Big Week in the Making

Avery playing dress-up with a new classmate at the open house :)

Avery will be starting preschool!  I can't believe it, but in my heart I know she is ready. Luckily I have chosen a cooperative so I get to be a big part of the process.  I was also talked into a board position so I will get to be really involved. It's going to be fun.  She will start this Thursday and then will go T/TH's for 3 hours.  The preschool has a play-based learning philosophy and we love the teachers, the set up and the school.  We think she is going to have a blast and I can be present as much as she and I need me to be. 

Other than that.  We have just been crazy busy.  I am on a major purge binge.  We have little storage in our new place so things we don't use or need have to go! Sam has been working a lot.  He has been back and forth between Juneau and Haines and Skagway, so he is busy busy busy.  His cousin Courtney was here doing an externship for a couple weeks with Smith Equine and the small animal practice Sam works for.  Avery adored her and definitely wore her out :)

I am still in denial I am going to have a 3 year old here in a couple weeks.  How has it been that long?

Nerves!

Things are wrapping up with the house, but I am so flipping nervous it is driving me insane.  I am stressed that the finishes we've picked will look terrible, anxious about moving again and when we will close and most of all I am really nervous closing.  The what ifs have me stressed to the max and the fear our loan for some reason wont go through is gut wrenching.  I need these next few weeks to fly by!

On a good note, things are finally moving again.  Those dang drywall guys sure do take their sweet @$$ time.  But, it was painted yesterday and when I did a drive by earlier today the cabinets had been delivered and are sitting in the garage.  Our appliances also arrived and are sitting @ Sears waiting for the builder to pick them up!

Avery is finally back into her own routine after our visit to Wasilla.  She is going through a couple of obnoxious phases that both Sam and I hope will pass quickly! Repeating, not in the "that is a new word and still learning way".  She has been speaking in full sentences since the beginning of this year.  Now she is just repeating me and I am not really sure why.  When I ask her to stop repeating me she gets upset and yells either; "Stop repeating ME!" or "I am not repeating you!".  She also has become SUPER physical. She is constantly jumping on us and rough housing.  It is fine when we are playing with her, but it is constant.  So I am trying real hard to keep her engaged, but it is a full time job to keep this girl occupied!  Needless to say, preschool this September cannot come soon enough!

KNOCK ON WOOD, but I think potty training has finally clicked!  Our fingers are crossed, but she is finally letting me know BEFORE she needs to pee that she needs to go.  "My butt" is code for I need to pee and "My tummy" is when she needs to poop.  Not sure where she got this, but she obviously is under the impression she pees from her butt, but whatever she is making it into the toilet.  I wont bother confusing her with an anatomy lesson at the moment ;) 

Avery fell asleep in the car after nursery school last Thursday (5/3), so I decided to just drive around rather than going home right away.  I was going to just do a drive by of our house in progress, but I saw something strange up ahead and wanted to check it out.

This is what I saw.

Some kind of weird lighting right?  Look at the the trees right in front of me.  Is that a rainbow?  So I drove on past our new street and decided to drive up to Mendenhall Lake and check it out.

A neat, super low rainbow.  I wish I had had my camera to photograph it, my phone just doesn't do it justice.  It was spectacular and the lighting was simply awesome.  It was mostly cloudy this day, but I saw 2 more rainbows from different areas of town on the same day.  It has literally been raining ever since.  

The rain has been beyond depressing this round and I am looking forward to moving on and out of this cold, dark and damp rental. We have just 17 more nights left in this place!

it's MAY!

After a spectacular April it is a little hard to see the clouds roll in and never go away.  I swear we must have had like 4 strait weeks of no rain and lots of sunshine.  But, with the rain Juneau is coming to life and turning green again.  Avery will be able to handle being out in the rain more this summer so we will make the most of each day, rain or shine.  She has discovered that rain and rain pants make for some super fast slides and she LOVES it!  Avery's nursery school ends next week and her Kindermusik ended last week.  But, Avery finally came up on the waiting list for the preschool gymnastics class.  So we will start that this week!  I have heard great things about the class so I am pretty excited. I might sign her up for swim lesson towards the end of the summer, but that is it for summer activities.

