Well Checks

I took both kids to the Dr. today for their 1 and 3 year well checks. Good news! Ava has made back onto the growth charts even if it is only in the 1st percentile! ;) She weighs a whopping 24 pounds and is 35 inches tall. What a stinkin' shrimp! She may be little, but she sure is mighty!

My goal for Anderson was to get him to 20 pounds by his birthday so we could turn around the car seat and we made it! He weighs 20 pounds and 3 ozs and is 28.5 inches long. He is in the 15th percentile for both. He is on the smaller side too but much bigger than Ava was at 1. At Ava's 1 year well check she was 17 pounds and 26 inches. Maybe there is hope for him to be at least average size someday.

I also took the kids to get some new shoes this week. I found it funny that there is 2 years difference in age but only 1 shoe size! I remember buying Ava her first pair of walking shoes...I could only buy her prewalk shoes because she barely wore a size 2! I had to buy Anderson size 4.5....pretty big difference! Speaking of walking shoes...Anderson is now walking ALL over the place! He has been walking 4-5 steps at a time and between things for a month or so and then all of a sudden last week he just started going everywhere. I love this age!

Anderson's 1st Birthday

My baby boy is 1! On the 26th, Anderson celebrated his first birthday. We had a relaxing day at home with the exception of venturing out to get Anderson his first haircut. The back of his hair is growing so much faster than the top so we had to get the back cut. He sat in the chair all by himself and actually sat pretty still.


On Saturday we had an official birthday party with all of our family and friends. Anderson went to town on his cake! He ate nearly the entire thing. There are lots more pics posted on our picasa website including Anderson's 1st birthday shots and the Easter pics of the kids.





Here is one of my favorite shots from the Easter pics....serious faces but so sweet!

Off to a busy start

What a busy 2 days! On Monday, Anderson and I dropped Ava off at school and then went to Wal-mart and Sam's. We had just enough time to unload the groceries at home and then go pick up Ava. We then met one of my college friends, Shannon, at Red Robin for lunch. We got home just in time for Ava's friend Abby to come over and play. Abby is getting ready to move to Minnesota so she hung out with us in the afternoon so her mom could get packed up. The girls had so much fun. We played outside for quite awhile and then came in to play dress up! I had one exhausted girl by the time evening came.

Monday night was a LONG night. Anderson was up most of the night. It seems he has another ear infection. I actually wonder if his ear drum might have actually ruptured. When I finally got him to sleep at 5:30 a.m., he slept for 3 hours. When he woke up his ear was covered in nasty pus. Fortunately, since he has tubes, we just have to do ear drops for a week. I already had some on hand so we didn't even have to venture out to the Dr. He seems to be feeling better now. Hopefully we will all get some sleep tonight!

Since it was a bad night, we took our time getting around in this morning. While Anderson took his morning nap, I let Ava play in the garage while I organized some baby stuff in the garage. I packed up some things to take to the consignment store. I have officially started to get rid of some baby gear. It makes me a little sad. Anyway....after lunch, we went to the consignment store to drop off our things and shop a little for some spring/summer pajamas. When we got home, we took a wagon ride around the cul de sac looking for octagons or as Ava says, "ocagons." She has a new obsession with octagons. I think they must have learned about them in school yesterday. We found 2 octagons and called our "hunt" a success.


When we returned home, it was nap time! After dinner we had some family time outdoors in the backyard. We played in the sandbox, played on the swings, and even drew some octagons on the patio. The house is finally quiet now...I think I'll retire early this evening. Happy St. Patrick's Day! I'll leave you with a video of Anderson walking. (sorry it is not a great video. i was trying to be the videographer and the coach at the same time!) This was taken a couple days ago...he has gotten better since!

You're a turtle!

This evening Ava was playing her "princess" game. Daddy got to be the king, she was Ariel, Anderson was Sleeping Booty, and Toby was Cinderella. When I asked her who I was going to be, she thought for a few seconds and then replied, "You're a turtle!" Seriously...where does she get this!

Also, this morning Ava made up a new game called Baby Jesus. She takes her socks off and pretends her feet are babies. Apparently one of them is our Lord and Savior! ;) She has such an interesting and wild imagination now!

Bones are for Toby!

On Thursday, I was having dinner with the kids, my parents, and my mother in law. We started talking about how poorly Ava eats and I made the comment that at least she won't break a bone because all of the calcium she gets from drinking so much milk. Ava thought about this and looked confused. Then she said, "Bones...bones are for Toby! I don't eat bones!"

Birthday Bonanza and other stuff too!

Tomorrow starts a month FULL of birthdays! We have 6 birthdays to celebrate. And half of the birthday's are BIG one's. Dan's sister is turning 30, my mom is turning 50, and Anderson is turning 1! Ava is in heaven though...she keeps talking about what kind of cake everyone is going to have. ;) Birthdays alone will keep us busy this month.



Anderson's latest interests and activities include:

1. learning to walk (he can go about 4 or 5 steps before crashing)
2. eating dog food
3. dumping the dog water bowl (sometimes multiple times a day b/c mommy forgets to put it up!)
4. throwing objects down the stairs
5. turning on the bathtub faucets in mom's bathroom and throwing things into the tub to get wet
6. eating
7. eating crayons and using them to color on walls and floors
8. eating (seriously...the kid is a bottomless pit)
9. cutting teeth ( he has 2 and working on a 3rd)
10. playing with anything that has wheels (he does sound effects too) or pretending that the toy has wheels even if it doesn't
11. tormenting Ava by stealing her cup and snacks, chewing on her doll's
heads and tearing up her "pictures"
12. closing doors (more often than not shutting himself in the room)

And Ava's been up to...

1. learning how to obey her parents!! and ask for forgiveness.
2. becoming completely independent in the bathroom
3. learning to take naps again (we've been successful for a week now!)
4. bullying her brother ( we seriously have the "you can't push/kick/hit your brother" talk 3 times a day)
5. recovering from a bad left ear infection (fever of 103+ for 3 days!)
6. learning to write her name. we've mastered the A but it still kind of looks like a H.
7. finally starting to wake up with a dry pull up!
8. eating a diet of only pancakes, crackers, and milk
9. playing pretend all the time
10. dancing like a ballerina
11. learning to ask for things instead of demanding
12. playing "princess" (she's sleeping "booty", Toby is Cinderella, and I'm the prince)

Riding the carousel at the Children's Museum

"Jesus is Lord!"

Last Sunday we, as usual, were in a rush to leave the house for church. I was carrying Anderson down the stairs and Dan was rounding up Ava to bring her down. Apparently, Ava was not listening very well so Dan told her that the Lord says you need to obey your parents or something like that. Once we are finally all downstairs, Dan went out to start the car and I was putting on everyone's coat. As I was helping Ava with her coat, she looked at me and so sincerely asked, "Mommy, who is the Lord?" It was so sweet and innocent that I had to laugh. I explained to her that Jesus is the Lord. We typically only use the name Jesus so using Lord really confused her. Now she so proudly announces every once in awhile that Jesus is the Lord!