Avery always wants to drink out of everyone else’s cup. She screams if we try to take it away or move it and she only wants to do it by herself. She doesn’t like us holding it for her at all so basically, she covers herself in water and ends up soaking wet all the time. Cole and Alli, of course, think this is great.
I love love love warm weather which means Boston is probably not the best fit for me but it also means that I get to be really thankful for bright warm days. We had a neighborhood yard sale this weekend. We periodically get together with other neighbors and do one giant yard sale. The problem with that is that I usually end up buying more than we make. This sale, however, I acquired 2 bikes, a baby bouncer, 2 weeks of chess lessons for Cole, and still made money. It was good. The kids had a great time outside with their friends. They had a whole caterpillar hospital thing going on and 3D sidewalk chalk. Very cool. I wanted the whole family to come to the library with me, something we try to do together every couple of weeks, but Cole was having way too much fun outside so it was just Alli and me. She picked out several books and then since we were having so much fun, we decided we should go on a girls only ice cream date to Friendly’s. We took some of her new books in and spent a wonderful afternoons eating pinkalicious ice cream with sprinkles and reading “Alice in Wonderland.” I love having girls. Then we went home and played played played. It was a good weekend. And the biggest news…Avery is WALKING!!! She has been taking about 5 or 6 steps alone for a few weeks now but she decided this weekend that she could be an all the time walker. So cute. Pictures to come later. Here’s some pictures of this weekend.
This is what I hear all day long. Don’t get me wrong. I love my children. I love the ages that they are and the time I get to spend with them. Some days, however, they are “extra grace required” children. Like today. Every time I leave the room, whether it’s to brush my teeth or grab a new shirt for one of them, I will hear the Ma-aawm call. It is as though they have come with little tracking devices that know when I get more than a few feet away. Cole and Alli have decided to enjoy each others company today by fighting, yelling, sitting on each other, breathing too close to one another, and doing everything they can to tick the other one off. Then they start the whiney tattling that I love so much. Poor little Avery has been exposed to this behavior for a year now and now I think I need to find a conflict resolution class for my one year old. I took her to the doctor the other day and she asked me a list of questions to make sure she was developmentally sound. One question was whether she objected when I take an object from her. I stood there for a minute and responded, “By object do you mean bite, hit, and scream?” Seriously! Most days I am able to blog about all of the wonderful things they are doing and they are wonderful, amazing children, but I also wanted to write about the sheer exhaustion and hair pulling days that come along with raising little people. I want to raise children who become productive, generous, caring, Christian adults. I have made lists and prayed about the qualities and attributes we are trying to foster in our children. And then they spend their days sitting on each other and I throw my hands in the air. I will not give up. I am so disgusted daily by the grown adults I see acting like whiney, spoiled children that facebook alone can motivate me never to give up on raising nice kids. I just wish they really did come with an instruction manual some days. Here is a picture of Alli today after she got her rear end stuck in the musical instrument bucket. Ma-aaawm! All I can say for myself is that I at least can see the humor and snap a picture before pulling her out.
I also wanted to add that the only way I am even able to write any of this is because my wonderful husband came home early and took all three kids to the mall so that I could clean up this disaster area. Here’s a picture of a portion of what our house looks like today.
I think children were the reason that coffee (and margaritas) were invented.
Alli has a very unique sense of style. It has gotten pretty funny with some of the other neighborhood moms watching what kind of ensembles Alli will choose to put together. There are many days that the clothes I pick out only stay on her for an hour. Some days, she never even bothers with pants or shorts. She just goes straight for the tutus. She was most recently compared to a crazy garden lady that once lived in the neighborhood. I am convinced she will be an actress or fashion designer. Here are some of her beautiful clothing choices. 
Cole is a bug collector. He got a bug catcher from one of his friends for his birthday and he has had hours and hours of fun with that thing. The entire world stops when he sees a worm. Lately the fun thing to catch has been caterpillars. His class is growing butterflies in school so that probably has a lot to do with the new caterpillar craze. This weekend, he and his buddy, Nicolas, found a couple of caterpillars and saved them in his bug catcher. He named them Sherman and Spotty. He wants to keep them as pets. He put some leaves inside for them to eat and then put them on the back porch overnight. We weren’t sure of they were going to make it but they were fine yesterday morning. The first thing Cole asked to do when he woke up was to go outside. I had forgotten about the new pets so I told him that it was too early and that we would go out after breakfast. “But what about Sherman and Spotty!!?” Oh yes, by all means, you may go in the back yard to see your caterpillars. He “played” with them outside for a better part of the morning until I finally made him come in and eat breakfast and get ready for Alli’s party. After the party, we all played outside and he and Nicolas found a tree behind the house covered in caterpillars. They were probably back there for about 45 minutes “bug collecting.” When they returned, they had filled the bug catcher with caterpillars. Cole decided they needed some grapes. He has a lot more naming to do. 
