Stay-cation -- At The Fair

I've been to plenty of amusement parks, but never a fair before so this was my and Averie's first time. 

First stop was a little simulated farm for Averie.  We put on our apron and grabbed a pail.

 

Got some grain for the cow...

Averie wanted to pick an apple, but they were hot from being out in the sun, so Daddy had to put it in her basket.

Chose a potato "seed" -- because Averie loves french fries ;-) -- and planted it...

Then picked up our finished potato on the other side.

Rode the tractor...

Brushed the sheep...

Collected some eggs...

Then it was time to trade in all her crops...

 

For a little snack.

OK, enough of the boring educational stuff (Kidding!).  Time for some rides!

The mini Tower of Terror

The princess greets her loyal subjects

Averie met her match for most stubborn creature on the planet.

And tried to help it escape.

Rode the giant slide!

 

<<<<  But should have stopped the first time -- Chris caught some serious air and broke his tailbone on the second trip down (it's an 8-week recovery in case you were wondering!).

 Averie loved the bounce house (is there a toddler that doesn't?)

And she was a good sport even though she fell down.

A lot!

This was a huge maze of ladders to reach the slide at the top.

She needed a little help with the first ladder.

Not a fan of the "hamster wheel

But she was a pro by the second time!

All that work for 5 seconds of sliding!

This one was really jerky and whipped around the corners.  She cried so hard, they stopped the ride to let her off.

Got swindled Played some fair games.  At least there were consolation prizes, which were plenty for Averie. 

She actually almost got it!

Declan chilled in the shade of the stroller the whole time.  Must be nice!

And kicked Averie's seat at every opportunity, in true little brother fashion.

 We finished with one more spin -- ha! I crack myself up -- on the carousel.

We snagged a fair worker to take a family picture, in which only the adults are smiling and looking at the camera. 

Then we all trudged parents trudged and kids rolled in comfort back to the car, dusty and exhausted.  It was a fantastic day.  Can't wait to go again next year!

Stay-cation -- Living Planet Aquarium

We visited the fair on Thursday and frankly, Chris and I were still worn out on Friday morning but Averie had been asking to go (by making her "fishy face") since we had mentioned it and at this point, it had been so long since some solid family time with all of us that we didn't want to let her down.

We made it all in one piece after significant consumption of caffeine (by the adults; our kids did not need any help in the energy department).  

Averie, at the time, was doing this adorable (can you feel the sarcasm?) scrunched face, half-winking, gritted teeth smile in all her pictures. 

Some sort of baby shark.  I think.  *makes note to not wait 3 months to put up pictures again*

I thought this one looked like a wrinkled old man!

She just stared at all these fish for the longest time!

I found Nemo and Gil!

More sharks.  Averie runs up to the window to see and I say "Oh, those are called sharks!"  Not in an ominous voice or anything, but she runs away screaming.  She's a character.

She was fascinated by the penguins.

Not so interested in Mommy wanting to compare her to a penguin.  Spoilsport!

 

Blue frogs.  I'm pretty sure they're poisonous and don't they just kind of LOOK like bad news?  I mean, that color is NOT natural.  And let me tell you -- I know all about natural color.  *covers roots*

More big fish.

 

Alligators.  This prompted more running-screaming. 

Now this.  This.  Shrieks and covers pictures of snakes in books with her hands.  Separated only by glass from this real-life anaconda, no problem.  

After this, we took a lunch break.  Salt City Burger, yum!  We hurried back so we could make it to the Animal Encounter.  This is another poisonous little fellow -- Averie tried to pet it.   

Averie was probably thinking this salmon has got it easy.  I bet that salmon's parents didn't say it couldn't have more french fries. *pout*

 

Otters!

This mom was small enough to crawl up into the viewing area with her own little girl to see the otters and was nice enough to help Averie see them up close, too. 

The camera was dying quickly so this was the last fish picture I snapped.  Trout, I think.

Souvenir!  

On Slowing Down...

