Jul

30

Happy Friday!

Baby & Child / Photography

This morning I wanted to capture Avery on her way out the door headed to school.   She’s rather funny around the camera.   She gave me about 4 seconds and looked right at the camera and smiled but this mama didn’t have it together so I ruined my opportunity.   It’s nearly impossible to get her to look at the camera.   It’s like the big black monster or something.   She looks everywhere else instead.   

Also, I don’t want to forget these little funny things:
#1. Pretty much every time she is in her closet, she goes to all her winter vests and puts each one on and asks me to zip. After she goes through all those, she gets out her life vests and proceeds to ask me to buckle her in and then says “Swim in the water?”
#2. She told me this morning while sitting on the couch, “I kept my biaper (not a typo) on” and she actually did keep it on last night amazingly as we wait for miracle jammies to come in. I think it’s funny that she felt the need to make sure I knew she kept it on.
#3. This morning before she started eating her oatmeal, she proceeded to meditate with her arms up and out and said “Ommm, dkhsisosidisohgods (jibberish)” and then laughed and started eating. It was really funny! I have no idea where she got that from. Her school is Christian so she was probably trying to imitate something they do.

Walking to School 7
Headed to school 7.29

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Jul

29

Finding A Dream Job….

Living

Have you ever wondered what your dream job is?  I do all the time!  Do I have my dream job?  Should I pursue a new dream job?  What would it be if I’m not doing it right now?

  In fact, I just had lunch with one of my good friends, Toni, and we talked about this a little bit.   When I was working on my Master’s to be a speech pathologist, I realized early on that my dream job was to be an entrepreneur or so I thought, specifically to have  successful businesses online that would allow me to have a lot of flexibility.      I think quite often of what my dream job would be and I must be doing it because I can’t think of anything else I’d rather do at this time.   There is no doubt about it.   BUT my office is lonely…..soooo quiet.  It’s just me and Bentley .    There are certainly benefits to this….no distractions, no office politics, extremely efficient work…maybe too efficient though.    Now that I think of the benefits, lonely doesn’t sound so bad….but lonely it is.   What else would I like to do in addition to what I do now?  I think maybe it would be good for me to do charity work or something where I can give back.  I think some of the most fulfilling jobs are those where people work with others and can make a difference in their lives.   That is actually the reason I decided to go to college for speech-language pathology.  I really miss that part!

What is your dream job?  Do you have it?   I love to hear about what people do and if it is their dream job.   I still think it would be fun to have Martha Stewart’s job…it seems fabulous though I don’t know if I could ever get over the being in front of a camera part for TV.   I would love all the craftiness!!   For now, I’ll just go to her website and read what she is up to :)

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Jul

29

The Solution

Baby & Child

In a follow up to my previous post, I ordered the PJ’s from LittleKeeperSleeper.com (as many nice commenters recommended putting PJ’s on backwards and zip up in the back which is a great idea and Andrea, who saw our struggle, recommended a cool site where they actually make them especially for that). Thank you to everyone for your help.   I really like that they have a non-stretch neckline because that is how she currently escapes….by wiggling out through the neck. I can’t see how she will possibly get out of these now :)    What a smart product!   I wanted to post this because I figure there are a lot more parents out there who have a similar situation.

Image by LittleKeeperSleeper.com

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Jul

27

Taking Off Diaper at Night Phase

Baby & Child

Avery takes her diaper off at nap and at night and pees on everything. Therefore we have tried a number of things but she is very sneaky and can maneuver very well. I’m literally watching her on the monitor right now during naptime as she works her magic. I just Googled solutions as nothing that we have come up with has worked. I came across this great reference from Berkeley where parents share their solutions for this problem. We have tried many of these things with no success because she is that good, but there are some on here that I think will really work. The onesie and nap blanket have not been successful for us. However, the nap blanket has been successful from climbing out of the crib and hurting herself which I’m very thankful for. The link: http://parents.berkeley.edu/advice/potty/diaperoff.html

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Jul

26

Moulton Jamboree & Parade

Baby & Child / Family

This past weekend we went to stay with my parents and on the way we stopped in Brenham to help Dawn and Matt out with the move. We got off to a great start with Avery blessing their house. I’m not sure why but Friday was not a good potty day. However, she has been doing excellent so I can’t complain.

