Bra shopping with a toddler

Shopping, in general, is usually a doable task, depending upon Avery's mood and how close it is to naptime.

Today's shopping trip happened early enough in the day that she was happy, giddy, and loud.

Really LOUD.

I decided to peruse the bra section for a good sports bra, not really thinking that Avery would immediately notice what items surrounded us on all sides, and not thinking in the least that she'd verbalize what she saw. It just never occured to me.

So, silly me, I entered into the bra section, only to IMMEDIATELY have Avery scream "Boobs, mama, boobs! Look, mama, look!" She kept yelling it over and over -- she must have said it ten times.

Thankfully, as happens with the bra section, I was only accompanied by other bra-shopping women, who all laughed hysterically at Avery's shouting. What began as an embarrassing moment quickly turned into a giggle-fest, which of course only egged Avery on.

She was yelling it so loudly, I'm sure there HAD to be other people outside of the bra section who heard it too.

It made me laugh till I cried, which, if you know me, doesn't really mean much since I cry when I laugh just about every time I laugh. Even as I type this I'm wiping away the tears.

The things she says

Earlier this week, when Jed was leaving for work, Avery said to him "Adios Amigo." I was half asleep still, but damn did I laugh hard at that one.

Just now, as she kept coming in and out of the screen door, she said to me "Bye, have a good day!"

The stringing of words together to make sentences is fascinating to watch. I only wish I was bilingual so I could really teach her to speak another language. Now would be the time to do it.

Trying to stay cool this weekend...

It's actually not nearly as bad as last weekend. Today is nice and breezy. We swam over at Grammy Gigi's on Friday and watched Grammy Gigi, Auntie Merz and Auntie Paula polish off a couple of bottles of Chardonnay. No fair! Avery kept bumming ice cubes off of them -- I'm convinced she liked the wine taste more than the refreshing ice cubes themselves. I know I do!



Grammy Gigi played "Shamu" with Avery, which she just loves, and later Avery had fun pouring water over Grammy's and Merz's head. I was only there to be lifeguard/photographer at that point.




Later we bundled up because it was kind of chilly outside, and Avery and I sat and laughed while Grammy Gigi fixed us some lunch. Avery ended her swimming fun by lounging on the pool chair in the shade.



Now, if we could only get a cabana boy.

Avery was tagged

by her long distance pal Emma.

3 Things that scare me: Rubber lizards, rubber snakes, rubber animals period.

3 People that make me laugh: Mama, Dada, Uncle Tyler

3 Things that I love: Doodlebops (BooBooBops), reading, waking up early and staying up late

3 Things that I hate: going to bed, getting my diaper changed, having water drip in my face

3 Things that I don’t understand: Why dada has to go to "work," why mama always has to go to the doctor, who this 'baby' is and why it has to come to my house

3 Things on my floor: books, Little Touch Leap Pad, alphabet puzzle

3 Things I am doing right now: watching Sesame Street, drinking milk, eating "orange cheese"

3 Things I can do: sing, name pretty much any animal, brush my teeth (or at least suck the toothpaste off well)

3 Things I can’t do: dress myself, fix my own breakfast, open the front door

3 Ways to describe my personality: silly, hard-headed, sweet

3 Things I think you should listen to: me when I want to read to you, my Silly Songs CD, any new sound that I want you to be quiet for

3 Things that I think you should never listen to: mama saying "Avery, please don't do that," the sound of the vacuum when I'm trying to listen to something, dada saying "It's night-night time, Avery."

3 Absolute favorite foods: rice of any kind, sweets of any kind, macaroni and cheese

3 Things I liked to learn: how to draw (I make mommy draw me pictures all day long), how to flush the toilet over and over, how to manipulate mommy into letting me get out of taking a nap and going to sleep at night

3 Beverages I drink regularly: milk, water, juicewater (that's our term for it)

3 Shows I watch: Doodlebops, Jack's Big Music Show, Between the Lions

I want to tag Marylin, Lauren, and Avery E.

Lunching with the girls

Yes, I just used "lunching" as a verb.

We got to see our friends Windy and Marylin this week... we have missed them so. Avery and Marylin had a nice time being almost two together. Windy got smacked on the face and I got smacked on the chest, both within a minute or two of each other. I believe the final score was toddlers-27, moms-0.

Nevertheless, we were glad to hang out with our pals and wish we could see them more often.


Marylin even got to show us how deeply committed she is to buying countless handbags to match her stylish diva sunglasses. More power to you M!

