And She Sleeps . . . . . . . . . . .

So, my kid NEVER goes to sleep in funny places. She's too active and never relaxes. She's been like that since she was born. She'll go to sleep great as long as she's in her room, in her bed, with the light off. When I'm in the mall, I always look longingly at sleeping kids in their strollers. The look like little angels. And their mothers? What can I say? Their mothers look refreshed with a certain glow about them while they get a short break and actually enjoy shopping. That's NEVER happened with me. I'm always chasing my kid down the mall. At home, I'm always wishing she would just calmly drop off to sleep on the couch and give me a few minutes to relax. Not so much. You know how parents always have pictures of their kids asleep in a high chair or some other odd place? Well, now I have mine. The one and only time my daughter has actually drifted off to sleep. We may be cruel for videotaping it instead of making her comfortable, but people who know Ava would never have believed it if they didn't see it for themselves. Enjoy!

And She Sleeps . . . . . . . . . . .

Scare of my Life! But a bit funny . . . . . . . . .

So, Ava and I were outside today. I was watering the plants and she was running all around the house like she always does. I can always either see her or hear her. Well, our dog has a little squeaky toy that fell into the window well. It's a pretty good distance down so I was waiting for dh to get it, but I kept forgetting to tell him. SOOOOOO, I'm watering the plants and I hear the squeaky toy. I'm thinking, that's odd, I thought it was down in the window well. The next second I hear Ava yelling,"Mom!" Not in a bad or sad or scared way, just the way she always yells at me. Then I hear the squeaky toy again and it dawns on me. I run over to the the window well and SHE IS DOWN IN IT! What in the world? She was just standing there, holding the squeaky toy. I had to run and get Randy to get down to get her because I can't get out of it if I get in. That's how far down it is! I have NO idea how she got down there. If she just kindof jumped in and just happened to NOT get hurt? Goodness! Last summer a little kid fell down one of the window wells and broke his leg. Anyway, I've been meaning to call about window well covers ever since we moved in last November. After today, I guess I'll be doing that first thing in the morning! I would never have forgiven myself if she would have gotten hurt!

Girls Night Out!

So, my high school friends had a girls night out last weekend. We went to Midway, shopped and ate in Park City, and just had an all around good time. Although we could have gotten a lot more sleep because we had no kids around, we ended up staying up until 5:00 in the morning talking! Crazy girls. The trip went really well, but it would have been a little better if we wouldn't have had to deal with the Pool Nazi at the hotel. The only other mishap was having to find an oversized wife-beater. Lucky Walmart came through. I seriously have the best high school friends ever and I'm SOOO glad we are still so close. Even though we're all "old", have husbands and kids, and a lot more responsibility, once we get together it's like we're still in high school! Love you girls!

Funny story . . . . . . .

So Ava went and stayed with my parents for a couple of days. It's been nice to be able to read a book without interruption and read up on everybody's blogs! To be honest, she hasn't even been gone 12 hours and I miss her already, but the break has been nice. So tonight I'm in the kitchen and I hear Randy say from the family room, "Wouldn't it be nice to have 6 days on and 1 day off?" I'm thinking, what is he talking about? Work? That doesn't make sense. So I say, "What are you talking about?" He says, "Ava! You know, 6 days on and 1 day off." Oh, I get it. That is a nice concept! :)

I DESTROYED my daughter's most prized possession . . .

I did it. I killed Ava's binky. ON PURPOSE! Oh my goodness. I have gradually been weaning it from her and it's gone really well. I had her down to only naps and night time, but then we did a bit of traveling (see previous post) and she started asking for it ALL the time. Now, I didn't want my kid to be 4 years old and talking with it in her mouth. Not a pretty sight. So, as we were driving home a week ago, she starts asking for her binky. I keep telling her it's just for night-night. I was fed up by the time we got home, so Randy and I decided it was time. This mean mom took the scissors and cut the nipple of her binky right off (without her seeing me do it - I could not be to blame). A few minutes later she started asking for it again. I gave it to her and said, "Oh no honey! You're binky is broken!" Well, she was confused. At first she thought it was a little funny, then her humor turned into a look of horror. I immediately started crying and Randy had to finish the bed time routine. Well, the whole ordeal went a lot better than I expected. She cried when she went down for her nap and then when we put her to bed that night. Gradually, over the last week, the whole binky thing has just kindof gone away. Let me tell you why the "broken" binky is a great idea. It's nobody's fault. It's just broken and that's how it is. My sweet daughter doesn't blame me for the death of her best friend. Throughout the week, Ava would ask for it and I would give it to her. Then she'd say "binky broken" and hand it back to me. End of story. It's just one more step in my baby girl truly becoming a little girl rather than a baby. I actually believe the whole experience was harder on me than it was on her. Now on to potty training . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Back to normal life . . . . .

Well, our family has been reunited. We are back to our normal life, which is great. Ava, my mom, and I went to Vegas to visit my little sisters last week and had a wonderful time. We love you aunties! We then picked up Randy in Vegas and spent the ENTIRE weekend in St. George for his family reunion. We had so much fun! Ava had a blast with her cousins and couldn't get enough swimming. As much fun as our long trip was, we are so excited to be back at home. We are LOVING having Randy home to hang out with us. Ava can't get enough of him. Thank goodness, because that little girl likes to wrestle, and mommy seems to get hurt a lot more than daddy! LOL! Anyway, here are a few pics of our trip: