Last Updated:
Nov 20, 2009
Avery Candace Maize Drew Tillman Maize
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Last Updated: Nov 20, 2009 |
Two A-maizing Kids! Avery Candace Maize Drew Tillman Maize |
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Stories 4/11/09 - Last night the 3 of us, along with Steve's parents went to the Diamondbacks vs. Dodgers game. We had a great time and had fantastic seats - 11th row straight up from the DBack's dugout. We stayed the entire game hoping to see the fireworks show at the end, but unfortunately, it was cancelled due to the wind & chance of rain. Avery had her first taste of REAL popcorn and between her & grandma, they made a pretty good dent in the big souvenir helmet! Baxter the Bobcat (mascot) was in our section hanging out with the kids, so Steve took Avery over to meet him. We thought she'd be excited since she looked for him the whole game and was saving the seat in front of her for Baxter to sit in. Her reaction to Baxter was the same one that Santa got - crying & huge crocodile tears! 4/8/09 - Last weekend my mom came down to spend the night since my dad was out of town. From Saturday at about 10:00 a.m. until Saturday night about 9:00 p.m. Avery, my mom & I shopped until we dropped! Steve had given me some early birthday money to buy some clothes while my mom was here to help me shop. I really don't enjoy shopping for myself at all. . . it's much more fun shopping for Avery's clothes! On Sunday we went to church, out to breakfast and shopped some more before my mom left and we headed over to a friend's house for his birthday dinner. Sunday night I started to ache all over . . . my skin hurt and I was sooo tired. I thought it was from my marathon shopping day, but unfortunately, I was the next one in the family to get the awful flu that is being passed around like wildfire! I was down & out for 24 hours, then thankfully it just disappeared. In other news . . . Avery is now counting to 10 (and sometimes a few extra), sings ABC's, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, The Temptations "My Girl", and Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours" (her favorite song), and can put on her own shoes and 90% of the time manages to get them on the right feet! She is getting better on knowing her colors, thanks to the M&M's we're using for potty training. She loves coloring, playdough, helping mom cook/bake and any type of arts & crafts project. She still loves her baby dolls, and "cooking" her play food in her microwave for her friends. On the other hand, I am noticing more defiance from Avery. Lately she has been telling us "NO!" when we ask her to do something, and when we ask her again we get a very dramatic "NoOoOoOo!" So, we have had to start using time outs, and taking away privledges, as well as being consistent to follow through on what we say. We're gearing up for our big daycare Easter party on Friday. We'll be dying eggs, going on an egg hunt, making an Easter craft, and celebrating one of the daycare kid's birthdays! 3/31/09 - Sadly, my grandparents left today to go back to Wisconsin. They stayed an extra week this visit and it still didn't seem like we had enough time to visit with them. Avery really enjoyed her time with Great Grandpa Jim & Great Grandma Shirley. Great Grandma Shirley read Avery all kinds of books and Great Grandpa Jim helped Grandpa make a very special miniature picnic table for Avery! This past weekend Avery & I spent the night at my parents house so we could squeeze in some extra time with my grandparents since we didn't get to see them on the weekdays. We went to church and out to dinner on Saturday night. Sunday morning we woke up and all went over to the railroad park to ride the trains & carousel and enjoy the absolutely beautiful weather. We dropped off the Great Grandparents & my dad so my mom, Avery & I could go to Toys-R-Us to use some of Avery's birthday money. She loves pretending to take pictures with anything that resembles a camera, so we were on a hunt to find her a play camera. Aside from getting her own personal camera, she got a really cute microwave oven that lights up & sounds like it's cooking things (since she LOVES her dishes & play food), a drum, and a View Master. While Avery napped at my parent's house, my sister & I did some shopping, then it was time to head home, so I could get my daycare shopping done and we could spend some time with daddy since he had to work Saturday and play golf on Sunday with work people. 