We then moved along to Shiner and Matt had a softball game at 11pm in Moulton so most of the family headed over to go watch. I’m lucky to make it until 11pm much less play a game or watch one at that time. They did end up winning so we all went out there on Saturday to watch Matt play and to enjoy the festivities of the Jamboree. It was quite hot so I tried to stay in the shade as much as possible with Avery. She enjoyed every second of it and even got to slip ‘n slide at Nana and Papa’s. We forgot our camera this time :( so I have no evidence of her first slip ‘n slide experience.

On Sunday, Nana, Scott and I took Avery to the parade and I’m not sure what she loved more…the tootsie roll pop or the floats and horses but I’m going to say it was the tootsie roll pop.
Moulton jamboree 2010

We also visited GiGi K(Avery’s great grandma), my grandmother whom just went into the nursing home this past weekend, and GiGi R came over to visit us out at the ballpark while watching Matt play softball.

We certainly had a full weekend and headed back this morning because Scott wanted to go fishing last night. Nana is keeping Avery for the next few days so we are off to go watch a movie tonight.

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Jul

23

Headed Out for the Weekend

Baby & Child

I know Avery will be as happy as she is in the picture below when she finds out where we are going. I’m off to go pack. Oh, that reminds me, I can’t forget to bring the $3 slip and slide we got from Target. What a deal! Just thinking about that slip and slide brings me back to the age of 5 or 6 playing at Patsy Wagner’s (our babysitter) house. Our slip and slide back then was a big black tarp.

Avery Galveston 2010 2

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Jul

22

Avery Then & Now

Baby & Child

Dawn came to visit yesterday to keep me company while Scott is out of town. That means time for shopping and eating! They are moving into their new home tomorrow so we’ll be helping them move and we went around town looking for new furniture for her living area. Afterwords, we decided to go to Sushi King with Avery and Dawn pulled out her iphone and said, “Guess what? I have a picture of Avery at Sushi King when she was bald.” Looking at that picture just floors me. To see how much she has changed really hits home how fast time goes by. We took another picture of her to compare so there is a THEN (she is about 15 mos) and NOW (she is a few months over 2).   I added a few more pics below for reference because I had to really think about how old she was based on what we were wearing, her facial features and her teeth. Isn’t that terrible? I really thought at first that she was much younger in that pic until I started really investigating. 

I also noticed she was still eating baby food and I told Dawn that Dr. Walburn, Avery’s pediatrician, gave us the best advice ever. He said that we should keep her exclusively on baby food for as long as possible… specifically until she was 2. Ha! We didn’t make it that long but I realized he was so right. Until we took Avery off of baby food, she would eat all veggies from peas, carrots, green beans, etc and now we have to hide them in her yogurt, etc. It sure did make it easy for planning meals.

Then at around 15 months taken with Dawn’s phone (holy smokes, I look like I needed sleep or something DRASTIC!):
avery sushi king little baby
Now taken with Dawn’s phone (Avery with Auntie Dawn at 2 years, 3 months):
avery sushi king 2 yrs 3 mos.

For reference:

This is Avery at 8 months:
Avery at 8 months

Avery at 11 months:
11 months

Avery at 15 months:
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I can’t believe the difference in such little time!

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Jul

22

Excuse the Typos

Family

I guess I could go back and edit some of my older posts but as I was rereading some posts I wrote, I’m finding lots of typos. I’m so accustomed to typing in Word or Outlook which automatically corrects for me and I tend to type faster than my brain can think which results sometimes in sentences that don’t make any sense. I’m very sorry to those whom it bothers….truly I am (ie: Scott is one of those people and often he will read and correct them for me) but my brain doesn’t pick it up. For some reason, when I read I scan rather than read so my brain never really notices unless I read slowly.

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Jul

21

The House

Living / Our Home

I haven’t posted any updates on “The House” in a while so I thought I might do so. These are from a few weeks ago. I will just be so relieved when it is finished. It seems like it is taking Forever! We still have a long way to go it seems.

