Two. Not so terrible.

It has been a very busy weekend.  We traveled on Friday for a viewing for the husband of an old friend.  It is such a saddening situation, but it was nice to see several people Avery had not yet met.

Saturday, well Saturday was this sweet little lady's birthday.  We didn't do a party this year, instead we went to Idlewild (and caught up with the Wildauers).  But first, we opened her presents.  Avery loved her little keyboard and Elmo shirt.  We had perfect weather for Idlewild.  We had been promising her a ride on a train all week, and I'm pretty sure that was the undersell of the year.  First thing in the gate we did ride that train, and one more time before we left -- at Avery's request. In between we rode several big rides with her, all of which she did great on, and several other rides, including a few that she rode by herself like a champ.  She did not nap all day, maintained a pretty good attitude all day, and still made it most of the way home before falling asleep.

Turns out she got the whole weekend as a birthday.  Today (Sunday) we bought some cake with her name on it, because, well, you can't not have a cake for your kid - even if I did make cake pops for her last weekend.  Yes, she totally blew out the candles all by herself! She also took to singing the happy birthday song all day today using the microphone attached to her keyboard.

My princess upon her throne

With my sister in visiting I have an extra hand.  I also have Avery off of school for a few days.  As such, we're taking our first venture into potty training.  Day one (yesterday) she had two light trickles and one good pee in the potty.  I know for a fact she was holding/not going on me for one length of time on the toilet, because as soon as the diaper went on she peed and lit the line up blue.  No poops in the potty yet.

I will say this, she was very patient and spent good spurts of time on the toilet happily, providing she had TV to watch or we kept her otherwise engaged with books etc.

Day two has commenced.

Safety First

I have had to purchase a few more things to help keep Avery safe.  The first are slide 'locks' for the bi-fold doors to avoid her pinching her fingers between them.  It's a bit of annoyance to me, but I am sure I'll get use to using them.  The next is a flip lock, which I've had for a while, but I finally installed it, on the basement door.  It's up nice and high so she can't reach it.  Once she fully masters a door knob, which isn't far off, this will prevent spills down the basement stairs.  The last items are ones I am sure will displease her greatly.  I now have two variants of leashes for her.  At last there are times when she wants to walk instead of being carried.  This is great for my back, but it brings new challenges.  I now have a backpack style harness with butterfly wings and a leash and a wrist-to-wrist attachment for the two of us.  She tried both on and seemed to really dislike the first one but found the second entertaining.

We have also been successful in getting Avery to eat a little bit of carrot and broccoli.  She even said "Mmmm" while eating the broccoli!  She's still a bit of a carb and sugar fiend, but who can blame her.  It's hard to tell her no when she sweetly asks for a pretzel after school every day.  Ok, I don't always say no.

Here we are one month before her second birthday.  I can't help but think that 1/9th of it is "over", slipped through my fingers.  Continuing to pray for time to slow down and to enjoy every moment.

So much energy

The twos are here already. Avery is so full of energy and pushing every boundary and button she can find.  She'll hit just to get your reaction sometimes when she's acting all crazy.  This is definitely a test. She's running well, which is good, because she's doing it a lot burning off energy.  Today her nap was just over an hour.  I'm not looking forward to when the nap time permanently shortens.  I just started working out to try and get healthy again and I need that time to work out, shower, and then relax for a few.  Give me the strength and stamina to keep up Lord.

Rain rain go away

Not much pool time in the past few days - too many thunderstorms have been getting in the way.  The storm cloud is also rolling in and demonstrating what the "terrible twos" are all about.  Avery has been yelling, throwing fits, and exponentially getting into more stuff.  I really wish we had nicer weather so I could get her outside and wear her out.

Don't get me wrong.  She is still a lovey and charming little girl.  But the two-year old devil pops out a lot more frequently.

Chilling by the pool

We hit the plastic swimming pool in the back yard pretty hard this past weekend.  It was surprisingly pleasant down under my deck despite the 80 degree plus temps - a nice breeze in the shade.  Avery had a good time with her pool.  I think having her out of a diaper in her swimming suit also helped her understand a little more about how the feeling of going potty correlates and she experienced what happens.  The first time she cried pretty hard, confused about what was happening. After that she was stepping out of the pool more often than not to pee and telling me as she was going.  I guess that's a good first step before getting her to tell me before she starts going, right?

Goofy Girl

Today Avery leaned into my arm like she was going to bite, but it wasn't a situation where she was angry... turns out she just wanted to flick her tongue all over my arm.  It was a pretty good laugh, which just spurred her on.

The other morning I recorded what equates to Stewie Griffin saying "Lois, Ma, Mommy, Mama" over the monitor.  In recent weeks we have also seen grumbly voices being comically used.  All I'm saying is this girl keeps finding new ways to put smiles on my face and of making me laugh.

Even the look on her face when she's been corrected and it hasn't sunk in that I'm being serious is too stinking cute and is hard to maintain a poker face through.