Tailgating, Reading Books & Daycare update

Reading a book in the chair she got for her birthday!

Isn't she adorable?

Sitting sideways in her chair, as she loves to do!

Standing in her chair, as she loves to TRY to do before I tell her No, No!

Tailgating before the first home MSU game

Doesn't it look like she is trying to play center??!!

Okay, now she looks more girly with the football!

One of my favs from the photo shoot as we tailgated! 

She's like, "you talkin to me?"

Well, I've been meaning to post these pictures for a few weeks now, but I didn't want to take away from her birthday pics! Avi Grace LOVES to "read" books. It is one of her favorite pastimes...and she loves to do it sitting in the chair that Wan and Granddaddy gave her for her birthday! Most of the time she sits as she is supposed to, but as you can tell, sometimes she likes to stand in the chair! She has gotten better, but you still have to watch her closely. She also had a hard time getting in and out of the chair at first, but now she has pretty much mastered it with a few mishaps here and there. Of course just the other night she was sitting in her chair, and I commented to Drew about how well she was doing getting in and out of the chair now, and as soon as I got it out of my mouth she took a nose dive! Oh well, I guess that is how she learns to be careful! (It didn't hurt her...she cried less than a minute.) 

We tailgated with some sweet friends, Kristi and Steve Brown, before the first home MSU football game a few weeks ago. Avi Grace had a blast. She walked everywhere...wouldn't sit still! There were 2 little boys throwing a small football right beside where we were, and she was having a fit to be involved with it. They sweetly brought the football over to her, and she was excited. I love the picture of her looking like she is about to hike the ball! Cracks me up! We had a fun time, and we could not have asked for better weather...overcast and a fairly mild temperature.

So, daycare is going pretty well. She is doing great at drop off! Almost every day last week and every day this week, she has gotten down and started playing with her friends and not even worried about me leaving! That has been very nice! Naps are still hit or miss. Some days she takes a good nap and others not so much. When she takes a good nap, she seems to be happy when I get there, but if not, the afternoons are kind of rough on her and on the teachers! Maybe she will get it down pat soon and it won't be a problem. That is my prayer for her right now...that and that she gets in a better sleep pattern at night. She is a great sleeper...always has been at night. For the longest, probably since she was about 4 months old, she has been going to bed around 6:30 and getting up anywhere between 6 and 8 (varying over time with different phase). However, lately she has been waking up a lot earlier. Now, I don't mean to complain by any means because as I said, she is a great sleeper. However, she went through a phase for several weeks where she was waking up at 4, 5 and then finally 6 (going back to sleep in between most of the time, and I didn't have to go in there or anything), which meant that I was also waking up at those hours. Then she finally quit doing that, but now she is waking up really for good sometime between 5 and 6:15. Now, I know that it could be a lot worse, but I would really love for her to sleep until about 6:30. Yesterday morning she woke up at 4:40 and I am not sure she actually went back to sleep until around 6 for a short nap before having to get up for good. This morning she woke up at 5 and fell back asleep around 6:15 before waking up for good about 6:45. We are trying to put her to bed around 7 or so to push back that wake up time, but so far it has NOT helped!! Anyway, all is well, and again, I don't mean to complain. I guess if I had a perfect world she would wake up when I wanted her to!! No worries, though. I just praise God every day that she is a happy, healthy, sweet child. That was my prayer for her when I was carrying her and really before she was even conceived, and I still thank God for that blessing every day.

Daycare

Well, Avi Grace started daycare two weeks ago at the Creative Learning Center, which is at our church, First Baptist. The first week was pretty rough...for both of us!! There were a lot of tears...again from both of us! However, I must report that last week (the second week) went a lot better. It has been a huge adjustment for Avi Grace. Before starting daycare, she was taking 2 good naps a day. Sometimes on the weekends she would take 3 naps to get us through the day. At daycare, they only take one nap a day as one year olds. She really could still use 2 naps, but I guess you've got to do what you've got to do! On Friday she took her longest nap yet--an hour and 45 minutes! Woo Hoo! Most days it has been 45 minutes or so, so a longer nap will definitely help with her moods!

Judy Coffey, the wonderful person who has been keeping Avi Grace 3 days a week since January, took a part time job outside of her home. So, that is why we started daycare. We really miss Miss Judy! She was SUPER with Avi Grace, and AG loved her. I never thought twice about leaving her in the mornings. She was happy there, and we miss it. We also miss seeing Emma, Judy's granddaughter. Judy also kept Emma 2 days a week, and Emma and Avi Grace played well together! (The 2 pictures above are of Emma and Avi Grace and Judy and Avi Grace on AG's last day at Judy's house.) We miss you Miss Judy and Emma!

Avi Grace is a very social child, so she really enjoys playing with the other children in her class. She is the ONLY girl in her class! There are 4 boys and her! She will be bossing them around in no time, I am sure. She loves to take pacifiers out of Emma's mouth and the mouths of children that she sees at church! One of the kids at daycare took her blanket from her the other day when I was picking her up, and she didn't like that too much! I guess the boys will teach her a lesson on taking their pacifiers! 

So, for now we are still getting used to daycare. She was happy every day when I picked her up last week, and she only cried one morning when I dropped her off. So, I think we are doing pretty well! 

More Birthday Party Pictures!

Jack, Emily & Zach had a lot of fun playing in the big orange pool. It had a lot of water in it, and it was a lot of fun to splash in and jump into!

After having lots of fun in the pools, Avi Grace decided she wanted to go exploring out in the yard. You can only imagine how dirty and grassy she got!

After Riley got out of the frog pool, Jack had a fun time playing with the water spraying out of the front of the pool! He would put his hands over the spout so the water wouldn't come out and then let it go and it would spray everywhere!

This is Avi Grace's birthday hat that Bob, Judy & AnnaClaire gave her. She wasn't too fond of it being on her head, so it didn't stay on too long during the party! It is adorable, though! 

Did anyone get a better picture of her in the hat? Maybe one from straight on instead of from the side? I'd love to have a copy if you did!

Avi Grace and Laura Leigh both enjoyed playing in the water! Yes, I know my child doesn't have a swimsuit on, but I decided it was too much trouble to get her suit on (it is tight and takes some maneuvering to get it on her!). So, we just put the swim diaper on and enjoyed the water!

I have no idea what Avi Grace was telling Emily here, but I thought this was a sweet picture! 

Riley loved the frog pool (he has this pool at home, too, so he is probably used to it)! I'm not sure he got out of the frog pool the whole time he was in the water! It is a fun pool, though. As you can see from the picture, it squirts water out the front!

1st Birthday Party

We had Avi Grace's birthday party on Saturday. Her birthday is not until September 12th, but we decided that this past weekend would be the best time to go ahead and have her party. We had so much fun! 

She ate some of the icing on her cake, but she didn't much care for it after a few bites. She never even ate a bite of the actual cake! She had had enough before she got to that part!

We had baby pools for the kiddos. They loved it. Avi Grace LOVED the spraying water, and she enjoyed going from pool to pool as usual! She also enjoyed venturing out into the mud and into the grass! She had a blast!

Thanks to everyone who helped us celebrate Avi Grace's birthday. We are so thankful to have such wonderful family and friends!

More pictures to come...these are from Abbi's camera, and I still need to get the ones from my mom's camera. So, enjoy this preview! I'll post more as soon as I get them. It will be later in the week!