Must be something in the water...

This weekend was Lexi’s baby shower in Milwaukee. It was a great weekend overall and I think that she had a great time. I flew in on Friday night at around 10:30 and then left at 6 pm on Sunday night, so it was a quick trip, but well worth it. And, as it turns out, the shower ended up being one week after Avery’s 2nd birthday, which means that I would have had to pay for a ticket for her had I brought her with me. Granted, I probably could have just fibbed a bit and said that she was just shy of turning 2, but honestly? It was kind of nice flying solo. I just sat on the plane and did my cross stitch (yes, I know – kind of 80-year-old’ish, but whatever) and watched the other parents struggle to keep their toddlers occupied. It was lovely. I will say that I did miss her and I was excited to see her on Monday morning, so I’m not entirely as selfish as I sound. I might also add that I think Josh was pretty excited to see me come home. As it turns out, taking care of Avery and trying to get everything done around the house is pretty challenging. Not to mention, dealing with Leinie who a) is just kind of a freak and has taken to pacing the house and panting pretty much non-stop for no reason (it really is enough to drive you freaking nuts) b) who decided to spill his water bowl twice on two different rugs, resulting in Josh attempting to dry it up with fans and whatever other device he could find prior to me seeing it oh, and c) bleeding all over my new living room rug (he has a sore on his leg). Lovely. Anyway, enough about us…

The shower was really nice. My aunt Nancy seems to be the chosen one to host all of the showers at her house and let me tell you, as a result, she has this type of thing down to a science. Lexi’s shower was a rubber ducky theme, and wow – there were lots of rubber duckies! Oh – first of all, I should start with the invitations – they were delivered all rolled up in a baby bottle! It was such a great idea (and, one to steal if you ever throw a baby shower!). Anyway, back to the duckies…here are some pictures of the various tables that she had set up.

It was hilarious having Lexi and I there together with our bellies. We are both pretty much all belly (ok, so my butt has gotten a bit larger than hers, but whatever…), but it’s funny because mine is kind of more narrow and seems to stick out more and then lexi’s is a bit more round and basketball-like and much lower than mine. It will be interesting to see if we have the same sex of baby.

So, not only were Lexi and I pregnant, but there were FOUR other women who were pregnant at the shower as well (hence, the title of the post – although, none of us live near each other, so I guess it really doesn’t make sense because we haven’t all been drinking the same water, but I thought that it was catchy nonetheless). One of the other pregnant ones was Sara, who is due in September and then there were the 3 Larsen girls – Sarah, Becky (sisters) and Kersten (sister-in-law). Sarah is due beginning of July, Becky is due middle of October and Kersten is due end of October. Here is a picture of all of us – there were two cameras taking pictures and mine ended up with the not so good ones apparently, but you get the idea. We are standing in order of due date.
The rest of the day on Saturday was spent hanging out with my family and Sara and then on Sunday, all of the high school girls got together for lunch to celebrate Melissa’s birthday. Melissa and Anne brought Jack and Kate, who are both adorable and really well behaved! We realized that there are soon to be 10 kids between the five of us. It makes me wonder when we will ever be able to have another girls’ weekend where none of us is pregnant or nursing (because, let’s face it – a sober girls’ weekend just wouldn’t really cut it). Somehow, I think that it may be a while…

Sara and I spent the rest of the day Sunday playing with Chad outside. It was a nice end to the weekend. He really is such a great kid and I love spending time with him. Oh, and you have to check out this car that he has. It’s crazy…it has a real radio and everything.
After this last weekend, things have finally slowed down for us and the plan is to now start focusing on this baby. I’m hoping to get the nursery furniture shortly and then we can get the nursery set up and get some clothes put away and diapers and anything else that we need for this one. I actually brought a bunch of Chad’s baby clothes home with me, as everyone is convinced that this one is a boy. We’ll see!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Avery!

