My morning wake-up crew...

Every morning, my dogs let me know when it's 5:44am. I typically wake up around 5:45, whether I am working that day or not, and it's a very rare occasion that the alarm clock actually wakes me up.

I used to let the dogs out, take a shower, feed them, and let them roam the house. Now, I let them out, shower, get ready, eat breakfast, etc, etc, etc. and feed them last because they are so noisy, they will wake up Avery. So every morning, after my shower, I open the curtains and find this. They sit there for almost an hour being somewhat patient (Winston likes to let out an "Oh no, I'm dying" sort of whine every so often) and then I let them in to eat if Avery is awake, or feed them outside if she's not.

I just think it's funny that they sit there and wait, and wait, and wait. They watch me walk back and forth, put a paw on the window as if to say "Oh PLEASE GOD don't forget to feed us breakfast," and eventually lay down with a sullen look on their faces. Poor, poor, poor dogs.

Memorial Day

We went back over to Gigi's house today since Avery's visit last week was cut short. Gigi had bought Avery a new swimsuit with an inner tube inside to help her float and learn to swim. It was a hit.


Pops had also bought Avery a Nemo kite, which she saw immediately upon arriving at their house. She said "wish, wish!" for 'fish,' but she didn't know it was a kite until we got to fly it later.

Uncle Tyler helped him off the ground, and then Nemo went up, up, up, and eventually crash-landed back down. Avery was amazed at the whole process. We'll definitely have to look into getting a kite for home, too.




Later, after eating ribs and corn on the cob, Avery got to have strawberries with Cool Whip on top. She said "YUMMY" with each bite.

Weekend BBQ

We had some friends over today for hamburgers and beer. Avery got to hang out with her buddies Jack and Jacob. She hammed it up for everyone, as usual, and said some pretty funny things throughout the day. When Brad, Vickie, and Jacob were leaving, Avery belted out with a "Bye, Brad!" which shocked us all because we didn't think she knew Brad's name -- we'd only said it a couple of times to her over the course of the day.

First off, Avery had fun attacking Hope and hugging on Jack.


Then Rich took both Jack and Avery out to play with Murphy and Winston. He realized quickly that it was a two-man job, so I put the camera down and got to work.


Avery worked hard to entice Jacob into a game of peek-a-boo with the curtains. They played and laughed and had a great time together.



Here is some footage of the two of them playing peek-a-boo.

Later Avery decided to use Jacob's booster seat and pretend it was the potty. She would lift the lid (which really isn't a lid at all, it's a storage area), sit down, stand up, say "Bye pee-pee," and close the lid again. It was pretty funny. Jacob thought it looked fun too, so he came over to join her.



Rich, Hope, and Jack are moving to Henderson, NV in a couple of weeks, and we're very sad to see them go. We're sure we'll still see them fairly often, but it's been fun to have toddlers together and hang out every now and then. They're expecting another baby boy just a couple weeks after Baby Z #2 is supposed to come, so we were looking forward to having our next babies hang out together too, but I guess we'll have to do it long distance.

Update on my mom...

The doctors think she had an esophageal spasm, not a heart attack. Apparently, they're described as non-cardiac chest pain and are often brought on by stress. So the good news is, a heart attack has pretty much been ruled out, but the regrowth of her tumor has not. She'll know more this coming week. Thanks for your concern everyone :)

Crappy week

This week turned crappy really quickly. Yesterday morning I woke up, went to work, everything was normal.

At about 11:30, I got a call at work from my mom's neighbor, telling me that my mom had mostlikely had a heart attack. Of course I FREAKED out, broke down and cried, the whole 9 yards.

Jed and I went to the hospital where she was at the ER -- they were admitting her and had a wireless telemetry device stuck onto her to monitor her heart. They were taking it all very seriously because of the thoracic surgery she had 9 months ago to remove a tumor that was growing in between her heart and lungs.

She stayed the night, they ran tests, and most of them came out normal. Her blood pressure was higher than usual, but the other tests were normal.

I ended up having to take today off -- Avery was supposed to stay with my mom because my sister is out of town and I had to work. I only have 8 more days of work for the school year, and I have no sick days left. Thankfully one of my friends at work donated a sick day to me today so that I wouldn't get docked the $300 or so bucks that they'd dock me for being out. Commie bastards.

So, the long and the short of it is that she's fine, but I think she needs to de-stress and take a freaking vacation!

Visit to Gigi's House

First off, Avery has a GramZ and a Grammy, but she's called Grammy "Gigi" for quite a while. Since I can't seem to keep them straight and keep calling them each other's name, we're going to stick with Avery's nickname instead. So Grammy (my mom) will now be referred to as Gigi. I know you all desperately needed clarification. I know I did.

