I needed to know it's not always a big deal to fly with just the two of us.

Security was a breeze with Avery perfectly following each instruction I gave her.  I was bursting from pride at that point.

When we landed, we had to sit on the tarmac for a while because our gate was occupied.  Avery said she wanted to get up, I explained we had to wait for the other plane to leave the gate and she responded, "Oh, be patient!"  And then she was. 

Getting off the plane and making our way to the baggage area was so much fun, too.  She decided to do it all herself.  With me following behind, she walked herself down the aisle of the plane wheeling her ladybug suitcase behind her.  On the way out the door of the plane, she turned to the flight attendants and pilot and said, "Bye!"  then trotted herself purposefully up the jet way.  She wheeled that suitcase all the way to baggage claim, following each instruction I gave to her without fail. No tantrums, no whining, no dawdling.  It was pure seasoned traveler.  Of course, I'm sure this means that our trip back will be filled with issues, but I am just grateful for this trip.  

When she finally saw Nain, she started squirming for joy.  "There's Nain! There's Nain!"  And Nain secured her spot in Avery's heart by bringing apple cookies, Avery's favorite.

I have two other moments of glory to share before we return to our regularly scheduled Tantrum-o-the-Day updates: 

1. I had an older woman compliment my parenting skills while Avery and I were waiting at the airport.  That was nice since the Clucking Hens, as I call the older women who like to comment on the parenting of the younger ones these days, usually just offer up things like, "Isn't she cold?" and "Shouldn't you put some shoes on her?" with condescending looks and disgusted tones thinly veiled as concern. 
2. I brought M&Ms on the plane, but Avery didn't eat a single one.  We had strawberries, apples, almonds, a tortilla, and carrots as snacks on the plane.  Considering I basically stuffed her so full of M&M's and milk (in an effort to bribe quiet into her) on the Hawaii flight that she threw up when she got home, I was pleased with myself on this one.  I did offer her sucker when we had to get up to go potty.  I figured she'd not want to get back in her seat, so I presented it to her as a special travel treat since she's never had a sucker before.  She was so excited to get it, but took about four licks and then said she was done and threw it away.  Despite its early demise,  I do suspect that's the last sucker she'll leave unfinished based on her enthusiasm for them.  She told everyone around us about her sucker. 

Esophagus

The other day, Avery said something about food going into her tummy.  She must have picked that up in school, or maybe I said it offhandedly one day, but either way, I'm not sure where it came from.  I figured I'd take it one step further and told her how food goes down your esophagus before it gets to your tummy.  A couple of days later as she's eating, she says, "Going down my esophagus," as she was eating.  She's grasped this concept now and has repeated it several times. It never fails to amaze me how you say one thing to kids on a Monday and don't mention it again, then on Wednesday, they'll blurt it out and get it right.

"Hi, nice to meet you!"

That is the phrase Avery, unprompted by us, yelled over to Mom's neighbors the other day. Not sure where she picked up the "nice to meet you" since that is definitely not a phrase I use often.

Tantrums

I feel like we're making minor progress in this area, though it's likely only visible to me.  Which is another way of saying that they're still present, but I'm optimistic.  She hasn't had a full-on tantrum for several days, though I've given her a couple of time outs for repeatedly asking for something (milk or chocolate or apple cookies) after I've said no several times and explained why she can't have more.  The good news is those time outs have worked and not required more time outs.  They do tend to snap her out of her whiny mode. 

She hasn't had a car seat fit with me since I blogged about using TV as a reward (which I then replaced with stickers since those seemed to work just as well).  D experienced one on Easter, which I would have experienced, but I saw it coming and deftly avoided the situation. Sorry, D. Bob and weave, honey, bob and weave.

Hometown

Love seeing my mother, hate being in my hometown.  I can't articulate why I loathe it so, but I truly do.  I feel like more than a few hours here starts to erode away at my soul.  I was never meant to live in the Midwest.  That's the best way I can articulate it.

Designer

Lunch & Designer

D and I had an unexpected lunch date today.  Since we needed to meet with our designer/GC's showroom at 1, we met up for lunch beforehand.  My head is rather in the ground on this whole house business.  I have just kind of shut down and started to pretend like it's all beyond my control. It's the way I was when we bought this house, too.  We made quick decisions and then I was ready for them to implement and for everything to be done.  It's not lack of patience on my part as much as it is lack of interest in the process, I guess.