Our house is coming along.  They began shingling the roof on Friday and I would expect them to be done with that early this week. The windows are in and the plumbers are getting their work done as well.  I can't wait for the siding to go up so I can really start to see what it will look like. 

  

The flags are up downtown again and the first couple cruise ships have come and gone.  All the shops downtown are open for tourist season and cleaning up their store fronts.  I love downtown Juneau in the summertime!

preschool!

It is official, Avery will be starting preschool this fall. She will go Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 AM to noon beginning in September! Auke Bay Cooperative Preschool is the school we have chosen. Twenty students, two teachers and two parents will make up the class day to day. The school looks awesome and has great feedback. The fact that it is a cooperative makes the cost MUCH more affordable and I get to be more involved having a job and work days. I am excited for her. They get out on 1-2 field trips a month going all over the place from the glacier to the tram and even on a whale watching trip! It should be a lot of fun!


Avery testing out her future preschool!

We had a fun and busy weekend with Avery's Gigi and Grandpa Rick. We did lots of shopping and lots of playing! They stayed in a great little apartment nearby and Avery had lots of one on one time. She already misses them and can't wait to see them again.

Avery eating frozen yogurt with Grandpa and Gigi!

Avery got some sweet temporary tattoos all over her belly. She is pretty proud of them!

I also was able to squeeze in a 5K and did alright, thanks to Paige and Rick for watching Avery! It was only my 3 time running since the half marathon I ran last June. 26:33 was my time. Not sure what place as the newspaper seemed to leave out most of the participants from the results. The overall winner was well under 20 minutes. Here is the link to the article that lacks much information: http://juneauempire.com/sports/2012-04-15/heart-hospice-fund-raiser-run-results#comment-43805

Thank you guys for everything. We had a lot of fun and LOVED that the weather held up through your visit! See you guys soon.

spring is officially here!

Mosquitoes are back. Big and thirsty and lots of them. I don't remember seeing many late last summer. I am hoping these guys are just hatched from the melting snow and there has just been a population explosion that will settle down soon!


My first casualty of the season.

longest month of the year

Okay maybe not technically, but ever since I was a kid I have felt that March has dragged on. Maybe because I was waiting for spring break or maybe it is because spring is just starting to show her face or maybe because it is one of the longer months. Who knows, but yet again I feel her dragging.
I significantly upped my vitamin D intake (like from 400 IU's to 5K IU's a day) and I have been actually feeling better. I noticed last March I was REALLY groggy as there was more light. I had a really hard time getting out of bed and it was awful, but I started feeling it this year and since I upped my vitamin D that groggy feeling has up and gone away. I have even thought about tanning, but I just don't have the motivation. We need to get one of those SAD lamps to sit under all winter ;)
Avery is keeping busy. She is still in her Kindermusik class. We have 1 more month of that and preschool. I did take her to an "Outdoor Preschool" last week that was a lot of fun. They take a little hike, sing songs and roast hotdogs and apples over a fire. It was low tide so they got to see lots of sea stars and other various creatures. I think we will go occasionally over the summer, but it is way up on North Douglas and a good 35 minute drive. I just can't commit to a weekly habit. But, we met some new friends and got some really good ideas. Maybe I can convince a friend of mine up on this side of town to start another outdoor preschool for us "out the road" and "valley" folk. She is on the waiting list for the new preschool gymnastics class in town and I will be going to an open house to check out the preschool we want her to attend next fall. Hopefully, we can get her in. It is really popular and she can't even enroll until she turns 3. So we will see.
Sam's horse work is picking up. With full time at the small animal place and the horse stuff, he is in for a busy busy summer. We meet again with Bicknell next Wednesday and hopefully we can get that show on the road in the next month. I really hope we don't have to wait for May, but there is still some snow on the ground and is still freezing over night. But, we are mid 40's during the day! Soon! We are also still homeless for the month of July. So the plan is to put our stuff in storage and feel around a bit longer, but Avery, Tasha and I may be headed north for a month to stay with my parents. I am putting feelers out and coming back empty handed, but not giving up yet.

how is March just a few days away?

I am not really sure where the past month has gone, but it seems to be the trend. Time is just getting faster and life is speeding along. Avery is a full blown little person. Opinions, sentences, continence are just a few of her newest accomplishments.