03/24/09 - On Friday night, Grandma & Grandpa Maize brought over Avery's sandtable that they got her for her birthday. She has had so much fun with it ever since they filled it with sand, and even woke up at 6:30 Saturday morning and asked to play in the sand as soon as I got her up. Saturday afternoon Avery & I drove up to my sister & brother-in-law's house. They live near Anthem, which is usually about an hour drive from our house. Well . . . because of the horrible construction on the Loop 101 which only left 1 northbound lane open and because of the 2 accidents in that one open lane, it took us 2 hours to get there. Avery is always such a good car rider and doesn't mind being in her carseat at all, but she knew we were in a traffic jam and kept saying "move car, MOVE!" Once we made it up there, we went to church and out to dinner at Logan's Roadhouse. On the way home we splurged and treated ourselves to Culver's frozen custard! For those that don't know - Culver's headquarters is out of a tiny little town in Wisconsin, right near where I'm from. Their food is awesome and their frozen custard is soooo good! After we put Avery to bed, my mom, sister, brother-in-law and I played Wii bowling & Wii fit. It was my first time playing Wii and I loved it, but I could totally see where it could get addicting! Sunday morning we went out for breakfast at a place called Pioneer Village. It's in the middle of the desert (but next to a prison!) off of I-17 and just north of Carefree Hwy. It was a neat little place. Unfortunately, my grandma came down with the flu in the middle of the night, so she wasn't able to go with us. Once she was feeling a little better, we all headed back to my parent's house for a trip to the train park and a yummy family dinner - Honeybaked ham & cheesy potatoes . . . my favorite! Yesterday was daddy's birthday, so after I was done making a trip to downtown Phoenix to renew my teaching certificate, Avery & I headed out to get daddy a present and a "Barney cake". After about 4 stores and 2 hours past Avery's naptime I called it quits when we couldn't find what we were looking for. We brought home a "Barney cake" (that's what daddy told Avery he wanted) and celebrated with just the 3 of us. Daddy went and picked up dinner from a new restaurant that he's been wanting to try and we called it a night . . . . or so we thought! At about 1:30 a.m., Avery woke up crying and throwing up. We thought it was due to the fact that she ate a piece of cake (ok, well she ate all of the frosting) and didn't eat any dinner. We finally got her back to sleep, and just as Steve & I had fallen asleep our smoke detectors started going off . . . .and wouldn't quit! They kept going off from 3:30 a.m. until 7:30 a.m. when Steve got up and pulled the fuse & all of the batteries out of them. Avery woke up at about 7:45 with diarrhea, and just as I was changing her my mom called to say that my sister, brother-in-law, grandpa & dad were all throwing up & going to the bathroom all night long, so it looks like we've caught a flu bug around here! :o( I am praying that I'm "in the clear" on this one!! 03/21/09 - Steve took Avery to the doctor yesterday for her 2 yr. check-up. Her stats are: Height- 33 3/4 inches (50%), Weight- 26 lbs. (40%), Head Circumfrence- 19 1/4 in (85%). Steve told the Dr. that people have been telling us recently how little Avery is, and they can't believe she's 2 years old. The Dr. said "her size is perfect. Maybe they are getting the illusion that she's tiny because she has a large head, which is good because she's got a lot of brains!" So that made us feel better to hear that! They did an Autism screening, she got a Hep. A vaccination, and said everything else looks good. He couldn't believe her language development - she has so many words and they are all so clear. The last few times we've been to the doctor, the receptionist just sits there and laughs at how Avery talks the whole time we sit there. I guess yesterday Avery was the only one in the waiting room (hard to believe, I know!) and was playing with the train set. In her most enthusiastic voice she said loud & clear: "All aboard! Hold on tight! Choo-chooooo!" Avery's hives are all gone. The doctor said it probably was the strawberries, as they are highly allergenic. I guess research done in Sweden has found that it's a protein(?) that causes strawberries to have the red color that makes them allergenic. I guess there are white strawberries that would be ok for her to eat, but they are not that sweet and hard to find. She likes apples, grapes, kiwi, pineapple, oranges and blueberries, so we'll stick to those for a while. 