way too much data and no personality

andrew says the best thing about keeping avery up late is that when he pulls her out of her carseat, she will lay still asleep on his shoulder.  cute dad.

i mentioned getting on a routine...here's what our day looks like, more or less. it wasn't until avery was 7 months old that i realized i needed some type of schedule to know what to expect out of my day (and from avery, nap-wise). it wasn't exactly intentional, but this is what turned up.  [after i typed this up i realized how long and tedious it is..for some reason i am fascinated by reading these kinds of things about people. but feel free to skim] :)

4:45 - 6:30 am (sometime in this window) avery wakes up, crying but sleepy, i feed her and put her back down. i am usually up for the day.. way too early.
7:30 am aves is up for the day, but i let her talk/play in her crib until she really fusses and starts to cry

8:00 - 9:30 am breakfast (solids), leave her in her highchair playing with a spoon while i try to clean up a little.  play time, etc. sometimes try to con avery into watching tv while i get something done, but it never works.  on good days i go running with my friends and my jogging stroller at 8. but those days have been few and far between lately.

baby food rainbow

9:30 am nurse avery, read a story, sing a song, put in crib

10:00 am - noon morning nap, i sew*/clean/laundry/shower/etc.

12:30 pm let avie "talk" until she really fusses.... then feed her solids, and we play, or run errands or go to lunch/the pool/vt or play with friends.

1:30 pm nurse, read books, sing...
2:00-4:00 pm avie's afternoon nap.  i sew/think about dinner?/do my calling/pay bills/grocery lists/etc.

4:30 pm get avie when she's ready and try to let her play by herself while i do dinner or finish whatever. this seldom works and is usually avery's fussiest time.  i'll sometimes nurse here, or if i'm desperate i'll go on errands (she's happier when we're out of the house...) often i am making a mad dash to the post office right now**.  not a bad time of day for costco either ha.  and while i'm there i better pick up one of those amazing ice cream bars hand dipped in chocolate with extra toasted almonds.
6:00-7:30 pm andrew gets home from work and takes over avery duty so i can get dinner finished. sometimes. other times i connive a way to go out to eat. we give avery solids and then play some more.  sometimes bathtime/take videos/put her in her walker, etc.  a lot of nights one or both of us have FHE, girls night, basketball, football, activity days, elders quorum meetings/visits, go out with friends, errands, etc. so she has a flexible bedtime. but it's usually around 7:30.  sometimes 11:30. haha. nurse.book.sing one more time, then say prayer....then she's down.

8:00-10:00 pm finish things, sew more, watch tv, etc. andrew attends to his fantasy football...work, elders quorum, etc.  our goal is to be in bed at 10, we can watch tv or read or whatever as long as we're in bed.  i think this works about 10% of the time but at least we have a goal.
10:30 pm depending on how early i nursed avery, i'll sometimes get her out of her crib (still asleep) and feed her one more time right here.
1:00 - 3:00 am (frequently) i wake up to a crying baby that i'm still trying to re-train to sleep through the night. i try to just give her a bottle of warm water to put her back to sleep without nursing. this is hit or miss. i actually just try to block this part out of my memory :) i know i have it good compared to some other babies' sleep schedules....but i got spoiled from avery sleeping 8-10 hour stretches by like 6 weeks. oh well.

this is an ideal day that maybe happens once a week.  i'm usually off schedule most days because i'm out, or avery won't take a nap, or wakes up early, or is getting a giant top tooth breaking through the gum, or my house is in shambles and i can't function...etc.

we had to let avery 'cry it out' until she learned to go to sleep for naps and bedtime on her own...sans swaddle, sans bottle, even sans binky (just because she doesn't take one anymore, not because i don't let her).  it stinks to listen to her cry--and i don't mean in the sweet mom way that i feel bad for her (which i do, but i know she's fine) but i mostly mean that it is just tense and stressful. BUT she is getting better. and on the nights that she still cries for 25 minutes, i sometimes just leave andrew and take a break. go on a walk, get the mail, go to the grocery store, etc. when i come home i have a nice husband and a sweet baby who is asleep. amazing! sometimes i feel bad about leaving, but i gotta do it.

one of the most interesting things was before i started all this, avery couldn't care less about books. she would look away, gaze into the mirror, squirm, and pull my hair when i tried to read to her.  now that we do it at least 3 times a day, she has really started to focus on the books. she touches the pages and grabs at them..but she sits and seems more engaged.

i love her.  as much as i love her naps, i really am so glad i get to spend my days with her.