She has had opinions for awhile, but more recently she has learned that how much power she actually possesses. Which in turn means I have to stick to what I say whether I like it or not. I used to be able to distract her and change her thought process and well now she is just as stubborn as both her mother and father :/

Her sentences have gone from basic 3 to 5 word sentences to full blown run-ons. The kid doesn't shut up actually. She has to point out all likenesses in the whole. wide. world. Everything from "the sky is blue sky high today" to "look Mommy, he has toes JUST. LIKE. ME." or "thank you so much mommy for the new pirate booty because I ate all my other pirate booty thank you so much I love it OPEN IT!"

Potty training is still in progress. I wish I could say she took three days and never had an accident, but not so much. She is doing pretty good and will occasionally tell me when she has to go BEFORE she has gone. I am mostly just reminding and making her go every couple of hours. We usually have <1 accidents a day.

Other than that we are just chillin and waiting for winter to get the heck out of here. One more month I think and things will be warming up and we can get outside more. Then we can get cracking on this house building!

Just a Quote I Came Across.

Write about your own experience. By that experience someone else may be a bit richer some day. Read widely of others’ experiences in thought and action – stretch to others even thought it hurts and strains and would be more comfortable to snuggle back into the comforting cotton-wool of blissful ignorance. Hurl yourself at goals above your head and bear the lacerations that come when you slip and make a fool of yourself. Try always as long as you have breath in your body to take the hard way, the Spartan way – and work, work, work to build yourself into a rich continually evolving entity.

- Sylvia Plath

A Huge Thank You!

I totally screwed up and forgot to take pictures of Christmas. I cleared off my card and everything and was going to video, but the morning of Sam got frustrated with my camera because he wasn't sure how to start recording and it got sat on a shelf and I completely spaced it. Avery was so cute and so excited. He did get a short video of her on his phone, but that is with him now at work.

I may not have the pictures, but I do have some words. Christmas Eve was wonderful. We went to our friends home for dinner. Jesse and Melissa rent this great little house on Auke Lake about a mile or two away from us. We had a scrumptious pulled pork dish and a rice/sausage dressing (Melissa is from Louisiana and loves cooking Cajun style things). Melissa even provided an activity for Avery! She decorated ornaments with stickers. I think she must have made 6 and hung them all on their tree! They even got Avery a gift, a Mrs. Potato Head! Now we TWO and tons of body parts to go with it! She was so excited. Avery must have sat on Jesse's lap for over and hour playing with him and the toy. So cute, she adores him. At one point I asked if she needed to try and potty and she begged for Jesse to take her. Avery was pooped and dead asleep by the time we got home. So we bypassed the whole "milk and cookies act" and just took her to bed and pulled the gifts out of the room they had been locked in.

Christmas morning Avery was up bright and early and screaming (not happy screams). She woke up in a terrible mood. Honestly, she should have gone back to sleep, but I couldn't settle her down enough to go back to sleep so we were up. We came downstairs and she was SO excited about her dollhouse. She couldn't keep her eyes off of it. She'd open a present and then go back to the dollhouse. She was TOTALLY spoiled. She got some beautiful clothes, lots of movies, a sweet new purse, baby doll accessories, books, a leap pad, play mobile people, a doll house and some new jewelry. I am probably leaving a lot out, but she got a lot and it was all awesome. Huge Thanks to all who made Avery's and our Christmas. Avery was not the only one spoiled. Sam and I made out pretty well too. It was so unexpected and wonderful. Thank you very much for spoiling us as well! It was such a nice surprise to have presents to open. You all are so wonderful to us! The rest of the day was spent eating leftovers, skyping with family, watching football and we went for a nice walk with the dogs. The only thing missing was being physically with family and well SNOW! All our snow had melted all 54.8 inches! Three inches showed up a day late.

Thank you again for all who made our Christmas! Love you all and hope to see you soon!

this and that

We have been trying to keep warm and busy the last month or so. The weather has been really rainy and mostly in the 40's. We finally broke down and turned on the heat yesterday. I am surprised Sam held out until now. Sam has been busy at the small animal practice with a horse appointment here and there.

I can't believe it is half way through October and that Halloween is literally right around the corner. Avery is going to be a princess. Nothing fancy, just some random stuff I pulled together. We are probably not going to go trick or treating outdoors, but we will celebrate at nursery school and there is something going on the mall that we will try to hit.

