Random Pictures

I was cleaning out the pictures in my email this morning. I may have posted some of these before.

This was David on a ride in Las Vegas. I'm surprised that afterwards he realized that riding on that was probably not the wisest choice. He said it seemed a little flimsy and the kid operating it was questionable.

Avery gets on the computer every chance she gets. Now we have to keep all chairs locked up in the bedroom.

She gets so excited when she sees the Nook. She can swipe the screen to unlock it, turn pages and scroll up and down. She knows how to go back to the home screen so she can change apps. It's kind of crazy. She likes to play Angry Birds now.

We stopped at Jimmy John's to eat and she was just tearing into this sandwich. She loved it. She likes to eat things whole and not cut up because, you know, she's a big girl now :)

Cute pictures of Avery with her daddy. Thought Bonnie would especially appreciate these :0)

Can't believe Avery is 16 months old now. She was doing so much better sleeping, only waking once the last week or so. That ended 3 days ago and now she's up every hour until 2 or so and then sleeps until 7. Ugh. It's really frustrating but then I hear her in the mornings chatting away in her crib and my frustration goes away. Her surprise hugs this morning made it all better too :)

If you say one, she'll say two. She'll also hold her finger up. She knows how to switch out movies in her DVD player. David said one time he saw her pull the DVD out and blow on it. She sees me do that when I try to clean them haha. I recently bought her some fleece footed pjs. I never put them on her because she's usually pretty hot. Well, she loves them. It's funny. And she looks so darn cute in them.

She loves to talk on the phone. She walks all over the house having conversations with who knows who. Reminds me of a teenager. She calls real people too. She got to talk to her Uncle Wayne on the phone yesterday...I think they understood each other hahaha! She sure is jabbering a whole lot. Now if we could just get some understandable words...

That's all I know for now!

Shaving Cream

Having no car really stinks. Avery and I are desperate for things to do. So I broke out the shaving cream. We used to use this at the day care. I'm going to the store and getting some supplies for stuff to do. Pronto.

One plus to shaving cream is it cleaned off the crayon from her table!

A Million Pictures

David and I have been waiting to take Avery sledding all winter. We woke up yesterday to a pretty good dusting of snow and decided to go. At the park near our house there's a huge hill that people sled down. They put these hay bales at the bottom so no one slides into the road.

I climbed up the hill and came down pretty fast. David couldn't get too much speed with himself and Avery on a disk. I thought it was fun. Avery wasn't amused. She didn't seem to dislike it really, she just didn't seem to care at all. At least she got one more chance to wear her bibs. I think she'll be able to get some use out of them next year. I hope anyway.

I met with a trainer on Friday again. It feels sooooo good to be sore! David and I didn't eat very good last week but we didn't eat as bad as before so that's a positive right?

Avery's 4th molar finally cut through. The other 3 have been in for a while. She always has one tooth that straggles in behind the others.

Avery's got dry skin or something around her mouth which is driving me nuts. Sometimes it looks like dry skin, sometimes she looks like she has a rash around her mouth. Then I wonder if she ate something with peanuts in it. I think I'm going to take her back in just for confirmation on it being dry skin. Well, one part of it I'm almost positive is dry skin but she gets dots around the mouth sometimes. Sounds silly I know but I just NEED to know so I'm not always wondering if she ate something. We're new to all of this so the possibility of her getting something she shouldn't is probably pretty high.

David had to remind me last night that even if something were to happen, we have stuff to help her. Ugh.

Ok, here's something that's weird and people would tell me that this doesn't happen but I'm not so sure. I feel like anything that I've paid extra attention to or anything that stands out to me, happens to me. Let me give some examples. I have a memory as a little kid of going over to a friend of my aunt and uncle's after she lost a baby. I remember standing in her living room and hearing that it was ectopic. I had an ectopic pregnancy. When I was younger I remember talking to my best friend numerous times (she had a single mother...maybe that's why we talked about this) about how I could. not. imagine. not having my mom around. I didn't think I could possibly deal with never having my mom here. Then she dies. I used to think things like seizures, heart attacks, strokes were extra freaky because they could be so sudden. I hated the idea that something could just suddenly happen to me with no warning. One night I get a sudden pain in my neck and I've got an AVM. I know 2 ladies with children who have food allergies. One of them has been pretty open and blogged about it. I've followed her blog and learned about her struggles. Then it seems like more food allergy info was crossing my path. Now Avery has a peanut allergy.

All I'm sayin' is it's weird.

Since I'm rambling now, I'll go. Happy Monday!

Ugh...stupid allergies.

I knew that food companies by law had to label their packaging for food allergies. They have to list if their product contains one of the top 8 food allergies: peanut, tree nut, milk, eggs, soy, wheat, fish and shellfish. I assumed that labeling whether or not the facility is completely peanut free (or allergen free I should say) went along with that. I was wrong, it's only voluntary. Just because a package says that the product is peanut free doesn't mean that it wasn't processed on equipment that peanuts (or other allergens) have been on. This doesn't make things easy.

It's so frustrating because I look back and realize that Avery has eaten a lot of things that could pose a threat to her. Part of me thinks "well, she's eaten that quite a bit and had no reaction...maybe she could still eat it?" but that's wrong. I have to even go to extremes to keep her safe.