April 2012

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,

For children grow up, as I've learned to my sorrow.

So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.

I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

~"Song for the Fifth Child", Ruth Hubert Hamilton~

I seem to think that I have posted the above before, some other time when I had lost sight of cherishing the moments that won't wait, but I came across it again the other day and was grateful for the reminder.  It's not always chores for me, but it is always something.  Maybe evidenced by the fact that it's been over 4 months since I posted about Declan, and before Averie's 3-year birthday post last month, it had been 2 months for her.  And it's not like there hasn't been anything that I want to remember because so much has changed!  (SO MUCH. Seriously.)

There have been so many moments that are saved only in my own memory because I was too busily rushing around to snap a picture of Averie piling up toys to share with an upset baby brother or putting together a jigsaw puzzle by herself for the first time.          

I'm not typically one to wait to make a change until some milestone passes, but considering now is the right time for this anyway, one of my resolutions in 2013 is to not only spend more time getting to know my kids, but also to make sure I write it down so I can look back in 5, 10 and 20 years and laugh and tear up over how quickly they've grown.  

November 2012

We did it!

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Chris has been working a minimum of 60 hours per week since July, and really, it’s been more like 65 to 70 hours a week.  It’s been crazy and hard and stressful, but Thursday, December 27^th was payday and that day, all those hours finally paid off -- literally! 

Four months ago, we consolidated 90% of our outstanding credit card debt from Chris’ unemployment into his car loan and today, it is GONE.  Existing car loan plus the credit card balances started at $18,000 in August; $0 today.  

I won’t say it wasn’t hard to discipline ourselves – it was! An average of 25 hours of overtime per week makes for some hefty paychecks.  It would have been easy to say we could just take a little here and a little more there for some fun, but we both knew once we reached this point, it would outweigh any temporary elation from a new electronic toy or a lavish vacation.  And it does.  Knowing we our giving ourselves a secure financial future is the best feeling of all. 

(I had hoped to have a memento in the form of a screenshot of a $0 balance, but they've already disabled our online account access! Boooo.)

A Sign of Our Times

(From September 2012)

Chris and I have only ever had cell phones, no land line. For the first five years of our marriage, before we had kids, we both worked and at least one of us was in school.  The rest of the time, we were out, living up the DINKS lifestyle, and didn’t see the need for a telephone we’d never be home to answer.  And we’ve still just never seen the need for one (we’ve just accepted that our kids will totally be the ones that have their own (cheap!) cell phones in elementary school).

The other day, Averie and I were playing house – “cooking” in her kitchen, playing with her baby doll, etc.

We’ve been looking for opportunities to increase her spontaneous speech (anything that is not an immediate imitation of our prompts) so I pointed out the toy phone and said “Brring, ring, brrring, ring!” and told her to pick it up and say “hello.”

Averie looked at me like I had three heads.

And it hit me.  Averie doesn’t know what a wall telephone sounds like!  The only phones ringing around our house sound like songs on the radio or tinkly little melodies.

Next time, I’ll try singing some Adele and see if she gets it.

Averie is 3!

Well, I think my posts are going to be going backwards now because I can't find my other camera anywhere to upload the pictures and these are the ones I've got on the DSLR.

SO!

Averie had her birthday on the 3rd of this month.  I can't believe she is already 3.  I have never been one of those moms who gets weepy over how fast it's going but holy cow, I was like, "How she can be THREE already?!"  I think it's because we have Declan now and I can remember when she was that small, too.  Seems so long ago.

We had a small party with my family and some of our good friends.  Averie's best little friend ever made it and they were so happy to see each other!  If you've ever tried to take a picture of two 3-year-olds looking at the camera and/or smiling at the same time, you'll understand why this is the best picture we got.

Per usual, being our first child and the first grandchild on my side of the family comes with its perks.  She was very spoiled this year (who am I kidding?  Declan is the second and he's just as spoiled :P).  We've WAY cut down her TV time but I still couldn't turn down the deal I found on a DVD box set of her favorite show ever -- Word World.  I wish I had the "WOW!!!!" on video :).

