Tricks Learned

Avery is 8 months today

While in Fallon she has learned to:

improve her crawl

click her tongue

play with blocks

eat cheerios

play nicely with Wyatt

New Favorite

these are my new favorite jammies

Leaving Our Mark

Any time cement is poured around here, there is the opportunity for all to leave their mark. I have hand prints around my yard ranging from age 5 months to 29 years (thanks to yesterday's freshy).

Avery has joined the hand print club at age 8 months.

Robbie in a "Sorensen Sun Scowl"

Crashing the Cockpit

Jimi has to do a charter this weekend, which included an empty jaunt to Reno before picking up the UNR basketball team and heading to Logan. So this meant a free trip for Avery and me to visit my family in Fallon!

Not to mention:

we had the airplane to ourselves,

free drinks,

crashing the cockpit,

mingling with the flight crew,

and an attempt to turn off the auto pilot by the lady in pink.

So here we are, relaxing to the max on the farm. The next couple of posts will be specifically for Jimi to enjoy while he's away from us.

Gone For the Weekend

Avery flew her first airplane today.

All Better!

Avery is mostly all better.

She still coughs now and then, but I think it is to clear the mucus from her throat.

One minute she'll sound like a purring cat, and after a good cough, it's all clear.

All she needed was a little TLC from daddy,

a lick or two from her best buddy,

and a little R&R.

Good as new.

Right? I'm no doctor. The fact that she still coughs a little is no big deal, right?

On a Sunday Afternoon

Well, we didn't go to church today as to avoid infecting other little ones with croup (you're welcome). So here are some things rattling around the Larsen home on a Sunday afternoon.

Introducing, my daughter, the Rag-a-Muffin:

I recall Nettie saying something about how not all kids are messy? So this isn't normal?

All kids don't have their toes poking through their jammies? That's not normal?

On this lazy Sunday, we would like to announce that Avery has demonstrated her ability to crawl. She has been piecing it together in her mind for a while, and today: success!

This isn't as sad as it looks.

She doesn't really mind being a dinosaur. I just hope she gets better soon!

And if I may, there are a few other things I want to say.

I really love fruit, but I hate when it's no good. It makes me crazy. I spend a lot of money on it, I'm all gung ho about eating 5 a day (right Jamie?), but more often than not it is moldy, juiceless, tasteless, or pithy. But lately, I feel I can rely on grapefruit. Of the twenty odd that I have purchased recently, none have let me down. Thank you, grapefruit.

And one more thing. I think there are two kinds of people in this world: those that like playing red rover, and those that hate it. I was a gangly, knock-kneed twerp, so do you think I like it or hate it?

I'm the one all the kids either "send right over" because they know I'm going to get clotheslined. Or I'm the girl the others come ramming through, effectively ripping my arms off. So if you guessed that I hate red rover, you are correct. What a horrible game. (Jimi exclaims, "I like red rover!")

What Parenting Is

48% joy

2% tedium

50% worry

Avery started barking like a dog a few nights ago.

Instinctively I yelled at Piper to stop barking!

Then I realized, hey, Avery is talking like Piper!

How cute!

Then I realized, oh no, she has croup.

Upon getting her first fever of her life, I took her to the doctor. There she received her first breathing treatment of her life, and we were instructed to do more at home.

It's got me all bungled up inside. I am so worried for her. I want her to feel better. She shouldn't have to cough and try to sleep at the same time.

In unrelated news, what is going on here? What project has Jimi rolled the carpet out for this time? Stay tuned. He's been working like a dog (not barking like one, thankfully), but is only about half done.

Nice Ta Meetcha

Quality Time

the head to head

the eye gouge

the discussion

the ear snag

the hair pull

good times on the floor with daddy.

p.s. Avery's hair is officially longer than Jimi's. It waves in the bathwater when I wash it.

Honing Our Skills

We have been honing our skills around here lately.

Piper is working on her "accidental hole digging".

You see, what she does is drop the ball in an area she wishes to dig in. Acting as if she is trying to get the ball, it keeps slipping out of her grasp. In the mean time, she manages to dig a good size hole. Don't worry, we covered it back up.

Avery is working on her reading skills. Mostly she bangs her hands on books, or puts them in her mouth.

By the way, have any of you heard of these "Charlie and Lola" books? I found this one for a bargain at Fry's warehouse, and discovered it is delightfully strange and quirky. I looked on Amazon for more fun with Charlie and Lola, and I really want to get my hands on all of them.

A True Story

One sunny day, Piper chewed up a baseball and left white debris all over the house.

Avery came along (already well versed in picking up tiny objects between the finger and thumb), and in the blink of an eye...put it in her mouth.

Her mother quickly fished it out with the swipe of a forefinger.

Ta Da! Success!

Avery admitted defeat and swore to just put the next object she saw back into her mouth.

Her mother made amends by blowing raspberries on her tummy. It made her laugh. Everyone was happy again.

How did I get step by step footage of this occurrence you ask? Jimi was manning the camera, I was manning the Avery.

Chapter 2.

See that picture above Avery's head? I sorta swiped it from one of my students. We read The Hobbit, and one of my star pupils did a water color of the dwarfs tromping through Mirkwood.

I asked her if I could keep it. She hesitated, and in a British accent exclaimed, "but it's muurrkwood!"

So I hung it on my classroom wall and "forgot" to give it back at the year's end.

Then I slapped it in a picture frame and hung it in my baby's room!

the end.

29

As long as we are archiving lives around here, I am going to tick off some tid-bits about myself at age 29. This is mostly for my own entertainment years from now.

• I love my friends, neighbors, home, sharing walls with strangers, family, ward, being a mom...everything about my life, except one thing. The one thing I feel is missing is the ability to grow a garden. I grew up on fresh produce right out my back yard, and I miss it. Here is my brother Aaron's garden. Doesn't this look satisfying? I wouldn't even mind mowing a lawn or two.
  
  
  

• I don't trust the news at all. Maybe I taught Animal Farm too many times, but I feel like 30% of it is inaccurate, 80% of it is depressing, and 100% is spun into an oblivion. There are 2 sides to every story, so I just don't believe a word I hear.

• This week I kinda miss teaching. Not being a teacher, but the act of teaching. Sometimes when a student was being particularly obnoxious, lazy, apathetic, or stupid, I would think: "I am glad he/she is not my child. I am going to raise my child to be a much better citizen of the planet earth." As I enjoy each step of Avery's development, I cannot help but get excited to read with her, teach her letters, numbers, and how not to be obnoxious, lazy, apathetic, or stupid.

• I love Avery's sweet potato baby food. It's so good.

• I am in a constant state of list making and checking off. Here is last week's list of things to do (noninclusive): send email to rest of presidency members, make a cape, Calico Ridge's ward conference, emissions check on the car, meeting Tuesday 7:00, Anna's Friday 6:00, used book store, fax teaching licence, get my purse from Jamie, print baptism programs. (maybe in a couple of years when I am rereading this, I will find this interesting)

• We are on the threshold of a major change in our life. Jimi now has "the magic numbers" (1000 hours as captain and 3000ish total hours), so we are looking to move on career-wise. Where will it take us? That is the question.