Yes – we officially have a toddler on our hands now. Avery turned 2 on Sunday!!! The whole weekend was great. My parents flew in from Amsterdam (their last trip from AMS to BOS, as they have moved back to the states for good now…crazy!) on Thursday night. Avery was THRILLED that they were here. As we were leaving daycare that night, all that she kept saying to everyone there was “Opa, Grandma at my house!!!” She then proceeded to run around like a maniac all night on Thursday night when she got home – she was so excited. Friday morning, my parents watched her while I went to work – she had a great time with them walking around the neighborhood and playing in her sandbox. I came home at noon from work and the rest of the weekend was spent getting ready for the big party on Sunday.

For those of you who don’t know, I’ve decided that I’m going to do my best to make a cake for the kids for every birthday. Mind you, I have never in my life baked a decorative cake, so I truly have no idea what I’m doing. Perfect example – the 25 pound (no, I’m not exaggerating) lady bug cake that I made for her first birthday – little did I know, I didn’t need to make TWO layers using the largest cake pan I could find. This thing was bigger than Avery. This year, however – I ordered a Barney cake pan that was much more of a practical size. And, it actually turned out really well, if I do say so myself! For some reason, my camera makes the frosting look blue, but I swear it was purple – very purple, actually.

This year, because we have just moved into the house, we just had family and a few friends over for Avery’s birthday (i.e., not a huge party with 10000 kids – maybe next year). It was the first thing that we have ever really hosted, as this was the first occasion that we had enough room to host, so it was fun. We ended up bringing our patio furniture in from outside and setting that up and then borrowed some chairs and silverware from friends so that we had enough for everyone. Oh, and Avery contributed her part by putting a Barney sticker at each place...

So, maybe not the “prettiest,” most perfectly coordinated table, but it worked! Then, seeing as how it was Mother’s Day as well, I got a bud vase and put a flower in it for all of the moms to take home that day, which ended up working perfectly as a centerpiece.

Oh, and then , since it was a Barney theme, we had Barney Plates, Barney Napkins and I made everyone wear a Barney hat. Funny thing was, the only ones not wearing the hats were the 2 year olds. And, I’m pretty certain most of the adults are still cursing my name (as you can see in this picture of my father), as it became obvious that the hats were in fact hurting everyone, as the string was a bit tight.

However, after seeing my enthusiasm over the hats, none of them said a word about this until I announced that I thought that my circulation was about to be cut off and that everyone could take the hats off if they so choose – at which point, I hear a huge sigh of relief from everyone, as they take them off, only to leave a bright red line under their chin where the string had been. Sorry about that!

Avery had a great time – she was a little overwhelmed by all of the people and the short nap that she took that afternoon didn’t really help (doesn’t it always work that way? They never take long naps on the days that you need them to), as she got a bit tired as the day went on. But, overall, she enjoyed herself and had fun playing with Asher in the sandbox and on Grandpy’s tractor that was still there from mowing the lawn earlier.

She got some great gifts and especially loved the bike that Grandmy and Grandpy got for her! She hasn’t quite yet gotten the concept that, if you push the pedals, you will go, but she’ll get there. Josh and I also got her a kitchen set, which we put together on Saturday night - what a pain (I swear, they couldn't make those things more difficult to put together if they tried). But, she loved it when she woke up on Sunday morning. Of course, I only have video of these two gifts and I can't figure out how to upload that onto my computer, so instead, here are some random pictures of Avery opening other things...

So, overall, it was a great weekend. Thank god my parents were there! I really couldn’t have done it without them. It was so nice having the extra sets of hands and, most importantly, having someone else who could occupy Avery so that we could get some stuff done!

Oh goodness! Winker II! Poor child – he/she is already neglected and it isn’t even born yet! I had a dr’s appointment on Monday and everything looks great – the baby is actually measuring a bit larger than normal – 4 lbs 4 oz. and the ultrasound showed a due date of July 3rd with every measurement that they took, so it makes me wonder if I’m really a week further along than I thought? Either that, or this one really is just a bigger baby. Who knows. Anyway – here is a belly picture at 32 weeks. I’m actually pretty psyched, because this shirt isn’t even a maternity shirt – granted, I think that this was the last time that it will really work, as it was getting a bit short, but hey – not too bad for 32 weeks. Only 7 more to go!!!

Wow - Can we say "Productive??"

I am actually starting to feel like our house is truly turning into a home after this weekend. We got so much done!!!

