Mimi's!!

Bridget, Avery and I make smoothies pretty much every day. It started as an attempt to just get more good, healthy foods into my kids bodies and ended up becoming a ritual. At some point in the day Avery inevitably runs to the cupboard where the blender is stored yelling "mimi! mimi!" That's how my one year-old says smoothie.

Avery loves to help....
This next picture is cute, huh? What I didn't capture was the smack in the face a millisecond later! Poor Bridget.

Blueberry Picking

The girls and I went blueberry picking with my friend Kim and her 2 youngest kids at a local blueberry farm. The cost was $1.30 a pound and all you want to eat on site....can't beat that deal!

Even though my eyes are half-closed I thought this picture was cute. And see that Bridget and I now have matching haircuts? :)

Baaaad Mommy

Avery and I were watching Bridget during her class in that microcosm called gymnastics. Occasionally when Avery is especially restless I will take her down and let her play on the equipment not in use. She discovered the rings and absolutely beamed when I let her swing on them. I grabbed my camera to take pictures and marveled at the strength of a 20 month old!




This is the moment when I realized I had been concentrating too hard on taking pictures.....

Luckily there was a mat to land on; although even that doesn't sufficiently cushion a 4 foot fall!

Babies are Resilient!

Well, Avery's procedure is over with and we are home! Everything went really well with the exception of a small hitch before the surgery began. I had scheduled the surgery with one dentist who answered all my questions and agreed that I could be in with Avery to help comfort her since she would be awake and not knocked out. But he was not the one who would be performing the procedure so when I arrived this morning of course the other dentist absolutely refused to budge on keeping me out. WELL...for any of you that know me, I happen to be quite stubborn myself, so it was a real battle of wills, and in the end we were able to come to a compromise. I would be with her to comfort while they were strapping her down and administering the NO2, but I agreed to stand in the doorway while the actual work was being done so that I was "out of the way and not a distraction" to him. I have to admit, it's hard for a mommy to hear your little one screaming and scared and calling out to you. Afterward, she was definitely happy to be back in my arms. And I was relieved to see how quickly she calmed down. Only hours later, she is back to her active, happy self; just a little more tired and needing a few more snuggles.

Avery "surgery"

On Tuesday Avery is having a small, outpatient dental surgery. She was born with a small piece of extra gums between her two top front teeth, (please excuse the very non-technical description), that will be removed. She will not have to be under any sort of anesthesia, but will require some valium and nitrous oxide. She will also have to be restrained in the benign sounding "papoose" which is actually a sort of baby straight-jacket.....frown. I will try to get a close-up before and after picture but in the meantime, prayers are appreciated!!

Family Visit

We had a nice visit from my (Emily's) grandparents this weekend. All of my family lives out of state so it's a rare treat for us to have visitors. Bridget was super excited to see her great grandparents and gave them both nice big hugs. Avery was excited with her balloon.... ahh, one-year olds!

This is what happens to your Man.....

.....when you have daughters. He becomes a Daddy who reads princess stories to his little girl.




And she's out! Maybe he needs to be more animated next time to hold her interest. :)

A day at the Fair

Bridget- and her new hair cut.

Avery--lookin' stylish!

This was Avery's first taste of cotton candy. She didn't quite understand that she could eat it and so she just sat there licking it till it withered into a melty mess!

This is me going on the "scary grown-up" ride.

And this is Avery's response to seeing me on the ride....she's very protective I guess!

Because of my motion sickness issues, Patrick had to go on all the spinny rides with Bridget.

But I joined her for the kiddy roller coasters--Weeeeee!!

Hello Croup!

Bridget had a rude awakening around midnight last week with a sudden onset of Croup. My poor little thing was in a panic because Croup makes you feel like you can't breathe. We were able to get Bridget a blessing and then, per WebMD, put warm clothes over her PJ's and took her outside for the cool air to help open her lungs up. It really helped but when we tried bringing her back inside the Croup attack initiated once again. So, I volunteered my great husband to sit out on the front porch with her for a couple of hours. I was nice enough to offer him electronic Yahtzee to occupy his time, though.