So obviously we have been a little busy recently so the posts have been few and far between.  Well here we are about 3 weeks after Baby Jack's birth and we are starting get situated.  Jack is cute and Avery loves being a big sister.  She is always trying to help any chance she gets...it is so cute. 

Prior to Baby Jack's arrival Avery has been going through a period of waking up at the butt crack of dawn.  For all of you who know us we are not morning people.  She tends to rise anywhere from 5am to 6am on bad days...way too early for us.  We have been trying to figure out how to get her to sleep a bit longer or at least stay in her room and read books until 7am...she/we need it ;)  I thought surely this can't be too hard...well I was wrong.  A while back we found out about a nightlight that was designed by a Dad who created a nightlight that is a "Sun" during the day and at night is is the "Moon".  It was called the GoodNiteLite. The concept is that you can set the nightlight to any time you want it to change to the sun to help identify that it is morning so they can understand that it is morning and they can get up.  Looked great...sounded great...to bad it has been on backorder for like 2 months.  So here we were on the waiting list....still waiting... ugh!

http://www.goodnitelite.com/


 
...So with the nightlight on backorder...I figured there has got to be another idea.  Lately Avery has been intrigued with time and "What time is it?".  She always knew that 7:00 was dancing with the stars but that was about it.  Well I found another option to help with the early rising plus teach her time...TeachMeTime.  We tried it last night for the first time...and although we still had a rough morning I think it will prove beneficial in helping her identify time and when to get up.  Obviously, at 3 she has no concept of the duration of time....so when I tell her she has to wait about 30 minutes...she asks me about every 5 minutes..."has it been 30 minutes yet".  The great thing is that it can also play games to help teach time.  Hopefully we can get her to sleep in or chill in her room...she gets so cranky with the lack of sleep.

http://www.americaninnovative.com/products/teachmetime.php

 

 

So a few weeks back we went to the Airforce football game. One of my old high schoold buddies was in town that I have not seen in a while. We were invited to a pre-game tailgate party. It was a really good game although Airforce came up on the losing end.  After the game we went back to the cars and hung around talking and watching our kids invent a new game. It is truly amazing what kids think of...and to think only 32 years ago I was doing the exact same thing!

We recently got back from a great family vacation as we all traveled to The Gathering Place on Red Cedar Lake, Wisconsin.  This is the second time we have made this trip so we were all excited to get back and leave all our worries behind.  The Gathering Place provides tons of fun including fishing, water trampoline, canoes, kayaks...bonfires you name it.  The benefit is that the cabins are really nice so even though you are in the wilderness you have all the great amenities you need.  It was great to get back an see family and see how big all the cousins had grown up. It was a much needed vacation.  Avery had a blast from learning to fish with her cinderella pole, buggy rides with Pops, bonfires/smores and hot chocolate in the morning with MeMe. 

Avery loves being silly! This was just before making smores.	Did you here about the record fish caught with the barbie pole? This was my attempt using cinderella...no luck :(
Family kayak trip! Kristi sure is a trooper. Btw way she is going on 7 months preggo with Jack!	Don't we look happy? It is nice to be on vacation and sharing some good times.
We took a 7 mile canoe trip down one of the local rivers. It was so much fun.  Avery is lucky to get a free ride.	We ate dinner one night on Stout island. If you look we have a seat saved in the middle for Avery and the fam photo. And if you look really hard in the background you will notice "Crankasourous Rex" making her choice to not be in the photo.

After only one night of difficulty with the new bed...Avery followed it up last night by not getting out once and sleeping all night.  Hi-five! Disregard the fact that she had no nap and was exhausted from the night before...oh well...small victories.

Avery has finally graduated from her Crib...I know 3 years old and she still loves her crib.  It wasn't until just a few days ago that she realized that she could actually climb out.  Needless to say the other night after she went to bed...we hear the basement door open up and there she is out of her crib and upstairs peering through the door.  I went over to see what was up and I noticed that she had her pajama top on but was butt neked from the waist down...  I walked her downstairs and asked her where her pants were...she said "She had to go potty".  From what I gathered from my detective work was she went to the bathroom...decided that getting her bottoms on was too difficult so she headed up stairs to see what was going on.  This convinced us that we were to a point that she needed her own big girl bed. 

This was a big weekend as we started looking for a toddler bed...and we moved the crib out of her room in preparation to use for Baby Jack later this year.  In addition to the bed (which was easy to find) we were on the search for The Little Mermaid bedding.   Easy to find online...not so easy to find in the stores.  Eventually we found the bedding and we went home to put the bed together and get everything set for her new bed.  Kristi and I could tell that she was a mix bag of emotions as she was sad about her crib but excited about Ariel and her new toddler bed.  Everything was shaping up well as she tested it out by having us turn off all the lights and getting in bed with her babies....then everything took a disastrous turn as bedtime approached.

