Things I am doing...

1.) Talking... mommy, daddy, apple, bubble, juice, I want some, see, eye, nose, ear, teeth, elbow, bib, no, please, thank you, yellow, purple, Emme, cheese, uh-huh, color, two (my favorite number - no need for one or three - just two), rock, swing, up, on, off, green beans, pizza, shoe, sock, blankie, paci, tv, potty, peepee, poopoo, wipe, pretty, mimi (grammy and grandma), papa (all the grandpa's) and zo-zo (mom and Eric's dog, Zoe.) I'm sure there are more I'm forgetting, but those are some of the regulars.

2.) I love to wrap my baby doll up in a blanket and sing bye, bye, bye, baby, blah, blah, blah, blah ... that would be her version of rock a bye baby... not a lot of words, but she sings the rhythm right.

3.) I also love to get on the potty (with my clothes still on) and pretend to go, wipe with the toilet paper, flush the toilet, and wash my hands. I don't actually know when I have to go yet so I can't be potty trained quite yet, but I'm more than ready!

4.) My favorite toys or games are my crayons and markers... love to dump the whole container out and scribble for about 2 minutes and then say 'all done' and walk away leaving the mess for mommy to clean up later. I also like taking every book off of my book shelf and letting mommy read the first page and a half before I go get another one. And I love to dump all of my blocks out of the block bag, let mommy build one tower, knock it down and, again, walk away leaving a mess for mommy to pick up. Did I mention I love to make messes?

5.) I love to dance!! My CD plays all kinds of fun songs that I run around in circles and dance to. My favorites are the 'Hokey Pokey' and 'There Were 6 in the Bed.'

6.) Saturday and Sunday mommy and daddy always have the tv on with all of these little people running around and bumping into eachother. I don't know what it is that is going on, but they do lots of jumping around and screaming. All I say is 'Go Colts!' (really, she says it everytime football comes on the tv... we're teaching her well!) Don't worry Lara, she also says Go Pack! :)

7.) I sleep through the night unless I'm cutting a tooth... this sucks by the way... very painful and hard to sleep.

8.) I would live outside if mommy and daddy would let me - I don't care how cold it is!

9.) I love taking baths and I hate having my clothes put on afterwards. I think it's a funny game to run away from mommy when she tries to put my diaper and pajamas on.

10.) I'm short, I love fruit (and hate peas and carrots), my best friend is Emme and I still love being rocked to sleep.

These are a few of the peanuts latest quirks... I'm writing them down to share, but more so I will remember them some day. She is growing up so fast and I know I will some day try to remember how old she was when she did what. At a year an a half - here is her list.

Happy Halloween!

Ava and Emme... two peas in a pod. It is so much fun watching them together. After a very fun night of trick-or-treating, a few skittles and suckers later, these two were running around the house like crazy people. They were wrestling and giggling like it was the most fun night of their entire lives. Some of my favorite quotes of the night (of course from Emmerie)...

Walking up to a house we could see the couple in the window and Emme exclaims in excitment realizing they are not in costume "normal people live here!"

Tierny is explaining to Emme that it is time to take her princess dress off if they are going to be running around and eating candy. While Tierny is pulling the dress off over her head Emme says (in the most pathetic voice you have EVER heard) "Mommy, this makes me SO sad."

Matt is holding Emmerie and telling her it is time to go home and go to bed and she very seriously responds "Okay daddy, but FIRST we can play chase and THEN we can go to bed."

Oh to be a kid again. :)

Joy...

She is absolutely more fun than she has ever been right now. Giggling and laughing... absolute joy! In the midst of a terrible weekend everything is turned around the minute I see her face. In the midst of family crisis I come back to my aunt and uncle's house and watch her run and laugh and play and it makes all of the stress disappear... even if just for a short period of time. Isn't she beautiful? Sometimes her carefree giggles take my breath away and remind me how quickly the time is passing. She was taking a bath when Greg came home tonight and I'm pretty sure she was happier than I have ever seen her. I just kept thinking I need a video of this to remember how great this feels... her in the bath tub in hysterics repeating 'daddy! daddy! daddy!' and my husband dancing and making ridiculous faces and sounds in the doorway. I just sat on the floor between the two of them thinking this is exactly what heaven will feel like. I hope everyone I know has the opportunity to have this feeling... soon!

Ava the daredevil...