03/17/09 - Avery's 2nd birthday party was so much fun! We had about 35 adults and almost 20 kids here to celebrate with us. All week long I worked on making Avery's Elmo cake and cupcakes. They were pretty easy to make, just time consuming. The big Elmo cake was a chocolate cake from scratch and was sooooo yummy, and the cupcakes were a hit with the kids. We had perfect weather for playing, eating and socializing outdoors and plenty of pizza, appetizers and refreshments to satisfy our tastebuds! Avery had so much fun having all of her friends here to eat cake, open presents and play. All of the gifts Avery received were so thoughtful, and each day we have opened a few for her to play with. So far, she loves her basketball hoop, golf set, and play food. Sometime this week, her new sandtable from Grandma & Grandpa Maize, Alecia, Sean, Hailey, Jordan & Allison will be here and I know she will LOVE it! After most of the guests had gone home, and my sister went in to change Avery's diaper, she noticed Avery was covered in a red rash. We were concerned about it, but gave her some Benadryl to see if it would help before we took her to a doctor. After a couple of hours, we went to put on her PJ's and the red bumps were even worse. So, at 9:00 pm I packed up Avery and we headed to Twilight Care. We waited almost 2 hours to be seen and the diagnosis was that Avery was having an allergic reaction to something - most likely something she that day. The nurse practitioner said there is no way to find out exactly what it is that caused her to get hives, except by taking her to an allergist for the skin prick/scratch test. She said since it was not affecting her airway, nor did it seem to bother her in the least bit she wouldn't advise putting her through the uncomfortable experience. My gut feeling is that it's strawberries. Last year when strawberries went on sale really cheap, we were eating them like crazy and she broke out into a rash. At that time I called the doctor's office and they told me they didn't think it was from the strawberries, so I just brushed it off. Well, we had been eating strawberries all last week and as I thought about it, she did have some red bumps on her chest earlier in the week and I didn't think anything of it. On Saturday, Avery ate a ton of fresh strawberries, strawberry Jell-O jigglers, and drank a few mixed berry (with strawberry puree) juice boxes! She has not had strawberry anything since then and the hives seemed to have disappeared as of today! On Sunday (15th) Steve's sisters & I threw a surprise 60th birthday party for my mother-in-law. She had been at the casino all day with her friend, and when she came home, her whole family and a few of her closest friends were all waiting with dinner and wine ready to celebrate! Avery loves playing with her cousins at Grandma & Grandpa Maize's house and her favorite toy there is their adorable red, metal shopping cart full of groceries! 03/13/09 - Avery's 2nd birthday is starting off as a TWO year old's should . . . . with a terrible two temper tantrum first thing this morning, then she proceded to draw all over her mouth, cheeks & chin with markers (they were Crayola, but not washable ones), and finally, would not speak on the phone to the family members who were calling to wish her a happy birthday. She did manage to squeak out a smile when we were watching the Sprout channel this morning. I had made her an Elmo birthday card and sent it in to be on tv today. I was SO excited to see that my card made the cut this year! Avery and the daycare kids were really excited when they saw Avery's picture on tv! We just had a little birthday celebration with the daycare kids this morning. . . . pictures to follow.