No longer was the toddler bed looking so good....she was not ready to go to bed.  As parent you sometime forget how little they are and what must go on in their little head.  The fact that she had such easy access in and out of her bed was so new and exciting she forgot all about what happens when it is time to go to bed.  I approached this night with the same ritual as every night...2 books, a story and a song.  Sounds easy...and that part was.  Next she laid down in bed and I could tell she was little out of sorts...and very wide awake...bad combination. I kissed her...told her goodnight and left the room.  A few minutes later I hear...tiny feet out of bed and "click" "click"...looking under the door you could see a faint light as she turned the overhead light on.  So I went into the room and there she was sitting in bed reading a book.  Not a bad thing but...it is time for bed.  So this time I turned off the ceiling light from the remote so she could not turn it on with the switch. I turned off the other switch that controls the lamp and turned off the lamp switch too...ha score one for Daddy.   So after I left the room...once again I hear tiny feet and..."click" "click" and this time there was no light showing up under the door.  Unfortunately, Avery is too smart...she proceeded to walk over to the lamp and turn on the switch then walk over to the light switch and on came the light.  Score one for Avery....grrr :( Once again we had to go back in and have a talk about staying in bed and going to sleep.  She still had the "I am wired on speed" look as she was unable to control her excitement and newness that this new scenario presented.  This process went back and forth...."I have to go Potty", "I want my Mommy", "I'm scared"...you name it she tried it.  One time I heard the door creak open and there she was standing in the doorway with a tea cup and spoon..."Want some tea daddy?"  As cute as it was all I can say...2 hours later she finally passed out from just being so tired.  Don't get me wrong I expected it to be a challenge but hopefully it won't take too long to move past this. 

Avery loves her books and sometimes her attention to detail amazes me.  She will notice things about a story that I never pick up on.  Avery picks apart books like Auntie Marisa picks apart my English/writing skills. She is actually really good about finding discrepancies in a story and the included drawings.  It reminds me of the website that is dedicated to finding Movie Mistakes. 

Not to mention this goes hand in hand with all the "Why" questions.  A couple books in particular have been a topic of discussion on the "Why" front.  I will follow up later with Avery's version of Children's Book Mistakes but for now we are focusing on the "Why...Why...Why" 

1st Book - Time for School Nathan!
This is an enduring endearing story about making new friends and going to school for the first time.  The lead character is an Elephant who goes to school and with him comes his friend Nicolas.  Needless to say I am about 3/4 of the way through the book and she points to Nathan (the Elephant) while at school and says "Daddy, why is he not human like the rest of the kids at school"   Point well taken...I simply told her that it was a story and maybe the author liked Elephants and thought it would make a good story.  She nodded her head with confirmation...whew!

2nd Book - Spiders Book
Avery is fascinated by insects but a little scared if she sees them in person.  Insects in books are fine or if they are behind glass...as apparent in the Avery vs. "The Bee" post.  She loves to have me read the spider book and that book presents her with many questions...so many that it takes me forever to read it.  This last time when I was reading the book we got to the page about Tarantulas and when looking at the photo she pointed to the spider and asked "What are those?"  I thought she was pointing to the fangs so proudly I said "Those are the spiders fangs..." and went into probably way too much detail...until she cut me off and said "Daddy, I already know what those are...I was talking about these".  I guess she was pointing to the covering/hair that was on top of the fangs...duh.  So what was initially an easy question about fangs turning into a new question about the hair covering stuff that covers the fangs...and that was my answer..."Hair like stuff that covers the fangs" 

 

The weather in Colorado is awesome!  Tonight was another night that we decided to eat outside.  For the most part there are no flies, mosquitoes or other random bugs to bother you while you eat...except tonight.  Tonight was a special occasion as the bees were out in full force...ok maybe there were just 2 but it still made for an exciting night.  Avery tends to be a little jumpy when it comes to bugs.  She is fascinated with them as long as they are behind glass or in a book.  Well tonight she was on a mission and was ready for action. 

So with out further delay check out the 4 part mini-series staring Avery and "The Bee". You can also download the full movie version at the bottom of the page...

Chapter One - "Waiting for the Bee" and
Chapter Two - "Dead Bee Flying"

Chapter Three - "Bee Muscles"

Chapter Four - "The Confrontation"

Chapter Five - "I'm Done"

  

Download the full video Flash (FLV) Version or Window Media (MWV) Version!

This is classic...the other night when I got home from work late and was finishing up dinner by myself Avery wanted me to go outside and push her on the swing.  I told her that I would push her after I finished up eating dinner.  She waitied a little bit and then she came back. Again she asked me to push her on the swing...and this time I was just finishing up so I told her I would.  After I said yes...she proceeded to yell at me "Vamanos, Daddy...Vamanos I am ready to go swing". I did a double take and was like what...did she actually just say that.  I asked her where she learned spanish from and she said "Dora" from Dora the Explorer.  Little did I know when I asked her what it meant she would say "Let's Go"...again I was shocked...thanks to Dora for teaching our child Spanish!

Avery is going to be a Big Sister as we have learned that we are going to be the proud parents of a baby Boy.  We are all excited about the new arrival and Avery is all ready to take on the role of big sister.

Check out our latest site http://www.allaboutjack.net/ and take a look at the ultrasound videos!