On with the day...

Avery is gone for a visit to Gigi's house until Friday because my nanny (my sister Meredith) is in NYC for a couple of weeks. We went early in the day today so we could do some swimming and hang out for a while before I had to leave to come back home.

First we went to visit Summer, the horse. She let out a really plaintive whinny when we turned back toward the house to leave her. She actually belongs to the neighbor (my mom recently put her last horse down because she was deaf and blind, so we have no horses to call our own any longer).

To get there, it's a long walk, but Avery loves all the distractions along the way -- the first of which being the flowers:


Next are the dogs, Zoey and Nicholas. Zoey is a black lab mix, Nicholas is a beagle. Zoey is like a much nicer, but slobberier and older, version of Murphy (yes, dogs do get slobberier than Murphy) but Avery doesn't seem to mind. She went for a dip to show off for Avery, so Avery stopped to watch for a while.


Then there's the 40 years we have to spend in the desert, contemplating the meaning of life...


Finally, we got to Summer the horse, just before we reached Enlightenment. Because of the logistics of holding a baby, a camera, and trying to keep the baby's fingers from being nibbled, I found it easier to video tape this portion of the presentation.

Next we hit the spa. It was still really chilly in the pool, so Pops heated the spa for us for a while and we went in. Avery had a blast.


Avery even got to do some unexpected whale-watching. Thanks to Gigi for taking this picture...


And here is swimming video. Don't worry, no whales were caught in this footage.

Mud Girl

Here is the video of the muddy events from last week. I was waiting for Google to approve it since the playback is more or less instantaneous, and it's free hosting!

Well, one thing is official...

the sex of Baby Z #2 might still be a mystery, but what he/she looks like isn't. I'd say we have an Avery #2 cooking in there... what do you think?

Did it ever occur to Baby Bear?

Perhaps if he'd shut up with that stupid mispronouncing voice of his, that maybe his little sister, Curly Bear, would go to sleep?


Yes, I woke up on the wrong side of the bed. So did Avery.


Sesame Street is obviously not helping me, but it's doing wonders for her.

No more rain!

I used to enjoy the rain in springtime -- it was a nice reprieve from the heat that seems to come so quickly. Now, however, I've got a toddler who doesn't understand the simple equation rain=stay inside, or at least it does in my book.
She's pounding on the door and looking outside and doesn't understand why we can't just go play in the rain. After the muddy mess I cleaned up last week, I'm not quite ready to go there again, not yet.

Here's what I don't get. It's cloudy and raining on my side of the hill, and bright and sunny on the other. How does this happen?

Just when we thought we'd all been spared,

Sylvester Stallone decides he's going to make a Rocky VI. Apparently five movies weren't enough.

Dear Emma:

I have pigtails. Eat your heart out.

Love, Avery
XOXOX

A new friend

Avery finally got to meet Sidney, who belongs to my college friend Lee. Sidney and Lee live in San Diego, so we don't get to see them as often as we'd like to. We've been trying to get together for a couple of months now, and finally we made it work. Sidney is so, so cute -- she looks just like her mom! She was born 5 weeks early, so she's a little bit on the tiny side, but just as cute as can be.

Cheapie Pool...

I saw the cheapie $5 pools were out for the season and I picked one up. Avery is eternally grateful. The only problem is now her vocabulary mostly consists of (in an extremely annoyingly whiny tone) -- "Swimming?" "Water?" "Pool?" "Swimming?" "Water?" "Pool?"

So my jacked up dream of the week...

happened last night. I dreamt that after the baby was born, I had to explain to my husband that the father was really my friend Darren. Somehow, Jed knew the baby wasn't his.

Here's Darren.

This is mildly amusing...

But possibly only mildly.

The Evolution of Dance

Stole this pic...

from Andrea's Flickr photos...

I was bored and browsing her pics of Palm Springs -- I came upon this one of Henry and Avery and I and decided to swipe it. I have almost no pictures of Avery and me together. I'm usually the one behind the camera. I try to squeeze in a way-too-close-self-portrait from time to time, but those just aren't the same. So, thanks Andrea -- hope you don't mind my theiving!

So here's a good question:

If Avery is so much like I was, as my mom claims she is, why in the hell doesn't she have more hair? This is me at 12 months and Avery at 19. I actually have enough hair to hold a barette. Avery's barette just looks silly.

What a difference a day makes...

It's been 24 whole hours since Avery looked like this -- she she cleans up well, eh?

It started innocently enough...

