We had a great time while we were there. Avery got to experience life on a “farm” with the chickens, the dogs, the fire pit and the snake (yes, she touched one and no, I was not there when this happened). She LOVED “getting the eggs from the Roosters” with Opa every day.
I was shocked – she wasn’t scared of the chickens at all. She just walked right in and grabbed the eggs with my dad. She was also not afraid of the snake evidently and had no problem touching it. But, like I said – I wasn’t there for this – I was in Milwaukee visiting the HS girls. Not quite sure that would have happened had I been there. She was however, scared of the puppies. It’s hard to believe that a 2 year old would be more scared of puppies than snakes, but whatever. Oh –and, one other animal I forgot about –the pony! I couldn’t believe it. We went to a fair near my parents’ house and she LOVED the pony ride! 
Now, mind you – this is the girl who started crying on the Merry Go Round at the mall just a few months ago! I was shocked, but pleased. She also developed a new past time – cooking with the grandparents. She loved helping in the kitchen whenever she was given the opportunity. I was thrilled as this distracted her from her “mommy do this and mommy do that” attitude at times. 
Here she is on Opa's tractor and eating dinner outside on the stumps by the campfire...
Alex was great and loved hanging out with his new cousin Annabel (ok – clearly he had no idea that he was hanging out with her, but you have to say things like that about a cousin who is the exact same age).
Annabel is adorable and has a great personality. She taught Alex a thing or two like how to hold a toy and tried teaching him how to hold his head up a bit better, but he hasn’t caught on to that quite yet. She tried really hard to teach him to sleep during the day, but that REALLY hasn’t worked. My lord. This child WILL NOT sleep during the day- I think that I’ve just given up. The last straw was when Josh put him in the stroller and walked him around the house (it was raining out, so he couldn’t go outside) to try to get him to sleep and that didn’t even work. Now, that being said – we did reach a milestone while in WI – he started sleeping through the night!!!!! Well, basically. He now goes down between 7 and 730 (with surprisingly NO effort on my part) and sleeps until 5-6 AM. Every once in a while, he will wake himself up with gas at around 3 AM, but he goes back down. He is also smiling a ton, which you will see here with his Auntie Sara. 
I managed to sneak away for a day to see the HS girls. It was great seeing all of them. It couldn’t have been better timing because Sara had just had Lila a few days earlier, so I got to meet her, which was great. She is adorable and they are both doing really well. Here is a picture of Alex and Lila. Isn't it funny how Alex nearly looks like a toddler compared to her?
We also managed to throw my mother a surprise retirement party, which was somewhat of a challenge since it was at her house, but we pulled it off. She literally had NO idea and had a great time.
The way back from WI was good overall. The only “mishap” was when Alex pooped and then Avery decided that she needed to go to the bathroom at the same time. It started with me getting up with Alex and walking down the aisle only to hear Avery screaming. Yeah….I totally forgot that she was buckled in and couldn’t get out, so the poor child was locked in and thought that I was just leaving her there. Well, the flight attendant came to the rescue and gave Avery her baby doll to make her feel better, which helped (you may be thinking that part of the story really wasn't necessary, but see more on baby doll below). So, we get to the bathroom and turns out, Alex doesn’t like the changing table and as a result, screamed the entire time. As he was screaming, Avery hit her head on the sink, so she started screaming. At this point, I’m about to lose it, so I walk out of the bathroom holding Alex and asked for a volunteer to hold him. Some poor man in a business suit was the first to offer, so I put a burp cloth on his shoulder and handed him a screaming child. Of course, the entire time, I was convinced that he probably had the swine flu and that Alex was going to end up back in the hospital, but I couldn’t be concerned with that at that point. We ended up making it through ok. HOWEVER – the baby doll? Yeah – she ended up on the floor of the bathroom during the entire fiasco. So, I’m thinking, ok – this is gross, but at the same time, it isn’t like she puts the baby doll in her mouth or anything, so what is the worst that can happen? Um…have you ever been on Midwest Airlines? If you have then you know that they serve hot, gooey chocolate chip cookies. And, of course, as Avery was eating his hot gooey cookie? Yep – the chocolate dripped on the baby (yes – the baby who fell on the bathroom floor) and what does a two year old do when she sees chocolate? LICKS IT!!!! Oh my god – I nearly died and was totally convinced that I would now have TWO kids in the hospital when I got home. My lord.
I’m happy to report that, so far, neither one of them is sick and they are officially back into their normal routines. Avery was thrilled to see all of her toys again and all of her friends at daycare gave her a big hug when she walked into the room. It’s depressing knowing that our vacation is over and that I’m going back to work soon, but we’ll see them all again in November for Thanksgiving, which will be great.
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