Sunday, November 28, 2010

Seventeen Months Old!

Avery turned seventeen months old yesterday!

She now is very close to having 16 teeth...her last canine is breaking through as I type.

For the most part, she's still a good eater. It's been a struggle getting her into her high chair some days though. I don't know if she's just not hungry, or doesn't like the high chair, but we've been doing some games with her lately to get her in it.

Her sleep schedule is still the same-11/12 hours overnight with an afternoon nap. We had a few rough nights a few days ago with her up overnight, but I'm thinking it was from that last tooth coming in. She was up one night for 3 hours in the middle of the night and another night, she just woke up a lot-we didn't have to go in to see her, but she was just up frequently which isn't her norm.

Her latest obsession is with dolls (she calls them "babies"). She carries them everywhere and knows how to rock and burp them. It's so cute!

She learns stuff so fast! I showed her the letter "S" on one of my sweatshirts and now she can say "S" and finds it on things. She also can identify the letters A, C, L, O, R, S, Y. She picks up on them pretty quickly.

Some new words for this month include: "Tasha" (my Dad's dog), "all done", "happy", "pocket", "moon", "hop" (she loves the book Hop on Pop), "bath", "off", "duck", "ho, ho, ho" and she tries to say her name but it comes out "A-ya". We also have asked her where the poo-poo is and she points to her butt. It feels like this month she learned a lot of new words! She also does the sign for "dog" now too.

Here are the pics I took of her:
Showing off her new winter gear!

With her giraffe and babies:


Showing her teeth:

Giving kisses:
and hugs:
My favorites:

Saying "ho ho ho!"

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Thankful

Today is a day for giving thanks and taking time out to think about the things you do have and not the things you don't.

It's a day to step back and reflect.

A day to think of those little things we take for granted and realize that some people out there don't have those little things at all....things like food, clean water, shelter, electricity, heat, an income (or two). Things that we don't think twice about that many people out there just don't have.

I am thankful for many things. I obviously can't list them all because it would take me a very long time, but I can touch on a few.

I'm thankful for my husband, my better half. He is my everything and I don't know what I would do without his love and support. He is such a driven person and the most amazing Dad (I knew he would be!). I'm thankful everyday for that man.

And of course I'm thankful for this munchkin: look at that stinkin' face!
She is just a blessing. Yes, she's challenging at times, but when she runs up to you yelling "Mama" with her arms open wide for a hug, it's the best thing in the world. I love watching her grow into a little person-it's so fun to see (of course sad to see her not a baby anymore). I just love her to pieces.


I'm thankful for my amazing family and friends...without them I wouldn't be who I am or where I am today. I'm grateful to have so many wonderful people in my life to lean on.


I'm thankful for our home. It's warm and cozy and ours.


I'm thankful for our jobs-that we have security in this (still) struggling economy.


I'm thankful for the health of everyone around us. We have all been very fortunate to have good health.


We are so blessed in so many ways and we recognize it. I hope you all recognize the blessings in your life as well.


And a few photos from our day today to lighten the mood! We hung out in our jammies all morning and had cinnamon rolls and watched the parade. Gabe tried having Avery snuggle under the blanket:



but she wasn't interested:
She was quite the sleepy head at naptime...we woke her up after 3 hours because his family was waiting for our arrival-yeah, that wasn't the best idea because someone woke up very grumpy. But look how darn cute she is!


My Mom and Aunt Pat drove in to have dinner with us which was very nice!

And of course Avery had a blast with her cousins. She was all about giving Owen hugs and kisses!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!




Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Homemade Stuffed Shells

Yesterday I made homemade stuffed shells. I honestly can't remember the last time I made them and it sounded like a good idea!

