A Nice, NORMAL Weekend

For the first time in a very long time, we had a nice quiet weekend at home with the kids.  Well, maybe quiet isn't the right word, but we got to stay at home and didn't have to go all over town looking for refrigerators or visiting relatives.  It also appears that my bad luck streak is finally wrapped up.  If that's the karma I get in exchange for a measly $100 winning lottery ticket, I think I'll skip the lottery from now on.  Aside from allergies (Ava and I both have eyes so red it looks like we're celebrating 4:20), everyone was happy and the kids even chose to nap simultaneously both days.  Someone alert the press.  But when they were awake they spent a fair amount of time keeping us on our toes.  Case in point:

God bless this man.  Even when he's driving me just as nuts as they do, I still gotta love the fact that I landed a good guy that loves hanging out with three crazy women.

Today we decided what the hell, lets break out the pool.  And no, we didn't fill it up earlier in the day to let the water come up to temp like responsible parents would.  We're making our kids tough, dammit.  

C'mon Ava, where's your sense of adventure?  Freezing water is FUN!

Taylor has obviously adapted to our "no sissies" parenting methods.

After a few minutes, it was all good!

"Mama, I gotta go pee-pee!"

Enter the outdoor pop-a-squat.  

Ava didn't care that she was hypothermic, she idolizes her big sister.

Our House!!!!!

Ugh, my blogging platform has a new layout.  So let me preface this first by saying that this whole thing feels more than a bit schizophrenic, so bear with me if it looks a little wonky.  Anyhoo, our house is coming along at warp speed, I can't believe how fast it's all come together!  Here are some pics we took last week!

The front minus the giant trash-pile from the construction guys

Ta-da!  We have cabinets!  They still have to be stained, but I'm stoked to see them in place.  Also, I'm a little overwhelmed at how much cabinet space I have.  Mama's going to need some new kitchen gadgets!

If you'll look on the bar, you'll notice that the construction workers very thoughtfully left us a pack of cigarettes.  Not to mention an entire, unwrapped breakfast burrito from McDonald's on one of the drawers.  You don't get free extras like that with many builders.

Taylor standing by the cubby for the microwave.  She was so proud of herself because she just "went pee-pee in the dirt."  Not surprisingly, she decided she had to go as soon as we were in a house with zero plumbing facilities.  

Me and my little butterbean in the kitchen.  Behind me are our shutters, primed and ready for paint!

Looking into our bathroom and closet

Interior doors are in place! 

And, in true Murphy's Law, our refrigerator decided to completely take a shit on us this morning.  Thankfully, I had been super lazy this weekend and kept putting off my weekly grocery hoarding, otherwise I'd have been even more pissed at having to buy a new fridge AND new groceries.  Now we get the pleasure of moving an old fridge to the dump, a new fridge into a dump house, and finally again into the new house.  Poor Jody's arms are going to be sore.

Sick Day

Yesterday afternoon I finally bucked up and took Ava to urgent care. She had been running a fever and acting puny the day before in Gruver, but the next morning (aside from a LOT of dark green snot), she seemed ok. Enter naptime. After a nice long nap, she awoke with even more snot draining out of her ear and a 102 fever that wouldn't be touched by ibuprofen. Crap.

So, off we went for yet another hella expensive doctor visit, where the Austrian Doogie Howser diagnosed her with an upper respiratory infection that also caused an ear infection. Guess the ear infection was a bonus. Long story short is that regardless, Ava wasn't going to be able to attend daycare today. Not to worry, the antibiotics kicked in fantastically, and we had a pretty good day. We started by playing with Taylor's toys since she wasn't there to tell Ava no and insist that she play with a rattle instead.

It's like a treasure trove of choking hazards!!!!

Obviously the joys of playing with "forbidden" toys made the sickness worth it.

After finally returning from our third attempt to get her prescription filled, I let Pork Chop roll around the living room. I have decided the beanbag chair concept is definitely not lost on a nine-month-old.

It's so fluffy!!!! She kept sitting up and then face-planting back in it.

