Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Friday, March 18, 2011

Some Friday Faces....FINALLY!!!!

It has been awhile, almost a month since we have posted Friday faces. We have been extremely busy or sick. So we are nearing the end of our busy extra goings ons, and we are all feeling better, just tired, nothing new there.
Avery continues to amaze us everyday, and she is putting phrases together now, and she says new words everyday. This week it's, "AWESOME"!! It's really sweet the way she says it. I say awesome all the time at work with my kids. I guess it's from growing up in the 80's. Her hair is getting so long now, we have it back in a headband, or clips everyday. We are going to have to trim her bangs really soon though, they are right in her eyes.
We are sleeping through the night again, have for a week now. Hopefully I didn't just jinx us!! But we have turned the music off in her room, and the humidifier, and that seems to work. I also tuck her in on both sides when I put her down, maybe a security thing? But she has been sleeping well for her naps, and at night now for some time so we are grateful for that.


We have been working with our local highschool the past month. We are both alumni, and we help them out with their musical. Gary has been doing it for 10 years or longer, I have been doing their choreography for the past 6 years. Gary does all their lighting, and sound. It's a lot of fun, but a lot of time, extra time. I don't always have the extra time these days. It's been tough on me this year. I was doing choreography at 3:00AM because I was busy the rest of the day. That got old quick, and then I got really sick last week-typical. Had to take a day off of work, got an allergic reaction to the meds I was on, had to cancel 2 Company rehearsals-too much!! But the musical is this weekend, so we're done after Saturday. Gary, who has a full time job from 8:00-5:00, would do that then go to rehearsals from 6:00-10:00, like I said a lot of extra time, and time away from Avery-hard!!


Avery is learning her ABC's, and we are working on colors. She knows quite a few of her numbers already. She continues to make us laugh, and life is so much fun everyday!! I don't think we really knew how fun life would be, or how much laughter there would be in our house, or how much we could love one little girl!!! She is wonderful, and her smile just lights up our days. I love hearing, "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy"!!!! when I walk through the door. I love the little pecks (kisses) I get out of the blue. When I was sick last week, she kept asking me, "K? Mama? K?" She is one sweet sweet sweet special little girl!!!

We found out last weekend that our Adoption Agency is closing it's doors. It really didn't surprise us, they have been cutting staff down for the past 2 years. They specialize in China adoptions, and with the wait so long now, the people interested in China adoptions have dropped off significantly. So we will have to find a new agency for the next adoption. We still want to do China, and the special needs program. We feel Avery needs a sister, so we will probably start that process Summer/Fall.  I will do some digging in the next few months. If anyone has any suggestions please pass them on to us. We have some friends that went through different online agencies, so I will talk to them also. Glad we didn't start the process yet for Avery's sister, wouldn't want to have to switch agencies mid way through, I've heard horror stories about that. So we have a lot of researching to do in the next few months.


So there's an update along with some Friday faces. Would love to hear from some people. 
Oh! Avery has her first pair of ballet shoes, she loves wearing them around the house-so cute!! I see many more in her future, along with tap shoes, jazz shoes, character shoes!!  :)




8 Months ago tomorrow we met this little China girl, our daughter. The most special little girl in the world. Oh how she has changed, and changed us!! 

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

She's a Smarty!!

We are a little behind on our blogging lately. Really busy schedules, with the dance studio, musical rehearsals at school, choreography, and the company-not much down time right now!!

We took Avery in for her next round of shots yesterday, first Hep. A shot, and another one I can't remember right now but it was the last one in a series. Dr. O our pediatrician is always really good with Avery. She is so personable, and genuinely excited to see us when we come in, it is always such a positive experience taking her in for her appointments. Every time we go in Dr. O asks us how she is progressing, and what she has learned, new words, phrases, etc. We have been thinking she is doing great, really a sharp, curious little girl!! Always wants to learn, loves her books, and we are always impressed with her ability to pick things up fast. But we also know we are her proud as punch parents and we are a little biased, we think she walks on water, and is the smartest little ladybug around. Our parents have been saying the same thing, but again they are a little biased too, being the proud grandparents and all!!

But we were right! Dr. O asked if she is putting words together, and we said yes, and she asked what were the new words, and I said she knows, numbers, colors, shapes, and animals, and body parts etc. Dr.O was very  surprised she knew her numbers by sight, and also her shapes by sight. I took her pen and drew all the shapes on the paper on the bench and Avery named them all. We went through a book, and she said her numbers by sight. DR. O says most children memorize their numbers,  but don't know them by sight until much later, same with her shapes-she was very, very, impressed!! We got done with the shapes and I looked at Dr. O and said, "is that good?", and she had her mouth open in disbelief. So that made us feel good. We have no reference being that Avery is our first child. We thought she was pretty smart, and sharp as a whip!! Turns out we were right. We are allowed to brag, she's our daughter!! So it's safe to say we are very very proud parents!!!

On another note, we asked Dr. O about Avery's waking up in the middle of the night. We were right, she is having night terrors. That's exactly what Dr. O said. They have been fewer lately, but it still happens. So hopefully they will work their way through and stop pretty soon. We go in her room and comfort her, because sometimes she will cry/scream for over 25 minutes. But other times it just takes rocking her in the rocker for 10 minutes and she is all good to go back to sleep.

Other than that Avery continues to thrive. We are excited about Dora's big ballet/dance adventure that will be on in a couple weeks. We have a new blue leotard, and I'm looking for ballet shoes her size-hard to find that tiny. But I am excited about the Dora dance episodes coming up, ya know being the Mommy, and a dance teacher, out little bug loves to dance all the time!!

Oh! Avery now gets in her big Dora tent, and plays-BIG NEWS!! We've had it for 2 months and this is the first time she has had any interest in playing with it-YAY!!

Enjoy your day!!