Today's fun

Avery got to try a new food (eggrolls!) and vacuum her hair. And people think stay-at-home-moms don't give their children enough new experiences. Meh!

So you know how when...

you drop a can of soda on the floor, you pick it up, think about how it's going to explode now if you open it, and put it back into the refrigerator at the back of the stash so it gets opened last and has time to 'settle down'?

Yeah, that's what would typically happen to regular people that aren't sleep deprived, 37 weeks pregnant, and have a cranky toddler that loves to throw a tantrum at the most inopportune moments. That's what happens to those people, that doesn't happen to me.

Here's what happens to me. The can explodes when it hits the floor. The soda goes all over the kitchen. And it's not just on the floor. It's on every cabinet door since your kitchen is a square and cabinets are pretty much on all sides. Not only is it on the cabinet doors and the appliances, however, it's also on the window pane that is barely reachable when you don't have a huge baby gut hanging off of the front of you, and on the ceiling too.

Yes, people, just a typical day in my life.


I'd show you all the soda all over my cabinets, but you can't see it very well, which makes for a fun time getting down on your knees (which, incidentally don't bend well at this stage of pregnancy) to look for each and every drop and clean it, so I'll just show you my dishwasher to provide an example of what the rest of my kitchen looks like.


And here's the cause of all the drama. How in God's name did this happen? Seriously?

Adventures with Gingey

Avery and I had every intention of showing Gingey the hot spots in our town today, but we didn't last long. It was too hot. Poor little Gingey's frosting came close to melting a few times. We did make it in and out of the library, however, and Gingey even got to check out his own book with his very own library card.


Gingey was, of course, drawn to a book about a subject he knows well.


When we were done at the library, we took a moment to check out the Lincoln Shrine and smell the roses. Carpe diem, little Gingey.


On the way home from the library, we drove by some sites in town that we thought Gingey would enjoy. The first is Morey Mansion, the second is the Asistencia Mission. If you went to 4th grade in California, you probably learned all about the missions here. If not, you might think 'who cares.' Or maybe you think 'who cares' AND you went to 4th grade in California.



We'll try harder for you when it's under 100 degrees, Gingey, we promise.

Happy Anniversary to me

We are celebrating our sixth anniversary today. Yay for us. I still pretty much like my husband. I mean, he's okay and stuff.

We going to dinner and a movie. Woo-hoo! Now THAT is a serious night on the town. Go ahead, be jealous.


I'm kidding about the above, by the way. He just came and said to me "'The Fugitive' is on TNT tonight, maybe we should just stay home and watch that." I rolled my eyes because "The Fugitive" is one of those movies that he will watch over and over and over again, and I'll jokingly say "I wonder how it's going to end this time!"

This isn't funny anymore...

You know how people always feel sorry for women who are pregnant in the heat of summer? What about women who are pregnant in the heat of the summer, and the heat is hotter than any other summer they've ever experienced? I don't know that I can remember when it was 112 degrees in my city. Seriously.

Gingey has arrived!

And he's already been on his first outing with the Z family. We took him to our very favorite sandwich shop for lunch already. Avery is completely attached to him and I might have to make her her own Gingey when the original Gingey needs to be sent a-packing. Anyway, here are some pictures for Jamie and Jacob.

Holy citrus fruit!

So here is the lemon that my husband retrieved for me last night when I wanted to squeeze some on my salmon. Yes, it IS as big as my hand.

Shout out to our homey

Anna came to visit yesterday, and it was nice to just hang out and talk and catch up. It definitely needs to happen more, but she doesn't come to me that often in the summer because she has a fear of dying of a heat stroke. Totally understandable. Avery had a great time being silly, and yes, Anna, she did keep saying "Where Anna go?" for the rest of the evening. No lie!

We're working on the pirate thing for you too. We will certainly have it perfected by National Talk Like a Pirate Day or sooner.

Swimming Video

Avery went swimming at GramZ and PapaZ's the other day while we were taking refuge from the smoke. She is getting so good! Watch her swim here.

Move over Vera Wang

We've got a new look that's chic, classy, and completely practical. Avery put it together all by herself. I think it says "stylish, yet sophisticated."

Burnin' down the house

Okay, so I don't know how hot it was yesterday, but apparently it was hot enough for my freaking neighborhood to burn down. I got out of the shower and heard sirens, but really didn't think much of them as they seemed to be moving away just as quickly as they had approached. Then I heard the loud sqwak squack squawk of a fire engine and realized they were a hell of a lot closer than I'd originally thought.