03/12/09 - Two years ago this morning, I went in to be induced to have a baby! I honestly can't believe it has been two years already. It is still so fresh in my mind. I remember every detail of this day: my scary, swollen feet & ankles, not being able to wear eye make-up because I caught pink eye from one of my students, the morning rush hour drive to the hospital, joking around with the nurse while she got my room ready, getting into that beautiful hospital gown, the start of pitocin and hours of excruciating back labor, using my Nick Lachey CD cover as my focal piont, and lying in that bed for HOURS anxious for our little bundle of joy to arrive. I thought for sure Avery would be born today . . . on her 2nd cousin Dillon's birthday . . . . but noooo, 22 long hours later she would be born! 3/9/09 - This past Saturday Uncle Cory & Aunt Lisa came down so Steve and I could attend our friend's wedding. Uncle Cory & Aunt Lisa spent the night, and on Sunday morning we all went to church and out to breakfast together. As always, it was so much fun having them here. Some good news - Avery is finally over her respitory/sinus infection and seems to be feeling 100% again. My grandparents are also feeling better from having the flu last week, so they hopped on a plane yesterday and flew into town. They will be here until the 31st of March - we are so excited for their extended visit. My parents and grandparents are coming down tonight for dinner - grilled chicken breasts, London Broil, grilled asparagus, homemade yeast rolls, and grandma's homemade lemon meringue pie! Great Grandmom & Great Grandpa can't wait to see Avery - it's been since the beginning of July since they've seen her, and she's changed quite a bit since then! It's hard to believe that Avery will be 2 on Friday. I am a little sad, but am more thankful that I am able to be home with her every day so I can enjoy every moment of her life! (Boy, will I will be a mess when she starts kindergarten!) We're gearing up for Avery's big "Elmo" party on Saturday!! : )
2/27/09 - I took Avery to her first movie tonight! The school where I used to teach shows a movie one Friday night a month, and tonight's movie was Madagascar 2. It's really cool - they show the movie on the huge outdoor amphitheater wall, and people bring blankets and lawn chairs to sit on/in. I thought it would be the perfect time to see how Avery would do through an entire movie. She was pretty good. She sat in her stroller most of the time, but also want to sit by some of her daycare friends that met us there too. The hardest part was keeping her away from the popcorn. Note to self: next time bring Avery's "special" popcorn (Pirate Treasure from Fresh & Easy) with us. I bought her cotton candy, which she has never tried, and she hated it (good!). I bought her Chex mix, ring pops, fruit snacks, pretzels . . . none of those worked for her either. . . the girl loves her popcorn - just like Grandma Maize! 2/25/09 - Little Miss Avery has been under the weather since Friday. During the night on Friday she was up multiple times coughing really hard to the point where she would vomit. She did the same thing on Saturday, so we took her to Twilight Care at her Pediatrician's office. The Pediatrician examined her and told me all about RSV, as I started to panic, he told me that typically healthy kids recover within 1-2 weeks and hospitalization is usually not necessary. He sent us right over to the 24 hr. pharmacy to get her meds in her right away. Avery and I ended up getting home at 12:45 in the morning and were both VERY crabby and tired! The next few days and nights were not good - lots of coughing, vomiting, high fevers, and tears. However, the good news is the nurse called today and said Avery does not have RSV, but has a terrible head cold, a sinus infection and restrictive airway disease. She has been taking liquid Albuterol and an antibiotic and will continue for 10 more days. The Albuterol makes her CRAZY! She has HUGE mood swings, is hyper one minute, sad & whiny the next, then happy. Steve and I made an executive decision to not give her the dose before bedtime because she was not sleeping and was acting very strange at night. Finally, today I see some improvement with her. She is choosing to eat now, and willing to drink more liquids, was playing and did some arts & crafts projects today too. We have to get this little girl well for her great-grandparent's visit in a few days and her big Elmo birthday bash in two weeks! 