He's going to come back to us with a few more drawings for paint color options.  You know the picture I scanned in before?  I thought it was a computer drawing, but it's a hand drawing.  Wow.  Anyway, they're going to do a few more of those with different house colors to see if we can get it nailed down.  We also decided to skip the porch - at least the porch that would be in front of the windows.  We're most likely still doing a decking over the existing concrete steps we have.  We're also looking into other options for replacing/changing the brick.

In case you're wondering, he was finally diagnosed with Bell's palsy. It is a less than clear cut case because he had paralysis on his entire right side of his body, not just on his face.  He can walk without a cane now and we were able to meet with him in his showroom, so I think things are getting back to normal for him.

Tantrum update

Avery's been doing much better with her tantrums the last few days, and I've been handling them better, too.  Of course, we have just been driving to and from school and those trips are usually without any issue, but she's also been a bit more toned down in her tantrums at home.  She'll whine or cry when she doesn't get what she wants, but it's less drawn out and dramatic.  I've been rewarding her with a sticker for getting into her car seat without a hassle.  I figured we'll start smaller than a TV reward as long as I can get away with it.  I found some free Sesame Street video podcasts that only last about five minutes.  I don't like the idea of her watching a lot of TV in the car since that means less TV time at home (adhering to a screen limit time to avoid Angry Child at nighttime).  I like TV time at home because it gives me a break.  I don't want to waste TV time in the car.

Sleeping

She ended up sleeping with us last night.  I vaguely remember pulling her into bed with us after she came into our room (which I was later informed by D was around 2:30 AM).  First she came in without making noise, but since I wake up whenever there is any movement or sound of any kind, I was aware that she came into our room.  At first she just stood next to the bed, then she went to sleep on the floor for a while.  Eventually stood up and asked to come into bed with us.  It's all a bit of a haze.  Normally I would have checked the time and then told her to go back into her bed, so I'm not sure why that didn't happen last night.  It wasn't desperation for sleep or frustration on my part.  I think I might have been somewhat asleep and just wasn't thinking straight.  Overall, she has gotten good at going back into her own bed without help from us if she wakes up in the middle of the night.  I'm currently knocking on wood for that trend to continue.  

Packing

I have told Avery several times about our upcoming trip to Colorado.  When she got home from school yesterday, first she stripped down (always her first act when we get home), then decided she wanted to get into dinosaur jammies, then she she said she needed to pack for our trip.  I gave her the ladybug bag to pack, but she also decided she needed to bring along the box that we had been pretending was a mailbox. What she packed: two pieces of junk mail, our mailbox key, and several shredded up pieces of paper.  Sounds about right to me.

Comprehension

On the way to school this morning, I was explaining to Avery why she is going to school three days this week (our travel next week).  I finished, then she said, "and daddy/daughter date night!"  It seems all future events get all jumbled in her mind.  I told her yesterday that tonight will be a Daddy/Daughter date night since I'm going out to dinner.  It was very sweet to hear her so excited about it.

We talk a lot in the car lately.  She likes to observe what I'm doing or not doing: "Mommy waving" or "Mommy not waving."  The why questions have started, though I'm not sure she really understands what "why?" means since she doesn't always use it at logical times in a conversation.  An example of her why question used properly: at the stoplight today, she said, "Mommy not going. Why?"  I explained that we stop on red and go on green and she seemed satisfied with that answer.  I'm curious to see if she'll retain that bit of knowledge.

And while this is not a leap in comprehension to document, she says the same thing every time we go to or leave school and I find it adorable.  A couple of weeks ago, they went on a buggy ride around the hospital grounds and over near the private school.  The private school apparently has goats on its grounds.  They saw one of the goats.  So now, every time we walk by the buggies, which are stored on either side of the entrance to her school, she says, "'member buggy ride?"  I say, "I remember you telling me about the buggy ride.  What did you see?"  Then she yells, "Goats!!!"  Then she usually points to the seat (I presume) she was sitting in and points to the seat next to it to say, "Ethan!" (whom I presume was sitting next to her).  She talks about Ethan, Owen, and Ali from school.  The other day she even asked for Ali.  It's very different for me to hear her ask for friends from school since she's forged these little friendships on her own.