I opened my garage door to find engine upon engine parked across the street going both up and down my street, and obviously, the air was filled with smoke. How I hadn't smelled it until that moment is beyond me. I was trying not to be a stupid looky-loo, so I stood in my garage and watched and took a couple of pictures. We had to take refuge inside pretty quickly as it got too smokey and I figured it wasn't great to be purposely breathing all that crap. Avery liked watching the "pireman" outside though. Maybe she was calling them "pyre-man?" Hmmm.


Later in the day, I went over to have a look at the destruction. Quite the burn, though my pictures don't show much of it. Since I live at the edge of a hill, it was tough to take a picture looking down. I ended up having to leave because the power went out and I couldn't circulate any air in the house, and the smoke had gotten pretty overwhelming.


In the evening I drove over to the other side of the hill and I could really see how much had burned. The houses at the top of the hill are across the street from me. On the one hand, I'm glad I don't live on their side of the street, but at the same time, the reality is that we have brush just like that on both sides of my house too.


Gotta love this time of summer in Southern California. The sun, the water... the sun igniting the dry brush and the firemen using the water to put out the fire that's about to burn your house down.

Web design

So I've got quite the little web design gig going on. I am currently working on three sites, and they're all going painfully slowly. I want to move and get them done soon, and the people on the other end just don't seem to sense the urgency.

One is for my father-in-law's accounting firm, one is for a friend's wedding, and the other is for a construction-related business. I am having a seriously hard time on the construction one. I am just not construction-y.

I'm actually getting paid to do these, too. What a novel concept. I've done many in the past and haven't been paid a dime, until the most recent one when I did it in trade for toys and books for Avery.

Some of them have taken me many, many hours, others have been fairly easy, but still time-consuming. I think it's the worst, though, when you do something like this for a friend, and you don't get so much as a "Thank You" card. That's really been my experience in the past. It makes you a little resentful toward the people you put so many hours in for. I don't think they've understood how much work it really is.

Anyway, if I could just get Avery to help entertain herself, I think I could actually make some decent cash doing these jobs.

And maybe I need to think more construction-y too. Maybe I'll borrow Jed's weekend CalTrans outfit and some chewing tobacco. I TOTALLY see that helping me. Maybe I'll even brown bag a 40 of malt liquor. Construction workers do that, don't they?

Singing

Avery tries pretty hard to sing a few different songs. She leaves out a few words, but she still tries. What's funniest is that when I ask her if she wants to sing a particular song, she always says "Yes," and then proceeds to sing the alphabet. Here is a video to demonstrate her promising future as a chanteuse.

Ahhh!

Apparently, mashed up avocado with a spoon is NOT better than plain old avocado that's only been cut into slices. Duly noted.

Newest Belly Comparison

This was actually taken a week ago... I am slacking! I am officially 35 weeks along today. Five long, hot, fat, pregnant weeks to go.



Can't you tell how excited I am?

A friend of mine offered the throw me a shower and actually wouldn't let me say "no," so I am going to have a baby shower after all, but it'll be after the baby is born. Since I don't know if it's a boy or a girl, it doesn't make much sense to have a shower so I can get lots of green and yellow pajamas again. Trust me, I've got plenty of those!

Oh, and if you're thinking that my belly doesn't look much different from, say, 8 weeks ago, you're right! My doctor says I'm measuring at the right size though, I am just carrying small. I guess that's good news considering how big I carried with Avery.

Expiration date

My 'expiration date' is like a full three weeks before the milk I bought today! Yikes!!!

There goes the neighborhood...

The Little People family members don't quite know what's hit them. Dad is stuck on the toilet, Shaq is in the bedroom with the Little People Mommy, Derek Fisher is chatting on the computer, and Kobe looks like he's literally robbed the cradle right away from the Little People Baby.

I think this must amount to some serious Little People Soap Opera material in Little People Land.

Natural Phenomena

I can imagine it's only going to get tougher to explain. Last night, a glass was sitting on the kitchen counter as the sun was going down, and a rainbow ended up being reflected onto the floor. Avery kept saying "What is it?" even though she knew it was a rainbow, as she recognized it and said "Rainbow!" immediately. I took the "What is it?" to be more of a "Why?" or "Where does it come from?" kind of a question, so I tried to explain it to her, and she just looked at me dumbfounded. Here are some pictures:

Crazy Picture

A couple of different wildfires have been raging in both the desert and mountain communities east of us for a few days. This is pretty typically of our area in the summer and fall. I'm sure most Americans must have heard about the fires of October 2003 -- that was crazy.

