Spaghetti Anyone?

First spaghetti experience.

Second spaghetti experience.

Third spaghetti experience.

Well, first I have to apologize for taking such a long time to post another blog. It has been absolutely crazy around here. We have had one thing after another with little time to relax. Thankfully we are having a peaceful afternoon today! In spite of all of the things we have had going on, we are doing pretty well. Avi Grace has been sick off an on with the normal daycare illnesses. I am hoping we get rid of the runny nose and cough soon, but I am not counting on it seeing as how we are entering the winter months!

Avi Grace is just a bundle of joy these days. She is such a happy little thing. She's practically running, and I'd have to say that she owns this place! She still struggles with just having the one nap at daycare, but she has learned to tolerate it pretty well! All this week she would become giddy when we pulled up in the daycare parking lot! I guess that means she is enjoying herself when she is there!

The pictures above are from her first real spaghetti experience. I cooked spaghetti one night for dinner, and she LOVED it! She stuffed herself so full several nights in a row that we thought she might explode! Really, one night after she ate a ton of spaghetti, some green beans, a whole banana and some peaches, I had to cut her off! Her belly was so full and tight! As you can see from the pictures, she became progressively messier with her spaghetti eating! We just laughed at her, which made her smear it even more!

A couple of things she is doing right now that I absolutely love are: 1. Last week she started humming to herself. Mostly it is when she is in her car seat, but it is the sweetest thing, and it just makes my heart melt every time I hear it! I am dying to get a video of it, but the timing hasn't been right thus far; 2. She is able to do 3 signs: the sign for more, the sign for eat, and the sign for all done. The sign for more is my favorite. We haven't really tried to teach her other signs, but I am sure she would pick those up too, if we showed them to her. She is also trying to say thank you, which is sweet!

I promise I'll try not to let it take so long before I blog again! Take care.

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!

She's growing up so fast!

Avi Grace was 11 months last Tuesday, August 12th. And, we have the beginnings of a walker! She had been taking a a step here and there, but on Saturday she stood up for the first time from a sitting position without pulling up on something. Then she took some steps. It has only progressed since then. Today at the babysitters she took about 11 or 12 steps without stopping! She has been walking from one place to the next this evening at home as well. It is so cute. She walks some and then crawls some...I think she realizes that crawling is still the easiest way to get where she wants to go! I have captured some video of her walking, but of course I still can't post video from home...I guess my Internet connection is too slow.

Yesterday morning before we left the house I was emptying the dishwasher, and Avi Grace was playing on the floor in the kitchen. I was putting up the last of the dishes and when I turned around, this is what I found (I promise I did NOT stage this picture...Drew accused me of staging it, but that is simply where I found her!)!



She was so proud of herself! I just had to laugh at that adorable smile. The following pictures also depict one of her favorite pastimes (yes, this is how you spell that word...had to look it up, though!)! She loves to open and close cabinet doors. I have locks on the ones that she doesn't need to get into, thankfully.

Avi Grace also LOVES to open and close books and to turn the pages of books. Sometimes it occupies her for 15 to 20 minutes, which at this point is a long time for her to do one thing!



This past Saturday afternoon/evening our Sunday School class had a party at the Overstreet's family farm. It was so much fun. We had baby pools for the kiddos, some of the older children got to ride horses, and we cooked hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill. Avi Grace had a blast in the baby pools. I brought a little pink one for her because I knew the older children would be a little more rowdy than she might be ready for...however, she wanted to check out all three of the pools! She went from pool to pool to pool! Avi Grace also found a very gentle dog to play with. Since the first time she saw a dog, Kay's golden retriever puppy, she has loved them. She usually just laughs and chases them. Well, this dog was little luckier than that! She was so excited that she put her hand right in his mouth! Thankfully the dog was very gentle and let her do whatever she wanted to do to it (she also loves my sister's cat, Tang, that she gets super excited about when she is at my parents' house!). Anyway, thanks Kane and Katey for your gracious hosting!






Finally, here's just a favorite pic of mine that I took of her while she was playing with ALL of her toys! I can't resist her smile!

Oh yeah, and I got her some adorable pink Sunday shoes that squeak when she walks (she has them on in the pictures of her opening and closing the cabinets. She wore them Sunday to church for the first time, and she loved them! It was funny. She would stomp her feet just to make them squeak! AND, I can't believe I forgot this one...AG is completely off the bottle!! She hasn't had a bottle since last Friday, so it has been almost a week now! It is crazy. She has been eating table food SO well, and she was already down to just 3 bottles...one midmorning, one midafternoon and one before bed. She had kind of tapered off on the one before bed already, so we finally just tried to go a day (Saturday) without the bottle, and it didn't phase her. So, she hasn't had one since! You have NO idea how thankful we are that she kind of gave them up on her own! She is now fully on whole milk and eating table food like a big girl! Did I mention how quickly she is growing up??

Heart O Dixie

Last weekend Drew competed in the Heart O Dixie Triathlon. It started in Louisville at Lake Tiak-O'Khata with a 1/2 mile swim. Then they biked 27 miles to Philadelphia, MS, and finally they did a 7 mile run to the Neshoba County Fairgrounds. Drew did great...finished in 2 hours 52 minutes. I think he was proud of himself, and I was definitely proud of him. I couldn't have even THOUGHT about doing any of it! Here are a few pictures of Drew starting the bike ride. Our friend Jeanne Holland took these and sent them to me--thanks, Jeanne (I forgot my camera!). Anyway, I've spared you the pics of Drew in his Tri-shorts only...I'm sure he will appreciate that as well! Avi Grace stayed with Drew's mom while I went to support Drew in the Triathlon.

I took this picture of Avi Grace napping yesterday afternoon. It had gotten late, and I had to wake her up from her nap so she would still go to bed on time, and I got the sweetest picture of her in her bed sucking her thumb. Unfortunately she has been sick since Wednesday afternoon late. She started running a fever and I finally took her to the pediatrician on Friday morning. He said her throat looked horrible and she had some secondary ear troubles. She seems to be feeling a little better this afternoon, thankfully. I hope she is on the mend!