Actually, Saturday – Josh got so much done on the house while I spent the day at the mall with Avery (trust me, I heard all about it when I got home, so I don’t need to hear it from any of you…). BUT – I had scheduled Avery’s 2 year pictures to be taken this weekend, so it wasn’t like I was going to cancel. Anyway -Saturday morning, Avery and I drove to Warwick to get her pictures taken. I was shocked at how well she did. I mean, A) she is 2 and doesn’t really feel like posing for pictures – not only that, but she has also gotten a bit smarter than she was a year ago and just looks at me as though I’m retarded when I dance around and make funny faces in order to get her to smile. And, B) she typically takes a while to warm up to strangers (i.e., the photographer), but she did great! After that, we went to Macy’s so Mama could get some much needed summer maternity clothes. I have to say, I tried continuously remind myself that I really only have 2 months left, so there really was no need to buy out the entire store, but somehow, I still managed to buy more than necessary. Avery, I have to say, was great and sat there eating her apples the entire time I was trying on clothes (ok, ok, she also had chicken nuggets from burger king – I was going to try to sound like the healthy mother, but let’s be honest – anything to keep a kid quiet). That afternoon, we got home and I raced to clean up the house so that our friends Lindsey, Chris and their son Asher could come over for dinner. Granted, I was still wearing my cleaning clothes when they showed up and there will still a few things that I had to make once they got there, but other than that, we were ready and it was a nice dinner. Avery loves playing with Asher and surprisingly, they do very well together. I think that we really only had to tell them to share once and believe it or not, it was over the cat’s bed – still not sure what they were doing with that thing other than playing tug-a-war, but, regardless…

Ok – so, house stuff that got done:
1. Josh got the patio furniture out of our inlaw’s basement (where it has been for 2 years) and cleaned it all up – mind you, it is sitting in our basement because we will actually have to bring it up to the kitchen to use it for Avery’s bday party this weekend, so we didn’t want it to get wet. These are the things that you have to do when you don’t have enough seating for 17 ppl.
2. Josh got the hammock from our inlaws and set that up.
3. Josh got the sandbox from our inlaws and put sand in that.

4. Josh bought a weed whacker and weed whacked the edge of the lawn
Yes….I did some things as well…
5. I hung pictures, organized our entertainment center,

hung my birdfeeders (ok - one feeder - the other is still on the ground awaiting a hook to hang it with)

and generally cleaned up a bunch of stuff. Oh, I also put together Avery’s rocking horse that her Opa and Grandma got her for her 1st bday. The funny thing is, I hadn’t put it together because, based on the size of the box, I thought that it would be too big for the apartment. Turns out, it really wasn’t that big, so we probably could have put it together a year ago – sorry Mom and Dad! But, nonetheless, she loves it and is at a perfect age for it now. She has named it “neigh.” Very creative of her. Sorry - I'm a horrible mom and haven't gotten a picture of her on it yet - will put it in next post.

6. Oh – we also got our bar stools for the island that we ordered on overstock.com!!! I love them. They go really well in the kitchen AND they arrived just in time for Lindsey and Chris to come over and fulfill one of my dreams – to have company sit at the bar stools at my beautiful island in my beautiful kitchen while I cook. It was fabulous. The only thing that would have made it a bit better would have been a nice glass of pinto grigio. Soon enough…

7. AND, the biggest thing of them all???? Our deck was finished this last week!!!!! As you will see, this puppy is ridiculously high off of the ground right now, so we will need a significant amount of dirt and mulch in order to avoid having our child experience a 5 foot drop off some day, but we’ll get there.

So, now we are all ready (for the most part) for Avery’s bday party this weekend and for my parents visit. Kind of crazy – after 30 years of working for NWA, my mother is officially retired. They are moving back from Amsterdam on Thursday and are stopping here for the weekend for Avery’s bday. Avery is THRILLED that Opa and Grandma are coming and keeps on saying, “No Opa and Grandma leave. No Opa and Grandma leave.” Very cute. I’m excited for them to be moving back to the states, but also a little sad (and anxious) for them, as I know that this is going to be the beginning of a very very different life than they are used to. Then again, what am I talking about? I would give anything at this point to be retired. Only 33 more years…