My daughter has no fear... which creates great fears in her mother. Here are some pictures from this last week of her latest climbing expeditions. She looks very confident doesn't she? This makes me a nervous wreck because she has no idea what could happen to her - not a clue. I blame myself for this. Since she was a baby I have made it a point not to hover and to let her find out for herself the consequences of her actions. Mothers who inhale a loud breath and jump to their child's rescue every time they trip make me crazy and I have always felt it makes their children scared to do things on their own as they get older. So, though I have a physical reaction inside every time she falls down, I do everything in my power to keep my feet planted and give her a chance to dust herself off. She usually does, but as she gets bigger she is definitely taking bigger risks. I tell myself, stay close enough to catch her if she falls, but give her the space she needs to try things. Now I'm asking myself - where do I draw the line? She can't run out in the road and this has been a tough lesson with all of the kids who play out in the middle of the cul de sac each evening. She can't climb the stairs alone - mostly because I have nightmares of her falling down those stairs on a regular basis. However, if she falls from the fence, how much damage could she do to herself, really? I suppose it depends on how exactly she lands. Or if she tumbles out of her stroller will be be a goose egg on her forehead or a broken limb?

Yesterday she tumbled off a chair at starbucks while she was coloring and not paying attention and though I was sitting right next to her - it happened so fast I didn't even realize it was happening until she was a heap on the floor. The tumble would haven't been to bad except she landed smooshed between the chair and the wall. I picked her up and waited for the first big scream that always comes when it really hurts... a big inhale with her mouth wide open and waiting.... waiting... waiting.... and there it comes. She sobbed in my arms as I rocked her back and forth telling her it's okay. Three or four good wails and she was right back to coloring like it had never happened. Her recovery time always shocks and amazes me.

And then I realized... it doesn't matter if I'm right next to her watching her every move or not. She's going to fall sometimes and it's going to hurt. There are obvious times when I will do everything I can to prevent this from happening, but most of the time it's out of my control. So I will continue to pray that her pains will be minor ones and be thankful she won't ever miss out on something because she is afraid.

Happy 17 month birthday!

Mommy, can we take a ride? Oh my, what a ham I have on my hands. How is it possible such a little person can be packed with so much personality? "Mommy's going to need to take a vacation or you are going to give her gray hairs, peanut!" Those were the words of my husband this evening when he got home from work.
Not my child. She will be perfectly pleasant. She won't be one of those kids kicking and screaming in the middle of the restaurant or the Wal-mart parking lot. Oh yes she will! She'll be the 16 month old screaming as you carry her out of the verizon store so she doesn't remove the phones from the zip strings and set off the alarm again.... yes, again. The first time she did it was an accident, but when she heard the fun alarm sound and watched the lady run from the desk to turn off the alarm switch as mommy frantically tried to push the cord back into the phone, a thought flashed through her little bitty brain... 'let's see that again.' As my mother said the other night... anyone who doesn't believe in original sin hasn't had children. I just keep thinking 'where did she see this behavior? what makes her think she should try it one more time just to see what happens?' Other people think it too because they say things like 'would she have seen a kid at daycare do something like that?' Would she have seen a kid at day care pull a cord out of cell phone just to hear the alarm go off? Uh, I don't think so. Would she have seen a kid at day care throw a fit? Well, yes. Probably every day... they are kids, right? So, what, I'm supposed to quit my job and not take her to day care because they teach them how to be bad there? AHHHHHHHHHHHH! What is this craziness I've gotten myself into? My child was going to be the good one because Greg and I were going to do everything right and she would be a breeze to deal with. To those of you out there I have giggled at as your child threw a major hissy in the store... I AM SO SORRY! To those of you who I criticized for your lax parenting because your child was misbehaving... I AM SO SORRY! And to those of you who have parented the perfect child - congratulations! And to those of you planning on parenting the perfect child - good luck and let me know how that goes for you.

Being a big girl...

Sara, Paige, and Ava socializing on the picnic table.

A picture with my friends... mommy can I be three too?

Ava's favorite apple - right off the tree.

This is my kind of apple picking.

the most beautiful day of the year...

We spent the entire evening outside tonight. I'm exhausted, but wanted to blog this one picture before I headed to bed. Got some great pictures of the girls in our neighborhood playing outside... coming soon.

Take me out to the ball game!

These pictures are from two weekends ago, but things have been a little crazy lately with little time for blogging. Finally, I have an evening to share them. Ava took in her first baseball game at Victory Field last Sunday evening. Greg's mom and dad got us tickets and as you can see from the pictures, they were great seats and it was a beautiful day for a baseball game. One of the few days this August that was not producing sweltering heat. I've always enjoyed going to a baseball game, but I wasn't sure how Ava would handle having to stay in one spot for that long. As you can see from the pictures... she didn't. She visited Victory Field from one end to the other and after everyone else had gone home the rows and stairs were her playground. Despite the Indianapolis Indians losing, it was a great day! Here are some of my favorite pics.

I'm coming dada!

Seats behind the dugout

more baseball game pics...

Ava and daddy on their way to the game

We made it!

