One man's trash

This evening we were cleaning up the playroom and I was making a pile of trash that needed to go to the can.  It included styrofoam wrapping, cardboard scraps, coloring pages stapled together in multiple spots, an empty tylenol box and scraps of string.  When I asked Carter to throw these items away he got very upset with me.  "But Mom, you are making me throw away all my equipment!  I'm a hunter Mom!"  Mike and I were rolling on the ground laughing at all his "equipment."  I swear we are not buying this kid any more toys!  Seriously just save your trash and he will love it more than anything you spend money on! 

Akron Zoo

This week I decided to take the kids to the Akron Zoo.  Funny thing, with Dawson's broken bones it is easier to keep him safe at the zoo.  He was in the stroller the entire time, and I didn't have to worry about him tripping over air and hurting himself with his cast or a myriad of other catastrophes that he skirts daily.  So here are some pictures from our little excursion.

As Daddy said "those are some crazy looking penguins."

The wingspan of a condor.  Those are some crazy ugly birds.

Dawson was allowed a short reprieve from the stroller to enjoy a ride in the train.

Also that may or may not be his sister's jacket.  It's hard finding a jacket to fit over a cast!

Hooray we got to ride on the caboose!

He also got to ride the tractor.

I'm pretty sure Ava is being a monkey?

Fishing

We took Ava fishing with her new fishing pole.

Baby Dockie fished for mud.

Look Meme, I caught some!

By the way, these pictures were from Sunday and I just got around to putting them up.  Before baby boy's broken bones.

I'm kind of confused by the fact that Mike thought he would be able to fish.  He was with two small children.  Meme and I are NOT fisherwomen.  In fact, neither of us could even cast the barbie fishing pole.

Ava refused to let the worm touch her new barbie fishing pole.  She was perfectly content to "catch" the blue plastic fish that came with the pole.

Broken Baby Bones

Oh boy, yesterday was a crazy day.  It started off at the YMCA, Carter and Ava started their swim classes together.  The kids were having a ball in the pool and I was trying to entertain Dawson in the pool viewing room.  I had packed cars, books, crayons and paper but he was not having any of that.  My little explorer decided he wanted to climb the closest mountain, which in this case was the bleachers.  I was following right behind him as he was walking back and forth on the bleachers.  He came to the end of one bleacher and I thought for sure he would stop.  Instead he decided to jump the divide and make it across a two foot gap between the two sets of bleachers.  Are you surprised to hear that this doesn't end well?  Anyways he ended up on the floor.  I scooped him up and realized after a couple of minutes of crying that he wasn't moving his one arm.  I wanted to grab the two older kids out of the pool but they were swimming, with life vests to the other end of the pool.  So as soon as they came back we left the YMCA.  AHHH!  What do I do?  We ended up at Akron Children's Hospital.  Luckily Mike was able to finish up a meeting and he met me in the ER.

He started off as sad baby.  I'm pretty sure he threw one of the biggest fits ever for the radiologist when they took the X-rays.  It was pretty crazy, I'm surprised they were able to get any X-rays at all!

Then he took a little nap on me, woke up and realized his arm felt great!  He was running around the room using his bad arm to hold angel baby, play with all the levers on the bed and cause general mayhem.  Mike and I were both pretty sure that he was fine, and as soon as they got the X-rays back we would go home with a happy healthy baby.

But instead they told us he broke his elbow in two places!

Mike took the older two kids home while I stayed with our little guy.

He also didn't like getting the cast on, but suckers make everything better!

So this is my baby with his little broken bones.  He is doing better today, although he had a couple of tough moments.  It seemed to be right around the time when he was due for another dose of tylenol.  Now it's just up to me to stop our little evil Knievel from exploring.  Just today I had to stop him from climbing on to the back of the couch, climbing onto Ava's bike and climbing onto our patio furniture.  Oh my little Dockie doodle, I'm so sorry this happened to you.  But we all survived our first broken bone.  I guess this was bound to happen sooner or later.

Extra Family Pictures

Here are some extra family pictures from Ava's birthday "photo shoot."

Mike yelled "hey, come take a Senior picture of me and the baby!"

You're welcome.

Carter boy spent a lot of time throwing rocks in the pond, wearing his bike helmet of course.  Safety First!

I had to include this picture because I just love the Cheese! face that Dawson is making.

My Wee Three

Our Family

Birthday Party!

Yesterday we celebrated Ava's 3rd birthday with family including Grandma and Bo, Meme and Grandpap Bob, Jason and Tiffany, Nana and Aunt Pam.  Thank you so much for coming, it really means so much to us to share these little birthday parties with everyone we love.  So for her third birthday, our girl requested a cookie cake with extra gluten and martha chicken.  After some probing we believe that martha chicken is chicken wings, so we just went with that.  Here are some pictures.

I asked Ava what is her favorite birthday present, she answered that it was the kitty bag.  Haha, funny girl!

Time to reveal.....

her new bike!

I also asked Ava her favorite part about her birthday party, she told me it was everyone singing happy birthday to her.

We had such an amazing day, again thanks for everything family!

   

Three

Avery, today you are three years old.

Three wonderful, exciting years.

My girl is spunky, sweet and independent.

A girly girl for sure.  Your daily attire MUST include a dress and preferably some accessory such as a hair bow or necklace.  You insist upon long hair and the color pink in your wardrobe.

But you still love digging in the dirt, talking about fishing and playing soccer with your brother.

Sticks, one of the best toys of all time.  

For this girl, it must be a princess wand.

Some of your favorite things to play right now: house, baby dolls, hunting with your brother and coloring.  Your favorite characters are the princesses and lately Dora the Explorer has been added to the list.  It is so funny to hear you running around the house singing "D D D D D Dora D D D D D Dora."   

Your biggest achievements recently?  Well, we had a bumpy ride potty training during the move, but things have been going better lately.  Although you still get distracted and have accidents frequently.  We are working hard on the alphabet and you have mastered most of it.  There is still some confusion between R/P I/L and J.  Colors, shapes, counting to fourteen are also some of your accomplishments.  You are becoming more and more proficient at dressing yourself and putting on your shoes every day.  Although you would still prefer for us to do it for you.  You can draw a circle and a sloppy letter A.  Your cutting skills are definitely improving and we are working on cutting a curved line and cutting out shapes.  Music is still a great interest to you.  You regularly ask me to sing the "Cinderella" song, Days of the week song or Dora theme song.  I'm so excited to see you grow, learn and choose your areas of interest.  

You recently completed your second swimming class, and you are doing great!    Blowing bubbles, reaching and pulling and kicking your little legs are some of the swimming skills you have learned.  We are going to have to work really hard this summer at our community pool.    

Coming up on the horizon?  You are going to be starting a soccer class at the YMCA, learning how to ride your new bike and ballet class.  Ava, I cannot tell you how excited I am to see you in ballet class!

Ava, I love how you mother your baby brother.  It is so sweet to see this little walking hug that you two do together.  It's hard to explain, but you both just hug and go for a little walk together.  Your brother is an active fellow, so it's probably the only way you can get some baby snuggles.  Recently you asked to change his diaper for the first time.  I was happy to oblige, with much supervision of course.  I also love the relationship you are developing with your older brother.  Never forget that he was your first friend.  Of course there are typical sibling squabbles, but the majority of the time you two are glued at the hip.

I love watching the brown flash of long dark hair as you zoom around the house, just like in this picture.  I love reading princess books with you and having a little girl to go shopping with.  I love you, my three year old daughter.  To the moon and back.