Stuffed Shells
1 box jumbo shell pasta
1 jar of pasta sauce
1 lb ricotta cheese (I use part-skim)
1-2 cloves garlic, pressed/chopped
parsley
1 egg
salt & pepper
shredded mozzarella

1. Cook pasta according to box. Rinse under cold water.
2. While pasta is cooking, pour a thin layer of sauce on the bottom of a 9x13" pan.
3. Mix ricotta, garlic, egg, parsley, salt and pepper.
4. Holding a shell open with one hand, use a spoon to stuff shell with cheese mixture. Add stuffed shell to pan. Create a layer of stuffed shells and move onto a second layer if needed.
5. Pour the rest of the sauce over shells and spread.
6. Top with shredded mozzarella cheese.
7. Bake at 350 for an hour or until cheese melts and browns.



Notes: For the parsley, salt and pepper, I don't measure-I just add some to the ricotta cheese. For each shell, I used a soup spoon size of cheese for each shell (maybe roughly a tablespoon?). I had some shells left unstuffed but just added them to the pan anyways. When I baked mine, my cheese didn't brown after an hour so I put in on broil for a few minutes to crisp it up a little bit.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Dinner with Friends

Yesterday was a busy day for me. I went to the gym in the morning for a workout, came home and showered then went to the Rochester Museum and Science Center for the annual Holiday Bazaar. I found a few good Christmas presents which was good. Shortly after I got home, we went to Julie and Richie's house for dinner. We haven't seen them since Brayden's baptism so it was nice getting together.

Little Brayden is almost 4 months old now! He's getting so big so fast! Carly and Avery had an absolute blast together! It was so fun seeing them chase each other around and play together. They really had a lot of fun! Gabe and I were saying how great it was seeing Avery play with someone close to her age. We've never really seen her "in action" so it was a lot of fun watching them! Here they are jumping on the trampolene together:





I missed the hug:

But got this one!

Avery on the trampolene:
Avery practicing being gentle with Brayden:

Brayden:
Thanks guys for an awesome dinner and a fun night!
Today we did absolutely nothing which was nice. I only left the house to go grocery shopping when Avery napped so it was nice to just relax and veg a bit.

Saturday, November 20, 2010

NYC Bound

I have never been to New York City.

*gasp!*

Gabe has been many times with his family but has never been for the holidays.

We talked about it and decided we wanted to try and go before Christmas this year. Gabe has some hotel points racked up so our hotel stay would be free. We've been keeping an eye on flights for awhile and today we finally booked them.

In 3 weeks from now we will be in NYC!

We will arrive there around 1pm on Friday and we fly out around 1pm on Sunday. So we literally have less than 48 hours to spend there. I'm excited to go and experience the Big Apple all decked out for the holidays and I think Avery will have fun watching everything around her.

So those of you who have been, what should we do? Remember we'll have a 17 month old in tow!

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Hugs

Today at dinner Avery was so darn cute (like she isn't all of the time!). I went in the kitchen to get something and she said "Momma?" Gabe said "Mommy's in the kitchen. If she were here, how would you hug her?" and this is what she did.....(of course I taped this after she initially did it)

I love my little girl-she cracks me up!

Monday, November 15, 2010

Happy 3rd Birthday Bianca!

Yesterday was my neice's 3rd birthday. We went over to my in-laws' house to celebrate in the late afternoon.

Here's Avery all ready to party...don't you love the shoes? Bianca's yummy cake (sorry it's sideways):

Avery of course loved the balloons they had decorated with:

The kids had some pizza to eat and us adults had quite the buffet-chicken parm, greens and beans, pasta, salad, potatoes, Italian sausage. They had it catered and it was very good. After we ate, Bianca opened her gifts.
Avery was very interested in her new doll:
Bianca opening the gift we got her-some princess books:



Avery got 2 presents as well! One from Molly's in-laws:
taking a look at it:
a new baby doll!


And her other gift was from my in-laws:
opening it up!
A baby princess Belle!
There was a huge gift bag there that Bianca could fit in. Molly's Mother-in-law put Bianca in it and was carrying her around-it was funny!

Then it was time to sing "Happy Birthday!"