Here is a half shot of the front of the house. We are not allowed to cut any trees down until landscape approval so its hard to get a full view photograph. The house still looks quite plain but the limestone detailing on all the doors and windows and iron railings should be added in the next month or so….hopefully.
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The three windows on the garage will also have arched limestone detailing at some point before it is completed and a decorative detail in that little thingy above the three windows. I’m still working out the details on what color to paint the under part of the roof:
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Part of the back (I can’t wait to see the transformation of the back yard when the landscapers get a hold of it):
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A rather boring picture but makes me happy because it is my future craft space:
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A fun little quatrefoil window in the bar area:
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Scott loves tall doors so those doors are almost 10 feet tall. They are very TALL though they don’t look it in the picture:
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The Upstairs Hall (designed so the kids can do their homework here):
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One of the kiddo rooms:
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Another one of the bedrooms upstairs (we have plenty room for guests so we hope we’ll have visitors):
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I don’t know why Scott took a picture of the attic but I do know he really wants it to be his media room some day so I’m guessing that is why:
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This is in the Master. The image doesn’t show the ceiling but it arches to match the window and it will have a block panel detail. I can’t wait to see it finished:
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Scott’s office:
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Groin vault for the middle part of the Master Bath ceiling:
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The entrance hall with 3 groin vaults (one of my favorite features of the house):
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The Turret:
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The Antique Tile Roof:
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I love lots of natural light. I really don’t care to ever turn on inside lighting so once these three doors were installed, I felt we still needed more light so I had Scott order the transoms for all the French Doors across the back of the house. I think it really makes a huge difference.
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Jul

20

Little Getaway to Galveston

Family / Travel

This past Friday, we packed up and headed to Galveston for the weekend. I love the beach and new it would be a nice weekend so I made last minute reservations at the beautiful, historic Hotel Galvez and were very lucky to get in because everything was booked solid and I mean everything.

It really doesn’t take long at all to get there so we went for an early dinner and then took Avery to the beach to play on Friday evening. We did all kind of fun things over the weekend including swimming at the beach, going to the Moody Gardens Aquarium, eating lots of yummy meals (Avery had buffet breakfast every morning and ate tons), riding the bicycle cart along the Sea Wall, and eating ice cream at The Strand. I even managed to squeeze in some Spa time while Avery and Scott napped. Avery had a blast! We even took her to a nice dinner at Luigi’s on the Strand and she was so good the entire time. She split Parmigiana Chicken with me and ate all of her pasta (I guess I’m not too surprised :) ).

We really had a perfect weekend full of fun activities! It is so convenient to Houston and after Hurricane Ike, it really is amazing how much everything has been renewed and cleaned up.

All pics are SOOC. I wish I had more time to edit but I’m getting braver and shot them in Manual mode rather than Aperture!
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Here I was trying a silhouette trick from photography class:
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We have lots of these shots where she is licking the salt off her face. Silly girl:
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Looking at a Shell:
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Our Hotel:

Exterior of Hotel Galvez & Spa, A Wyndham Grand Hotel in Galveston, Texas

At the Aquarium:
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Scott LOVES, LOVES, LOVES going to Aquariums:
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Eating Homemade Ice Cream on the Strand (Avery opted for Candy but I had a Rootbeer Float and Scott had is usual chocolate malt):
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MAKES ME LAUGH! So as I was looking at this picture, I had to laugh because Scott’s shirt does indeed look worn and he mentioned that when he was visiting him Mom last week, she told him “We need to get you some new shirts!”. Supposedly, this worn look is the style right now and pretty much all of his shirts are Vintage Lacoste so they all have this “old” look and I guess I just never noticed until now which is surprising.
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Love this face:
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Scott kept making me laugh because he kept speaking in a deep South accent with a nice drawl and making comments to Avery like, “Well, I’ll be Miss Daisy! Where on earth did you get that fine hat?” Seeing this picture makes me thing of that!
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P.S. We started potty training last Monday so by Friday, we were only 5 days in so we were quite adventurous taking her on a getaway in panties! We had quite a few accidents but by Sunday, she only had 1 accident and for the first day in the history of Avery’s life, on Monday, July 19, 2010, exactly 1 week to the day we started, she went 100% accident FREE and wore the same panties all day long. I can’t tell you how excited we are. I have high hopes that today will be another good day :)

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