Enjoying a snack...

and a drink as big as her head.

a good spot to sit

We visited my mom and Eric this weekend and here are a few of my favorite shots. She is shirtless because mom and I bought a watermelon from this local place and Ava enjoyed more than a few pieces. Unfortunately, she was wearing a little white t-shirt with this skirt and it was a pretty shade of pink once she was finished with the watermelon. I know the one on the top looks like I set her there, but these days she loves to find fun and unexpected places to have a seat. She loves to get on the couch with us, loves chairs that rock because she can make them move all by herself, and her favorite seat this weekend was Zoe's doggy bed. At home she has a small white wicker chair and a pink lawn chair with an umbrella that she loves to climb in and out of. Apparently, on this particular day, the frame of grammy's porch seemed like the perfect place to pull up a seat and rest.

Where did it go?

It feels like just yesterday that I was blogging about the start of summer and all of the time I would have with Ava. Wow, did that pass me by in a hurry! Today and tomorrow I'm working in my classroom and Wednesday I will be greeting our highest enrollment of 7th and 8th graders since I started teaching. As sad as I am the summer has passed ... it feels good to be back to work. Ava went back to the babysitter today and despite the fit she had as I left, she had a great time playing with the other kids all day and was an exhausted crabby mess tonight. I'm guessing it will take her and I a little time to get adjusted back to our early mornings. Who am I kidding? I never get adjusted to early mornings. I hate mornings! And I have a bad feeling based on previous experiences that my daughter may have a few of my not so finer traits. Ahhhhh well. On that note... I must get some sleep tonight so good night.

We had visitors...

Just some quick pics from our visit this weekend. Jaclyn - it was so good to see you and Joshua! Thanks for celebrating the end of my summer with me and for spending time with Ava. You know I love you and I'll send you the other pics soon.

I've been tagged...

I have been tagged... some sort of crazy blog game given to me from megan, so here it goes.

The Rules:
1. I have to post these rules before I give you the facts.
2. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write a post on their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules.
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read their blog.

8 random things:

8. I am embarressed by the mole under my left ear (and I pluck the hairs that grow out of it)

7. I hate blow drying my hair, but hate the way my hair looks when I don't

6. I have a crush on John Cusack and I see movies just because he's in them

5. I pick my daughter's nose with my bare fingers

4. I talk to my mom every day (with a few exceptions)

3. I have my hair in pig tails right now (because I didn't blow dry it)

2. My favorite body part on my husband is his butt (sooooooo cute!)

1. I really want a dog, but won't get one until we get rid of our cats


Here, I'm supposed to list eight people, but I don't have any friends that have blogs - except Megan and she tagged me. The only one I can think of is Evonne - she has a myspace, so Evonne, you are it! If any of my friends without blogs wants to e-mail me your eight things - I'll post them on my blog just for fun.

Happy Birthday Papa!

Tonight we took Ava's great-grandpa, fondly known as papa, out for his birthday! They had a ball together at Culver's while they shared their ice cream. I think he's smitten... what do you think? We love you papa and hope it was happy!

Congratulations!

Here are the pictures of the two new baby girls in our family! Congratulations and good luck to Jeri, Johnson and little sister Brianna. Forgive me if these aren't right, but I believe it is Lailyn Faith at 7 lbs. 8 ozs. and Hannah Grace at 7 lbs. 12 ozs. These beautiful and healthy baby girls were born on August 1st! We are all so excited for you and will be praying that you may be getting some rest sometime in the next 2 years - ha!

"Suddenly I See"

Tonight I was on the way home from a meeting and listening to my favorite radio station and one of my favorite songs came on the radio. KT Tunstall is an incredible singer and songwriter and the words to this song have struck me before, but tonight I was thinking about my new photography endeavors and the day I created the name for my new inspiration... brightspot. This song is exactly what the name of my inspiration is about. I know this is probably not what she was talking about when she wrote the song, but this song speaks to me about what being a mom has done to me and my entire outlook on life. So, I looked up the lyrics and thought I would share them. If you haven't heard this song before - you must hear it!

"Suddenly I See"

Her face is a map of the world
Is a map of the world
You can see she's a beautiful girl
She's a beautiful girl
And everything around her is a silver pool of light
The people who surround her feel the benefit of it
It makes you calm
She holds you captivated in her palm

Suddenly I see (Suddenly I see)
This is what I wanna be
Suddenly I see (Suddenly I see)
Why the hell it means so much to me

I feel like walking the world
Like walking the world
You can hear she's a beautiful girl
She's a beautiful girl
She fills up every corner like she's born in black and white
Makes you feel warmer when you're trying to remember
What you heard
She likes to leave you hanging on her word

Suddenly I see (Suddenly I see)
This is what I wanna be
Suddenly I see (Suddenly I see)
Why the hell it means so much to me

And she's taller than most
And she's looking at me
I can see her eyes looking from a page in a magazine
Oh she makes me feel like I could be a tower
A big strong tower
She got the power to be
The power to give
The power to see

Suddenly I see (Suddenly I see)
This is what I wanna be
Suddenly I see (Suddenly I see)
Why the hell it means so much to me

- KT Tunstall