Blowing out the candle:
Avery showing me that her shoe had fallen off!

Happy Birthday Bianca! Hope you had fun at your party!

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Buffalo Visit

Today we went to Buffalo for the day. I honestly have no idea when we'll be able to go there next so we decided to do a day trip today.

We went to my Dad's house for awhile. Avery got to see Papa and Colleen and Tasha the dog, which made her very excited.

Then we went to my Mom's house. We relaxed awhile when we got there.

I ran to Target to look at boots for Avery. They had some on sale until today, but the ones on sale did not have her size available. I ended up getting her these though. They are big on her now so I hope they work out for the winter.

My Mom and Aunt made lasagna for dinner which was very good! We also tried out my pizelle maker and my great-Aunt's secret pizelle recipe for the first time. They were a lot easier than I thought they would be and came out pretty good. I'll tweak a few things the next time I make them, but for our first batch, they were tasty!

Avery only napped 15mins in the car on the way in which for her is nothing. It took her a long time to fall asleep. So, by the time we left to come home, she was so tired she was goofy! Lately on the way home, she'll wake up when we have about a half hour left to drive and she'll cry the rest of the way home. Tonight I think she was so tired that she crashed in about 10mins and we didn't hear a peep out of her the entire way. We got home, put her PJs on (she woke up when we pulled in), read a story and put her to bed. Again, not a peep!

I also forgot my camera so I have zero pics from today which I'm bummed about.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Our Second "Surgery"

We all know what Avery's first surgery was....

Last night we attempted #2.

I noticed at dinner last night that Avery had a decent sized sliver in her hand. It was all red and sore to the touch-she didn't want us touching it. So after dinner, we attempted to take it out.

I tried first-sterilized some tweezers and while Gabe held her, I tried getting it. Well, little miss squirmy didn't approve and I didn't get very far.

So Gabe tried while I held her. The problem was that the sliver wasn't sticking out of the skin at all. So you couldn't just grab it with the tweezers. That sucker was under the skin so Gabe was trying to break the skin to get it out...again, didn't work. She just screamed her head off. I felt so bad!

After our failed attempts and a very tired and unhappy girl, we decided it would be worth the $20 copay to take her to the doctors and have them remove it.

So this morning, Gabe took her to the doctors. She didn't see her normal doc, she saw the "sliver expert" instead. I guess it took about 30 seconds of probing with a needle, but she got it out. Avery wasn't thrilled with it, but did much better than she did with us last night.

So, "surgery" #2 was a success!

Sunday, November 7, 2010

A Weekend With No Plans

Ah....

A weekend with no plans.

It's rare that we have one, especially this time of year. I know from now until Christmas, our weekends have something going on so it was nice to have one with absolutely nothing!

Avery is ready for the cooler weather in her nice jacket and hat from my Uncle Joe and Aunt Marion. Doesn't she look adorable?



Yesterday we really didn't do much of anything. I went to the gym in the morning and that is the only time I left the house! We did a lot of playing and relaxing which is always nice.



What was our excitement today?



Well....



What do you get when you have a Mommy, a Daddy, a 16 month old, a camera and 30 rolls of toilet paper in the house?



You got it....building towers baby!



Look at my little girl go!


Taller and taller....


I asked her to smile and she struck this pose: And voila! A nice tower!

Since it was one of those chilly days, we did some snuggling under the blankets....

(love!)

And Avery played with her babies:




During her nap I went grocery shopping and then when she woke up, we went to our gym to go for a swim! She was so excited when we got there and she saw the pool-she was kicking her legs and ready to go. She did such a good job in the water splashing around and kicking away. I think she really enjoyed herself, which makes us happy!


The only "bad" thing about the weekend was good old daylight savings ended so our clocks went back an hour. Just like I figured, Avery was up an hour earlier today but what I didn't expect was that her nap stunk-lately she's been doing close to 3 hour long naps (heaven!) and today it was an hour and a half...not stellar. I'm hoping after a few days that will change!