The Mouths of Babes

I absolutely love watching my girls' mouths when they're concentrating. Their lips pucker and move and smirk. I could watch their mouths all day long.

I bought Emily a puzzle that helps with spelling. You put the picture together and the letters on each piece spell out what the picture is. Emily LOVES puzzles, so I thought this would be a fun way for her to learn about spelling. She's even learning about lower-case letters, that they're different than upper-case letters, something I hadn't talked to her about yet. Anyway, she'll put the picture together and then spell the word out, "C-A-R! That spells car!" She had the fox picture put together and she spelled it out: "F-O-X! That spells coyote!" I guess the fox looked like a coyote...

Mother's Day

It was a good day Sunday! Daddy and Emily started the day off by making me breakfast!
Then we had a good day at Church, a nice meal with Grandma and Grandpa Hill, and ended with a fun evening of playing with glowsticks in a completely dark house!

My Favorite Avery

Okay, so shoot me. I forgot to post Avery's 5 month photo last month. At least I remembered to take it, right?

And now, here is Avery at 6 months! Her hair is getting longer! No longer just peach fuzz. She's rolling and scooting and sitting (for a little bit). She's an absolute doll!

This is her new thing now: biting her bottom lip. She even smiles while biting it.

See, she's sitting! Sorta. She will sit there for a while and then eventually fall over. If we're not careful, she'll throw herself backwards and bonk her head.

Mmmm, those cheeks!!!

And arm rolls!

She is truly a joy. That must be why her middle name is Joy.

Great Family Day

The other day we went to ride the train at Trinity Park. So much fun!

Emily kept saying how "awesome" it was!

At the halfway point, we stopped at a depot and got some popcorn.

Emily ate half of her popcorn and decided she wanted to feed the turtles. We had seen some turtles in the river during the train ride. We stopped over at the Botanical Gardens and fed the rest of the popcorn to the turtles and fish. I have to say that was The Best dollar we've ever spent! It was so much fun!

There was a turtle there that had to have been a hundred years old at least. He was digging the popcorn.

Emily gladly shared her popcorn with some kids.

That's the last of it!

So cool! He posed like that for a minute or two. I think he thought I had food. "Duuude, gimme some food!"

It was a grand day out.

...right, Avery?

Lovin' It!

I love being a mom. It's getting close to Mother's Day and I am so happy! I hated it at one time. But now I love it.

My girls mean so much to me! They are so cool and cute and pretty and smart and talented and funny.

Avery does this funny thing when she's "asking" for food. She'll fuss, but it sounds like she's making an "L" sound. "Luh-looo-luuuuh-loooo-looooooooo..." So funny! All I can do is watch her. Her bottom lip kinda juts out and is shiney from the gallons of slobber pouring out of her mouth. You'd think she'd get dehydrated.

And then she gets tired of me giggling and staring and she gets really mad and I have to get back to my motherly duty. Blah, blah, blah.

Emily came up to me a bit ago and looked at me with these sad blue eyes and said in a fake raspy voice, "I'm hot," then pointed to her armpit and said, "I need a tempature." The last time she was sick, I took her temperature in her armpit. Because the rectal technique is icky.

But anyway, she was very pathetic. I felt her forehead and she's fine, no "tempature." I said, "Oh, you're fine," and she said, "Momma? I need a chocolate banola bar." (granola bar)

And guess what? She got one.

As I'm typing this, Avery is rolling around all over the place. She is very speedy! She's beginning to shift directions on her tummy. That comes in handy when she gets stuck under the coffee table. I think crawling is around the corner. Oh man, I am NOT looking forward to that. I like putting her on the floor and having a general idea of where to look for her when she starts crying.

Birthday Weekend

I have a cute family! I love them!

We went to Renee's wedding in Austin this weekend. I was the photographer! It was so fun. Renee is so pretty and fun to photograph.

And then on Monday, we went to the Inner Space Caverns in Georgetown, Texas. So fun and very cool! Emily was so excited to "go an adventure and explore a cave!" We saw a bat sleeping on the ceiling of the caverns and Emily wanted to pet him. Ick, no.

It was a good weekend. Minus the temper tantrums (Emily) and diaper rash (Avery).

Not Much...

Not much going on here. I thought I'd share some funny things Emily has said or done lately.

Emily LOVES her new bike helmet. She wears it while watching TV. She wants to be "safe"! She wore it the other day to rake the yard.

She also loves her new stick horse. She rode it at the post office. It was cute! She got lots of comments from the other people there.

Last night we had zucchini with dinner. Emily kept talking about how she couldn't like green "bikinis". Daddy is happy that she can't like bikinis. Only one-piece bathing suits for her! :)

Emily and Daddy went shopping for my birthday. When they came home, Emily ran in the door and said, "Momma, we got some presents for your birthday!" I said, "Shhh! They're supposed to be a secret!" and Emily got close up to me and whispered, "Momma, we got you some presents!" So funny! And then Daddy told her she needed to keep it a secret and she said in a frustrated voice, "I don't like secrets!"

