now that's better.

we're back to a seasonable 50 or 60 something degrees. i'm in heaven.

i have the energy and comfort level to actually get things done. like clean. and bake. and do homework.

so then i reward myself by playing around with pictures. :)

everyone's happy.

79!

79. as in 79 DEGREES on september 29th (happy birthday auntie monkey!!!!!)?!!

i think i finally figured out my irritable mood week.

boo.

*edited to add: it's not so much the temperature i mind. 79 degrees on a dry sunny day would be heavenly. it's the humidity. oh, the humidity. it makes for a sticky gross uncomfortable house. and outside is worse. bleghghghghghghg.

those weird walsh kids ;)

avery refused to get out of her footy pj's this morning, BOTH had diapers on their heads for a good part of the morning, nola wore that backpack for 3 hours and wouldn't let me touch it, and avery wouldn't let go of her balloon.

they definitely know what they want and don't back down :)

what we've been missing!

we are the proud recipients of the best backyard toy the girls could have ever hoped for!! they had a BLAST playing on this the first 2 days we had it. and since then it's been rainy and crappy and they look longingly out to the yard and whine and ask if they can play in the "clubhouse"...

it didn't take them long to find the dirt that is readily available for digging.

and throwing at your sister.

:)

THANK YOU kim, kendall and brooke for letting us be the next in line for all the fun this clubhouse has to offer!! the girls are in love!

where?

there really is a lot i could write about. but i can't. a strange thing happened this morning. when i went to get nola from her crib, my baby wasn't there.

overnight she turned into a little kid. and i'm a little sad....

from head to toe

i came home from class last night (ps, have i mentioned i LOVE being back in school? love it. LOVE it.) and noticed the camera on the kitchen counter. i picked it up and checked to see if there were any new pictures-don't know why, zane likes using the video camera better and having both girls in the afternoon before dinner can be tricky enough without bringing cameras into the picture. but i checked and was met with this picture:


and i laughed and chuckled and teared up a bit because i missed the girls and this was just a great shot to capture what they like to do and how they do it.

i scrolled through and there were TONS of pictures from yesterday afternoon while the girls played with dada on the deck.


(try not to grin at nola's SLENDER legs! seriously though, she's slimming out...miss the baby chub.)

there was only one problem with the pictures. did you notice?

it's SEPTEMBER. and the girls aren't wearing any PANTS.

OUTSIDE. because it's HOT.

this year i'm remembering my love-hate relationship with september. it promises all good things like jeans and hot chocolate and fire-pits and oktoberfest and apples. but then it throws in a few days with 80+ degree weather and makes me want to stomp and cry and throw things. october, however? love. all around. bring it on.

all i want for christmas

if i got nothing but new shoes for christmas, the girls would be sitting on top of the world. no matter what toys are out, or what movie we put on for them, their favorite pastime is rifling through our/my shoe bin and tromping around in my shoes. they don't get sick of it, they only have more fun everytime they put on some heels and run around.

ah, little girls...

it's still the little things...

*edited to add picture of cake...*


having my coffee poured all over the floor upstairs just made this already crappy week that much more unpleasant.

but as i'm trying to get the carpet dry and the wood floors clean, i hear avery start singing "happy birthday to you", as she brings me a playdough birthday cake she made.

:) it made all the crappy stuff seem almost insignificant...

and finally avery's grid...

the little things...

today was an emotional and draining day. mema is on her way back home, after being out here on the east coast with us for a year and a half. we are all going to miss her TREMENDOUSLY, and just hours after her departure we were already feeling sadness slip in. so i tried to cheer people up by playing around with our webcam program.

it worked for a couple minutes, which is more than anything else did! in the end, it was early bedtimes and crashing on the couch.

love you mema, can't wait til we all get to see each other again!!