There were more blocks, books and baby dolls than I thought possible for one little girl to own but she loves them all.  She always gets one big influx of toys at the end of the year between her birthday and Christmas (oy, Christmas is going to be like a Toys 'R Us explosion in here!) and I love how she delights over all the new things.

She had worked on her blowing skills and this year, we got to have cake not covered in a light spray of toddler spit.  Yum!

Balloons were the highlight of the evening.  She chased this one all over the house and I was glad that they had long strings so they weren't lost for days to the vaulted ceilings :).

Declan was there too.

Averie had had enough of the camera by the end of the night.  I was smart enough to put it away after this.

The following week, she had her party with Chris' side of the family because she has two cousins with birthdays very close to hers.  She got lots of dress-up stuff from Grandma and we got this awesomeness on camera. 

 

Mickey (and Minnie, too) is her other favorite show in the world so this was a big hit, as well as some Minnie Mouse puzzles.  She's into jigsaw puzzles now and is doing a great job with them.  I remember working on the huge thousands-of-pieces puzzles with my mom and I can't wait to do the same with her one day :).

Chris and I spent the previous night and then the afternoon of the party baking and decorating Mickey and Minnie cakes.  Holy moly, I had no idea what we were getting into signing up for that task but I think we did pretty well for a couple amateurs (Mickey not pictured; just visualize Minnie without the bow).

We love you, Averie.  You are a fantastic big sister and my favorite little girl (disclaimer: 50/50 possibility of amendment to "one of my favorite little girls" in a couple years!).  Thank you for all the laughter and joy you've brought to our lives.   

Behind the Scenes

Recently, I’ve found myself feeling envious that the lives of my friends seemed so much more carefree and positive than my own.  Was I doing something wrong?  I knew we were working our hardest, so what more could we do? 

Then I saw this meme floating around Facebook and it really struck me.  

It just helped me realize that everybody has bloopers just like my family and I do; they just may not choose to put it out there.  Which is, of course, their prerogative!  We all want to put our best foot forward, but just in case I’ve ever come across as everything is sunshine and light 24/7, behind the scenes, our crew is often trying to figure out which way is up and who is doing what, when, and just trying to keep the show moving!

Averie often has a snack before her real meal because it’s something she can get to and eat by herself so I can tend to other things first (the only silver lining here is thanks to her voracious appetite, she still has plenty of room for the healthy stuff).  

If we don’t have any errands to run (seldom as those days may be), you will likely find me in PJ’s at 3 PM.  My taste in fashion never adjusted to being a mom, and delicate and pretty clothes just don’t agree with parenting the Guinness World Record holder for the most spit-up ever produced in a day.  If I’m feeling fancy, I’ll bring out the yoga pants ;-). 

We eat dinner about the time some kids (not ours, LOL) are going to bed because Chris doesn’t get home ‘til then, due to both his new shift and the insane amount of overtime he is working.

Speaking of, Declan is still going to bed at midnight.  UGH.  Somehow he knows when we try to get to bed sooner, because those are the days he’ll decide to be up ‘til 1 or 2, so we’ve just accepted our fate.  He at least sleeps straight through ‘til 11 or so, which is great for him; not so great for those who don’t get to sleep so late (coughtheparentscough)! 

I have at least five other blog posts besides this one, ready to go, dating back to early September, just waiting for me to transfer pictures over from the camera, and I can’t seem to get my act together! 

But maybe now that I’ve put this out there, it will motivate me to do it today.  Or this week.  Maybe (add “world’s worst (best?) procrastinator” to the list).  Really though, I have some milestones that have passed and some coming up that need to be written down, so I’m really gonna do it.

Eventually ;-).

Happy Anniversary!

Is it possible that it’s already been eight years?  That we've gone from this:

We were so young!

To this?

