My Strong-Willed Child!!!!

Isn't he just the most handsome little boy!!! I have (over the last few weeks) been listening to "The New Strong-Willed Child" by Dr. James Dobson. There are times when Avery is just the most loveable, cuddly, most wonderful kid ever. I don't know if he actually qualifies as a TRUE Stong-Willed Child. After listening (I have the book on CD - I don't have time to read a book, but can listen to it in the car!!) I realize how lucky I am that he is only mildly Strong-Willed. But when he decides he wants something his way, he will fight me to (his) tears to get it. If I have learned anything from this book so far, it is that you NEVER let the child win. I was doing myself, and Avery a big disservice by giving into him occasionally. It is just so much easier to let him have that cookie, than to listen and deal with the fit that will follow if I say NO. The biggest problem that I have with Avery, at the moment, is that he REFUSES to eat. Unless it is one of the few things that he likes, he will refuse to eat. I don't know what to do. I REFUSE to fix him a special meal. I guess what I am wondering is if I should MAKE him (by make him I mean I would have to force the food in his mouth and hold his mouth closed till he chokes it down) eat a bite of everything on his plate, or just let him go hungry. I am afraid that if I don't make him eat stuff and try the "NEW" things that he will only eat chicken nuggets and biscuits for the rest of his life. I have never had this problem with Lily. When we are eating, she will ask if she can be done, and I will say "Eat 2 bites of peas, and 2 bites of apples, then you can be done" and she does it, no problems. But then I don't make Avery!! She has started asking me why she has to eat that stuff if Avery doesn't, and I don't know what to tell her. Dr. Dobson says to pick your battles, and when you pick it you HAVE to win it. I just don't know that I want to spend 2 hours listening to Avery scream and REFUSE to even try stuff every night. It's not hard at breakfast or lunch. He likes pretty much all breakfast food (except eggs and meat), and for lunch it's just the two of us, so I usually just fix something I know he will eat, just to save the battle. I guess I am asking for advice from all you moms out there. What do you think I should do here????

Avery's 2nd Birthday Party!!

So we had Avery's 2nd Birthday Party on Saturday (Sept 20). We had it at the big park in harrison. It was a BEAUTIFUL day. A little overcast, but no rain, and not at all to hot. We really couldn't have asked for a better day to have it. I was so happy the weather cooperated!! I can't believe that my "baby" is 2 already. Kinda sad in a way, you know. Anway, I took over 80 pictures, and it was REALLY hard to narrow it down to these six, but I thought I could tell most of the details with these!!

I made Avery's cake to look like a tire. He had a "Cars" themed party. Then I bought these cute little cars to decorate it with. He was not at all interested in the cake, he wanted the cars. It was so cute. Finally, Poppy Bob (Adam's Grandpa) helped keep him out of them until we were done singing. The blowing candles out concept was totally lost on him. Everyone was telling him to blow them out, and he kept trying to grab them instead. I ended up blowing them out for him. He then picked off the Lightning and Mater cars and ate a HUGE piece of cake.
I wish that I had taken better pictures of the cake, cause it actually turned out pretty stinkin cute. I didn't write anything on the actual cake (mainly cause there wasn't room) so I made a little sign to stick in it that had Lightning (His favorite from the movie) on it and Happy 2nd Birthday Avery. Sometimes, I am so proud of my brilliant ideas.
Avery LOVES the Cars movie. His 2 favorite are Lightning and Mater. He got a lot of Cars themed things for his birthday. He already has several different Lightning cars, so we got him a Mater truck. He LOVES it. The best part of it all is the way he say Lightning. He says "CarNing". He will say Lightning on occasion but CarNing is what he normally said. Anyway, he would open up a present, and gasp every time. It was the cutest little thing. Like he was surprised and in awe at the next "CarNing" present. I had to explain the whole CarNing thing to everyone, just so they would know that he was recognizing, and so they would know what he was saying.
We only invited family and a couple of friends to the party. So if you weren't invited, please don't be upset, it was just because I didn't want anyone to feel obligated to come. Some of our best friends are David and Joan Bell. Joan and I grew up together. We went to the same church, and hung out some too. Anyway, they have a daughter, Madison, that is 11 days younger than Lily. And their son Maddox, is only around 2 1/2 months younger than Avery. It is amazing to me how similar our lives have turned out. Anyway, Madison is Lily's very best friend. Avery and Maddox are still to young to have bonded real well yet. So after the cake, and presents it was play time. Lily, Kendra (her cousin, and also another best friend), and Madison were so cute. At one time, one of them (probably Lily) was overheard saying to the other 2, "Lets be best friends FOREVER!!!"!! That sounds just like Lily. She wants so badly to be friends with EVERYONE. Then, she gets upset if someone doesn't want to be her friend. She reminds me so much of myself it is funny. I am SOOO dreading Jr High. That was by far the worst time in my life. Mainly cause of the Friend fights, ALL THE TIME. I probably cried 75% of the time in Jr High. I was just so emotional. I'm afraid I am headed down the same road all over again with Lily. Anway, I tend to ramble, sorry. Maddox and Avery had a blast just climbing around and going down the slide. I am not exagerating when I say I took over 80 pictures. But here are a few to give you a little look at the LOADS of fun that the kids had!!! The picture above is of Maddox, right after getting off the slide.