15 month check-in

nola had her 15 month appointment yesterday. it's really astounding how she and avery have pretty much followed the same track with height and weight. nola has been a lb or 2 bigger than avery from the start, but their heights have matched up, and just like avery started slowing down in weight at 15 months, so has nola.

when we got into the exam room and the nurse weighed nola, i did a little dance that she had lost a pound since the last visit. not because i thought she needed to lose weight, but because the dr said she expected that nola would slow down in her growth curve a bit. sure enough, with all the walking/running/climbing/jumping she does (and switching to 2% milk), she's down from 31 lbs at 12 months to 30 lbs, and 33in at 15 months. (avery was 27+lbs and 33in at 15 months). everything checked out really well, despite her screaming through the entire appointment (EXACTLY what avery did at 15 months) and having a cold on top of it all.

we've started a new bedtime routing with the girls, one that lets a lot more of it be done as a family. after a bath (which happens most nights, but not all), we brush teeth and then all head into our room to get them dressed/diapered/lotioned/powdered for the night. then we all pile in bed and read a story or 2. at this point, nola is still getting a couple oz of milk while we read, then zane takes her into her room to put her down while i go with avery into her room to pick out 3 more stories. zane comes in, she picks her reader for the night and we sing her favorite songs and it's lights out.

i LOVE this new routine. i love having us all be together for a lot of it. as the weeks go on, our plan is to have more books in our bed and maybe start some chapter books for avery that we can read to her while she's in her own bed. it all makes for some really nice cozy family time, which is really nice after the hectic days around here....

funny story.

this morning i was trying to get avery ready for school. the backpack we had for her broke and i was looking for a smallish bag to put her stuff in for the day. she kept telling me she wanted to wear her backpack and i kept telling her it was broken. i remembered a bag that was in the hall closet, but i couldn't reach it.

me: "hang on avery, i'm just going to try something else"
avery: "is it a backpack?"
me: "no, hang on, let me just try something."
i get a chair from the living room and start to carry it to the front hall.

avery: "i don't want to wear THAT on my back!"

gotta love her :)

ps, day #2 at school went fantastic. her teacher even commented on how well she knew all of her colors. i'm proud :)

pps, nola started to say "a-vee" or "vee-vee" the other day, just for the record. i play on getting a video of it soon (thanks for the idea aunt karen!)

i swear...

i'm not trying to procrastinate. i sat down to do homework and the simmons elearning site is down.


so i played around with our new office 2010.

and now i need to do a quick one of avery because i don't want to leave her out.

:)

off to school...

september 8th.
avery leaves the nest and begins her journey into the world :)


i read her "the kissing hand" the night before, and figured if she (or i) was having a hard time separating, we could do the kissing hand and maybe it would help. i teared up when i was reading. then i spent hours looking through her baby pictures, trying to convince myself that it was more than just minutes ago that she was born...

her preschool is up the street from my parent's house, so we headed there first so i could take some pictures and drop nola off while i walked avery to school.

she stood impatiently in front of the door to school and then eagerly went downstairs. i filled out the emergency contact form, took one more picture and heard "goodbye mama!", gave her a kiss and walked back to my childhood home in the rain. when i went back later to pick her up, she smiled. but there was no running or hugging or overwhelming joy. it was like she had been going to school for years and it was just another day.

my baby grew up...and i'm so proud.

(ps, when i went to preschool/kindergarten/part of 1st grade, i threw fits, wouldn't move from the door, wouldn't go to the bathroom, wouldn't talk, play, smile. so...this is big :))

the last summer weekend.

we managed to pack a lot into our last "official" long summer weekend!

after my first class on thursday night (i loved it!! can't wait to go back!), zane and i went on a date to a local pub. had some good greasy food and good conversation. it felt like we were young and carefree for a night, very fun :)

our neighbors have season tickets to bc football and couldn't make it to opening day on saturday. we took avery and it was AWESOME! i've never been to a college football game, neither one of us could remember when we'd last been to a game period and avery had obviously never been to one, so it was a great experience for us all. and the weather could not have been more perfect! we got there pretty early and only stayed for part of the first quarter, but we had a blast. hopefully we'll get to take over their tickets again sometime ;)

after the game, we went to my sister's house for our first bbq. avery walked around and took pictures of everyone (for another post) and we had great food and delicious cake (we sang "happy birthday to cake"). that night zane and i went out again and used up a groupon we had for a mexican restaraunt we love. we got seated outside and were enjoying the lifestyle of cambridge until it started raining out of nowhere! we got seated inside and enjoyed our margaritas and nachos in peace and dryness.

the forecast for sunday was amazing cooler weather, so we packed up and went apple picking. the girls got to jump in a bouncy house (we were there so early, they got the thing all to themselves!)

saw some animals (nola wanted in!)

and finally picked some apples (and peaches!)

today we got to be a bit more lazy and had another small bbq here. i'd post pictures but it's been slow just getting these up, so i'll continue tomorrow...

but, to recap. awesome weekend. can't wait for the next one.