2-14-09: Happy Valentine's Day! Yesterday we had a Valentine's party with the daycare kids complete with lots of treats, crafts, and red velvet cupcakes! I made these silly heart hats for all of the kids and they looked so cute in them! We sang all kinds of new songs that I learned in my music class the last 2 weekends, and read a book about Valentine's day. Holidays are so much more fun now that Avery totally gets what they are all about. Today Grandmom came down early in the morning to watch Avery for the whole day. I had class (yea . . . now I can get recertified!), and daddy was working on a Habitat for Humanity Home way out on the west side of Phoenix. I brought home dinner from Outback, since we were both too tired to go out on the town tonight. We had Cold Stone Creamery ice cream cupcakes for dessert, thanks to one of my awesome daycare parents! : ) Tomorrow we're going up to Scottsdale to my parent's house for a big family dinner, and will be spending some time with my grandma and aunt while they are in town. 2/5/09 - On Sunday we had a couple of our dearest friends & their kids over for some Super Bowl fun. A friend of ours is starting her own photography business and took some really cute pictures of Avery for her 2nd birthday invitation. It was so fun having a laid back day of snacking, cheering for the Cardinals, letting the kids run around & play and catching up with our friends. We really wished the Cardinals would have won the Super Bowl, but heck, we're just so excited they made it there! Avery had a busy weekend with spending the night at Grandma & Grandpa's house Fri./Sat., running errands with mommy on Saturday while daddy was doing promo's, and playing with her friends on Sunday. It all caught up to her Sunday night after everyone had gone home and it was time to go to bed. She turned into a little monster and did not want to go to bed. She threw a huge fit - screaming, kicking, crying, and a nice "vomit show" to end it all. As Avery inches towards the big "2", I'm noticing that she is throwing more tantrums on a regular basis now - like daily (and multiple times a day)! Tuesday she threw another tantrum and threw up at bedtime because she didn't want to brush her teeth. I have done more of Avery's laundry this week than I have all last month because of the messes and bedding/clothing changes. I'm starting to see that the "Terrible Two's" thing is no joke! My Grandma is in town visiting from Wisconsin, so she and my dad drove down yesterday so they could visit with Avery for a while. They took Avery to our neighborhood park for a picnic and some playground fun - the weather was perfect for a picnic in the park! Avery had a good time, but seems to be getting a little cold and is feeling a bit under the weather today. On another note: Avery has really surprised me with a few things she has done/said this past week. Besides throwing tantrums, she has managed to learn the color "green" and can identify green things, and has learned how to make the sign of the cross and say "In the name of the Father, Son & Holy Ghost". Then tonight when I was leaving to go run an errand, she gave me a kiss and a hug, and as I was walking out the door she yelled "Be careful!". It was SO cute! She must have picked up on Steve & I saying that to each other. When I got home she had yet another surprise for me . . . . while I was gone, she and daddy were practicing saying and identifying body parts. After Steve went through all of the parts she knows (head, hair, eyes, ears, nose, eye brows, mouth, teeth, tongue, shoulders, legs, elbow, arms, hands, fingers, toes, feet, belly button, tummy) Avery lifts her shirt and says "BOOBIES"!!! OH MY GOSH - where the heck did she learn that??? I monitor the language used by my daycare kids very closely and have not heard them use that word or identify what they are, so I'm at a loss . . . and I PROMISE I don't go around lifting my shirt and using that word!! LOL ... Tomorrrow night I have Bunco, so Avery & daddy will have a date night. Then on Saturday I will be at a music for toddlers class all day, so daddy will get to have a whole day of fun with his little princess. : ) 1/31/09 - Last night Avery spent the night at Steve's parent's house. Her cousin Jordan had a sleepover there as well, and cousin Hailey came to play this morning. They always have a great time playing together. Steve is doing promotions all weekend long for the superbowl, so he brought home the Coors Light race car to use for his promo's. Avery had so much fun pretending to drive, turning on the lights, wipers & sounding the horn.