Jim has started calling Alli “Princess Dirty Face.” The reason? This child is always filthy. Always. I have to clean out the bath tub daily because she brings in so much dirt and grass every time she comes in the house. She can get out of the tub and manage to get herself dirty in a matter of minutes. She loves to play in the mud and if she is not outside, she has usually painted or glued herself. What is really funny about this is that while she loves to get dirty and play rough with the boys, she is also about as prissy as they come. She loves pink and princesses too and that is why she is now called Princess Dirty Face. I would like to call her Princess Talks a lot because her mouth NEVER stops moving. I wanted to share some pictures of her and Cara last week after dance. Cara came over to play ponies but they ended up outside. It started with the girls “teaching” me their ballet moves and ended up with both girls digging in the mud. Fortunately Cara’s mom has a sense of humor and didn’t mind me sending home a dirty ballerina.
Jim surprised us on Friday night with a trip to Bedford Farms. It is famous for its ice cream. We have been hearing about this place from friends and neighbors for months and finally decided to go. The kids asked a million times in the car where we were going for dessert. Jim finally told them that we were going to a farm to eat corn and carrots. They were less than thrilled. The ice cream was really good but the most fun was watching Avery sample all of the flavors. Avery’s very favorite thing to eat is ice cream. She started off in Jim’s lap sharing with him but she kept reaching for everyone else’s . She eventually just started cruising around the table and getting bites from everyone she passed. I’m glad Cole and Alli were willing to share. She probably would have bit them or pulled their hair otherwise. Here’s some pictures of our Friday night… 
We don’t have a baby anymore. I can’t believe she is already one although I cannot remember life without her! Avery’s birthday started out with the traditional house decoration and birthday morning doughnuts. She had Elmo decorations because she loves Elmo. But before I go into her day, I have to start by writing about what Cole gave his sister for her birthday. Right before we went downstairs, Cole yelled for us to stop because he has a present for his sister. He ran back into his room and climbed into his bed. Then he came back out with his blue blanket, the same blue blanket that he has slept with his whole long five year old life. He used to carry it around with him until we had a “goodbye blanket” party when he was three and now it is only reserved for bedtime. He brought it out to Avery and told her that he is a big kid now and doesn’t need it. He told her Happy Birthday and gave her the blanket. He hasn’t asked for it since.
So Avery and the rest of us came downstairs and started the birthday celebration. She loved her doughnuts. She ate one at first but then signed for more. I put the box in front of her to pick and she picked up two doughnuts, one in each hand, and dove right into those too. Then we packed everyone up and went to the zoo. I think all of the kids really liked hearing the roosters and she had a great time on the merry-go-round. All of the kids slept on the way home. We ordered pizza for dinner and played outside. Then she opened presents and ate cake. She LOVED her presents and LOVED the cake. I think her favorite gift was a little stroller/walker. She pushes it all around the house laughing. Thanks Mom. All in all it was a wonderful 1st birthday. She had a lot of fun, got a bunch of toys, and ate A LOT of chocolate.
Cole was the first one up this morning and actually managed to make it all the way downstairs without waking up his sisters. I was already up reading so I decided to take an opportunity to have breakfast with just the two of us. Cole (and Alli too) say the sweetest and the funniest things when they are one on one. So this is how our conversation went:
Cole: Mom, Did you know why I love you? (almost all of Cole’s sentences start with “Did you know” these days)
Me: Why
Cole: Because your hair always looks super pretty (my hair is in a pony tail and this is first thing in the morning)
Me: Wow Cole, that’s a very sweet thing to say
Cole: Mom, Did you know what I’m going to do for you today?
Me: What?
Cole: I’m going to take you on a date and I’m going to let you pick where you want to go
How can I resist this?!
Me: That’s a fantastic idea. Let’s look up the movies and see what’s playing.
