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.