Three Years Old!

What happened to the time? It flew! Sort of.

Emily is really a cool person. She has her moments, but don't we all? She is funny and smart and she amazes me every day.

Catching Up!

We set up a small tent in our livingroom. The girls love it. Well, Emily does. Avery just does whatever. I enjoy seeing them interact together. Until the screaming starts.
Avery is rolling over!!! She started a couple of weeks ago and is getting very good at it! I really didn't think she would be rolling this soon since she's sort of a chunk (ha!) and I just figured she'd be stuck where she was put. Anyway, she loves rolling!
The other day, Emily got frustrated with Avery because Avery was crying and Emily hates it when Avery cries, so she dropped a can of beans on Avery's head. Not much damage was done, and I think Avery was scared more than hurt. You can barely even see the red mark above her left eyebrow.

Emily has allergies. Therefore, she has boogers. Sometimes she gets this far away look in her eyes when she picks her boogers. I try to tell her to use a tissue, but that doesn't sound as fun to her, I guess. But to her, it's especially fun to bring Momma the boogers. Yay.

Emily is learning to paste! It's messy, but fun. I found a book that has some pasting activities in it. It's our special mother/daughter activity while Avery naps. (I don't have any photos of this!)

Ummm...

I have neglected the blog. Sorry. However, I have LOTS of pictures! But not yet.

Coming up on "Oh My Stars!": (in no particular order)

• a can of beans
• paste
• a tent in the house
• boogers
• rolling over

Oh, aren't you so excited? The suspense must be killing you.

Learning

I just love watching Avery reaching for things. Her hands are so cute and busy.

And she gets a very determined look on her face.

Then pauses for a thumb break...

Tummy time is going better. She can lay there longer. But not too long.

"Heeey! How you doin'?"

I absolutely LOVE the back of her neck! It gets lots of momma and daddy kisses!

Excuse me while I pause for a neck snack...

Almost Three

One thing that scares me about Emily turning three is she's building memories that she'll remember the rest of her life. I remember when I was three. I remember our chinchilla and how soft he was and the cage that he lived in. I remember walking on the sidewalk on a summer day in the town we moved away from when I was three. I also remember dropping my Weeble Wobble in light yellow paint and getting in trouble. I remember my dad running over my Trike Bike with the car because I left it in the driveway. I remember dancing with Walt at the Christmas party and pretending to fall down just so he'd help me stand back up.

Is Emily going to remember the things I say to her or things I do or don't do when she's three? Am I doing/saying enough so that when she's thirty-something and she's blogging about her kid turning three and she's remembering when she was three, she remembers the good stuff?

Wha? Huh?

What'd I just say?

Or will her memories be of my failed attempts at giving her the evil eye and sending her to her room for screaming? Will she remember how frustrated I've been with her potty training? Will she remember that I spend a lot of my day in my PJs? Or that sometimes I don't leave the house for days?

My Avery

Avery sucks her thumb. I like this. I like this because it means she's pacifying herself! I love this. I love this because I don't have to constantly shove her pacifier in her mouth to shut her up stop her crying. And most of all, I love this because she's not using ME as her pacifier.
Ahhh, so nice.

I sucked my thumb as a baby. I was a good baby, right Mom? And I needed a good baby. Oh man, I needed a good baby! Not that Emily was bad. She was/is just loud and cried/cries a lot.

I love how Avery is crossing her ankles in this photo. She crosses them all the time, like she's just chillin' out, relaxin', takin' in the sights.

4 Months Old!

Avery is four months old! Time is a-flyin'!
She went in for her four-month well check and shots yesterday. She is 16 pounds and 24.5 inches long. I think she's longer than that. I don't think the measurement is very accurate with a wiggling, non-bendable baby.

Obviously, she has found her toes! She loves to grab at her feet and play with her toes. I love to play with her toes, too! And eat them. They're delicious!

She hasn't quite figured out how to roll over. She does scootch on her back a lot, and I find her in a different position that where I left her. She giggles and smiles and loves to touch her daddy's face. Probably because of his scruffiness. And I have found her sucking her thumb a couple of times! She can pacify herself! This is good.

Emily's Garden

There are many things I love about Target, but I think my very favorite part is the dollar section. It's the first place we come to as we walk in the door, and sometimes it's the only place I visit in the store. We found these cute little flower pots in the dollar section. It's a mini garden kit that includes the flower pot, soil, and seeds. All you do is add love. And water.

We had so much fun getting dirty and planting our little garden.

Emily did a lot of the work (and the mess).

We planted daisies (my favorite!), sunflowers, clovers (for St. Patty's), and lavender.

We lined them up in the kitchen window so we can watch them grow!

And look! It's already starting to grow! This is after four days!

And this is six days later!

We are also working on our vegetable garden on our patio. We found some mushrooms growing in our tomatoes...