At first it was just splashing in a little puddle of water. I thought how bad can it get? It got pretty bad, pretty quickly. I can't even show you a progression from dry and clean to wet and dirty -- that's how quickly things changed.


43 seconds later:


Then we moved on to picking up a hunk of mud and walking around with it. Finally, it ended up being plopped in front of Murphy, who thought about eating it for a moment, and then decided against it.



The hose seemed like a fun, quick, and easy solution to the mud problem, so off we went.



And the final product:

This place has gone to the birds...

(and the squirrels too!)

Since buying bird seed for the bird feeder and hanging it up just outside the livingroom window, Avery and Jed and I have had lots of wildlife to observe. It's mostly birds, thankfully, but the squirrels are also taking advantage of the seed that's fallen onto the ground. Avery keeps a close eye on the activity and lets me know by shouting "Oh look!" everytime a bird is sitting at the feeder, which is pretty much all day long at this point. The word in the bird community has spread and we've got birds there until sunset. Avery hasn't quite grasped the idea, though, that if she pounds on the window to say "Hi" to the birds or to get their attention, they fly away. She also doesn't understand why they don't want to come and hang out when we're out there playing. She keeps pointing to the feeder and say "When away?" which means "Went away?" or, I guess, "Where'd they go?"

On Friday I left for Albuquerque for the weekend and the feeder was full. Monday morning, it was half empty. I guess they've been busy. Here are some terrible pictures of our furry and feathered visitors through the window. Notice how much food they'd eaten in three days' time!

Left at Albuquerque...

I'm back from my obligatory trip to NEW Mexico ("What happened to the old one?")

I surprised a friend for her much-anticipated college graduation. She was on the 15-year-plan. Or, more like, go a year, take off two, go another year, take of three. She first attended the same college as me -- I was a junior, she was a freshman. She blames me for corrupting her. Funny that once she moved to Albuquerque, the corruption continued, but I wasn't there!

Anyway, the graduation was boring as anything, but it was still fun to show up unexpectedly. I have tried surprising her many times in the past and apparently this was the FIRST time she didn't know. Anna, when we went two years ago??? Yeah, she knew we were coming. That bitch.

Here is the ONLY picture I took the whole trip. I kept forgetting to bring my camera.


Happy Graduation Jill!

The best things in life ARE free...

Like these lilacs my mom cut for me. I soooo wish I had a lilac bush this time of year. Apparently, at least at her house, they bloom for only a few short weeks, so she's bound and determined to have fresh lilacs in her house every day while they last. I'm so glad she decided to share some with me. They smell soooo good!

Hell hath frozen over...

Not that I've been anticipating this, but I heard today that Guns 'N' Roses is releasing a new album this fall. I dare say I might have a listen. Here is the news story.

Today's Events

Roggy got cuddled a lot. Her nickname, not mine. He's a frog, by the way. A frog that all of a sudden, she cannot be without.


The Weebles put their shoes on. Or shoe, since they each only had one. I suppose it doesn't matter much that they didn't have two each since Weebles don't even have feet.


Bought bird seed for and hung the feeder that I bought, oh, four years ago? Avery is always scouting for wildlife to observe, so I thought I'd make it easier. I wanted to buy a hummingbird feeder, but Target was fresh out. I guess everyone had my same idea. (By the way, the tree in the background is a Japanese Maple. They go through a reverse fall sort of thing... very strange).


Chased a lizard. Unfortunately he went under the sago baby fronds and wasn't spotted again. Avery did get to chase him back and forth for a moment first, however.




Painted with watercolors. Trust me, it got much messier. Hence the lack of clothing. Notice, too, that Roggy is IN her hand. I'm scared of this newfound attachment.


And, of course, the gratuitous video...

One of Dooce's posts today...

... had me feeling warm and fuzzy all over. Especially this quote:

"So I gave her a kiss, put her to bed and turned off the light. After I shut her door I stood in the hall for a few seconds to take it in: my two-year-old just asked to go to bed for the second time. In one day.

My satisfaction in that moment was so explosive that it almost blew the roof off the house. Because that? THAT? That is all I ever wanted in a child."

That last sentence just cracks me up.

Although this has yet to happen for me, we're getting there. Today Avery gladly chose "night-night" over "lunch." I gave her the two choices and she chose the former. Very unlike her. This was, too, after a 12-hour night's sleep -- something else she's been doing for about 5 days in a row. While I hesitate to rejoice in the wonderment that is the old adage "Sleeps like a baby," I'm finding it tough not to feel all giddy and excited that, wow, I might sleep past 6am again in my lifetime.