*i am sewing a lot these days.  these orders don't sew themselves! haha.  i've kind of gotten in a groove.  i turn on conference (i'm just going through the archives. i'm working backwards... at 2007 right now. last conference before president hinckley died in fact).  listening to these talks for 1+ hours most days while i sew has actually been a really good thing for me.
**also where the post office comes in, shipping orders before the dreaded 5 pm deadline.

warm up

so i bought a tripod and a little remote a few weeks ago with the lofty goal of taking family pics...  i knew that it wasn't going to go all that well the first time, so we decided to do a trial run/ "warm up" [these photos] and then take what we had learned and do a real try another time.

there are a couple good ones, but i can say we are definitely going back out. checklist for next time:

-find the remote i bought so i don't end up still having to use the self timer, and race the little beeping camera in heels and then stand on a steep hill and look like i belong at the 'mystery spot'

-go at sweet light (around 7 am and 7 pm right now?) we slept in this morning. oops.

-andrew wants a haircut

-go to the original location we scoped out but didn't have time for

-probably don't wear a necklace so that i'm not always ripping it out of avery's hands and making her cry (and end up hanging her upside down)

-try not to be so stressed that on the inside i am screaming and on the outside i am doing a fake smile

and even though i don't care for the family ones i am glad to have some real pics of avery and me.

heebie jeebies

i am afraid of my baby's nursery. not normal today, obviously.

avery was taking her morning nap and i was in the other room.  i heard what sounded like a boy/man's gasp, coming from her room.  ( i am sure it was just avery, channeling a sumo wrestler, making noises in her sleep) (??)  but i gave it a minute, then thought it was so weird, and decided to check on her.  (she wakes up whenever i open that door though, no matter how slowly/slyly i do it, so checking on her is a huge sacrifice. haha)

i swear to you, as i inched that door open, i smelled a man's cologne.  i am so freaked.  i grabbed avery out of her crib and ran out, shutting the door behind me.  i was actually gonna get her carseat and run out the door, but i was just in my g's...so i got us both dressed and now i'm still going to leave, but thought i'd quickly write this up. in case you never hear from me again, this is my last memoir.  and i was on to him, and he shouldn't have worn cologne if he wanted to be sneaky.  and it's a good thing i don't put away laundry, so i could get avery dressed without going back into her room, since there are baskets of her clean clothes sitting so conveniently on the kitchen table.

her door is still tightly shut.  what do i do when it's time for her next nap, or i run out of diapers in my purse?????

i gotta leave right now.

school of life

back to school.

except for pickups 1, 2, and 3.....none of us are in school anymore/yet. but the school of life? i've officially been enrolled.

life lessons.....not sure i like em. anyway,

want to hear my class list this month?

-insurance: when it starts over, and paying through the nose to reach your deductible, and [wishing i had known] about re-filling all your prescriptions as much as you can to stockpile before this happens. where is my mother, telling me what to do? (and yes, this is probably the first time i've ever said that)

-pharmacies: i hate them, and the kroger one is probably the worst....and the 'drive thru' Rx, well unless you have an extra 45 minutes without a screaming baby in the backseat, that you'd like to spend in a parking lot, and can park really close to a window so you don't have to unlock the door and kind of halfway get out of your car to reach said window, just avoid it at all costs. (this class ends with a short research project on switching pharmacies AND references back to the previous insurance lesson)

-dentistry: the husband and i are still enrolled in this one, i'm afraid.  i'm still trying to figure out the lesson here.  is it... that dentists are really little bacteria-filled-tool-wielding-money suckers? i think i've earned an A+ here. (seriously, do they clean EVERYTHING that they stick in your mouth at the dentist? i'm skeptical).

-parenting: turns out i'll be enrolled in this one for the rest of my life. and i can't complain about that. but this week's mini lesson is, as soon as you start giving your baby food regularly, just buy a million bibs and don't think twice.
-iphone: either don't run over your phone, or just buy applecare the first time, take your pick.

-i should add something positive because i do like my life: as much as i hate to admit it, i like this routine i'm getting my little lady on. instead of a care-free mom (who has too many breakdowns late at night) i can be a scheduled mom whose baby naps and who gets things done and isn't so overwhelmed.  sounds boring, but has its perks.