Then, as an added bonus after Daddy and Taylor got home, she decided to show off a new trick:

No, she's not pole-dancing. Ms. Thang was actually trying to pull herself up by the table-leg. All in all, she's making a great recovery aside from the buckets of snot she's still producing. And obviously, she's still a happy kiddo, sick or not.

Easter 2012

Easter was a lot of fun this year, Taylor was finally old enough to really hunt for eggs, and I wasn't pregnant. Bonus! Lovie and Poppy (aka - my mom and Dan), came to spend the weekend with us again, and the girls had a blast with their grandparents.

Saturday, while playing in the back yard, Poppy heard the tell-tale tinkling music of the ice-cream man patrolling our neighborhood. I've never seen a man haul ass so fast in my life. After flagging him down, he remembered to run back and grab Taylor. She picked out some sort of blue thing that stained her mouth and jacket. At least she had something to remember it all with......

Dan managed to use his loud, "HEY!" to stop this guy. Having a booming voice has its advantages.

Yeah, she was awestruck by the fact that Poppy could manage to find ice-cream in a prowling van. Not sure this was a good lesson......

Relishing in the fruits of their labor.

Today started out craptastically cold, so our hopes of a nice Easter in the back yard seemed like they were going to be thwarted by the almighty (now and then he's gotta remind us who's in charge). But fortunately, by lunchtime the sun was out and it was warm enough for Taylor to get her sunshine on in the wee-pool. Because super-mom here sent her sunscreen to daycare last week, she also was rewarded with her first sunburn :-/ Thankfully it's just a mild one, and she seems to be holding up ok.

Our awesome pool this year. Hey, it's portable and easy to clean.

Poppy comes thru with ice cream yet again. Going to have to start calling him The Ice Cream Dan.

Finally, it was time for the main event, the egg hunt. Mom got the girls matching dresses, which is a lot easier now that their sizes are so close together. After a LOT of fruitless tries, we finally hit paydirt with a cute picture of them both.

If only I'd noticed that Ava's diaper was hanging out :(

Taylor really got into running around like a crazy woman hunting eggs. The only downside was that I managed to buy eggs that were pre-filled with what can only be described as the shitty leftovers from the Pez factory. I'm pretty sure I'm going to need to see a dentist after trying to chomp on one of those suckers.

Watch out, she has a bucket, and she means business.

Ava was way more interested in using her bucket for a bongo than participating in the festivities. I call this the "energy-efficient approach."

A family pic, notice the kids are the only ones all dolled up.

Clowning with Lovie and Poppy.

Lovie hanging out with the girls in the shade.

Ava's Easter bonnet. Mark my words, this look will be all the rage in Paris next year.

Nine Months

Yet again, my baby is another month older! We usher in nine months with a tooth, and the beginnings of pulling up. Ava is 19.8 lbs, and 28.25", putting her in the 75th percentile. I swear though, their scales have got to be off, Roosy feels like she weighs as much as Taylor some days. It's fun to see her little personality starting to emerge too. You can just tell her life's goal is going to be pestering her sister to death. If Taylor is in the vicinity, Ava wants to grab at her or more specifically, grab a chunk of her hair. Taylor is getting a lot more tolerant though (thank God), and likes to "help" feed her baby food or Cheerios. Her army-crawling maneuvers are getting much more efficient, and I think she'll have the proper technique down in a few more weeks.

Always the cut-up

Seriously, this kid is always happy. Even though we've been going thru teething hell, she keeps a good sense of humor.

Too Cute

Sometimes you just capture a cute photo

Homies

Thursday night Stacy came to hang out with Taylor (Ava was sleeping) so that Jody and I could nerd out at "The Hunger Games" in IMAX. Taylor had her first introduction to the iPhone, and needless to say, I think she thought it was pretty cool. I think she thinks her Aunt Stacy is pretty awesome too.

Looking like Magilla Gorilla

You can tell the evening was pure torture for the both of them....

The infamous one-eyeball shot returns!