Avery has been keeping busy too.

Mondays: we try to go to SE Gymnastics Academy for toddler open gym. But, not every week.

Tuesdays: we try to go to Turf 4 Tots. It is offered every weekday, Tuesdays is just the day the moms I know chose to make our regular day. This is always LOTS of fun.

Wednesdays: we have Kindermusik class. A friend who is also new to town was an elementary school music teacher and has started up this program. We were lucky enough to be one of her practicum dummies and got about 5 free classes. Avery's first official class will start on November 2. She really seems to enjoy herself. So we are doing the 4 week "ABC Music and Me" class this time and hopefully in January, Jenny will be offering the 16 week "Our Time" class.

Thursdays: she has nursery school, this is by no means preschool. It is really just a playgroup with 6 other kids. We do a snack and an activity and it is parent run. There is not a teacher, just the parents. There is a schedule and 2 parents each week are required to stay and the others can leave. I did leave Avery once and she did great. She could have cared less I was leaving her. She was too busy with the bean table.

Other things we do, but not on as regularly are swimming and the parks. The parks are awesome, but the weather lately has not been so great. Next week we are going to give ice skating a go. We are going with a little girl who is 3 that Avery has befriended. This will be a first for both girls and hopefully both girls like it.

Other than that it is just the daily battle to keep up with the house cleaning, cooking and laundry while managing Avery's social life. I have a book club that I am now a member of and so I have been getting to know few ladies, which is really nice. They all have kids about Avery's age too so we see each often. I also went to AquaZumba last week with a few of Sam's coworkers and that was fun. It is just a juggling act to get alone time with Sam's crazy schedule and Avery. Sam is planning on joining the gun club here in town and will start on a team this winter. It will be good for him to get out on his own and meet some other guys in town.

on to the third year...

I just had to share this picture. I am pretty picky about the photo's I post and tend to shy away from the awful ones, but this was just too funny. She was clearly enjoying her delicious cupcake!

Her 2 year well check went fine. Actually, she did better than she has ever done before, but that still is not without some major screaming and breath holding fits. I like the doctor and will be sticking with this one. A huge relief since we have literally been to 7 different doctors in Avery's short 2 years. Avery just had one shot and will need a flu shot in about a month or so. Other than that she is good to go until she is 3 as long as she is between 23 and 24 lbs by 30 months and doesn't get sick enough to warrant a visit to the doctors office. Crazy!

Avery has started nursery school. She has been twice now and really seems to enjoy herself. I am not sure that I will be able to sneak out yet, but may in a couple more weeks. She really likes another girl in her class and will follow her around and call for her. It is really cute to watch them interact. She has even started to attempt to play with other kids instead of just playing side by side and she has also started to get over her "hatred of boys". That was just embarrassing. I would have to go and explain to the other mom's what was going on because they'd think their kid did something mean to Avery.

Next week we are heading north to Haines, AK on the ferry for a few days. Sam will see a handful of horses up there and Avery and I will just hang out. It should be a fun short trip and it will be nice to get out of the house.

What a busy week and we still have one more day!

Monday: We headed to the gymnastics academy for open gym! Avery loves this place. She loves hanging from the bars, walking on the balance beam and bouncing on the tramp! We met a little friend there too, we will call her "E". She is a sweet almost 3 year old who was awesome enough to share a terrific stash of size 2T jeans that will seriously fit Avery for at least a year and more likely through next winter. Two pairs are even fleece lined for wintertime!

Tuesday: Turf for Tots is actually every week day from 9:30 AM to 1:00 PM, but the mom's I have met in the area have made Tuesdays the regular day we go and try to meet up. It is an awesome indoor soccer field and they have tons of toys for the toddlers to play with! Avery had a ball!

Wednesday: The weather was terrific so we went for a walk on The Airport Dike Trail. It runs behind the airport and onto the flats. We got to see some giant heavy equipment in action and a bunch of planes land and take off. Avery slipped in the mud and we had to turn back, but we are glad we finally got out to this trail.

Thursday: We went over to Douglas Island and had a play date @ Sandy Beach. We played at the park, in the sand and even let the kids wander the trails a bit. All 3 of the kids seemed to enjoy the driftwood and quarreled over sticks.