I've learned that companies like Dove chocolate have some products made in allergen free facilities while other products aren't. I can go to their website though and see which ones are safe for her to eat though. Thankfully, she doesn't eat chocolate though :0) Avery can't eat Nestle semi sweet chocolate chips, which I have given to her.

Avery's been eating a lot of fresh fruit. That's obviously not a bad thing. David and I this last weekend had a few times where the inconveniences of peanut allergies hit us. We ran into a local bakery last minute...oops, they have tree nuts...which can lead to contamination. Avery's not allergic to tree nuts but we avoid them anyway. That yogurt we got...maple pecan granola...oops. Avery doesn't get any. Had lunch at a local Greek restaurant one afternoon...have to run in and ask questions to see if it's safe. They tell us no they don't use any peanut product and then what do I see on the menu? Peanut butter pancakes. Then my mind starts swirling. What if the food Avery's eating got cross contaminated? Feeling thankful/anxious that we're armed with a bottle of Benadryl and a 2 epi-pens. I've had to turn around and go home because I forgot the epi-pens. It's hard to remember to make sure I have those with us at all times.

I am planning on visiting with some local offices that offer NAET. It's something that I've been told has healed people of their food allergies. It's really a grim thought to think if we can't rid Avery of this allergy that we'll have to deal with this forever. Of course, I will. David and I would do anything for our girl.

Praying we never have to use those epi-pens.

Fun!

Avery's aunt is going to spoil her! Avery got this in the mail today :0)

Video

Avery walks around the house and talks on the phone a lot. It's really cute. So today I heard her chatting away and taped it. I'm really surprised she started chatting again while I was recording. She wasn't talking as much but that's ok ;0)

And at one point she makes a face like she's surprised at what she was hearing haha.

Toys!

I love KSL! Yesterday I bought this little cradle with a high chair on it, stroller and walker for $15! The stroller is really light and the first time Avery pushed it she fell flat on her face about 5 times. She kept pushing down on the handle. She figured it out though.

The stroller is the perfect size for her. Now she can take her baby for walks when we're outside!

So all last week David and I did AWESOME at eating healthy! I definitely noticed a difference by Thursday in my stomach. That really pumped me up. I know that if I keep eating this way and get a good routine in the gym, I'll be on my way back to the old Hannah :0)

Friday I met with a trainer.

Wow.

When I left on Friday I thought maybe he didn't work me hard enough. When I woke up Saturday morning I was a little sore but as the day went on. Oh. My. Gosh. I seriously can't remember the last time my muscles hurt this bad if ever. It hurts so good :)
Yesterday I was walking like a gimp. It just makes me super excited!!! I've even taped up motivational quotes around the house to remind me of what I'm doing. I think it's helping. This is good. Real good :0)

Last week Avery was watching her numbers Baby Einstein video and I heard her saying "two". Now, if you say "one", she'll say "two". She even tries to hold up 2 fingers and she's pretty close to doing it too. She thinks it's really funny and will bust into giggles. Well, her fake giggles anyway which are hilarious.

We didn't go to the aquarium this weekend which was a bummer. I was looking forward to it. Maybe another time.

It's the start of a new week. I'm excited to see what changes I see this week!

Video

I got a new video put up. It's only 22 seconds but you can hear Avery's new word.

Finger Painting Fun!

Sorry. Here's a million pictures of her painting. Her first time!

She didn't think it tasted very good.

She was done.

Don't worry. It's non-toxic ;0)

Getting Serious.

I need a camera that has a faster shutter speed or figure out if mine will go faster. I need to take pictures in rapid succession. These are the kind of pictures I get all the time thanks to my slow camera.

I'm so happy it's Friday! I've been waiting for the weekend because I got $30 Kohls cash to spend! I think we're going to go to the aquarium this weekend which I'm pretty pumped about. We went to a gun show last weekend...not my idea of exciting but it got Avery and I out of the house and that's the important part! I hate having only one vehicle!!!

David and I are getting serious. Serious about our health! David and I have DRASTICALLY change our eating habits this week and have both joined gyms, separate ones though. We're tired of being fat. I've been going this week to the gym but tonight I'm meeting with a trainer!! The exciting thing is that I can already see a difference just because of my diet :0)

I'm excited. This is not my body!!! I don't even recognize myself in pictures. I can't wait to get on a good routine in the gym and see what happens :0)

I'm going to post a video that is really short but it shows Avery's new "trick" haha.

More pictures

Avery took this picture of herself. She's figured out how to do it on my phone.

Like father, like daughter. The TV is so captivating to them both.

I guess she was pretending to be asleep because she wasn't asleep.

She looooves to help push the cart around the store.

Avery loves this magna doodle but she wants me or her dad (usually me) to draw on it for her. All. The. Time. If you give her the pencil thingy to draw, she gets mad.

What a good daddy. He's trying to entice Avery into the tent.

So it was confirmed yesterday that Avery does indeed have a peanut allergy but we are also staying away from tree nuts. Poor girl can't eat her coconut oil anymore. I'm doing some reading to see what can be done to rid her of this allergy. It would be pretty cool to take her back next year and find out the allergy is gone. So we'll see what we find out.

I'm just looking at it as a way to keep up from eating processed foods. We've been working toward it and this is just more reason to be eating fresh, clean food. We'll just try to take any following challenges in stride. Thankfully Avery is with me all the time so I don't have to deal with other people and her allergy yet. It'll come though.

Well, she has woke up from her nap!