Avery is so FEARLESS. It is amazing to me some of the things that he does. I hope that he will use more caution as he gets older!!! Otherwise, I will LITERALLY be a nervous wreck all the time.

Lily, Madison (in pink shirt and jeans), and Kendra. I think they had some kind of club thing going. But I'm not really sure!!

Pictures really are worth a thousand words!!!

I know it's been a while since I posted last. Just been really busy around here. I hope that all is well with everyone. We love you all!!

New Rooms!!

So I spent most of last week rearranging and redecorating the kids bedrooms. I have been playing catch up in the rest of the house this week!! I just thought I would share some pics of my kids cute rooms!! Enjoy!!

I didn't really redecorate Lily's room (except for new blinds, curtain, and curtain rod), but we moved some stuff around so she has LOTS more room to play in there now!!
You can't really tell from the pics, but that's Avery's room where the Pooh bear is. And the door to my room is on the other side of the Cinderella clock. I love it that my kids are so close to me, but I hate that you have to go through Lily's room to get to Avery's. We have 2 1/2 bedrooms downstairs, but I just don't want to move them down there. Call me protective!!!

These walls have been painted like this since I was pregnant with Lily. I am not really liking the whole ragging technique anymore, but I REALLY don't want to repaint it, and Avery's Cars stuff goes perfect in here, so I am NOT going to!!

Cute little bed!! He is doing really well in his bed at night, but not for nap. I guess he just thinks he has free reign now. I can't even tell you how many times I've gone in there and he has his pants, and diaper off, and a pair of Lily's shoes on (Lily's shoes are in his room now). What's really funny is when he is completely naked except for a pair of Lily's boots!! I haven't taken any pics, cause I don't want to encourage it, but it is so stinking cute!!!

The bookshelf used to be in Lily's room, but we moved it in here to give her more room. I don't really know how good of an idea that was, cause I am picking up at least 2 whole shelves of books off the floor every night before bed!!

I hope everyone is doing well!! We love you all!!

Big Change!!

So we have had to make the switch from crib to toddler bed. We decided on Friday that it was time. He can get out of the crib (though he hasn't while sleeping yet). But the main reason was that we were really afraid that he would tear the crib up. He is really good at grabbing the bars and shaking the bed, HARD. I just knew that he was going to end up shaking the bed apart. We had asked my mom and dad if we could use this fire truck toddler bed that they had. With Lily we were given a cot sized bed (which is a little smaller in width than a twin, but the same length). It just didn't work out to well with her, and we ended up getting her a twin shortly after. But, since we are wanting to build soon, and the kids will have bigger rooms, we want to get them bigger beds, that they can use and take with them when they move out. We have a queen bed that was ours before we got our king about a year ago. We'll probably end up giving it to Lily, and then getting a full for Avery. I don't know what we'll do. We did, however, get this fire truck bed for Avery to use now. It is super cute and he loves it. My mom and dad have had it since Lily was little. For those of you who don't know, my dad is a fireman, so this bed was fitting. They don't use it a whole lot, so it was no big deal for us to get it. Anway, we went on Friday night and picked out the bedding and stuff to redo his room. We told him that it was for his big boy bed and put the sheets and stuff where he could see them over the weekend. I didn't want it to be a huge suprise. So my mom and dad brought the bed over this morning and took the kids with them so we would have the day to redo the kids rooms. We spent all day on it, and only got Avery's room done. We took the changing table, crib, and a small bookcase out of his room. We moved in the new bed, and the big bookcase that was in Lily's room. Lily's room is so small that she will have MUCH more room to move around and play in there without the big bookcase. Anyway, we put up the new blinds and curtains, and just did some good cleaning under and behind all the furniture. It looks so cute. All I have left to do in there is put up some cute boy posters. We got 2 Cars posters, and one Superhero poster. I will try and take some more pictures later to show how cute and toddler boyish his room is now. This will be the first time since we've had this house that it hasn't been a "nursery". But when Lily made the transition I was pregnant with Avery so we just moved her out of that room, and left it the same for him. It's kinda sad!! Anyway, I knew that this would be quite an adjustment for Avery - he does NOT like change. So when we got back from mom and dad's tonight we let him play and investigate the new room for about 30 minutes before "bedtime". After laying him down, I left his room like I always do and shut his door like always. He was right behind me opening the door and following me out. So after doing this about 5 or 6 times, I took him back and in my very stern mothers voice "Avery it's night night time, lay down and go to sleep". I left, shut the door and he went to sleep. I haven't heard a peep from him since. I did sneak in there a little bit ago and took some very cute pics. I hope that my stong willed child will adjust well, and this will not be a huge deal. Pray for that, please!!!!

We love you all!!!!

Avery was not happy when Lily decided to crawl into "his" bed. He kept saying "Mine, Mine"!! So cute!!
He had to pull down the blanket to view the "Lightning" sheets!!!!!!

Cute kids in a cute bed!!!!

Sound asleep!! I decided to not put him under the blankets quite yet. He is so very attached to "his" blanket (coo-coo as he calls it??). I knew that the new blankets and sheets would just be too much for him.

I love pictures of my sleeping kids. They look so peaceful and happy!!!!

Sleeping Lily!!!