Today: We went to the pool! The Dimond (this is spelled correctly) Park Aquatic Center just opened in June and it is an awesome facility. They have a "Lunch Bunch" for an hour every week day. I wasn't sure how Avery was going to do, but she had a FABULOUS time! She even went under at one point (she tripped) and she didn't even react. She even did some swimming in the deeper water moving both her arms and kicking her legs. I am so proud!

Tomorrow: We have birthday party for a little guy we have hung out with a few times, we will call him "H". Pizza and cupcakes is on the menu and depending on the weather we could be headed to our favorite park or Bullwinkles Pizza...I guess we will know in the morning.

Next week we will defiantly head back to the Turf for Tots, maybe the gym and we get to see Kooka and Grandpa next Friday! They will be here Friday through Monday and I am hoping Sam and I can catch a date or two while they are staying! Next weekend will be a fun packed birthday weekend for our big 2 year old!

the porcupine

These little guys account for the number 1 emergency that Sam sees at work. There is literally almost a dog a day that comes in to the clinic for a "de-quill". This little guy is just a baby and we saw him up @ Mendenhall Glacier. They are everywhere though and I worry every time we let the dogs out. I know Wilson or even Tasha would just love to cover their faces and mouths in quills.

stink butt

This kid has been seriously exhausting lately. She has made the decision that she will not sleep in her own bedroom in her crib. We ended having her in our bed for about a week and were exhausted because she is not the most polite person to share a bed with. I finally gave up on attempting to get her to sleep in her own room and moved her crib into our room and converted it to a toddler bed. It is up against my side and she has been doing great. Except for the fact the she refuses to go to bed before Sam and I go to sleep. So she is up at 6 AM and goes to bed between 8:30PM and 9PM. I am lucky to get a nap. There is no way she will lay down by herself. Sometimes, I get Tasha to lie with her until she falls asleep and sometimes she will sleep in the car and sometimes she is go go going all day long! I was lucky enough today to get a nap. She fell asleep on her walk and is sitting in her stroller passed out in the living room!

She has been a busy toddler!

What's New:

• She knows quite a few colors: orange, yellow, black, brown, white, blue, pink and purple (I think she knows red & green, but cannot really say the words yet). At JoAnns yesterday she was running around to all the fabric and yelling the colors. She was beyond pumped.

• She is attempting to count, but it often sounds like this: "two, two, four, three, nine, ect"

• "Dada, HOOOOOME", is a new short sentence that she will say when she sees the truck pull up the driveway.

• She is REALLY into lining up her dolls and taking them in and out of her "doll purse" as she now refers to it.

• She knows a few letters: A, B, D, G, K, M, T, W are the ones that have stuck. She recognizes them all over the place, gets excited and will yell "T, TASHA" or "B, BABY". She also thinks the number 8 is a B and will say "B, Baby" when she sees an 8.
  

On to August

We just had a wonderful visit from Sam's Mom and Rick. Although we are still not completely settled and we do not have the entire layout of Juneau figured out yet, it was still nice to see some people we know. Sam worked the majority of their visit, but they really only cared about seeing Avery. She was so excited to see them. She screamed for about 5 minutes in excitement. We did some shopping, some lounging, some eating and a lot of driving around checking out the area. We also got to go on a whale watch! Avery saw her first humpback whale and rode on her first boat! She was a little scared when the engines got loud and we went fast, but she did really great. She is still talking about the blue boat and the whales.

I was also a very lucky girl and got a new rain jacket (much needed, my old shell was from high school) AND I got a new camera! Sam's parents are awesome and I am VERY grateful. Thank you Rick and Paige! I am so pumped to have a digital SLR! I have not gotten to play with it very much yet and Avery has not been a cooperative subject, but here are a couple of cute ones I have gotten.

So now we are back to getting to know the area. I have found a newly forming group of moms in the area and we have become organized. We have been to a couple parks, on a few walks and to the open gym at the gymnastics academy. It is super new, but really great so far.

It has been a busy couple of weeks. Sam has been back to work and busy setting up Smith Equine, LLC. He should be up and running able to see appointments in the next week or so!
Avery and I are settling in. I have found a few things around town for us to do and made contact with a group of women with kids Avery's age in the area. Thanks goodness for the internet and social networking...otherwise I would be lost! Hopefully, we will get to meet some of these people in the next week or two.