This year, we gave ourselves something that cannot be bought in stores, but was still the most we have spent (which is saying something since we have celebrated previous years with vacations and jewelry)!  This year, our gift to each other was an extra, extra-large payment to our debt.  Reaching our goal of debt-free sooner will be the best gift of all.   

Before I met Chris, I always thought that the whirlwind relationships and marriages so common in Utah were a little naive.  How could one get to know another well enough in that time to commit for time and eternity?  Well, the Lord has a funny way of showing you that He is always the one in charge since that is exactly how Chris’ and my relationship played out.  We dated for such a short time before Chris proposed, but when you know, you know!

Even though we have had our ups and downs (and believe me, there have been plenty of downs!), I have never doubted my decision to choose Chris.  He shows me everyday how he values our children and me by working tirelessly both in- and outside the home.  He is a hopeless romantic and handyman rolled into one.  My spider-killing, toenail-painting, car-repairing, button-sewing hero.

How did I get so lucky?  Of course, Chris will argue that he got the better half.  And if that’s all we can find to argue about over the next 8, 18 and 80 years, I suppose we’ll both have to count ourselves lucky. 

Averie's Diagnosis

So if you don’t know about Averie’s speech delay yet, you must be new here ;-), but we finally have an official diagnosis: speech apraxia.

Apraxia is actually thought to be a neurological disorder because it is, basically, a problem with the brain communicating to the mouth how it should move to form words.  Kids with apraxia generally have much better receptive speech than expressive (that’s Averie), have severe expressive delays (yep, she’s in the 4^th percentile) and will often substitute their own “words” for real words because they can’t make the sounds correctly (also her).

We’ve had mixed feelings about the services we are receiving through early intervention lately and at our EI speech therapist’s urging, we enrolled Averie in private speech therapy.  

Oh my.  The price tag on that is…high, and because Averie’s delay is not caused by “injury, illness or autism spectrum disorder”, it is not covered by our (otherwise awesome) insurance.  But Averie has only been with Paige (her private therapist) for a month and we are already seeing HUGE progress so I know it is worth every penny.

I am so grateful that Chris is able to get so many extra hours right now and that we’re still able to live with my parents because otherwise, I don’t know if we could manage it and who knows how long it could take before Averie would talk, if ever, if we weren’t able to get help for her during this formative time.

So she’ll be in the private therapy for the foreseeable future and she will have an assessment done by the local school district a little closer to her 3^rd birthday.  If she still qualifies (which she should – progress with apraxia tends to be quite slow), she may either get additional speech therapy through the school district or be eligible to attend preschool and still get the speech therapy there.  We’re kind of hoping for the preschool – we socialize her as much as we can, but I think it would really be great for her.

Right now, the things Averie can reliably say:

Wow

Uh-oh

Oh, no (sounds like Oh, doh)

Nom nom! (when she wants to eat what you have, this one makes me laugh)

Done

No.  I think this is one of those ones that we are supposed to dread but we were elated when she said it, and it’s hard not to laugh at the sly voice she says it when she’s being naughty!

Dah for Daddy and Deh for Declan 

Bye (sometimes; inconsistency is another problem with apraxia)

But the biggest one of all:

Mom!  She really, really means it this time.  Months and months ago, when she started saying “mama” we thought that was it, but it seems that was more the apraxia babble.  But now she actually says it for me, to me.  I love it.

Averie can make all but three alphabet letter sounds independently (J, Q and X) but struggles to combine them into any words, so even though she can say “pah” and “tee” separately, she can’t say “potty”, which we are trying to enforce now for potty training later.

What she lacks in verbal words, she makes up for in signs: milk, more, all done, please, thank you, I’m sorry, open, eat, drink, and down.   

We have a long road ahead but I know we will get there.

Declan -- 4 Month Stats

It's 11:15 PM but I better get this up before I forget since I'm already late!

Weight: 14 lbs, 11 oz (25th %tile)

Length: 27 inches (95th %tile)

Head: 44.4 cm (95th %tile)