Anyway, today, the mountain range is covered in smoke, as it has been for a few days, but what I found picture-worthy was that, just above all the smoke and haze that is clouding the Big Bear area, there was a huge thunderhead looming. It was a really cool site -- too bad the only picture I took of it totally sucked.

Welcome home to Jodi and Leo

My sister- and brother-in-law have been in Kazahkstan for just over a year 'teaching English.' They work for Campus Crusade for Christ, and typically missionaries like them travel to other countries under the guise of teaching something.

Anyway, they returned home yesterday and came to visit us today. Avery immediately sensed that Jodi would be willing to read her book after book, so she totally took advantage of it and found a spot on Jodi's lap for quite a while. They hit it off immediately and Avery spent the rest of the day making sure they didn't get too far away from her.


Later we headed to the in-laws' house for dinner and more fun. Leo found a friend in Avery because he had a huge arsenal of stickers from their visit to In-N-Out today (any Southern Californian will know that after having been out of the country for a year, In-N-Out is like #1 on your priority list of 'things to do'), and she must have gone through 30 stickers as the day progressed.


As usual, Avery got a lot of playtime in with her GramZ -- they pretended to blow bubbles, jumped on the bed, played with Avery's Little People Pirate Ship, and took a ride on Gerfy the Giraffe. Or is it Gaffy? Jerfy? Jaffy?




Welcome home Jodi and Leo!

Daddy Fun

"Mama, I'm pooped!"

Swimming with her pals

Avery went swimming with Soren and Curren today. Soren was more into playing with Avery than Curren was. Curren was too busy working on his tan, apparently. Avery took a little while to warm up to the pool idea with them because they're big splashers, but she got in eventually and had lots of fun :)



Later Avery and Curren chilled on the couch and Curren showed Avery just how pasty white she is. Get used to it, Avery. Mommy is uber-paranoid when it comes to the sun.

Camera Fun

While tossing and turning at 4:30am and cussing and moaning over how uncomfortable my body is, it occured to me that since I'm NEVER going to be pregnant again, I might want to do some fun documentation of things while I can.

So, I had fun with my camera and its settings and Photoshop today. I'll spare you the ones with more boob and butt. Those are reserved for tomorrow's unexpected email to be sent to my husband (hubba hubba).



And here's my favorite of all :)

The over 100-degree weather

does yield some things I like.

Here's the cactus flower that bloomed overnight. Ain't it purdy?

Goodies Galore

Avery is expecting two packages in the mail. They're sort of like freebies -- basically they're being sent in trade for making a wedding site for my friend, Jen. In reality, I did spend many, many hours on the site, so I guess they're not freebies, but still, it's fun to get goodies in the mail!

So here's what's coming:
Little People Fun Park
Baby Galileo
Baby Neptune
and four books... |1|2|3|4|

I'm also anxiously awating our double-stroller... let's hope it fit in my trunk!


And the stupid replacement parts for Avery's dresser.

Man, it sucks being at the mercy of the USPS. Perhaps I should offer my mailman milk and cookies to help ensure that my things get here in a more timely manner in the future.

Well, today we practiced

doing some boy stuff to help prepare us if baby #2 is a boy.

First, I dressed Avery in some boy clothes that were hand-me-downs from a friend. As happens in the 100-degree weather, the bottom half of the outfit didn't last long.

Then we played with some 'vehicles.' First an airplane, then some cars. Avery even reminded me about the "vroom" sound.


Later we used the car to run into some stuff and make crash noises. I tried to incorporate more 'boy' stuff, so the things we ran into were a rubber snake, some "Bob the Builder" books, and this whiffle ball. The poor ball never had a chance.


Once we'd crashed and vroomed and kaboomed enough, we read a little about reptiles. This is actually something Avery enjoys, so it worked out well.


Once that was done we make a blanket fort out of some thick flannel sheets under Avery's crib. She wanted NO part of going underneath it. She did stop and think about it for half of a second though.


In the end, she gravitated back toward her true passion -- reading books about precious kittens. If she does have a brother, I fear they aren't going to play together much.

Better Fourth of July pictures

We did end up taking a few more, and we had a little more success. She wasn't quite as irritated with me, but she wasn't exactly hamming it up for the camera either.

Oh well!

My husband thinks this is funny...

But I don't!

Avery has started calling me "Allison." From across the house she'll yell "Awssin, Awssin!" Yes, it's cute, but I want to be "Mama, Mama!"

When she does it, I say "Mama" instead, so we'll see if this is short lived. With Jed egging it on, it's only going to get worse!

Well, I'll be damned...