1/27/09: Avery & I went up to my parent's house after all of the daycare kids left so my mom could help me sew some aprons. I saw some super-cute dishtowel aprons on a website and wanted to make a couple of them, 1 for a bridal shower that I have on Friday night and 1 for my Bunco Valentine exchange. They were SO easy to make, well easy for me to say since I didn't have to sew them. I can sew a button on but that's as far as my sewing abilities go. Avery, Grandpa & Aunt Lisa played while my mom and I worked on the aprons. I thought they turned out pretty cute. 1/27/09 - Last night we watched the video montage we put together to play at Avery's 1st birthday last year. Avery LOVES looking at pictures of herself, her friends & her family and thinks it's so funny to see baby pictures of herself. When it got to the picture of the 3 of us plus Deacon Herve from her baptism Avery said "mommy, daddy, Avery, and Ho Ho Ho"!!! She thought Deacon Herve was Santa!! Steve and I were doubled over in laughter. Later on in the evening we were still laughing about it . . . . I guess he does kind of look like Santa! (See "pictures" page)
January 2009 - As Avery quickly approaches two, she is reallly changing and growing up so fast. She has done some funny and exciting things lately that I thought I would write on here (her virtual babybook!). About 3 weeks ago, we were playing with Avery's little wooden puzzle with the numbers 0-9. When you lift the wooden number, there would be a picture to depict how many objects (ie: below the number three was a picture of 3 fish). We were practicing her numbers with her for quite a while that night, and later on in the evening Steve put out his hand and said "Avery, can you give Daddy five?" Avery goes over to her puzzle, finds the number 5 piece and put it in her daddy's hand! A two weeks ago, Avery was eating her morning snack and out of nowhere says "Green spoon Mommy!" Last week, I had dumped two boxes of markers on the table for the kids to use. Avery picks up the yellow one and said "Yellow marker Mommy!" and kissed it. Finally, in the recent weeks Avery has had a difficult time listening to and following our directions when she is into something she shouldn't have. We say things like "Avery, please put that back", and she acts like she can not hear us. It takes us slightly raising our voices and saying "Avery Candace! Please (blah, blah, blah)". Well, the other night Avery was in a really crabby mood and was not happy when Rudy decided to jump on the sofa to sit next to her. She looked at him and said in her crabbiest voice "NO NO Rudy Candace!" Steve & I were cracking up!
1/18/09: Wow . . . I can't believe the weekend is already over. We sure had a very busy calendar this weekend. We were invited to one of my daycare children's 4th birthday party at Peter Piper Pizza on Friday night. It's so fun (yet sad) to see how independent Avery is becoming. She just tagged right along with the big boys at the party playing games, collecting tickets and climbing through the big slide structure. Saturday morning Steve went golfing while my friend Hannah came over to play "beauty salon". We weaved (highlighted) each other's hair . . . yippeee - I'm sooooo happy to be a blonde again! While Hannah & I were doing our hair, my parents came down to spend time with Avery and ended up taking her home with them to spend the night. My friend Hannah & her husband Mike and Steve & I went out to Dave & Buster's Saturday night for dinner and some video game fun. While we were enjoying our double date, Avery, Grandmom, Grandpa, Uncle Cory & Aunt Lisa all went to church and out for pizza. This morning, Avery, Grandmom & Grandpa went to the railroad park and out to breakfast at 5 & Diner. I drove up to Scottsdale to pick her up and we went straight to another daycare child's 3rd birthday party at his home in Gilbert. They had rented a huge bounce house with a big inflatable slide that Avery LOVED! We got home in time to see the last minute of the Cardina's vs. Eagles game. The only nap she got today was the 50 minute car ride from Scottsdale to Gilbert, so she was really ready for an early bedtime tonight. 1-8-09: Last night Avery got to experience her very first Phoenix Suns Basketball game. We had suite tickets, so it was good to have room for Avery to run off some energy. She was a VERY well behaved little fan, and we all had a great time. Avery loved all of the music and clapping, and even boo'd when they announced the Pacers players! When there were about 5 minutes left in the game, Avery told us she had to go "poop", so we headed out before the rush of people started to leave. It was a good game, despite the Suns' loss. 1/6/08 - Yesterday I went to the dentist to get my routine cleaning and decided to bring Avery with me. I thought it would be a good experience for her to see that the dentist is not so scary, so she would be prepared for her first teeth cleaning. Avery sat in the room with me and just played with her backpack of toys while looking on at what was going on in my mouth. When I was done, Avery sat on my lap and got her very first dental exam. Dr. Fowler was great with her and she responded to him so well. She did everything he asked and did not make a peep! I was so surprised and am SO proud of her! It probably helped that her grandma works for Dr. Fowler and spoiled her with stickers and a new toothbrush during her visit.
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