Here is the post by Dooce that I'm referring to.

Seriously, it's time to move on...

Every morning, I listen to an LA radio station's morning show because I enjoy their banter and interviews and humor. I even read one of the DJ's blogs from time to time -- funny shit. But what I don't get, what I haven't gotten for a few years now, is that EVERY morning, they play songs from Nirvana and Sublime. Hello? These bands haven't made new music in, oh, ten years? I'm sorry, but I can't listen to "Smells Like Teen Spirit" every day. I don't even want to hear that song once a month.

They also play songs from the Beastie Boys' "Licensed to Ill" album on a regular basis. That album came out when I was in SEVENTH grade. I DO NOT want to hear "Brass Monkey" every morning. Stop! Stop playing it!

ARGH.

Okay, I'm better now.

Seis de Mayo

Cinco de Mayo wasn't good enough for us, we had to take it one step further.

Yesterday we went to see our friends Mike, Windy, and Marylin. They made steak fajitas, homemade guacamole, and Avery and Marylin practiced dancing and talked at length about their impending Quinceañeras. Mike and Jed polished off several Coronas with lime. I had my O'Douls, Windy drank some wine. Avery and Marylin stuck with milk, but did enjoy some messy fruit popsicles.

Thanks to our friends for the awesome dinner! Can't wait to see you again soon!



Here are Avery and Marylin entertaining the rest of us (click picture for video):

Rockin' out -- igneous style...

Avery has a new obsession. It's actually not all that new, but it's hit new levels. She loves to rock hunt. She finds them and collects them. She puts them in her sandbox. She puts them in her pockets (why, oh why, did I show her what a pocket is and what it does?). She creates a collection by the sliding glass door for me to step on and trip over. She attaches herself to one rock in particular, usually a big one, and carries it around for hours. She feeds them to do the dogs. She hugs and kisses them.

She is not normal.

Today I decided to chronicle her rock love. These pictures were taken over the span of about an hour. Eventually it got too chilly outside and we had to call it a day. The rock collection is still assembled by the door for more fun tomorrow.

In the top right picture you'll notice that three of the rocks are suspended in mid-air. Part of her fun is throwing them, picking them all up in her hands at once, and throwing them again. I tried to capture it on camera, but this is as close as I came.



Below is a short video clip of Avery rocking her rocks. If she grows up to be a professor of Geology at Yale, this video clip will prove her obsession was a long-standing one.

Born to be my baby

Okay, so while I'm waiting for this baby to be born, there is ONE thing that keeps me looking forward to being pregnant for another 15 weeks and 2 days. The dreams. More specifically, the sex dreams.

Although I don't find him to be all that attractive these days (he's sort of in competition with Joan Rivers for the "Scariest Plastic Surgery" award) there was a time when I thought Jon Bon Jovi was sexy. I think it was somewhere around 1989-ish -- when I still used aerosol hairspray and INXS "Kick" was my one and only CD.

While I don't find him all that attractive now, apparently my subconscious does, because last night we humped in my dreams. And when I say "humped," I'm using a serious euphemism to make it seem innocent. It was anything but.

What I don't get is, why do pregnant women have these dreams? Is it to make up for the fact that it's hard to actually "do it" in real life like you used to? I mean, the logistics are tough... and while it doesn't prevent you from doing so, sex is just not the same. It's harder to do, and the fatter I get, the less I want it. I think that's understandable.

So, why the dreams? They're crazy and euphoric and... why can't I have them all of the time?

Latest picture of my belly...

...in all its glory. Below is the progression thus far. The good news is, somehow I've only gained 13 pounds. Whew. If you really want to ogle, click to enlarge. Yes, they get bigger.

Congrats to my cyberfriend Jen

Her baby, Gabe, was born this evening. It's a little bittersweet, considering my due date for the pregnancy I lost was tomorrow, but only a little bittersweet. I am much more comfortable with a 22 1/2 month span between my two and only children than I was with an 18 1/2 month span. Jen is going to be a busy, busy girl!!!

Playing with the camera...

I took a series of pictures today of Avery and I laying on the bed together snuggling. She had fun looking at the screen to see herself. We take these kinds of pictures often, but I normally don't post them... I always look awful. This time, though, I thought it was hilarious that she was sucking on the pacifier backward.

The pacifier is a pretty taboo object -- I didn't even know she had it until after I snapped this picture and looked more closely. I took it away right afterwards. Sometimes she'll find them on my nightstand and pop them in, and I am a stickler about them only being in the crib (and they'll be going away forever pretty soon here...)

Anyway, here we were goofing around, Avery with the paci in backward. What a geek.