It seems I might have been wrong in my blog post about Keith Richards playing Johnny Depp's father in the third installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean series.

According to movieweb.com:

DEPP KNOWS HE CAN'T ALWAYS GET WHAT HE WANTS, BUT IF HE TRIES HARD...
Pirates of the Caribbean star Johnny Depp, who has previously said that he modeled his Jack Sparrow character after Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, told a London news conference Tuesday that Richards will play his father in the third Pirates movie, which is scheduled to resume production next month. Richards is 62 (but looks older); Depp is 43 (but looks younger). "We're all looking forward to the idea of Keith coming in and doing a cameo," Depp said at the news conference, without explaining his use of the term "idea." Richards has been recovering from a serious head injury that he suffered in Fiji last April, which caused postponement of the Stones' European concert tour. It is scheduled to resume next week in Milan. There was no indication when Richards would film his Pirates cameo.

I told my dad I'd heard about this, and all he could do was laugh and say that Keith Richards would make a terrible actor. He did think it was a perfect fit for the role, however.

Let's hope it comes to fruition!

Today's Photo Shoot

I'm not quite sure that I'd consider it a success. On the bright side, we have several hours of daylight left, and naptime is just around the corner.

Ready to shop, mom

Today we went to Ikea because they were having a sale and Avery needed something to help contain all the stuffed animals in her room. I am slowly creating a clothes-horse shopaholic, I tell you. We get within 1/2 a mile of Target and she says "We're here!"

Here she is ready to hit the road. I was hoping she would sleep. She didn't.


At Ikea we had to stop to take a few turns on the slide. Jacob and Vickie were with us, so Avery and Jacob got to do some sliding together.



Then Avery practiced being a pod person for a while.


When we got home, Vickie helped me put the tent together and we had a little indoor camping fun.

My mom is awesome...

Not only did she buy the crappy $200 dresser for Avery's room that I posted about below, she also got us some other items for the room that we didn't even know we needed. I guess it's because we didn't need them, but we love them just the same!

First off, and my favorite, is this winged fairy that will sit on the bookshelf my mom bought for us. This picture really doesn't do her (the fairy) justice -- she is about 12 inches in height, and is hand painted and so, so cute. I'm not usually one to be drawn to things like this, but I have to admit, through a child's eyes I'm sure she is completely magical.


Next we have the lamp that will go on Avery's new crappy dresser. Avery calls it "heart light." It makes me want to sing some good old Neil Diamond tunes.


We also got some fancy drawer knobs for the dresser, assuming we're able to put it together once the replacement parts come. See that same blog post below if you're confused.


Lastly, we got four new storage baskets for the shelves in Avery's room. I had some storage baskets in there prior to this, but they're actually meant for the nursery, so back to the nursery they went. These storage baskets fit better and hold more 'junk.' Woo-hoo!


Thanks Grammy Gigi :) We appreciate all your help!

Newest cutenesses

Avery's newest silly things are to give 'knuckles' to everyone in sight. Basically it's just hitting her fist into yours and saying "yuckles!" Once you ask her about it, she typically has to do it with everyone in the room. This often includes strangers. Fortunately most strangers oblige.


The other is ducking under people's legs. Soon enough Avery's going to be a little taller and this will be a little weirder, so let's hope she grows bored of it quickly.

Why don't I learn?

You would think that I'd learn to read consumer comments on products better than I do. Yesterday we bought Avery this dresser at Target. I suppose the Thomasville name was just deceiving enough for me to buy it blindly.


Today we took it out of the box to put it together and THREE of the pieces are cracked. Fortunately, the packaging includes this note about calling the manufacturer if a piece is damaged or missing, but I was really looking forward to putting it together today and getting Avery's room all put together.

Dammit!

Things I want

Not necessarily in any certain order. I just want them all and I want them as soon as possible.

I want:
1. a Cadillac Margarita
2. to take a long, hot shower during which I do not hear "Mama!" from my child and "Allison!" from my husband
3. pedicures for free for life
4. to wear the clothes in my closet that are collecting dust -- not because they're fashion faux pas, but because they don't fit my fat pregnant ass (and yes, I spelled the plural form of faux pas correct... it's the same singular and plural)
5. to eat french fries with out guilt or weight gain
6. to shave my legs without having to stop to breathe
7. to sleep more than 2 hours and 18 minutes in a row
8. a maid and a chef
9. oh hell, throw a personal shopper in there too
10. bloody marys on the beach in Zijuatenejo, MX

I feel better now. I had to stop at ten though, otherwise we'd be here all night.