The weather has been UNBELIEVABLE this past week and we set out and found some great spots. Auke Village Recreation Area is just 5 miles from us and has a great beach! Avery loves it!



There are a couple other spots within walking distance from our house that we have hit up as well, but this beach is by far the best we have come across.

Our bear friend keeps on coming. The trash is in the house, but he still comes by almost every night. I know because he takes out the baby gate to gain access to our deck and occasionally rips something up. Like the "bear proof" trash hatch that we found out is not so "bear proof". It was repaired, but he decided to come back and rip it up again even though this time there was not trash to rip up. I have yet to see him/her, but apparently he/she is BIG!



We also have a great rhubarb plant. It is HUGE I had more than enough from 4 stalks to make 2 pies. It was delish! Seriously, it is the easiest recipe ever and was so good. The best part is that the plant will be ready to harvest at least 2 more times!



Avery has been on fire as of late! The kid is CRAZY exhausting. I have a hard time coming up with things for her to do and get the things I need to get done in the meantime. Her attention span has gotten better, but she would prefer to be in the middle of what I am trying to accomplish than play with her toys.

She has picked up some bad/interesting habits.

• One of her favorites is to pick my flowers. Not cool, Avery!
  
• She has become quite obsessed with chasing the dogs around the house. We are trying hard to break this habit, because the dogs are growing tired and have been unbelievably tolerant lately.
• She loves purple. Seriously, LOVES it and will point out everything purple EVERYWHERE!
• She insists on having every single stuffed animal in the house in her crib at night and then has to take every single one out in the morning. This is an excruciatingly long process. Sometimes, I can help, but most of the time she insists on doing it herself one plush toy after another.
  
• Rocks. We often cart around a large rock or two. She takes them in the car and to the store and back home.

We are really liking Juneau. Sam really likes his job and it is breathtakingly beautiful here. I have met quite of few of his coworkers and they all seem easy going and enjoy each others company. Basically, all we really dislike is the housing situation. Rentals are few and far between and rentals that will take 2 dogs are even more rare. Our lease goes through May and hopefully by that time we can find something better.

It is spring!

The weather is warming up! The trees are even starting to show signs of life. Avery and I have started to head over to the park a couple miles away and lately our trips have been lasting well over an hour. The slide is definitely her favorite and she will go down it over and over and over. We take the dogs with us. That way Wilson and Tasha get a chance to run their brains out for the day. We met a little boy just 10 days older than Avery today. His name is Dean and he was with his Grandmother. I got some much needed information about the area we live in! I have located the local dog park (somewhat of a local secret). I also have been told I must go to the Rural Discount store, apparently there are some great deals. She also gave me the time and location of a great playgroup only a mile from our house. Avery will give that a try next Wednesday morning!

Sam has been really busy with work and will be getting even busier. The practice is going to be resuming emergency call starting in May. Sam loathes emergency call. His bosses are heading out of town for about 3 weeks of May and Sam will be running the show.

I have been keeping busy with the MOMS group I have joined and just registered for a 1/2 marathon. It will be June 18th. It is the Mayor's Marathon. I have challenged my Dad to run it with me so it should be fun. 13.1 miles! I have to start running now! I need to get out of my 3 mile loop rut. My jogging stroller will arrive this weekend along with my in-laws, Paige and Rick. They are awesome enough to have gone and dug it out of our storage unit in Fort Collins and are flying it up with them. YAY!!!

Avery will get to hang out with her Gigi and Grandpa Rick for about 4 days this weekend! She has been in a great mood these last couple of days so I am praying that it will continue on through the weekend and their visit. Happy Avery is just so much more fun than cranky Avery and I want them to get to enjoy her silliness!

Anyhoo. I cannot believe it is already May next week! Avery is getting so big. I can't wait until I head a silly little sentence come out of her mouth. Or maybe even get to pull her hair into a pony tail. Soon enough :)

I just wanted to show you all Avery's newest jacket! We found it at Fred Meyers on sale! It is perfect for an Alaskan summer. She also insisted on getting a pair of pink bunny ears that she then refused to take off. The checker just scanned her head.