Cole: That’s just what I wanted to do! And did you know what else? I’m going to share my gummy worms with you too!
And that is Cole ended up with a trip to see “Night at the Museum” and gummy worms today. Jim and the girls went shopping for Alli’s party and then we all went swimming. It was a really fun day.
Out in our courtyard where all the neighborhood children play, someone started digging a hole. None of the moms are sure who started the hole hole but it has become fascinating to all the kids. Day after day we fill it so that no one falls and gets hurt and day after day the kids keep digging it- always in the same spot. We have lost toys in the hole and had 10 kids all trying to frantically find them but the most recent fun thing to do in the hole is to try to bury themselves. The five year old boys thought this was a great idea but they soon found that they were much too large to fit their whole body inside. Then Cole and Alli had the brilliant idea that Avery was just the right size for burying. We watched and laughed as the kids tried to bury Avery in the dirt. She was filthy and thought it was the funniest thing ever. I’m glad she has a sense of humor about these things but I’m not sure if that will last forever. I have a feeling Avery will be the guinea pig for many of Cole and Alli’s ideas for years to come. 
Avery’s birthday story is FAR less dramatic than Cole’s but still every bias special. We were on a bit of a time crunch when Avery was born. We were living in Lawton, OK, just three hours from Dallas. Avery was due to arrive on May 26, 2008. My little sister was set to graduate down in Dallas on May 23rd. My doctor assured we the whole pregnancy that I would make it to Dallas to see her graduate. It got closer and closer. The week before graduation arrived and still no baby. I went in for my final appointment sure that my doctor would give me the go ahead to be induced. But my doctor had decided to go out of town. I was pleading with his resident to induce me, assuring him that this really had been the plan all along. I told him that I was going to Dallas baby or not and I hoped she wasn’t born in the car on the way down. He laughed and said he would call the doctor and that he would be back on Monday to let me know. Great. Tuesday morning came and I still hadn’t heard from my doctor. I decided that morning I was just going to call and see what was up. Apparently there was a miscommunication because he thought I was already at the hospital. The nurse had failed to call. So Jim and I hurried to the hospital at around 10:30 am on May 20th. I had never been induced before but I decided that had to be the most relaxed, easy way to have a baby. Everything was so calm. They hooked me up to machines and the labor began. There was no rushing around or painful trips to the hospital. Finally, around 7 pm, Dr. Zweig came in to start delivering the baby. He looked at Jim and told him to put on a gown and gloves. Jim assumed this was normal procedure for cutting the cord or being in the room. The Dr. then called Jim over and told him to start delivering the baby. He talked him through pulling the baby out. It was a pretty amazing experience. Afterwards Jim said he NEVER could have done that if he had known in advance. This is a guy who freaks out just administering IVs so delivering a baby was never in his life plan. But since he really had no choice and the baby was coming no matter what, he was able to do it (with a completely horrified look on his face) and was happy and amazed after the fact. So after Avery Brooke was cleaned up and ready fro visitors, my mom brought Cole and Alli up to the hospital to meet their newest sibling. They were all so cute and excited and Avery was just perfect perfect. My mom then drove the big kids back to Dallas the next day and Jim and I spent two days in the hospital with Avery. We checked out on Thursday, drove to Dallas Friday, and took our 3 day old baby to watch her Aunt graduate that night. And on a side note, after all that stress and craziness to get to Chrissy’s graduation, about one minute before Chrissy was being handed her diploma, Alli looks at us and tells us she needs to go potty. We told her to hold it or figured she would just have to wet her pants. We did not make it that far to miss it for a bathroom break.
Alli started ballet a couple of weeks ago and it is the cutest thing ever. Her best little friend from the neighborhood, Cara, also goes to ballet so she was really excited about it. The first week she wore her gymnastics clothes because I didn’t want to buy her all new stuff if she didn’t end up liking it. She LOVED it. She and Cara held hands the whole class. The whole place is decorated in pink, flowers, and butterflies. The teacher talks to the girls in a sing-songy voice like a Disney Princess. It just doesn’t get much better than that for Alli. She has talked about nothing but ballet for the past two weeks. Now she wants to be a ballerina girl when she grows up. This should work out much better for us since she has previously only been saying she wants to grow up to be a princess. Last week, I surprised her with her own ballerina outfit. She was thrilled and said that now she is a “real ballerina.”
